Best New Apps: PeakFinder Makes Virtual Peak Bagging Easy

By Keene Haywood

How often have you stood before a glorious mountain range and marveled at the peaks and wondered: “What the heck are the names of those spires?” Just a few years ago you would have been out luck unless you had a good map—and some solid range finding skills. Enter recent technology advances into the picture. Enter the iPhone.

Like a lot of things, the humble iPhone has changed our view of things—and literally, in this case. Using technology such as GPS and the compass embedded into the iPhone, a new app will help you impress those around you with name of that obscure peak off yonder. And when they were about to ask why you brought that vestige of modern urban life with you into the backcountry, you can now give them a solid answer!

Just what is the app that can do this marvelous thing? It is called PeakFinder and actually comes in two flavors serving different parts of the worl: one for the Alps and the other for U.S.A. West. You buy the one most appropriate for your needs as they are actually two different apps/databases. Swiss developer Fabio Soldati has made it so the entire database is loaded onto your iPhone or iPod Touch. So you can be off in the most remote part of the American Rockies without nary a cell signal or wi-fi hot spot around and still get the name of the peak towering before you.

Travel Tech: Into Thin Air: Apple's New Notebooks Are Ideal For Adventure Travelers

By Keene Haywood

There is only one person on the planet who can wrap up aluminum and glass and sell it to the masses in the form of a computer called the Air. That person is Apple's Steve Jobs, and he recently unveiled the new MacBook Air laptops.

Incredibly thin and light as the name suggests, these portables offer some great options for backcountry and adventure travelers who need the power of a full computer with mature operating system wrapped into a solid aluminum enclosure weighing less than your four-season sleeping bag. Two new models were released in 11-inch (2.3 pounds) and 13-inch (2.9 pounds) screen sizes. The 13-inch Air is more or less the same form factor as the original Air introduced in 2008, only slightly thinner and lighter. But this is where the similarities end. There are a number of improved features for the Air line, including the introduction of the second smaller 11-inch model. This smaller model may be the most compelling for those who travel with a backpack instead of briefcase.

Travel Tech: Introducing Genus, the First Smartphone That Doubles as a Satellite Phone

By Keene Haywood

Satellite phones are the de facto way to keep in touch with the world when you are on the edges of it, where no other communication options are possible. However, sat phones have always been very expensive, bulky, and somewhat finicky even on a good day, let alone in a raging blizzard or hurricane. In recent years, the size of the phones have come down, but they are still mostly one trick ponies that do voice communications and some slow data and video transmissions (for a hefty per minute price tag). No apps or fancy touchscreens for your sat phone sorry to say. But that is about to change.

AT&T is teaming up with satellite phone service provider TerreStar to provide Genus, a smartphone that also can be used as a satellite phone. It is a clever hybrid that may appeal to those who spend a good bit of time beyond traditional cell connections but then venture back into the civilization and want a more traditional phone to use.

Travel Tech: EveryTrail iPhone App Review (Part 2)

By Keene Haywood
  
Yesterday I reviewed the Everytrail.com website and service that allows users to upload trail information from their GPS, annotating their travels with geotagged pictures, videos, and text. It is a very rich site offering many options for sharing and documenting your backcountry treks. One area where EveryTrail goes further is with their mobile app development. They offer apps for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry devices. Such an array of options gives just about every smartphone user the opportunity to use Everytrail on the go.

Today I will be looking at the iPhone app, in particular ,which does have many of the same features as the other smartphone apps. But it also has one that is unique to the iPhone, namely the ability to store Guides from the EveryTrail.com website. The EveryTrail app comes in two versions, a free one and a Pro version selling for $3.99 in the iTunes App store. A comparison link of the two versions can be found here.

If you are someone who spends a lot of time documenting your travels, then I would say the Pro version is money well spent. Among other things, the significant features of the Pro app is the ability to geotag video shot on your iPhone (the free app only does photos), sync trips with your account on the EveryTrail.com, download Guides and cache maps for offline use. This latter feature may be worth the $3.99 alone as many of us travel well beyond the reach of cell signals.

Travel Tech: EveryTrail Review -- Trail Mapping For Everyone (Part 1)

 
By Keene Haywood

Editor's Note: Read this review then find a hike in our Best Trails feature, with 30 weekend, city, park, and backcountry options.

In today’s world, our mobile devices almost always have the ability to provide location, giving us directions as well as many other location-based services on bright, sharp screens with good maps. Whether it is a dedicated GPS device or a mobile phone, location data has become an integral part of the data we now are used to dealing with on an almost daily basis. Like digital photographs and video, location data is becoming ubiquitous. We are starting to accumulate GPS waypoints, tracklogs, and what are commonly called POI’s (Points of Interest) by the handful. Until recently, there really has not been a great way to create, organize, and share one’s GPS data, especially when it comes to trails. You really had to know what you were doing to download this data, make sure it was formatted correctly, integrate it with a map, on and on. It took awhile but could be done by the determined.

This all began to change when a little mapping service opened its doors called EveryTrail. EveryTrail is both a web-based service and an application for your smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry platforms are all supported). It has grown considerably in the past year or so and it keeps piling on the features. So, I wanted to give a review here of this most excellent service.

In Part 1 of this review, I’ll cover the main website http://www.everytrail.com. In Part 2, the iPhone app will be covered in detail. You can explore the website without an account, but in the end, I think you will find you will want to sign up. It is free so you have nothing to lose. On the site menu bar, you will find links to Guides, Find Trips, Destinations, Create Trip, My Trips, Mobile Apps and finally the Forum. I’ll briefly cover these to give you an idea of the features and then you can dive in and explore for yourself.  

Travel Tech: Five Flight and Travel Apps to Keep You Sane and On Time

By Keene Haywood

Your bags are packed with tickets and passport are in hand. Do you have everything? Check again. Good. You’ve got it all. Breath a sigh of relief. Off to the airport. Did you remember your iPhone? Yep, you got that, but what about the apps? Huh? Yes, the travel apps. Did you pack those into your phone? Well if you did not, here are a few that may make your traveling just a little bit easier.

Below is a quick look at two new apps from the federal government and three established apps from third party developers which can help specifically with getting through the airport, tracking your flight information, providing itinerary and emergency information. The focus here is really getting you in the air and to your destination with a minimum of fuss. Let’s face it, airport time is rarely the highlight of one’s trip so the less time we can spend there, the better. These apps will do this and more to help you along your way.