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Paperless Caching with an iPhone or iPod Touch

I have been using my iPod Nano for paperless caching for almost two years now and have really been enjoying it. I used the method presented by Xangxa in the show notes for the Podcacher Show 82.1: PMM - GPS Pigeons. Xangxa put together a nice tutorial that basically showed how to populate the contact list in the iPod with the cache info. I found this method to work more straight forward and ran faster than loading the cache listings as notes which is the other common method of paperless caching with the iPod.

So when I got my iPod Touch I assumed that I could use the same method, but would have the advantage of a larger screen size. But I found it wasn't that easy. The iPhone and iPod Touch do not allow you to enable disk for the device, like you can with the other iPods. Enabling the disk allowed you to save files to the iPod, or for the purposes of contacts, allowed to update the contact files. So for awhile I was stuck. I know there are some apps that could be installed for geocaching for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but part of me wanted to figure out how to do it the old fashion way. Then it hit me. If I can sync with Yahoo! Address Book, maybe I could upload my caching listing there and then sync with my iPod Touch. And that is essentially what I did.

Here are the steps I found for getting your cache listings into the iPhone/iPod Touch as contacts.

Load your pocket query results (GPX file) from geocaching.com to GSAK (I used Version 7.2.2.23).

Now export the file to GPX:

1. File -> Export -> GPX/LOC File ...
2. Select file type -> "GPX file"
3. File name to create - "C:\Program Files\gsak\temp\iPhone.gpx"
4. Under "Include additional child waypoints" the "Yes" check box should NOT be checked.
5. "Include user notes in export" should be selected
6. "Include GSAK extra fields in export" should be selected
7. "Waypoint name" - "%code"
8. Cache description - "Name by %By (diff: %Dif/terr: %Ter/Type: %typ1/Size: %con1)"
9. "Also apply to cache name" should be selected
10. Click the Save button
11. Name the export "iphone"
12. Click the generate button

Now lets do a custom export to create the vCard (.VCF file)

1. File -> Export -> Custom Export
2. Under Generate GPX file the "Yes" check box should be selected.
3. Select "iphone" from the drop down box
4. In the Statement to Run field type: "C:\Program Files\gsak\GPSBabel.exe" -N -i gpx -f "c:\Program Files\GSAK\temp\iPhone.gpx" -o vcard -F "c:\iPhone.vcf"

1. Log-in to http://address.yahoo.com/
2. Click on "Import contacts from another application" link
3. At the Step 1. Screen Select vCard (.VCF file) from the drop down list
4. Click the continue button
5. At the Step 2. Screen just click continue again.
6. At the Import Contacts Step 3 Screen browse to file vCard (.vcf file) we created above ("c:\iPhone.vcf")
7. Click the continue button

Now the caches should be in the Yahoo! Address Book.

Now in iTunes we need to set up the iPhone/iPod Touch to sync Yahoo! Address Book.

1. Select your iPhone/iPod Touch under devices on the left hand side of the screen.
2. Now select the "Info" tab.
3. Under the Contacts section check "Sync contacts with:" and then select "Yahoo! Address Book" from drop down list.
4. Click the configure button and enter in your yahoo log-in info.
5. Select the "all contacts" radio button.

Now the next time you Sync your iPhone/iPod Touch the cache listings will be copied to your contacts.

And that's how you do it.