Apps for your Outdoor Life!

We all have been there. You're hiking along, enjoying a beautiful trail when suddenly the trail splits in two different directions. Somehow, you are blanking whether your friend's mother's brother told you to go left or right at the third fork in the trail. One way leads back to civilization, while the other almost certainly leads to impending doom.

Don't worry, we've been there too and found the best apps to get you down the right trail and back to that half melted power bar in the trunk of your car. Whether your trails are out in the boonies, or in famous national parks, here are the best apps we found:

AllTrails - Hiking & Biking

Available: iOS & Android 

Description: Browse through guides for 50,000 trails across North America complete with photos, reviews, and tracks for outdoor activities including everything from hiking and mountain biking to fly-fishing and snowshoeing.

How to get started: First download the app from the app store. Once Alltrails is downloaded open the app and login to your account. If you don’t have one you are able to create on directly through the app, or with your facebook. Once the account has been created search a city or state for local area! It will give you the level for the trail along with user reviews Get directions to the site and start recording. 

User Experience: 4 / 5

This app earned the 4 because of its simplicity and what you’re able to view. If your planning a trip you can look ahead of time at that area. The app layout is easy to navigate and there are a good amount of search results.. The only downfall is the the app no longer tell you if other people are on the trail. Also there are a few places im aware of that do not show up. 

Best Features:

• You can save trails
• See pictures of the trails
• Get reviews of trails
• Track yourself 

Hiking Tracker Pro

Available:  Android

Description: Hiking Tracker Pro provides you a simple and easy tool to track (record) your hiking trails (routes) and share with your friends. Unlike other similar Apps in Google Play, Hiking Tracker Pro does not require internet data access for most of the functions (except Hiking Trail Map ) as you may not be able to access internet during hiking.

During hiking, you only need to turn on the GPS function of your phone, and you can enjoy tracking and recording your hiking trail details (GPS information) with Hiking Tracker Pro. After hiking, when you can access internet data, you can open the online hiking trail map to view and save a map image. After that, you can view the offline map image any time.

How to get started: Download the app from the app store and start tracking .

User Experience: 5 / 5

Simple and easy to use. Go for a hike and simply start tracking. I like this app because I can keep track of hikes I’ve done, share the map image with friends, and print the map image and add it to a scrapbook.

Best Features:

• Record Hiking Trail Details
• Elevation Charts
• Share Elevation Chart and Hiking Trail Maps with friends 

CHIMANI

Available: Android & iOS

Description: Browse over 400 national parks, monuments, seashores, historic sites and more.

Getting Started: Download from the app store and find the national park you are planning on visiting. Once found, hit "Install Detailed Guide." This button will take you back to the app store where you will download a packet specific to that national park. The packet will include maps, trails, and a plethora of other options including nearby restaurants and water fill stations.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

It’s a great app to plan an adventure to some of the coolest places. You can search by destination type and each destination has a ton of educational information. I was very impressed with the amount of pictures and updates in the app.

Best Features:

• Digital Passport
• Earn badges by visiting different locations
• Destinations are split into categories.

Applications for Outdoor Living

The sales and marketing team at Car-Tel Communications are coming together to bring you applications that will benefit and enhance the usage of your phone to make sure you get the most out of it. We asked our guys who are interested in camping and outdoor living to write up their favorite apps and tell us why they love them so much. We're thrilled that these guys let us use them as guinea pigs and go first in our blog writing challenge. Check our what Ryan, Joel and Nicole all have to say when it comes to their favorite camping app! For more information on apps visit the store nearest you and our application experts will help you make that most out of your phone! Our website has a complete listing of locations!

Ryan-

KOA APPLICATION

The KOA app is the novice campers’ guide to success. It is an app that aggregates a list of campsites that you can visit. Using the GPS on your device, you’re able to view many different camp sites based on their distance from you. As you sift through each camp site, there is a brief overview about the location and what closely surrounds it. You can get driving directions, a campground site map, a list of amenities, photos, a list of different campground activities, and local attractions. There are plenty of links providing additional information beyond what is listed within the app.

I found the driving directions to particularly helpful when trying to find which entrance I should use to get to my particular campsite. Having access to the map of the entire campsite was also very convenient for the same reason. We were at large park, so making our way to and from the onsite supply shop was made easier with the included map.

