PB7

Useful Apps on Tour

Do you know of any apps that others here might also find useful to have along?

There are some bike repair apps that can be useful to have.

Here is another that I have found to be surprisingly good to have with me. Very useful: Clipper - Clipboard Manager. Much more useful than it appeared at first glance. Google Play's descriptions and reviews give details of why and how. Useful for lists and notes too. Simple, clean, fast and useful.

A simple note-taking app is Simplenote. Additional features can be found in Evernote, OneNote, Keep, and Notebook. Some allow for quick audio notes, which I find useful while touring.

If you know of any others, please feel free to share them with the rest of us.

Thanks

raybo

Pocket Earth provides (free) downloadable maps for anywhere in the world. The app costs a couple bucks. Here is my review of it. Note that it only runs on iOS devices.

Aushiker

I carry a Samsung tablet with me and use Microsoft Office on it to write up my days ride. I also have a file manager app which I can use to upload my photos from my SD card to the tablet and up to Dropbox if I have wi-fi. The other key app I have is the Open Street Map app, OsmAnd which has the cycling layer and topo layer. Also works offline.

hfbill

Urban Biker: https://www.facebook.com/UrbanBikerApp/?ref=br_rs

mev

Maps.ME - offline maps, location and mapping when not connected to the internet

iOverlander - database of camping/hotels/etc, oriented to more general "overland" travel but useful to cyclists as well

PB7

Voice to text can be useful especially when the alternative is a small keyboard on a phone. Most of the time this is possible on my phone by simply pressing on the microphone on the right side of the spacebar on the virtual keyboard. Voice recognition has improved in recent years and it works pretty well, at least sometimes.

There is an app called Dragon Naturally Speaking that some people say is superior and works better, though I haven't tried it yet. I would be interested in any feedback from people who have tried Dragon.

I am using Evernote and I like it. It comes with a widget that you can put on your home screen that allows you to make voice notes, among other things, very quickly and easily. It is also a very full-featured app.

I entered this post via voice recognition (voice to text) on my (recent version of) Android phone and there was a fair amount of editing and correcting I had to do. The process wasn't that smooth. Not sure if using Google Now as launcher would result in better voice to text then Launcher3.

Other suggestions are welcomed. It would be great to have a smooth and effective voice-to-text system on my phone. If anyone has suggestions please let me know.

PB7

Okay, I found an app called Speechnotes. It lets you insert punctuation as you speak. Using a keyboard at the bottom of the screen. It allows you to insert the punctuation at the same time as you are speaking -- you don't have to switch. In some situations this actually works very well. In other situations it's probably better to use a program that allows you to insert punctuation by voice. I haven't used it enough do a detailed comparison with other voice-to-text apps but it seems pretty good so far. I did this post with it how many problems. [I actually said, "with out many protons" there [and I said "problems" not "protons"], but that was before I read back over what it had written, correcting most of its mistakes and omissions.] helps of course to speak slowly and clearly. But it's still a lot better than using the keyboard on a phone.

Actually. This review. I'll try again. Actually I should revise this review after reviewing and editing the above. It was a little glitchy. Which year that I would like. That should be richer than I would like. Conviction. Cowiche. Clickshare. Which year. Richie or her. Which year. Which year cowiche hour. Which ear. Cheater. Which year. Google Sphere. Lychee. Google cheer. Which year. Which year. Which year. Goodyear. Elite cheer.

Okay okay I'm saying (repeating), and trying to get it to recognize, the word "glitchier" (I had to put that in my [by] hand try again now using Voice)

Which year. Which ear. Google cheer. To which year. College cheer. Goalie cheer. Whittier. Glitchy her. Well I guess that one was pretty close.

And this app now leaves me, still looking for smooth and effective voice to text.

PB7

At this point I'm using and liking Evernote. The long widget allows for quick selection of options, immediately, right from the home screen. Voice to text seems to work pretty well using the microphone on the virtual keyboard spacebar. I have dictated this post with very few problems.

I am a little hesitant to try the comparative form of the word glitch though. It seems to handle the adjective pretty well. It isn't glitchy. But these voice-to-text apps seem to have problems with the word or the sound or the funny phoneme "er " -- perhaps because people say "er" and the programmers try to ignore it. Or they try to design the app to ignore it.

So the apps can translate the word glitch into text. And they can translate or transcribe the word glitchy. But they have problems when you try to get them to transcribe the word Google cheer. Cowiche ER. Culichi. Caliche ER. Glitchy. Glitching your. Which year. Golden shear.

Well I guess I'll keep exploring. But there's a lot I like about this app called Evernote and I suspect it's going to be useful going forward.

badger_biker 

+1 - I found it very helpful in Europe. With just GPS and no cell data you can pinpoint your location on pre-downloaded map segments that can be zoomed to find lodging, food, information centers, etc.

