Every Traveler Needs a Good Weather App, or 2!

When traveling by RV, you need to know the weather to decide:

• When to stop driving for the day – if rainstorms are coming
• Whether to cook out, or go out!
• Whether to plan a week, or just overnight at a given location
• When to start looking for a storm shelter!

This is a great use for a smartphone. It knows where you are, and it communicates with weather services. There are lots of Apps for reporting the weather, and I've tried several. I like the apps that have a moving radar video. It shows how bad the weather is and how fast it’s moving. All the Apps I've tried have this feature.
Yahoo weather is attractive since it uses photos from its photo hosting site Flickr to show you scenes from your current location.
Accuweather was good until recently when they removed!?? the feature that tracked your location and gave weather alerts for current locale.
Dark Sky is an eerily accurate, to the minute, weather forecaster for iOS, and Arcus is the closest competitor on Android.
They all have a radar screen and weather reports from your hometown.  But the most important feature in my book is an alert you can hear when there are weather warnings in your area.
Tornado Alerts: If you’re traveling thru tornado areas, you might also have a backup app like the Red Cross “Tornado.” It is supposed to scream out a siren sound that you can't miss.

The Weather Channel App

So far, my favorite is The Weather Channel app from Weather.com. If you tap on the 3-line menu and choose settings, this is where you tell it that you want it to "Follow Me" - and give you severe weather alerts for your current location. Other apps really irritated me by blaring severe weather alerts for places I've been rather than where I was. This app didn't do that!

Settings for The Weather Channel App

In addition to that one, most important feature, The Weather Channel app has all the other information and goodies you'd expect.

• An attractive home screen with large temperature display, sunrise/sunset times, and weather forecast
• More detailed screen with Wind, Humidity, Dew Point, Pressure, UV Index
• Hourly weather forecast
• Daily forecast for a week
• News videos from Weather Channel on TV
• Radar map: if you tap on it, then tap the play button at the bottom, the radar will show weather movement for the past hour, OR the projected movement for the next hour!
• Road Conditions map. This is nice - it colors areas where the road conditions are Windy, Wet, Foggy, Ponding, Ice, and Snow.
• Social - you can report the weather in your area, or share a photo
• Health - a pollen report for allergies, and a Cold and Flu report

One thing that may not be obvious is that, to get to all these other screens, you just scroll down. And, keep scrolling down. If you look for buttons, tools or options, you won't find the features. Just swipe up on the screen.

This is a free app, so be prepared for a lot of ads.

• The Weather Channel by The Weather Channel 
• Available on both Apple iOS and Android
• Cost - Free

How about you? What weather app do you use and how do you like it?

What’s that Tree?

Are you a tree worshipper? Do you love walking the desert after a rain and enjoying the flowers? Do you always wonder what kind of tree/flower it is you’re looking at?

Wonder no more! Check out this app called Like that Garden. All you do is open the app and take a picture of the plant you’re wondering about. It’s best if you can get a closeup of the leaves or the individual flower. I took a picture of this flower in our back yard, and the App comes up with photos of its own for potential matches. I can tap the i for more information about their matches and, if I’m convinced, I’ll check the confirm box. I Love It! I have been known to refer to this flower as a ‘Crown of Thorns’ – now I can say it with confidence. I learn that it is also known as a Christplant, and the latin name is euphorbia milii. I’ll just stick with Crown of Thorns!


It wasn’t obvious at first how to use a picture from my gallery rather than taking a new one, but it’s there. Once I tap Search, it comes up with a camera to take a new pictures, but there is a thumbnail of the latest photo in the lower left corner. When I tap the thumbnail, I’m taken to my gallery where I can select any existing photo and it takes me back to the Garden App. The photo I choose is of a complete tree however, and I’m not confident that their matches are correct. It’s just too hard to match. I’ll have to go back and get close up to the branches and leaves to be sure.

• App: Like that Garden
• Author: Just Visual, Inc.
• Cost: $0
• Platform: Android; iOS

This article is by Chris Guld, of GeeksOnTour.com. To learn more about this and many other programs of use to travelers, visit her website and consider becoming a member in order to view all the tutorial videos.

What To Do With All Those Photos?

by Chris Guld, GeeksOnTour.com
ILoveGooglePhotos.com

If you’re like most travelers we know, you take a lot of pictures! As your collection grows, it gets overwhelming. This is the problem that Google Photos sets out to solve. In this short video, you’ll see just how easy it is to browse thru years of photos.

To learn more, check out the free articles on ILoveGooglePhotos.com Or, better yet, become a GeeksOnTour.com member and watch the tutorial videos on Google Photos..

Pictures on Coffee Mugs and Mouse Pads

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com
I love my travel photo coffee mug!

When I’m bleary-eyed in the morning and just drinking my first cup of coffee, it gets the day started right to be staring at personal photos of our favorite adventures. You can put your photos on all sorts of things using services like Shutterfly, Snapfish, Walgreens and even Walmart. I’ve taught people how to do this several times using Picasa on the computer. But, what if you only use your phone and tablet anymore?

Shutterfly App for Apple and Android

With nothing more than your smartphone, you can now upload pictures to Shutterfly and order them on coffee mugs, pillows, mouse pads, tshirts, and many more. Just go to your Play Store for Android or the App Store for Apple and download the App Shutterfly. Once you open it, you’ll need to set up an account. It’s free, just enter your email address and a password. Now you can upload pictures from your phone or tablet and they will be available for Shutterfly to print on anything you’d like.
This time, I ordered a mousepad so I can remember this beautiful spot where we are parked in the Florida Keys! It’s $6.99 for the mousepad, then another $6 for shipping! If I waited and saved up some more things to order, I could get free shipping on orders over $39. But, hey – seeing this beautiful picture every time I look down at my mouse …. priceless!

