New Yorkers Fight Back Against Airbnb Renters

by Jessica Festa on

While many travelers enjoy the benefits of using budget-friendly vacation rental sites like Airbnb, residents of New York are growing angrier over the service. The main reason for the unhappiness is when people use sites like Airbnb, they are supporting a sharing economy, meaning the need to make purchases is eliminated and instead people share.

So, what’s the big deal? Sharing is caring, isn’t it? Maybe, but it also disrupts the current economic situation. Moreover, renters are able to get around many legal issues this way.

According to the New York Times, certain residents of Stuyvesant, New York, are angry about the leniency given to this new generation of renters, who seem to be able to do anything they please when it comes to renting. In fact, many are searching Airbnb and similar sites to try to find neighbors who are taking part to rat them out and raise complaints to officials. Certain issues upsetting them include excess noise, mess, bed bugs and the safety concerns that come along with having a complete stranger in the building. Additionally, many of those renting out their apartments aren’t legally allowed to be doing so.

A solution to this problem is still being figured out. For now, legislators and business bureaus are working with these companies to find a middle ground that will satisfy all parties.

What’s your opinion?

[Image via zoetnet]

10 Must-Have Smartphone Apps For Hikers

by Jessica Festa on

The summer weather is warm and beautiful, and pretty soon autumn will be bringing stunning fall foliage to our national parks and nature trails. What better activity to enjoy this beautiful scenery through than hiking? To help ensure trekkers are prepared before venturing off into the wilderness, here are 10 must-have smartphone apps for hikers.

EveryTrail

Looking to find a new hiking trail in your area? EveryTrail is the perfect app for you. This community-driven tool allows users to “share tips, connect with other travelers and find new great things to do.” It features over 400,000 trails around the world, including points of interest, reviews, useful information, audio and video for each. Additionally, EveryTrail provides directions to, from and along the trails. For example, after looking at “Half Dome Hike” in Yosemite National Park in the app, I now know a wealth of information, such as the hike is a difficult 15.7-mile trek that takes you to the signature landmark of the park. Furthermore, there is a set of included interviews with veteran hikers, a preparation list, inspirational messages, photographs and a video taken via a head-mounted camera.

Available on Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Free. U.S. Army Survival Guide

This app, which is called “Army Survival for iPad/iPhone” in the iTunes store, is something you should download before any outdoor adventure. There is information on how to find food and water, how to create a shelter, information on plant and animal identification and more. The tool has over 1,400 pages of information adapted from an actual military survival manual, so you know you’re in knowledgeable hands.

Available on Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Free on Android, $1.99 for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

MapMyHike

MapMyHike is a smartphone app that allows hikers to log their treks, get elevation information, create a hiking journal and share details via Facebook and Twitter. The tool uses GPS to note your location, then shows an interactive map that marks out your route while measuring duration, pace, heart rate, calories burned, elevation and speed. If you’re looking to increase your fitness, MapMyHike saves all your treks and tracks improvements.

Available on Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Free.

Point de Vue

Are you the type of person who likes to hike high peaks, and wants to know more about the surrounding mountains? Point de Vue was created with you in mind. No matter where you are in the world, this smartphone app will supply you information for mountains that are within a 125-mile range of your current location. Unlike with similar apps, you won’t need to hold your phone in the air, and it even works in bad weather and indoors. Moreover, you’ll be able to download maps for any location in the world and search for summits, sorting them by elevation or distance. Point de Vue works both online and offline.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. $3.99.

ProCamera

Looking to take some high-quality iphoneography pictures? While you could stick with the free and popular Instagram, a more professional nature photography app is ProCamera. This user-friendly tool allows you to set the focus, exposure and white balance points when taking photos. Likewise, hikers can edit their photos afterward to adjust exposure, brightness, saturation, contrast and color temperature, as well as crop, filter and rotate pictures. What’s also great about ProCamera is you’re not just limited to still pictures, but can create superior videos, as well.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. $2.99.

GotoAID

You never know what could happen when you’re exploring the great outdoors. Even if you’re hiking an easier trail, sprained ankles, sunburn and choking on your mixed nuts are still possible. GotoAID tries to help prepare hikers for these unfortunate incidents with a smartphone app they can always have on hand. The app has three different tabs to separate treatments for humans, cat or dogs. Furthermore, a wide range of topics are covered, including respiratory, poisons, heat, cold, cuts/wounds, bites/stings, burns, breaks/sprains and serious emergencies. The app is created for the “non-professional responder,” meaning the app takes you through exactly how to respond in an emergency step-by-step.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. $4.99.

