With the seeming hyperspeed of technological progress these day, our smart phone and tablets can be sources of essential information, excellent education and hours of entertainment. I absolutely love my iPad and use it daily for communication, writing some of these blogs and entertainment, of course. At PPL Motorhomes, we hear about new apps all of the time that our customers could probably really put to good use. Whether it’s for travel, information or education, a good ap for your smart phone can make a huge difference on some of our trips.
I did some very brief research and was looking for a list of a few apps that would be good to have while taking an RV trip, out exploring nature or educating you on things you may have never really looked into. These are just a few I found that were suggested by Texas Parks And Wildlife Magazine and thought you might be interested in them as well.
Field Guides
iBird Pro ($19.99-$29.99) – It’s available for both the iPhone and the Android. Now if you are into bird watching, of which I’m starting to appreciate more. This is a good one to look into. There are a lot of very nice apps out there, but the iBird Pro has a really nice user interface and great content with detailed information, paintings, photographs and several “song” variations for 926 North American birds. It also has a pretty elaborate search function for finding birds by various marks.
Audubon Apps ($5-$20+) Also available for iPhone and Android, Audubon makes many nature apps, including ones for birds, mammals, butterflies, insects, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, trees, mushrooms, wildflowers and fish. This one is probably the most comprehensive one I’ve found, but the user interface takes a little getting adjusted to, but this is still one of the best guides available.
Maps & Navigation
MotionX GPS (iPhone- 99¢) First of all you can’t beat the price! This is an excellent GPS and navigation app and is loaded with features. The user interface is beautiful and allows for downloading various maps that you can use when you are outside of cell range. Basically, you won’t have to rely on your “bar” count and can make it in and out of the most remote locations in the country.
GPS Essentials (Android-FREE) Nothing beats FREE though. This is a great app and I found that it has a lot of the same features as the MotionX GPS.
GeographTX (iPhone- $4.99) The cool thing about his app is it’s uniqueness in it’s ability of displaying dozens of different map layers like vegetation, geology, hydrology, terrain, public lands, land use and more.
Maplets (iPhone-$2.99) This one enables users to download official park and recreation maps for thousands of sites across the country.
Topo Maps (iPhone-$7.99) Provides downloadable, GPS enables, topographical maps for the entire U.S. This one is extremely handy for traveling in remote areas for cellular connections.
Astronomy
Star Walk (iPhone- $2.99) One of the great things about getting out of the city in your RV is the ability to actually see some starts! Well, now you can put a planetarium in your pocket. This app uses a compass and an accelerometer so that your view is always properly aligned with the stars you’re seeing. It’s and incredible tool for learning constellations, planets and stars.
[Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife]
Whether you are a a veteran RVer, or just bought your first consignment RV, use the modern tools at hand like your smartphones or tablet to really take your RVing experiences and adventures to another level. If you have any questions or additional suggestions on how we can use technology to make RVing more enjoyable, don’t hesitate to call PPL Motorhomes in Houston, or New Braunfels and share your favorite apps.