Ready, Set, Action!

Yesterday, Geocaching.com released another teaser of its “Geocaching Challenges”.  This time around they highlight a challenge type that peaked my interest when the Geocaching Challenge announcement was made… the ‘Action’ challenge. The ‘Action’ challenge, will have a cacher go to a certain location and perform a specific action. The example shown in the video was “go to a spot and play chess”.  This seems to brings back additional logging requirements which Groundspeak did away with a couple of years ago, but with the absence of a physical log to sign, what else can be asked.  Either way geocachers will earn their smileys for completing a Challenge. The smileys for Challenges will appear  separate from geocaches in user profiles, but will be part of the found/completed count. Which I would assume was done to try and please everyone… traditionalist and adaptors alike.

What I find interesting, is that it was specifically mentioned that Geocaching.com Premium Members will be able to create Action and Photo Challenges. Leaving me to wonder if Non-Premium Members will not be able too.  I could easily see this being added to the list of premium features, giving value to the premium membership or to those who might want one.

GSAK V8

Last week, the newest beta version of GSAK, GSAK v8, was released. What makes this version so special, is it now supports the new Geocaching.com API.

I’ve only had a little time to play with it, but so far it’s great! The ability to download PQs directly into GSAK has been something I’ve been waiting for. In fact, it’s possible to download caches directly without even creating a PQ. This will make it so much easier to maintain an up to date offline database of caches. In any case, at the risk of sounding any more geeker than I already do, I’m really excited about this.

So, if you happen to be a GSAK user and don’t mind a beta product… Give it a whirl.

found the geocache northbound I-74 near Farmer City http://t.co/lKJeqkI (0)

August 13, 2011

found the geocache Rest and Seek - Southward Bound 2 http://t.co/SRnPeyg (0)

August 13, 2011

found the geocache Rest and Seek - Southward Bound http://t.co/GeVdJOs (0)

August 13, 2011

Geocaching Challenges

Geocaching.com has released the teaser of its new “Geocaching Challenges”. I must say, after reading various forum and blog posts over the last month, I’m glad to see this elusive replacement for virtual caches finally come into fruition. The video, as well as, all the talk has certain left me wanting to know more about the various challenges that will be offered. Of course there will be a ‘take a photo’ challenge, but I’m curious about the ‘action’ challenge. I can only imagine that with some very creative geocachers out there… It will be good. The idea reminds me very much of a scavenger hunt and I think its introduction to the game is an excellent move. I do wonder how this may affect all the unknown challenge caches out there or .

Oh well, I guess I will just have to wait just a little bit more. “Geocaching Challenges” is scheduled to launch on Geocaching.com in the next weeks. Is anyone else excited about this new feature?

found the geocache The bridge Cache http://coord.info/GC31Q3J (0)

August 10, 2011

found the geocache South Bound Pip-E-Li-Ne http://coord.info/GC2WR0X (0)

May 24, 2011

found the geocache Surely You Can't Be Serious http://coord.info/GC2WHWN (0)

May 22, 2011

found the geocache Hey Badlands http://coord.info/GC1QVJ7 (0)

May 14, 2011