City life is hard! There’s the endless battle with public transport, the confusing array of shops, bars and restaurants to negotiate, and that’s before you’ve even tried to track down mates across town.
But with the iPhone in your pocket, you need never look like a country bumpkin again. The Apple phone’s incredibly adept at negotiating big city life. Install these apps and you’ll see exactly what we mean!
Sun Compass (£0.59)
Don’t know your city centre from your outskirts? Confused when you’re told to head ‘uptown’? Install this simple app and take a step in the right direction the old fashioned way, using the sun as your guiding light to always walk the right way! Warning: It’ll become useless at night!
Where to? (£1.79)
This neat city guide adds a slick iPod classic-esque interface to easily figure where to go and what to do. Stuck for some self-ammusement while wandering around town? Fire up this cheap-as-chips app to get yourself back on the road to inner-city bliss.
TubeStatus (£free)
If you’ve ever spent time tapping your toe on a London Underground platform, you’ll know the value of this app. It receives real-time updates on delays from Transport For London, so you’ll always know if it’s leaves on the line, or the dreaded “passenger under a train” holding up your commute home.
Where (£free)
Trace the nearest restaurants, cafés and even concerts with this helpful navigator. But it’s much more than an amenity-finder. Fire up the buddy beacon feature and it’ll track down your mates. If there are any nearby, it’ll pin their location down onto the map, so they won’t have to bark directions to you down the phone, instead relying on the iPhone to guide you right to them!
iTrans BART (£2.39)
Found yourself in San Francisco? Download this app and you’ll get train locations, destinations and schedules for the Bay Area Rapid Transit network all on your phone. Getting around has never been this easy – it’ll even break down routes into step by step directions.
iTrans DC Metro (2.99)
The Washington DC Metro has its own navigation app too. It’ll help guide you around the American capital as if you were a local. That means no more aimless meandering around town like a zombie, and should you hop onto the underground subway, it’ll even let you see the last service updates it received when you’re offline.
G-Park (£0.59)
Parking your car in city centres is a recipe for confusion. If you always forget where you’ve left your motor, this handy app is for you. Just tell it when you get out of your vehicle, and it’ll remember the position. Tap it up again when you come back, and it’ll point the way to your car with the minimum fuss.
Vicinity (£1.79)
Far more than a restaurant tracker-downer, this app packs enough points of interest to keep even the most hardened city-phobe from packing their bags and heading for the hills. We’re talking one-touch directions to banks and cashpoints, convenience stores and, yes, pubs. It’ll even show photos of the place in question, so you really can’t miss it!
iTrans NYC Subway (£5.99)
So you’re stuck in New York City, struggling to tell the Bronx from your backside? Not with this app in your pocket. It condenses the Big Apple’s subway system into a manageable mess. Even slow-witted tourists will be able to master its intricacies with this app.
Graffitio (£free)
Fire up this app in city centres, and you’ll instantly tap into virtual graffiti walls where others have left messages. It’s location-sensitive, so everything you see was written while the author stood in the same location as you are now. Creepy? Yep, but the walls often point the way to hidden city gems. Fire it up, and see what you can find!
