Summertime is vacation time. And if you use campgrounds when you're vacationing, you'll want to check out Woodall’s RV & Camping Copilot (free). It lists more than 12,000 private and public campgrounds and RV parks in the United States and Canada, plus Mexico. It offers campground information, including amenities, services, types of campsites, on-site recreation, as well as identifying many camping discounts offered at parks. Private campgrounds also include Woodall's 5W/5W Rating System.
Jim Karpen
In my ongoing series on novel uses of the iPhone and iPad camera, here's yet another: an app that lets you take a picture of a leaf and then gives you information about what type of tree it as. Leafsnap (free) returns the likely species name, as well high-resolution photographs of and information about the tree's leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds, and bark. The app was funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation and was developed by the Smithsonian Institution, University of Maryland, and Columbia University.
CaMeasure -- use your camera to measure size or distance
By Jim Karpen
I'm always amazed by all the novel uses of the camera on iOS devices — from taking your pulse to helping those who are colorblind determine colors — and wrote an article about that in a recent issue of the magazine. And I just received a press release for another. CaMeasure lets you use your camera to measure size or distance. It does this in one of two ways. For smaller objects such as furniture, the app asks you to put an object of known size, such as a sheet of paper or a credit card, by the object.
Thermos -- app lets you use your iPhone as a thermometer
By Jim Karpen
Today's batch of press releases brings yet another app for my in-progress article on creative uses of the iPhone camera. Money Scan x2 ($0.99) is an app that helps you detect counterfeit money. What will they think of next? The description says that it works with all currencies. It appears to simply magnify and illuminate the currency, rather than itself detecting counterfeit bills.
Price Check by Amazon -- free app lets you find prices via voice, bar code, photo, or product name
By Jim Karpen
If you're shopping and wonder whether the item you're considering could be more cheaply purchased via Amazon, a new app helps you do just that. Price Check by Amazon (free) lets you search for the product you have in mind in four different ways: you can say the name of the product, use the iPhone's camera to read the bar code, take a photo of the item, or enter the name of the product. The app uses the same voice recognition technology that powers the popular Dragon NaturallySpeaking. (iPhone 4 and 3GS only)
Heart Rate - Free is a newly released app that actually measures your heart rate using the iPhone 4 camera. (The app only works with iPhone 4.) You simply put your finger over the camera lens, and the app measures the minute changes in skin color caused by the ebb and flow of blood in your finger. They say that the app isn't intended for medical use (standard disclaimer) but that it provides an accurate measure of your pulse. This is one more app for my forthcoming article on the innovative uses of the camera.
TextNow -- free app gives you a free phone number that you can use for free texting on your iPad or iPod touch
By Jim Karpen
TextNow is currently available for free, and if you'd like to do free texting on your iPad or iPod touch, this app certainly deserves consideration. They actually give you a free phone number that others can use to send text messages to your iPad or iPod touch. It also can be used to send picture messages. It does have ads, but you can use in-app purchasing to upgrade to a version without apps ($5.99 per year). Here's a video demo.
MultiSearch is a free app that lets you search multiple search engines simultaneously. These include Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, Flickr, iTunes, AppStore, Last.fm, Panoramio, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, and FriendFeed. You can choose which engines you want to search, and all the results are displayed in a single, browsable view. Plus, you can enable geolocation such that the search results are related to your current location.
Free Karate Kid app includes 5 mini-games
By Jim Karpen
The free Karate Kid app includes five mini-games that test your Kung Fu virtues: courage, endurance, patience, perseverance, and will. You start out as a white belt and try to become a black belt and achieve martial arts mastery.