Roadtrippers for Trip Planning

by Chris Guld, GeeksOnTour.com

Ever since the demise of Streets and Trips, we’ve been looking for a replacement to plan our annual travel route. I really like Roadtrippers, it is a free website – Roadtrippers.com – with companion Apps for both Android and Apple. I used to like the fact that S&T was on my computer and did not need an Internet connection. Roadtrippers does need an Internet connection, but it is surprisingly fast, and the advantages outweigh the negatives for me. It’s real claim to fame is the suggestions for things to do and points of interest which I wrote about in a previous article.

 

You can plan your entire trip on the computer, and you’ll have it all with you on your phone or tablet while traveling. It does not offer voice-directed, turn by turn navigation, but it does show your planned route and it shows your current location along that route, silent navigation if you will. Another advantage is that you can share your plan with a simple link. This way your family can know where you’re supposed to be and your friends may be able to meet up with you or offer suggestions of sights along the way.

An extra nice touch, is the ability to write some notes, and add a calendar date to stops along the way. It doesn’t actually calculate the arrival date, just gives you a calendar to enter it yourself.

Roadtrippers.com with Apps available for iOS as well as Android

Price: Free

Fresh Food Finder App

It tastes good to eat fresh food, it's good for you, and you're supporting the local economy as you travel. There is simply no downside to shopping at local farmer's markets, and this App will help you find them.

Fresh Food Finder for iPhone/iPad
Fresh Food Finder for Android

Both are Free

The Fresh Food Finder is the easiest way to locate farmers markets and locally grown food wherever you may be. You can select the option to search for a farmer's market near your current location, or enter a state and city or other search term to find one elsewhere. Once you've set your locale, you can view a map of the markets if you like, and you can get directions.

If the app doesn't have the information you need, like the hours of operation, there is also a link to the appropriate website.

We spent a delightful afternoon at the Cambria Farmer's market and bought baskets of blackberries, wonderful asparagus, and fresh, crisp salad veggies. The blackberries didn't even make it home!

www.GeeksonTour.com
Watch our weekly show on Learning Smartphones and Tablets:  www.GeeksOnTour.com/weeklyshow

Google Maps

I hesitate to write about Google Maps as my Traveler’s App of the Week because it is SO in a class by itself. It doesn’t belong in the same category as Gas Buddy, or Allstays Camp and RV. Those are great “must-have” Apps, but Google Maps would be the App I would want if I could only have one App!

How do I use the Google Maps App on my smartphone or tablet? Let me count the ways:

1. I just look at it to see where I am.
2. I get a quick idea of how long it will take to get from point A to point B, whether that is driving across the country, or bicycling to the store.
3. I search for a good restaurant nearby, see a menu, check the hours, read reviews.
4. I view a tourist attraction and look at pictures of the location
5. I ask for directions to the nearest Walmart, Post Office, Trader Joe’s, or Camping World. And, by the way, I can ask by typing my desired location into the search box, or by clicking the microphone icon and literally “asking” Google Maps to give me directions.
6. I ask Google Maps to give me voice-directed, turn by turn , directions.  To Navigate to the desired location.
7. I save a location with a little star on Google Maps so I can get back there again sometime.
8. I look at the 360 degree photographic “Street View” of a location to see if there is a good bicycle path, or to read a road sign, or see a storefront.
9. I get a “second opinion” of our current route, while we’re on the road and our dashboard GPS is navigating. Google Maps is so fast, and so responsive to touch controls, that it’s a lot easier to pick up my phone and check that we are on the right route. If Google Maps says a destination is in a different location that the dashboard GPS, I trust Google Maps because I can actually zoom in and check Street View.
10. Google Maps is the easiest way to find any point of interest and get information about it … link to website, phone number, Wikipedia entry, Reviews, etc.

Google Maps is the reason to have a smartphone!

• App Name: Google Maps
• Author: Google
• Price: Free
• Available for Android and iOS (not available on Windows Phone)

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Allstays Camp and RV App

Review by GeeksOnTour
a/k/a Chris and Jim Guld

We’ve run into so many people who already have Allstays Camp and RV, that we won’t spend much time telling you all the details.  Suffice it to say, if you travel the USA or Canada, and you camp or RV, this is a Must-Have App!  It has a price tag of $9.99 – and it is well worth it! You can visit the Allstays website and search all the campground listings for free, but if you want to be able to look at your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone or tablet and find the best place to park or where you are, the Allstays Camp and RV app is the way to go.

Allstays has it all! Notice this screenshot where you can specify that you want to see Army Corps of Engineer parks, County/City Parks, even Elks Lodges. And this screen is just the basic list — there is also the advanced filter where I’ve asked for Escapees, Passport America and Thousand Trails parks specifically. It will show you Walmarts, Cracker Barrels, Truck Stops and Rest Areas. This is my go-to App whenever we need a place to park the RV. If Allstays can’t find you a place to park, you’re in trouble!

Once you’ve located a park, just a tap will open up the detailed information about that park. You can see their amenities and read reviews. If you’re using it on your phone, a simple tap on the phone number will dial for you and you can make a reservation. Once you’ve decided to go there, another tap on the directions link and up pops your map and turn by turn directions to get you there.

Name: Allstays Camp and RV

Author: Allstays LLC

Price: $9.99

Available for: iPhone/iPod/iPad, Android phone/tablets

Visit the Allstays website here.

Visit GeeksOnTour here.