Best Apps for Hiking

One of the biggest challenges for designers wanting to develop apps for hiking is that hiking can lead to some offbeat, secluded and off the radar remote places so the app needs to function offline. As a result of some serious technical advances in this industry, you are now seeing the development of some hiking apps that can do this, along with additional kit like keeping your iPad or iPhone dry and protected from the elements.  
AccuTerra Unlimited – Map & GPS Tracker Price: $29.99 At just under $30 this is a pretty pricey number as apps go whatever the niche and there are no user reviews to go by on iTunes just yet, so you’ll have to go by what the developers argue this hiking app will do. This is strictly for US and Hawaiian citizens and covers over 5 million square miles. These are interactive trail maps designed for your iPhone which can be downloaded in sizes of up to 50 square miles at a time. These are HD maps and contain triple the zoom level, with features that include travel statistics and a real time elevation profile. When online you get streaming road and satellite maps and this can be extremely useful for bikers, skiers and runners. This app is not yet available to the people of Alaska as the territory is so vast and unchartered, the data isn’t simply there yet. It quotes some good rep from reputable online sites like cnet, appstruck and modernhiker.com.  
Point de Vue Price: $3.99 If you are a serious climber then Point de Vue may interest you as it lists hundreds of summits around the globe, listing there elevation, GPS location and summits as far as 200 km’s away. It’s particularly useful in snowy and foggy conditions as on an iPad the bright clear interface will illuminate and provide you with your current elevation, location and distance to next stop. That said, real climbers will obviously come better equipped than having to rely on an iPad or iPhone map , but useful all the same having with you, as you can obviously include additional apps like a sun compass navigation app or elevation app. It also provides some interesting facts and stats about each of your surrounding summits.  
Every Trail Pro Price: Free Every Trail Pro is designed for you to get out there and track your own trail, or bike ride or off piste skiing adventure, which you can store up in the iCloud and add to over the 400’000 routes already created by the independent traveler. This is great for cyclists say, out in South East Asia, who up till now would rely on a Lonely Planet cycling manual where certain routes lack up to date info. This way you can have you’re Smartphone attached to your handle bar and either follow an already mapped route or create your own. With a GPS signal you can track your route and have it drawn out clearly for others to see. You can create audio guides so others can get a feel of where they are as just a line on a map isn’t always that clear. You can add video clips and pics and save your route to your phone, but in order to download them to your Mac or PC or upload them to iTunes cloud, as with most apps you will need to purchase the Pro version. This way you can sync all your own and favorite trips to Every Trail along with sharing them on the social networks etc and geo-targeting your videos on this app. The Pro version comes with no ads.