I was just asked how to show your finds and hides on the new maps on geocaching.com and here is how I answered

On the new maps is you check the personalization checkmark you will be presented with two more options My Finds and My Hides. That will show you on the map with ones you have hidden and ones you have found. if you click on either of those options the smiley will go grey and it will take the ones you have found off the map if you wish!

There is a screenshot attached to show what i mean. Hope this helps!

This tutorial will teach you how to set up your geocaching.com account to send you an email when a new cache is published to help aid you in being the first to find. To take advantage of this you need to be a premium member at geocaching.com

1. You wil need to go to your profile and look for the section on the right side labeled “Premium Features” and chose “Set up Notifications”

2. Choose Create a new Notification

3. Give your new notification a name and choose what type of cache you want to watch

4. Choose for what you want to get a notification for the cache type you just selected. For first to find hunters you will want to choose Publish Listing. This will send you an email when the reviewer publishes the cache. Then choose what coordinates you want to search from and then the distance from that point that you want to get notifications. So you could put your home coordinates and then choose 10 miles and you would get an email when ever a cache is published with in 10 miles of your house. THen click Create Notification.

That is the basics on how to set up notifications on geocaching.com

The other night i was at my my in-laws house and i checked my email on my iPod and saw a new cache published that was on the trail right by their house. I didnt have my GPSR with me however my wife had her iPhone. She dosnt have any geocaching apps on the phone. So i opened up the geocache page on her phone. Clicked on the Google maps link which opened the maps app. This put a red flag on the map where the cache was. with the location services on i could also so a blue dot on the map where i was. As i walked the blue dot got closer to the red flag. Once the blue dot was on the red flag i looked and there was the cache! We were FTF. we did this all on the iPhone with no special software!

It occurred to my after yesterday’s post that I should mention something about the difference between GSM and CDMA as that is an important driver in the decision on which wireless carrier to use. I’ll keep this short as it is a complex topic, but aside from compatibility issues (GSM is common in Europe, CDMA in Asia, the U.S. is mixed) there’s a functional difference for smartphone users. Most CDMA devices are not able to use their high-speed data network (EVDO) while talking on the phone. The GSM devices with HSDPA permit data and voice as long as the device is on the high-speed network. So if you’re frequently phoning a friend while looking up cache information, look for a 3G GSM carrier (AT&T or T-Mobile in the U.S.). If you’re not concerned about concurrent data and voice, look at the CDMA carriers (Sprint and Verizon in the U.S.) as they tend to have better connection quality than does GSM. I tend not to be talking and using data but after having the luxury of using both at the same time it will be hard to go back to just one or the other.