I don't think I would travel domestically or abroad without it again.

PB7

Always on Top by Wansoft

Very sharp app. Check out the ratings and detailed reviews at Google Play. Free. Very customizable and non-intrusive.

Allows you to choose which data fields are displayed, and the size, location, color, and more. Includes memo feature (including audio memos). Also a simple, clean, useful timer, among a number of other things.

Very well done.

Tourist in MSN

Have either of you tried their bicycle routing? I found it a bit weird the few times I tried it in urban settings, have not tried it elsewhere.

badger_biker 

No I haven't. I built a proposed route in Strava and imported the KML/KMZ file into Maps.me as a reference. Basically Maps.me was used to find our location via GPS without any phone data and to find various food, lodging, etc. facilities. For those aspects it was a valuable tool that could be used offline.

Tourist in MSN

Thanks.

I started using that app in 2012 or 2013, it was called Maps With Me at that time, I paid for the Pro version. But when I tried using it for grocery stores on the Pacific Coast in 2014, it was pretty poor with minimal database. Since then I have not tried to search for things with it. Perhaps their database has been expanded.

I have a Garmin GPS that I usually use on my bike, another Garmin for my truck, so I usually rely on those for serious GPS duties.

Aushiker

Do you have a link to it? Cannot find it Google Play Store or is it an IOS app?

nealcollins

I guess this is it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....util.showtime

DropBarFan

Do you use OpenStreetsMaps on the Garmins? And/or BaseCamp? I have an older Garmin that I haven't used for 5 years, with OSM it would make a useful backup for the phone.

Tourist in MSN

I use Mapsource and usually use Open Streets maps on my Garmin. I also have a Garmin Nuvi that I use in my truck, it came with free lifetime updates. Last time I updated it, it also installed Garmin City Navigator North America on my Mapsource on my computer so I can use that in my bike computer too, but that lacks bike path data.

There are two ways to get this data, one way is to get an image file and directly put that onto the memory in your garmin. The other way is to load it onto your computer hard drive and then transfer it to the Garmin using a program like Basecamp or Mapsource. I have done both ways. I have only used Mapsource on my computer, not Basecamp. Garmin no longer supports Mapsource, not sure if it is still available or not.

Years ago I paid for Garmin USA Topos at 100k and also Central USA National Parks Topos at 24k scale. Usually use those for backpacking, canoeing and kayaking.

Biking I usually use free ones from these sites:

GPSFileDepot - maps4gps's Garmin Compatible Maps

Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

I do not remember if I ever used these or not, is in my list of favorites so I might have.

OpenTopoMap Garmin-Edition

https://www.openmapchest.org/maps/united-states/

Europe - OpenFietsMap

Some maps work with the internal routing in my GPS, some do not. Thus, sometimes I have to turn off one map layer and turn on another to be able to use routing.

I have been accumulating maps in my Garmin for years so I no longer really remember where I got them all. I stick them on the SD card and I never seem to find a reason to delete any. I have the layers turned off that I am not using at any time.

I have a couple mapping apps on my phone, but I prefer to use a dedicated GPS on my bike, backpacking, canoeing and kayaking. My dedicated GPS units appear to have a screen that is much more readable in direct sunlight.

If you have not used your GPS for years, check to see if the firmware can be updated to a newer version.

Yan 

Mapy.cz

Like Maps.me, it uses Open Street Maps for its data; however, the colour scheme is much superior and it shows very clear contour lines.

Open Street Maps is more up do date than Google Maps in some remote areas I have bicycle toured through. I use both.

DropBarFan

Thanks for the helpful info, I should still have the old MapSource CD. Heh, I might need reading glasses now to read the bitty eTrex screen.

Tourist in MSN

I like the old Etrex Legend or Etrex Vista GPS units with black and white screens for kayaking and canoeing. The screen stays on and readable without backlight so you do not need to touch a button to wake up the screen. Thus, you can keep your hands on the paddle. But, if your Etrex is one of the really old ones, most computers now do not have the RS 232 port you need to communicate with it. (Some people just call that a serial port.) That is why I keep one of my old netbooks handy, it was built after RS 232 ports were no longer included on computers, but when I bought the netbook I also got a USB to RS 232 adapter.

Readers.com has bifocal sunglasses, the lower parts of the lenses are reading, the upper part of the lenses are normal sunglasses.

mev

I've asked for the bike routing multiple times because it gives an elevation profile.

However, the routes it suggested were generally worthless most of the times I looked. They seem to pick rather roundabout routes that are expressly *not* the major roads and typically are not paved. Many times I also wasn't certain they were public access as they seemed likely to go over private lands.

So yes, I would ask for the bike route so I might get a partial sense of the elevation gained/lost but no I haven't seen it pick something better than the auto directions.