App-ly put

See-More at Livingston's Rainbows End RV park

The Smart Phones of today make it so much easier to be a full time RV’er.  Not only do they act as a telephone and instrument to text, but many of them have the best GPS available.

I’ve learned to use the speak command and say what I want or where I want to go by asking for a specific store or location.  It will find several options in seconds and then proceed to navigate me there with a touch of a button.

But the plethora of apps available is staggering; many of them are free and the price on the others is minimal.  The first one I loaded was the flashlight and I remember thinking it seemed pretty silly to have a flashlight on a phone, but it sure came in handy one night when I was locked outside of the park and couldn’t see the numeric pad to punch in the entry code.

When we had the problem with the jacks and had to manually level the RV with blocks, I downloaded the bubble level to the phone to make sure the kitchen countertop really was level.

It’s important when filling a huge thirsty gas tank to get the best price and this is where Gas Buddy comes in handy.  It uses the GPS to find your current location and then highlights the nearest gas stations and shows them by price.

Now that we have a DISH satellite it’s good to know which way you’re aligning it and this is where I downloaded the compass app to assist Left Brain in his duties.

When we needed to have internet service we activated the Sprint “hot spot”, another app on the phone.  This then acts as a wireless connection to our computers to surf the web.  Of course, this is only as good as the signal is.  There is another app called EasyTetherLite that acts as a conduit between the phone and the computer by use of a cable.  I still need to play with this one a bit more.

The only one I’ve had to pay for yet is called Allstays and is very handy for those traveling in an RV.  It gives access to campgrounds, RV parks, Wal-Mart parking lots, travel stops, dump stations, Corps of Engineer parks, city parks, and much more.  You can apply a filter to have it show only the amenities desired to narrow the search.  I like this one on the phone because we can’t always access the internet and it’s quick and easy to find on the phone.

Since it is dark down here and the stars show up nicely, I downloaded the sky map so I can identify the constellations.  I've always wanted to get better at those and the app will show them based on your current location.

Googles is one of the newer apps I added.  You point it at something and press the button as if on a camera - it then scans the item and tells you what it is.  If you have a foreign menu it will translate it for you.

The talking translator allows you to say what you want to ask and then have it translated into the other person's language.  Pretty cool.

There are unlimited games you can load and I have a few of them, but I try to avoid playing them to save the battery life, although I do like the pinball game.

I realize I’ve only scratched the surface on what’s out there, but I wanted to share a few of my favorite apps.  Hey, maybe that’d be a cool song …these are a few of my favorite apps.  I’ll have to work on that one, there’s probably an app to help me write the verses.

Long Live the App Queen