There’s an article up today on TUAW about using the new iPhone 3G for geocaching. It’s a decent read, but following the process they’ve outlined is pretty painful. After using the iPhone to hunt down a few caches myself, here are some tweaks that I’d recommend:

1. At the very least, as you go into each cache page on the geocaching.com Web site, just click the link on the left sidebar for Google Maps. It’ll transport you into the iPhone’s native map application and drop a red pin where the cache is. At this point, you can either proceed to the cache, or save the red pin as a bookmark for easy retrieval later.
2. As the TUAW article points out, you can use the standard geocaching.com search tools to find caches near you. As some commenters noted, you can make liberal use of the Bookmarks feature to keep lists of caches you want to find in a particular area. Just visit that bookmark’s page to avoid all the searching. Also you can make nice collections of caches by using the “pocket queries” function (premium members only, I think).

Personally, I’ve had good success using all three options. I create a pocket query for the area and type of cache I’m interested in seeking. Then I bookmark the ones I’m going for. Then I visit the bookmark with the iPhone while in the field. Using the “Google Maps” link on each cache page, I’m able to easily correlate my current position against that of the cache.

Even so, all of this is kind of a hassle. I’m eagerly anticipating some geocaching applications to show up in the app store. I am personally acquainted with one developer who has made a very nice little app, and just received notification that he’s been approved to add apps to the store. And after reading that TUAW post, it looks like there are at least two other developers also racing to get a geocaching app to the store. Can’t wait!

One final note: before using the iPhone 3G to locate geocaches, I was using a Garmin 60CSx. That $400 GPS is an excellent unit. Unfortunately, I left mine on the top of my car and drove away, never to see the unit again. But having used both the 60CSx and the iPhone 3G to find caches in exurban/suburban environments, I haven’t experienced any notable difference in their accuracy. The dedicated Garmin unit has the advantage of being able to store maps and be used outside of cell/wifi range (the iPhone depends on a data connection to deliver Google Maps to the device).

Combine the use of pocket query results with the bookmarks function and the Google