Useful apps for woodland owners ?

[oldclaypaws]

Alright, alright, I know most of us enjoy the primal experience of leaving behind the modern world and technology and playing at being a hunter-gatherer in the woods, equipped with nothing more than a good pair of boots, tin of beans, knife, and smile.

I've just entered the modern world by ordering my first smart android phone, and at the risk of sounding like a kid at Christmas can see there are possible uses for the things in a wood. The LED flashlight app looks good, and of course if you take a leg off with your widowmaker its useful for dialling a paramedic and buying a wooden leg on ebay or booking a paralympic entry in the local marathon. A twitcher pal of mine bought an app from the RSPB which has loads of recordings of birdsongs, and uses it to have conversations with them!! If he hears a female Chiffchaff, he replies as a male Chiffchaff and tries to tempt it to come over.

Has anyone else with one of these gizmos found themselves using them for interesting purposes, other than the obvious pics, caravan installation videos and telling the whole world how pleased you are to get away from it ? Be interested to hear of woodland-relevant uses.

[TerryH]

Never found any use for mine other than phone and camera really. There are some forestry type apps out there though. Here's one for timber 'cruising' that uses GPS and lets you store an inventory of your woodland up on the web..
http://silviaterra.com/plothound/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNgPsK7hqM4&list=PLeZT4xkZGtqbLCzhYJyedSWU5x_kBIFAf

Wish I'd known about it before I did my 'pen and paper' inventory.. could be worth having a play with it one day.
But yes.. tend to want to leave technology behind when we're in the woods, eh?

[Dexter's Shed]

as I wouldn't know what a female chiff chaff sounds like,so that app would be useless for me, now a female chav, I know what they sound like......


use mine for phoning, and or a camera

not for filming caravans or chainsaws, that's left to the go pro and muvi cameras

[Wendelspanswick]

I have had an IPhone for years and the one app I always find invaluble are the OS maps. They are stored on your phone so you do not need a data signal to use them, just a GPS signal.
I have the 50,000 map of the South West and it shows all the rights of way and the pubs! Perfect for walking.
I also have Memory Map on my PC which let's me print colour OS maps down to 25,000 for the whole of the UK. (A present from Captain Pugwash!)
Also useful is the MetOffice app for weather forecasting and the Stanley Level app which turns my phone into a level and clinometer.

[Meadowcopse]

AndMeasure looks promising for plot area and points.
I'm trying to find a practical geo-inventory app and maybe something useful for QR enhanced info labelling (but believe another SWOG person with an award winning woodland is ahead of the game there).
I'm interested in a practical location / inventory app for the rows of heritage fruit trees in the orchard (110 of mainly individual varieties - although a Filofax is surprisingly efficient for a row by row walk around and extra notes)

If you have an access track that suffers from fly-tipping, doggers and drug dealers, then a cheap MiFi unit with no sim card installed, but left in a discrete place can be handy if you change the SSID to something like "ANPR - Surveillance" - any passers by with the wifi left switched on their phone would get a beep that wifi is available...

I use Evernote across the phone and computers for handy notes / reference and TapaTalk app makes the SWOG Forum viewable by latest post on a mobile device.

[greyman]

I've had a smarty pants phone for a few years but only recently loaded apps on to my Galaxy S4 as my old phone didn't have enough room for many! One app I use is a free one (most of them are as I'm a skinflint)and it's called 'whats that butterfly'. There is also the ashtag app for reporting ash dieback etc.

I use googles 'play'site but there's probably other sites to use.

I'm actually using my phone to put this on the swog site

[oldclaypaws]

Interesting to hear of

'whats that butterfly'

, can you also see if they've got one called 'Who's that dodgy looking toe-rag' ?

[Andy M]

The only one I actually use is for estimating tree height - the iPhone version is called "iHypso Lite" (it is free).

The other thing worth considering is registering your phone for the 112 service - in an emergency it allows your phone to use other networks.
See this Youtube film for a good explanation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZv_8dABfU

[oldclaypaws]

My young hound is an escape artist and a few times has left the wood and wandered over the surrounding fields. A possible useful app I'm exploring is fitting the houdini hound with a GPS tracker, meaning I can get a signal from the device on the dog, back to the smartphone, showing on a google map where she is within a few metres. Downside seems to be battery life on these things, they cost about £90 and are active for only a few hours before needing a recharge. Cheaper option is a long piece of rope, attached to the dog at one end and a tree at the other. (Tethering)

[Wendelspanswick]

My young hound is an escape artist and a few times has left the wood and wandered over the surrounding fields. A possible useful app I'm exploring is fitting the houdini hound with a GPS tracker, meaning I can get a signal from the device on the dog, back to the smartphone, showing on a google map where she is within a few metres. Downside seems to be battery life on these things, they cost about £90 and are active for only a few hours before needing a recharge. Cheaper option is a long piece of rope, attached to the dog at one end and a tree at the other. (Tethering)

My good friend has a CavaPoo, a cross between a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and a Poodle, that he runs with over the Quantock Hills and it has a habit of disappearing into the bushes hunting small creatures. My friend tried fixing a small bell to the dogs collar so he could keep track of it but that was a failure so he then got a cordless doorbell which he sewed into a harness for the dog to wear. My Friend carries the button and when he wants to locate the hound he presses the button and listens for the Ding Dong, Ding Dong.
He said that when he first tried it he heard a surprised yelp and the dog came hurtling out of he bushes looking over its shoulder.
So if you are walking on the Quantocks and you hear the Chimes of Westminster keep a look out for a small tan dog!