Admittedly, my fiance wasn't quite as excited to spend her time in the great outdoors as I was but I was able to ease her apprehension with the list of amenities within walking distance to us. KOA showed us where Wi-Fi was available, that there was a heated pool, and even a Starbucks! (Okay. so we admittedly weren't exactly roughing it, but again, I’m a novice.) The list of available amenities was also helpful when deciding what we needed to bring with us- there’s nothing like getting into the woods and realizing you didn't bring the essentials! The app also provides you with pictures of the site and its surrounding areas, so it’s nice to see that you’re not going anywhere that looks like an old horror movie set.

Some members of your group may have a hard time just enjoying nature as it is, and that’s okay! The list of activities around the campground can give you a great idea of what you can do, and without the schedule of campground activities, we would have missed some really fun stuff. I found a place nearby using the local attractions link that did gemstone panning, something my Grandfather used to take us to do when we were kids. It was great to be able to do that again!

All said, our first camping adventure of the season would have been a lot different without the KOA app. It made the most stressful parts about camping effortless. I highly recommend this app to anyone who’s thinking about “roughing it” this summer (or just looking for a great day outdoors!)

Get this app here!

                                  Honorary Mention Apps from our team!

Joel-

The Ultimate Survival Manual app is much more than just tips and tricks to stay safe in the wilderness. This app teaches you the basics of surviving up to the advanced. The app is free with ads or you can pay 1.99 for the ad free version. There are almost 30 categories within the app that teaches you everything from ropes and knots to what is and is not poisonous. Anyone who is planning to take a trip into the wild should absolutely read through this and save the guides to their phone. I feel like Bear Grylls is with me when I’m out in the forest and have the ultimate survival manual at my fingertips! Highly recommend for all of the adventurers and anyone who wants to know how to survive!

Get this app here!

Nicole-

Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to cook in the outdoors. So I came across this called Camping Recipes, app and many more like it that give you simple, easy recipes. If you’re like me I don't want to spend hours cooking things when I could be playing games or running around catching lightening bugs with my nieces and nephews. This app makes things simple! It also allows you to create a shopping list of things you will need in order to prepare the meal. One of the best features of this particular app is that you can download the recipes offline, just in case you are in an area where service is an issue. Check out the "Antiguan Charcoal Baked Bananas" recipe, it's my favorite so far!  Get this app here!

Friday is for AT&T Customers

It’s Friday!!!

This app choice today is inspired both by AT&T and by the fact that it’s payday. Payday usually means we've got to take a look at our bills, and make some payments. Sometimes our smaller bills, like a cell phone bill, can be harder to remember. Why is that? I was going to say “cam be harder to remember because..” and then I realized I don’t know why- it just is!

Anyway. The app I am featuring today is the MyAT&T app. It’s an all inclusive payment, FAQ, customer service type app.

With it you can see your data use; This is huge! Especially with shared plans, if you want to see who the culprit is that is constantly going over the data, you can do that! If you want to check when payment is due and whether it not it was submitted, you can do that! Also, what’s great is there’s a tab for store locations & appointments. This is SO useful if you find yourself at work, suddenly your phone stops working and you want to go to the closest location nearest you but you have to be back by the time your lunch break is over, you can do that! Just call the store, let them know you’re coming in; or simply make an appointment for what is available through the app and you know you won’t be waiting long!

Check out this app and all it’s fun features, I promise it will come in handy! Better yet, stop by one of our Car-Tel Stores and allow us to install and demo the whole thing for you!

Scary Surprise!

Happy Hump Day Err’body!

Welcome back to our App series where I will give you my favorite app pick of the week. It’s a beautiful Wednesday here in Haddon Heights, NJ and we are half way through the week! Are you enjoying this weather as much as I am? This past weekend I kicked off my Halloween activities by going to a local farm that does an awesome scary hayride, corn maze, haunted houses production. They really stepped up their game this year so I was impressed. I am a little bit of a chicken when it comes to scary things but I still enjoy the adrenaline-pumping scary adventures of haunted houses.

So, to that end, my app pick this week is a scary one! Haunting Melissa is an app that is more like a movie. This is done in a miniseries with a new one being released sometime soon- the description says this fall so it could be any day now!

The reviews on this app are outstanding; my experience with the app has proven it is well done and so it’s not surprise that it was created by the producer of The Ring! I encourage you to download this app, turn the lights off, and get fully immersed in the scary story of the Haunting of Melissa!

