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Magellan has sent TechwareLabs their eXplorist GC to review which is a handheld GPS unit designed around the hobby of GeoCaching. Likely if you are reading this review you already know what geocaching is, but if by chance you don’t here is a link to help explain it (http://www.geocaching.com). Now for me, geocaching was pretty much an unknown and though it had been explained to me at some point, I didn’t care too much look any further into what it is about. It took the Magellan eXplorist GC and a few Geocaching to convince me that this is a hobby I could really get into. Let’s review the eXplorist GC from Magellan and see what this Geocaching is all about.
Features:
| – Seamless Connection to Geocaching.com User Community – Easily connect to the #1 user community for geocaching and perform Send to GPS”, create and sync Pocket Queries, and upload Field Notes |
| – Free 30 Day Premium Membership to Geocaching.com – Download GPX files, create your own Pocket Queries, and get tons of other premium membership features. |
| – Pre-Loaded with the Most Popular Geocaches – These caches have been found more than any others! Get a complete out-of-the-box experience by searching and finding the top geocaches in your region! |
| – Paperless Geocaching – Download and view more than 20 unique characteristics of each cache and view, search, filter on the device. Details include name, location, description, hider, size, difficulty, terrain, hint, spoilers, and last 20 user logs among a number of other details |
| – Easy to Navigate Menus and Rich Graphics – A dedicated device means there is no nonsense to by-pass to get to your geocaches. A simply main menu, intuitive contextual menus, and vibrant graphics make this device easy to use |
| – Brilliant, sunlight readable color screen – A vibrant 2.2″ color transflective screen provides the best readability in direct sunlight |
| – Store up to 10,000 geocaches on the device – That is a total of 20 Pocket Queries! Load a new GPX file for each trip or all the locations you love to geocache so you’ll have data on board when you need it |
| – Geocache Awards – Keep track of all your finds and receive special awards based on number of finds, types of finds, and other interesting combinations of actions. The more you find, the more you are rewarded! |
| – Rugged and waterproof to IPX- Focus on the adventure not protecting the device |
| – High-sensitivity SiRFstarIII GPS with 3-5 meter accuracy – Most smart phones provide 20-30 meter GPS accuracy, which will get you close to the geocaching, but will it really help your find it? 3-5 meter GPS accuracy will put you on top of the cache and make the find that much easier |
| – Picture Viewer – Transfer images within geocache descriptions and view in the field to help locate difficult to find geocaches |
| – Pre-loaded Worldwide Map – Referencing a complete road network in North America and Western Europe and major roads throughout the rest of the populated world to help in orientation. See parks, rivers, lakes, major city points, and other types of land use along side your target geocaches |
| – 18 Hours of battery life using 2 AA batteries – Go strong for an entire day (or more) of geocaching. No stopping to replace the batteries |
| – Suspend Mode – The goal is to conserve battery life by putting the device into an advanced power saving mode. Suspend mode will turn off everything expect for GPS tracking. Wake up the device with a single click |
| – On-board user memory – Loads on space to add up to 10,000 geocaches and tons of photos and personalized backgrounds |
| – Create and Store 500 Waypoints – Whether you mark your car, campsite, starting location, or places to re-visit, waypoints are a common and useful feature in all outdoor GPS devices |
| – Record Active Track and See Breadcrumbs” on the Map Screen – Keep a log of all the steps you took throughout the day hunting for geocaches. Reference your track to find your way back to keep a record of geocaching adventures |
| – Trip Summary – Start your journey with one-click and keep tabs on useful statistics such as distance travelled, average speed, elevation gain and descent, and average time to find |
| – NMEA Message Output (USB Only) – For hardcore outdoor GPS enthusiasts who want to connect their device to laptop running VantagePoint software and see your position on computer screen |
| – Multiple Coordinates and Map Datums – Geocache around the world and do it accurately. See your geographic location in UTM coordinates or reference the OS Grid while hunting for caches in Great Britain |
[…] Magellan eXplorist GC | TechwareLabs Sep 12, 2010 … Magellan has sent TechwareLabs their eXplorist GC to review which … It took the Magellan eXplorist GC and a few Geocaching to convince me … […]
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