CachingCentral

Garmin has released a Mac version of MapSource which can be pre-ordered - http://www.gpscity.com/cp?&s=00001&cr=022108GU&it=cnusa8ntm.

Garmin has also released an update to MapSource for the Windows platform at http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209. They list the following as the latest updates:

Changes made from version 6.13.6 to 6.13.7:

• Fixed an issue sending maps to units on Asian language computers.
• Fixed an issue where the vertical profile was not displayed correctly.
• Fixed an issue when transferring data to a blank SD card.
• Fixed an issue where the map tile name was not displayed correctly on the unit after transferring to the device with MapSource.

Two men who became lost on Mount Hood were able to aid rescuers after they found a geocache, a box used in a treasure hunt game, that contained their GPS location.

Rescuers safely guided Matthew Pitts and Justin Votos out of the snow-covered forest Tuesday morning, after the pair got lost in whiteout conditions while climbing on Mount Hood.

Full story and video..

According to Garmin and the Mac Garmin is still committed to the Apple and lists the various ways Apple users can use Garmin products and some news about what is in development.

There’s a link to download a beta of the new Apple beta software called Bobcat. A direct link is http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3886

The Detroit Zoo has always been a great place to discover wildlife, but now it’s also a great place to discover hidden treasure. The Zoo has joined the growing craze of geocaching by creating six caches, or hiding places, throughout the 125-acre park.

The GPS coordinates of the six Detroit Zoo caches can be found on www.geocaching.com. All of the Zoo caches can be reached from public pathways. None are buried underground but they are camouflaged.

Full story…

An interim policy has banned the popular activity geocaching from national parks, but a final Parks Canada policy to be released by the end of September may encourage it.

The sport, played all over the world, has people hiding items and others tracking them down with global positioning systems (GPS). All of the items, hidden and found, are posted on geocaching.com website for others to seek out.

Parks Canada temporarily prohibited the growing activity as concerns were raised that trails were being trampled and there were increased impacts on wildlife.

Full article…

http://www.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209 (47.3 MB)

Changes made from version 6.12.4 to 6.13.1:

• Improved the View in Google Earth feature.
• Improved the Find Nearest Places dialog.
• Improved the transfer of user data to removable media drives for marine units.
• Added support for transferring user data to Symbian Garmin Mobile XT devices.
• Added a temperature field to the tab delimited text output.
• Fixed an issue where a track or route vertical profile that spanned a detailed map boundary had an erroneous fissure on the plot.
• Fixed an issue with URIs (links) in GPX files that contain non-ASCII characters.
• Fixed an issue when opening a GPX file that contains a new-line as the first character of a waypoint comment.
• Fixed an issue with adding duplicate link entries in the waypoint dialog.
• Fixed an issue with rendering maps in a locked map product that contains terrain shading data.

Geocaching is supposed to be a harmless game in which techno-savvy treasure hunters use Global Positioning Devices to find trinkets hidden in remote locations.

But a Saturday trek for hidden “treasure” under the Tybee Pavillion turned out to be anything but harmless.

Whoever hid a geocache there decided the best waterproof container would be a pipe with two end-caps. Problem is, that’s exactly what a pipe bomb looks like.

Tybee Police Chief Jimmy Price confirmed Tuesday night that what was initially suspected to be a bomb was actually a geocache.

Full story…

Since I’ve been geocaching, all that was available from Garmin for local topo maps has been an older release. I see that they have now released Topo 2008.

Read more about it at the Garmin Topo 2008 page.  It includes the typical Garmin online map viewer so you can see what you are getting before you purchase it.

Changes made from version 6.12.2 to 6.12.3:

• Fixed an issue transferring routes to the Zumo.
• Fixed an issue with the integration of Google Earth and MapSource.
• Fixed an issue with the size estimate of selected map sets.

Download MapSource 6.12.3

Garmin released minor firmware update for the GPSMAP 60Cx, GPSMAP 60CSx, GPSMAP 76Cx & GPSMAP 76CSx models yesterday. What is listed as changed is:

Changes made from version 3.20 to 3.30:

• Fix potential shutdown when searching UK extended postal codes.
• Ensure that all UK extended postal code search results are shown.
• Enable the Quit button function on the geocache compass page.

To get the download go to the Garmin product page at http://www.garmin.com/outdoor/products.html and select your model from the list. Then on the left, select the Updates and Download link and then the firmware update link on the specific update page for each model.