Here is the link to the itunes download, unfortunately this is an apple only app but, it works on mobile and tablet devices.

Football Fans Fan Favorite

Ok everybody! We’re kicking off this week AND our first app pick of the week with an ode to Monday Night Football. It’s that special time of year where it’s acceptable to yell at your electronic devices while wearing another person’s name on your shirt. Unfortunately, there are too many games on at the same time to watch them all and so I’ve come up with a solution for you.

My app pick this week is for ESPN ScoreCenter. (iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows).

While you all might have thought this was an obvious choice for managing your NFL intake, I would like to argue that this app is worth noting simply because it is the best. Most sports fans have it; most sports fans that just got a Smartphone for the first time need to download it! This app has live updates, video highlights, breaking news and personalized alerts. Plus this is a FREE app and accessible on ALL platforms.

You should download it now and tell me what you think! Do you have another favorite NFL app? I’ll be looking for responses and check in next week!

-Lindsey

App-Happy People!

Cause I’m H-App-Y!

I know, slightly corny but, it makes a good point. Car-telians are application-obsessed and we want you to be too! With the new look of our blog and a link to our Facebook page, we want you to get the FULL Car-tel Communications experience. We are re-introducing is ourselves with this post by telling you a little about our new project….

Once a week I will post my app pick of the week and tell you everything you need to know. I’ll tell you what the app is all about, which operating system it works on, why I love it so much and if there is a fee involved. And once a month I will post a video tutorial on my favorite app of the month!

Leave your favorite app in the comments section and I’ll be sure to check it out!

-       Lindsey 

Festival Fun!

Festival Applications for the Masses!!

This summer is all about music festivals and the only way to easily make through a 4-day concert binge is to use applications on your smartphone that help keep you prepared and informed. In the spirit of going to Firefly Music Festival this weekend, I would like to share with you all the applications that I will be using to make it through t weekend.

Which one are you all going to? Are you more into a small gathering like Camp Jam? Or EDM music so maybe you hit up Wakarusa? Or are you a festival pro hitting up Bonaroo this year? The music festival scene has really blown up in the last few years which is great for people who love music and who are learning to spread their musical wings. If you like concerts, good food and drinks, an experience you’ll never forget then I highly encourage you to check out a festival near you…. And that’s pretty much everyone, right?

So here are the applications I will be using to help with everything from taking pictures/videos, finding my friends when we’ve inevitably split up, and of course, saving battery.

First, download the application associated with the music festival you are attending. For example, Firefly music festival created an application that is interactive enough to want to use it but not so overwhelming that you refuse to open it. On this app, and I’m sure likewise for the other festivals, you will see the lineup and schedule, the map of the grounds and names of the stages. Icons identifying bathrooms, food/water stations and the extra that they offer such as a beer garden or merchandise table. These are critical since they allow for live updates and you don’t want to be the person waiting for a show to start after not having got the message that band relocated to another stage!

Next, the Find My Friends application. This is something that all of your friends can join, even non-smartphone users, whoever they are. Essentially, you all join a group and this application allows you to see the exact distance between you. So when you wonder off to the merchandise table and forget where your friends are posted up at, this application will tell you how to get back.

Victorinox Festival Ready is the swiss army knife of festival applications, literally. Made by Swiss Army knife, this app spotlights the following great features:  3D Navigation, sound flare, ticker messaging, torch, live weather, packing checklist, camping tips, and festival protect range. This app is on point.

Then we have a less intense application for those photo inclined individuals. I always imagine I’ll take a lot of pictures when I’m out at an event like this however, I get home and realize yet again I’ve barely taken any pictures and half of them are blurry. Well, with Camera+ I will no longer have this problem. This application has a stability feature to prevent blurry photos as well as the burst feature to take several pictures in one shot so you avoid missing the best one. There are also built-in filters so need to take a square photo just to filter through Instagram.

Lastly, we have Easy Battery Saver. Without this application, how will I be able to use all of the other super cool applications I’ve already downloaded? Sometimes I’m skeptical of these applications because I don’t want to put in the time to decide what not to use however, with this app things are automatically adjusted to preserve battery life. I’m optimistic, at least, that this will help m have battery left for when the headliners come on at 10pm.

So there you have it, folks. Apps to boost your festival experience. What do you think? I hope you all take what you’ve learned here today and down load some of these great applications to use on your next music festival adventure!

To all my fellow Fireflyer’s.. see you soon!