Viper Marketing & Communications Group

Which Outdoor Apps are best?

Author: Jim Hardcastle

Jim helps people plan and deliver effective communications. His background in the countryside sector provide him with a wealth of experience in rural marketing. Facilitation, fueled by coffee, with Post-Its at the ready, he’s here to help .

This is an extract from an article in the Active Dartmoor magazine, available now from www.activedartmoor.com

What have Dartmoor and iPhones got in common? They’re both great to look at but it’s what you do with them that makes them amazing. The iPhone has proved such a success because of the apps. The applications that allow you to create the device you want, that suits you, that adds value to you life. Same as Dartmoor. Cool to look at but add a dose of biking, climbing or trail-running and the place becomes legendary.

I pulled into the public car park at Belstone ahead of the rain clouds. Quick check that no-one’s around while I change from office gear to running gear. Stretch. Trainers on. Stretch. Bladder into running pack along with a water-proof. Stretch. Am I warmed up? That’ll do. iPhone out. Double click the folder for my ‘Outdoors’ apps. The nerd in me comes to life. I’ve collected all my outdoor apps in one folder for ease of access. Which one to choose from...?

Believe me there are literally hundreds of thousands of apps now, and not just for iPhones. Apps go across platforms these days to suit most smartphones. Outdoor apps tend to fall into 3 categories: Where do I want to go? Where am I? Where have I been? Some do all three. They all have one thing in common, they know where you are. Well, to be precise they know where your phone is. This is Location Based Services (the next big thing, mark my words)

The Dartmoor app is a good example of off-site information that provides a Location Based Service. A couple of clicks and I can see myself as a blue dot on the map with lots of other dots around me representing the theme I selected e.g. Things to do, click on the one nearest me then I have short description and direct link to their email, telephone number and website. Smart.

The Where am I? service is so simple but really helpful. I find this most useful in cities! But I’ve also got a nifty app that gives me Altitude, six figure grid reference and Lat & Long. No fuss, no maps, one click. Great for that quick double check to reassure me.

Where have I been? How fast did I go? When was I going my fastest? Which was my slowest km? How many calories did I burn? The nerd in me springs forth. There are hundreds of apps that will track your run, ride or walk. They’ll collate more stats than you’ll ever need, transfer it to a map, upload it to a website. Many even encourage you as you’re going along with a voice (normally American) that tells you how far you’ve gone and what your time was for the last km! You can turn this off.

But you know what elevates these apps beyond the statistical? It’s the ability to share and connect. This is the social media age. Be social. Share your routes, challenge others to see if they can do it faster. Upload your route directly to Facebook - although there are dangers in this that you’ll reveal how unfit you are or you’ll look like a show-off!

So which app did I choose for my run from Belstone towards Oke Tor? You'll have to read the complete article in Active Dartmoor to find out.

Some of the most popular;

Memory Map www.memory-map.co.uk
The great all-rounder but it does take some getting used to
Really nice ability to create a route then follow it
Great stats page including the current time of day, something forgotten by most apps

Endomondo www.endomondo.com
The most popular amongst my friends because it’s clear and easy to use
Free version available
Great history section with lots of data and splits
Upload to share function and create direct link to friends
Lots of sport categories to track you, including Pilates!?

Trailguru www.trailguru.com
Great front page with all your records on
Camera option to take a pic and geo-locate it to your position
Upload and share to your on-line profile, you then get amazing maps and graphs of your track emailed and monthly aggregates
Does seem to have connectivity problems and used to stop altogether if someone phoned you!

Nike+ nikerunning.nike.com
I really like the map that shows your route with a shaded line from red to green showing how fast or slow you’re going
Lots of variations to challenge yourself against set distances or time
Frustrating amount of time to click through all the choices before the start screen 

- Posted on Tuesday 18 Oct 2011 at 08:22 by Jim Hardcastle

Tags: adventure (24), applications (1), dartmoor (7), digital (41), search and rescue (9)