There are now several apps for the iPhone which make it a bit of a decent walker’s tool. “Hill Lists” is great – it lists virtually all peaks in the UK in their “classifications” – Munros, Wainwrights, Hewitts, Marilyns etc. You can tick them off, with the date of completion and add notes. It has basic details for each summit and shows them on Google Maps. It even (no use – but fun) tells you how far you are from the hill. “Grid” allows you to use the phone as a basic GPS, giving you an OS grid of your location. It’s actually faster than my Garmin Etrex. “Theodolite” turns your iPhone 3Gs into a sighting compass. It uses augmented reality, in that you look at the view through the phone’s camera; in the middle is a cross-hair and at the bottom of the phone the bearing of the cross-hairs. You can even take photos showing the bearing. “Peaks” is another, stunning augmented reality app. It has several million hills around the world stored on it (in your phone). On a summit, hold your phone up and most hills will have above them a tag with the surrounding hills’ name, height and distance from you. The tags actually pop up above the hills as you pan around. “OutDoors” by Road Tour is brand new and the real deal breaker. It enables you to download OS mapping onto your phone, so it works as a mapping GPS when out of telephone coverage. You can plan and save routes etc. It cost me £12.99 for the whole of the UK at 1;100,000 and all national parks at 1:50,000. I also bought the whole highlands at 1:50,000 for £24.99. There are still dramas using the phone outdoors. It isn’t too rugged (although some cases go some way to addressing this); touch screen isn’t good in rain or wearing gloves (the same issue for several dedicated GPS units) and battery life when using GPS is pretty poor (about 4 hrs permanent use – but a Power Monkey or the like can help). However, I do like a bit of solo backpacking and watching films on the iPhone at night is rather cool. The bottom line is, the iPhone is slowly becoming a real outdoors asset. Anyone else come across any decent apps or uses?
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 "watching films on the iPhone at night" just like being at home. it would be a shame to look at the environment or go for a stroll...
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Map my ride is designed for cyclists but works great for hikers too, takes the coordinates of your walk then maps them out in 3D
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 "watching films on the iPhone at night" just like being at home. it would be a shame to look at the environment or go for a stroll... It can be a long night at this time of year, especially on your own. Some take their book, some their music, I can understand the appeal of snuggling up in your bag and watching a film.
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Parky Again: Glen Affric, December, solo back pack: I’d walked in through the “environment” and since it was dark at 1700hrs it wasn’t too easy to look at it any more. Since I’d “strolled in” and would “stroll out again” I felt I’d got the “strolling”/resting balance fairly right. But no, you’re right. What I should have done was errected my tent, then blundered off into the darkness in sub-zero temperatures on tired legs. I was watching a couple of films, not burning car tyres and putting up pylons. “Sanctimonious – Giving the appearance of holiness, esp hypocritical." Ever backpacked in the winter? Or were you staying in, racking up your over 9,000 forum posts? Really - you need to get out for a stroll, or look at the environment.
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| Edited: 16/01/10 23:00 |
 Fair points Stu, I don't know why Parky chose to pick out one thing that he personally seems to see as a negative. Trips can be of widely different characters and it certainly isn't compulsory to commune with nature the entire time  There's lots of info in your post and although I've not got an iphone myself it struck me as an interesting topic. I believe MemoryMap have also just launched an iphone App, but I don't know how it compares to the ones you've got.
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It will be interesting to see how memory-map price their stuff on the iPhone - the Outdoors product looks very cheap and more than competitive. I played with memory maps own 2800 Adventurer touch screen gps a couple of weeks ago - a real joke. It is next to unusable without a stylus, which they have hastily attached with a bit of cord, and the batteries don't last a day, so the iPhone isn't that poor by comparison considering the other things it does and how nicely it works.
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| Edited: 16/01/10 23:43 |
I'd agree with the usefulness in the field if it wasnt for the godawful battery life.
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 Thanks for the heads'up on these apps Stu. I bought Hills and Grid (I have the 1G iPhone and they both work fine).
The Hills app is able to grab your current OS grid reference using your current cell (as per Grid) but then it doesn't show you the times for sunrise and sunset - plus it's only 59p hardly worth worrying about). Accuracy (at my location) is within 150m.
Google maps doesn't support OS grid references but here's a mapplet that allows you to use it : http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://www.nearby.org.uk/google/gridref_mapplet.xml
Streetmap.co.uk and multimap.co.uk use OS grid references as standard, not sure why google doesn't.
Oh and watching The Matrix in Dartmoor under a bivi is a distinct pleasure (especially when the sun has gone down and the only company you have is wild ponies). I must admit I prefer a book, but then I have hundreds of those on my iPhone as well. The Files application (currently £2.99) is awesome for viewing PDFs should anyone be interested.
What case (if any) do you people have for your iPhones when hiking?
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Battery isnt quite so much of an issue if you pair it up up with a battery pack such as a mophie juice pack air or similar. More and more apps seem to be appearing but the best one i'm using currently is routebuddy atlas which you can purchase and upload OS 1:25k maps to and the tracking and accuracy is pretty good as well. Some other good ones are trails, and GPS2OS, weather pro i couldnt live without now for getting up to date week long forecasts for a particular location. I'm not sure about watching movies as that will surely kill the battery completly f you've been using the GPS on it throughout the day but i'm getting quite into listening to audiobooks using it now.
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my apologies stu. i must show more tolerance towards what others wish to do with their free time whilst outdoors; away from civilisation. to save you disturbing your dictionary for the future i am a self-opiniated, selfish hypocrite. i was giving the appearance of being a knob as i really don't hold with the preserve of the rabid - sanctimoniousness.
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May the mantle of knoblettedom be rescinded from thine metaphorical shoulders forthwith lest thee prostrate thyself in abject debasement of aforementioned media induced pericombobulations.
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Spoken like a true gentleman.
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I have installed memory map on my GPS (after day of weighing up the options). I like it, because it is very easy to use, with things like being able to colour code individual routes, and the ease of placing waymarks. I have many areas covered on 1:25.000 OS maps, but really like the way that you can select the areas you actually want covered, rather than having to buy whole map sheets at a time. So although I dop have some whole sheets covered, I also have many areas, where I walk for an fternoon stroll for example, and have only downloaded that exact area. This saves loads of money on downloads. I am looking forward to being in my tent soon, and watching a film, or some radio comedy pod cast. I think this will make the night a lot more enjoyable. Not to mention any of the joke apps I have installed, especially the one from the other day which ended in 'Tarzan checking for bee's' which had me laughing for ten minutes solid! I fully agree with the poster above about the film thing, and do not see it as odd in any way. Of course it would be different to find someone watching a film on the top of a windy peak in daytime though
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