Blue Ice, Patagonia

I never expected the blue.  Living in a land where ice comes in shades of white and off-gray, the brilliant blues and violets of Glacier Grey were startling, invigorating.  The lake itself a silver-gray mirror with a surface brushed roughly by the wind, dotted with chunks of glowing blue. Our journey, from Zodiac to tour boat and back again, was one of the roughest of my life, awash in giant waves and hurricane-force blasts off the ice field. But the blue, the blue, made it all worthwhile.  This corner of Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile will always occupy a corner of my soul, lit in blue.

Getting Social

Still squeamish about Facebook? Terrified of Twitter? Here’s how social media really works.

As the Internet evolves, the ways in which it is used as a communication medium keep expanding. Remember the excitement when websites first appeared, a new publication medium come to life? Then blogging became the topic of the day, built on tools providing individuals with a way to offer their own news, syndicating their content with little fuss and allowing their readers to comment back on it. Blogging was the first form of social media, where technology enabled the sharing of content as a conversation.

By connecting people to people, social networking takes that relationship a step further, refreshing the sense of community that too often has been lost in our busy lives. Read more >>

Social Apps for Working Journalists

Wordpress for iPhone

One of the most delightful – and scary – realities of social media is that the distance between journalist and reader has narrowed to zero. No matter whether you work for a newspaper – where your boss now expects you to blog daily – or syndicate your own column to a paying subscriber base, there is no longer a wall between creator and consumer. Your readers will provide feedback, like it or not. Why not strengthen that bond by keeping your biggest fans coming back to you for more?

When you’re on the road, you’re in an ideal position to share your experiences – live, raw, and exotic – with your readers. These are the free apps I’ve found most effective in keeping a dialogue going with my own audience, and how I’ve used them while traveling.

Facebook: Instant Karma

Nothing gets your Facebook friends buzzing like a few choice images uploaded from a locale they’ll never visit, or a funny find – misspelled signs, weird sculpture, and other roadside kitsch – as you travel. Use the Camera app to seize the moment and the free Facebook app to share it with your peeps. Read more >>

Practical Apps for Working Journalists

Screenshot of VehiCal mileage log

When my desktop computer crashed with an unrecoverable hard drive error, it was the first time in my life I wasn’t in a total panic over the situation. Since purchasing an iPhone, I’d shifted so much of my day-to-day business to it that one of the few painful parts was losing my iPhone backup … and all of my desktop email. My crucial business operations, however, are snugly fit on the iPhone. Here’s how you can turn yours into a workhorse for your on-the-go life. Don’t have an iPhone? Versions of some of these apps are available for Droid as well.

Contacts (free)
Loaded into every iPhone operating system, this app is the core of your business operations. Contacts can be pulled into most other applications. If you haven’t copied your contacts from your desktop mail software, do it now! Outlook is the default mail manager that the iPhone plays nice with, but you can load up your Thunderbird contacts into an empty Outlook installation just to move them to the iPhone. Read more >>

Florida State Parks: Let your iPhone be your guide

Great places to snorkel. Quiet spots for a picnic. Snippets of Florida history. And some of the best campgrounds for waterfront fun. They’re all around us, us lucky Floridians, as we have one of the largest and most diverse state park systems in the United States. But what’s nearby?

Pull out your iPhone and take a peek. By downloading Florida State Parks from the iPhone store, you can use your phone to find summer fun. Using the built-in geolocation capabilities of your iPhone, you can sort through information on our award-winning state parks by both their proximity to you and a wide range of activities such as camping, surfing, and wildlife watching. Selections can also be narrowed by areas of interest, including accessibility, child-friendliness, and festivals.

“I’d been collecting information to write a guidebook on Florida State Parks,” said author Sandra Friend, whose award-winning “50 Hikes” and “Explorer’s Guide” series guidebooks cover outdoor recreation in Florida. “When Sutro Media suggested it become an iPhone app, I realized the outstanding potential of making guidebook information portable and easily updated.”

First launched on Earth Day 2010, this guidebook for the small screen has just been updated to include new features to make your trip planning even easier. In addition to details about each park and nearly 2,000 images providing virtual tours to the parks, entries now include:

• Offline locator maps – no 3G needed!
• Details on accessibility, such as free beach wheelchairs, accessible nature trails, and accessible park tours
• Links to online park maps and campsite reservations
• Live phone links to call outfitters and make tour or rental reservations
• Links to background information on each park, including websites managed by the “Friends of” Citizen Support Organizations that support Florida State Parks with volunteers and fundraising
• Links to hiking information provided by the author, who’s written hiking guides covering all of Florida
• Links to recommended eateries near the park
• Links to other outdoor recreation near the park

July is Florida Recreation and Parks Month—discover where to celebrate with the latest edition of Florida State Parks from Sutro Media. Learn more at http://www.floridahikes.com/apps/florida-state-parks