Looks Promising, Still Crashes FAR Too Often

While looking over the Geocaching website, I came across a mention of this application. I currently use GSAK running on Vista in Parallels and it works fantastically there, but I still would like to have something that runs natively on MacOS, so I gave this a download.

The Good: The app looks clean and has many filters to sort through the cache information you wish to view. I enjoy the map tool utilized by the app. API works pretty much as I would expect.

Wishlist: When I have one cache selected, I expect to see some sort of map with some sort of icon (preferably the official Geocaching icon) demonstrating where that cache is located in the world in the bottom half of the screen. That map should also have “satellite” view and be zommable. Instead, I have an awkward notepad thingy where I’d prefer said map. Makes me think the map isn’t loading properly for some reason. Also, there needs to be a Filter option for “Owner DOES NOT equal ” in order to effectively sort out one’s own geocaches. If it is there somewhere, I’ve yet to find it.

The Bad: The application crashes FAR too often for me to trust it fully with my data. I find the bulk of my crashes during the imports of Pocket Queries where the app just doesn’t seem to like loading some of the waypont files of a zip file for some reason. Since I typically load 20 or so PQs at a time, I constantly find myself reloading all PQs in a folder since I have no idea which PQ the app loaded successfully and which one crashed the program. There doesn’t seem to be any discernable rationale behind the crashing either, so it becomes a frustrating and time-consuming process of constantly reloading PQs and crossing my fingers in the hopes that the app catches them all successfully.

Overall, a nice start. I recognize it’ll take time to be mentioned in the same breath as other geocaching related software kits, so I’ll keep updating the app as it comes along to see the progress. Buyers should also keep this in mind when looking to pay for the product since it seems to be a bit temperamental at this point in the game.

CacherMD about iCaching, v4.30