Apps that add a technological edge to your skiing or snowboarding vacation were the subject of a recent App Smart column. But the column could barely make a dent in discussing all the apps available to help winter sports enthusiasts. Here are some more suggestions.
One class of app that can be both helpful and fun is those apps that link you to the different Web cams that many resorts now have on the mountainsides. The Ski Webcams app, free on iTunes or $1.59 on Android, is one of the best of these. It can link you to resort Web cams either near your location or from a very extensive list or, just for fun, to random cams from around the world. It’s a very no-frills app. But it does tell you when each image was collected so you can see how up-to-date the picture is. And you can zoom into the images, which is useful for high-res video feeds.
For adifferent type of ski app experience, you may love the free iOS app SloPro. It’s a video editing app that offers a rather cool trick: the ability to slow a movie clip down to super slow motion, like the effects you get in sports videos shown on TV. These effects happen through image processing inside the app, so they’re not as eye-catching as using a slow-motion camera to film a skier making a jump, for example. But the effects are impressive, once you’ve mastered the app’s slightly tricky interface. And if you’re on a snow vacation with some friends, then you may be able to achieve some amazingly dramatic film clips.
There are also many apps available that are resort-specific, but since these come from different app developers their quality varies. For example the Val d’Isère Ski Guide app for Android, for the very popular French ski resort, has a pretty basic and uninspiring interface but offers detailed information on up-to-the-minute events, weather and facilities in the town. ! The $1 iOS app Live North Lake Tahoe is more graphically clever, and thus a little easier to navigate. It also offers a few niceties like a piste map and road cameras so you can plan your journey around traffic or difficult weather. But it does cost soemthing, and offers you services you could get for free by downloading one or two other free apps.
It’s definitely worth spending some time checking out what’s available for your chosen resort before you head off on a ski trip.
Quick call
Delta Airlines has released a free iPad app that has many typical services like destination maps and social networking tools. But it also has a “Glass Bottom Jet†option in-flight that shows an image of the ground underneath your aircraft’s flight path, assuming you’re hooked up to the airline’s in-plane Wi-Fi network.
