Magellan's Explorist GC GPS Firmware 1.4 Update Features Shine

Geocaching is known as a hi-tech game of hide and seek, requiring a global positioning unit (GPS). At its most basic, geocachers - those who geocache (the act of geocaching), embark on a search for a cache - a hidden container often containing retrievable goodies. Located at specific latitude and longitude coordinates, geocachers heavily rely on their GPS as the cache is ultimately found with little to no written clue of its whereabouts. Earlier this Spring, Magellan, an industry leading manufacturer of navigation devices, welcomed a new outdoor handheld device its Explorist line.

After the Explorist GC's (GC for Geocaching) launch back in April 2010, the unit found itself in the hands of many that enjoy the game. Early feedback from users in the field using of the GPS unfortunately uncovered some irritating functional flaws. Among them, compass lockups when approaching the cache in a close proximity, erratic time reporting from the unit's internal clock, and problematic signal acquisition form satellites. Cosmetic issues, such as too small a font size in the cache descriptions screen made the list of the top "nice to have" feature request list.

A recent firmware update, released in June 2010, provided remedy to the reported issues. As the unit shipped with an internal OS version of 1.0, beta testing of version 1.2 occurred throughout March 2010 by Magellan Insiders, with a final release of version 1.4 to the general public. Feedback for the new release in geocaching forums, and Magellan's official Outdoors Facebook page as wall posts have been positive, and personal experience has proven that the issues have been resolved.

Magellan's update to the dedicated geocaching device improves upon a great device, making it excellent and reliable. Nearly30 specific improvements were included in the update in the areas of geocaching, map display, navigational data, and more. Detailed changes consist of an improved UI when creating a new geocache, the "Not Found" counter has been corrected, heading and bearing values are more accurate, Sun & Moon locations are corrected on the compass screen and overlay, average speed and average moving speed has been corrected, and map details will draw more quickly during zooming and panning. Some great new features include a "Ground Zero" animation that provides visual cues in addition to the existing audible cues when closing in on geocache location, a more intuitive main menu rotation via the joystick, and the options menu provides a new function to locate the nearest geocache that is "Not Found," and "Not Attempted".

More detailed information, and a complete list of changes in the recent update can found at Magellan's Explorist GC support page.

Sources/Resources:

Magellan Outdoors official Facebook page
Magellan's Explorist GC support page