Simply Hike

If you’re in the market for some new hiking gear, Simply Hike is a great app. You can shop for outdoor gear right on your phone and have it delivered to your door. Search by department or just browse for the item, and you’ll be given product descriptions and photos for the merchandise. So, why would you use the app and not the website? Simply Hike gives special discounts and offers to app users.

Available on Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Free.

MyNature Animal Tracks

MyNature Animal Tracks is a handy app for identifying animal scat and footprints when hiking in North America. Images are extremely clear, with illustrations of both fore and hind feet, and detailed descriptions of track measurements, animal life cycles, gait patterns and even sounds clips. Moreover, the app includes a journal, and works both online and offline.

Available on Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. $6.99.

Leafsnap

Developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian institute, Leafsnap makes use of visual recognition software to help hikers “identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.” How it works is every leaf photograph is matched to images in the app’s library using shape measurements and the leaf’s outline. From there, the best matches are returned to the user. Additionally, simply browsing the library can be an interesting virtual trip into nature.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Free.

Mosquito Device

If you’re like me and get eaten alive no matter where or when you’re hiking, Mosquito Device is an excellent tool to have. The app emits a high-pitched sound that is harmless to humans, plants and animals but keeps mosquitos away. Just be careful if you have small children, as it can hurt the ears of youngsters.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Free.

Where Do US Travelers Go During Summer?

by Jessica Festa on

Do you want to know what the most popular travel destinations in the United States are for summer? To help relay that information and inspire people with trip ideas, Mapquest has created a “Summer Travel” infographic, which has been shared by Daily Infographic.

By looking at what searches were performed on their website in 2011 as well as doing some factual research, Mapquest was able to gather data on various summer travel topics. Here are some of their findings:

  • The top five national parks searched included Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier National and Zion
  • The 10 most searched U.S. travel sites included Times Square in New York, The White House in Washington D.C., Disney World in Florida, Graceland in Tennessee, Legoland in California, Disneyland in California, The Golden Gate Bridge in California, Hoover Dam on the borders of Arizona and Nevada, Mall of America in Minnesota and Navy Pier in Chicago
  • Mondays at 9 a.m. is the best time to fill up your gas tank


New Flight-Tracking App Takes The Hassle Out Of Airport Pickups

by Jessica Festa on

Have you ever told a friend you’d pick them up from the airport, only to have to wait around for two hours at the arrivals gate? Forget those hassle-filled days, as a new app called Just Landed has been launched to help with seamless airport pick-up.

This free tool has many useful features, including information and alerts on:

  • A flight’s arrival time
  • If a flight will be late, early or on schedule
  • Arrival terminal
  • Driving time to the airport
  • When to leave your house to get there on time

According to Jaunted, the app uses GPS to locate you. “When pickup time nears, a countdown begins until a push notification pops up, commanding you to get the heck out of the Lay-Z-Boy and get on down to Arrivals.”

To use the app, simply input the flight number, and Just Landed will do the rest.

Just Landed is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. To view the app in the iTunes store, click here.

iPhone Travel Apps Ranked By Actual Usage

by Chris Owen on

iPhone Travel apps have been coming at us rapidly for quite some time now. Everyone seems to have their favorites, based on a variety of factors. Some iPhone travel apps are easy to use, quick to load and produce good results. Others, not so much. Knowing which one is most effective can be difficult but a new infographic takes a stab at sorting it all out.

Onavo is a data compression tech company that helps iPhone users get more from their data plan. How apps load and run is a topic they know all about. To feed this infographic, Onavo ranked travel search and booking apps by the percentage of U.S. iPhone users who activated them at least once during June 2012.

Onavo generated these infographic statistics using a sample of 100,000 U.S. iPhone users of their free iOS data-saving app that helps avoid overage fees.

“Acting as a proxy server, the Onavo Extend iOS version compresses data sent to your device from apps and websites, which means less bandwidth consumption,” reports Toonz.

[Flickr photo by mastrobiggo]