With April showers coming to an end (thank goodness) and May flowers on their way in, we wanted to take a moment to surface some of the best, new iPhone apps that are perfect for capitalizing on warmer weather. From navigating food trucks to contributing to scientific research, these five, fresh new iPhone apps stood out among the loads of others released in the app store the last few weeks. Download, enjoy, and turn your iPhone into a device ready to make the most of being out-and-about this Spring:
Eat St.
Food trucks are all the rage across the nation. And although Boston seems to lag in its love for these innovative food distribution and community building plays, you can still keep them (and other food stands) at your fingertips thanks to a free, new iPhone app.
Eat St. is your food truck navigator, providing these moving trucks and vendor carts’ whereabouts, menu options, base info, reviews, Twitter feed updates, and more – no matter the city you are in. Find food truck vendors based on your location, add non-listed trucks/carts yourself, and even view specials right from this app. Here in Boston expect to see familiar names like Grillo’s Pickles, Clover Food Truck, and Cupcakory as well as less known carts and stands like M and M Ribs, Daddy’s Fried Dough, and Silk Road BBQ.
Really into following the latest food truck news and initiatives? Follow the @EatStTweet Twitter handle and its Food Network TV show (“a lip-smacking celebration of North America’s tastiest, messiest, and most irresistible street food”) from right within the app.
SciSpy
The name plays off the popular Eye Spy books enjoyed by many as children, but using this fun discovery app means you contribute to real life scientific discovery. The SciSpy app was released by the Science Channel the beginning of April to help advance scientific research, turning everyday smartphone users into amateur scientists. The description reads: “What if you could contribute to scientific research, right from your own home or while playing at the park with your kids? Every day we have the opportunity to make scientific observations.”
SciSpy offers you the opportunity to be a “Sci Spy” and scout out the natural world, even taking part in categorized “missions” like “at your birdfeeder,” “urban wildlife,” or “wildflowers.” Submitting photos of insects, plants, the earth and more within these categories could be the evidence needed in helping make a big scientific discovery. When you submit a photo through the SciSpy app it is automatically date-stamped, geo-mapped, classified and entered into an online database (you can also add a description and tag it). This database is perused and browsed by scientists across the world in their work. You can view popular and latest contributed photo sightings from right within the app, too.
We look forward to the app continuing to develop and offer more features. We think automatic recognition of bugs, plants and otherwise would be a really cool feature that would incentivize more user generated content being added. Augmented reality would also provide a great way to learn more about what you’re aiming that iPhone camera app.
Strava Cycling
Cycling has taken off inside gyms across the country, but with Spring having sprung, it’s time to take the activity outdoors. New to the app store this year is a social bike riding app called Strava Cycling. If you are an avid cyclist or thinking about picking it up as a hobby – and whether its urban biking or mountain biking that strikes your fancy — this app is perfect for you.
Strava aims to “change the way you ride.” Use Strava to record and track your bike rides, view maps and analyze data from the ride – like distance traveled, average speed, your elevation gain, and more. Looking to take a ride with other cycling enthusiasts? Join biking clubs with Streva to get connected and see what other cyclists are planning.
For social features, Strava incorporates check-in type features for the bike rides you take – like the opportunity to be crowned King or Queen of the Mountain when you embark on certain pre set bike climbs. The app also features leaderboard as most other social apps, allowing you to compete with other bike enthusiasts (and your friends) for how long, fast and much you get your cycle on.
Vimeo
Vimeo is the YouTube video platform alternative, preferred by many thanks greatly to its more refined and stylized video pages and feature-rich options. The company released a much anticipated and asked for free iPhone app last week — and the tech world went wild with enthusiasm. The app’s two core features that make this a must-download for Spring: enjoy watching videos pulled from a curated list based on your personal preferences AND upload (even edit) your own videos – right from your phone.
Your commute’s new best friend with an arguably higher quality video selection than YouTube, download this app to watch videos you have liked before on Vimeo, add ones that seem interesting to your “Watch Later” queue, and watch others you find while browsing by category within this app.
More important, the app takes advantage of the iPhone’s ability to take pretty darn high quality video (yes, to the demise of handheld video cameras like the Flip camera. Upload videos taken with your iPhone directly onto your Vimeo page with this app. What’s more, you can even edit this videos before uploading, making this app a powerhouse for taking amazing videos when you’re out and about this Spring. Editing tools feature: trimming, combining videos, adding transitions and titles, rendering pre-loaded video effects, controlling volume levels, controlling privacy settings, and much more.
Tour Wrist
Tour Wrist is a free venue/destination/vantage point exploration and discovery app. We are including it in this Spring list because beyond 3D discovery, the app will soon allow you to create, upload and share your own 3D tours. With descriptions in the App store like “Teleportation is here!” — the app is bound to make you do a double take. The folks at Spark Labs behind the app have created a platform to create, contribute and host user-generated 3D tours.
With Tour Wrist, you can browse to view 3D tours taken near your location – be it a restaurant, hotel room or even inside a brand new car. Right now the inventory of available tours around Boston is pretty weak (the app was just recently released), but we are including it with faith that you will soon be able to upload your own tours. Dubbed “AmaTours,” Tour Wrist will allow you to leverage your iPhone’s video camera to create 3D tours, upload these right from the app, and share it – allowing anyone to immediately see the world from your vantage point at that exact moment. (Once Mommy and Daddy become iPhone savvy, you can only imagine the new family dynamics that will come into play!)
The company and app appeals to three different groups: the browser looking to view uploaded tours (“explore the globe in a tactile, new way”), businesses who can host these tours on their website and/or white label the company’s technology for their own proprietary 3D tours app ($3.99 a month for hosting, unlisted price for the custom app), as well as individuals looking to make money by creating these 3D tours on the Tour Wrist platform.
Bonus sixth app: Jetsetter
We have already reviewed this amazing eye candy of an app in a full here when it hit the App store.Whether you’re thinking about taking a vacation this Spring or simply feel in need of one, exploring the new Jetsetter iPad app will be enough to make you actually book it. taking advantage of that Apple screen, a 360 degree view feature takes over the screen allowing you to turn and experience several featured vacations in more dimensions. Other features allow you to view nearby attractions around a given vacation, property details, rates, and of course the option to book the trip and make a purchase. Read the full review here.
