Favourite on-trail Apps?

[Suz]

I seem to just as dependent on my iPhone while on trail as when off it. With no plans to remedy that situation...I'm wondering what everyone's favourite apps when walking are...and if I should be adding them to my collection...and of course I thought I'd share my own favourites to attempt bettering the app life of my fellow walkers.

Anyone who has some really great flora and fauna apps - shout out please...I've only got only truly good one.

So in no particular order, mine are:

The music app of iPhone (paired with Bose Soundlink wireless Bluetooth headphones) - app $0.00 with iPhone. Some pumping tunes can really keep me going for a few hours when I'm flagging.

iBooks - (for audiobooks) $0.00 app with iPhone but audiobooks themselves pretty pricey. Great for when he trail is not that exciting with things to look at.

MapOut - a GPS app - 5CHF from memory (about $6.50AUD), map downloads then free (uses OpenStreetMap as source). Great for knowing you're actually on the trail! And often how far away the campsite, river, etc may be.

The real reason I started this thread...
The Morcombe and Stewart Guide to Australian Birds $29.99 - amazing reference tool for identifying birds seen / heard. App contains detailed colour drawings of Australian bird species - often with differential detail on gender, age, local subspecies/race. Many bird calls playable including sometimes a variety of calls (e.g. 'Alarm call', 'contact call'). Maps telling you where the various races are distributed throughout the country. And of course some written detail on each bird's size, appearance, diet, reproductive life, migratory habits etc.

I have in the past few weeks been able to ID and learn about from the app - a collared sparrow hawk, superb fairy-wrens and their family groups, yellow robins, a grey shrike thrush, a boobook and two powerful owls (owls IDed by the calls stored on the app - I think I could even tell apart a male powerful owl from a female own by sound thanks to this app), and yesterday I saw a young hawk type bird which I've now IDed as a juvenile nankeen kestrel.

Anyhow, I cannot recommend this app highly enough...even to people with only a modest interest in birds. There is a 'LITE' version of this app with limited species for free on iTunes for anyone who wants to try it out.

I have searched...to no avail, for an app as good as the Morcombe app for other wildlife. I would love to also be able to ID and learn about other stuff I see like costal marine life (like eg things in rock pools - I mean I just learnt the other day that limpits teeth are the strongest natural fibre in the world - I wish I could learn about things like this as I was looking at them). I would also love to be able to ID trees and mushrooms I see. I find it really enriches my experience.

So in summary, what are your favourite apps and how are they good?

[whitefang]

I love the Morcombe and Stewart Guide to Australian Birds!

My favourite app on trail (which is probably to most people's disdain) is netflix. I love having a few movies downloaded for offline use for those times that I can't get to sleep. I read ebooks from time to time too, but I prefer to watch something.

[crollsurf]

For Samsung S5 - Android
Open Camera: Better than normal camera app.
Google Maps: Make sure I cache map before going on walk. Saved me many a time from walking down wrong track.
Geo Tracker: Pretty good tracker app with stats and import/export GPX/KLM
Fist Aid: Australian Red Cross.
Emergency+: Must have really. If you use to call Emergency Services, it will also provide them with your coordinates.

In Flight mode with all apps closed except Google Maps and Geo Tracker (using camera not phone for photos) I get 3 days, 72 hours with phone permanently on. plus it is an old phone/battery.

[RonK]

Pocket Earth - offline topo maps app with 10m contours.

[Suz]

Whitefang! I didn't even know there was a Netflix app...now I'm watching S2 The Last Kingdom - so thank you!!

Think I will get those Red Cross and Emergency+ apps too.