April 2015

Visual Storytelling Apps: “Slate” Joins The Crowd

By Dick Jordan | April 24, 2015

Last June in “How to Tell a Travel Story Visually with Photos,” I reviewed these three options for visual storytelling:

Google+ “Stories”
Storehouse “Stories” created with an iPad/iPhone app
“Posts” using Exposure.co

I found too many flaws with Google+ “Stories” to recommend using them to “Show & Tell” people about your trip.

On the other hand, both Storehouse and Exposure were easy to use, could include text, still photos and videos, and could be shared via social media, e-mail, and by embedding in Websites and blogs.

Storehouse won that “horse race” for me because it is completely free, while Exposure only gave one the ability to create three free posts before ponying up money to create more.

But now there’s a “new kid on the block,” the “Slate” app for iPad from Adobe, the folks who created the photo editing program and new English language verb, “Photoshop.”

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Getting the Most Out of Google Maps

By Dick Jordan | April 24, 2015

On Tuesday one of my “directionally challenged” hiking buddies was well off-course driving to the trailhead. He was about to give up and head home, but decided to phone me for help instead.

While I verbally guided him on his way, it was the GPS function of his Android phone that made it easy for him to get from “A” to “B.”

Indeed, turn-by-turn navigation is one of the best features of modern smartphones.

I sometimes use the native “Maps” appthat came with my Apple iPhone, at other times I rely on the MapQuest app, but I also use the Google Maps app.

The Google Maps app was temporarily banished from the iPhone after Apple launched its own mapping app, but then like a child whose “sins” were forgiven by its “parent,” was invited to rejoin the family of Apple iOS apps, an event I wrote about in “Google Maps’ iPhone ‘Second Coming'” back in December of 2012.

Smartphone apps are often updated and I wrote further reviews of the Google Maps app when it was redone in 2013 and again in 2014.

If you use an app on a daily basis, you’ll likely know its features inside and out, and learn when changes are made to it.

But even then, it helps to take a “refresher course” now and again to make sure you’re getting the most out an app, and for me, that’s true with the Google Maps app. …

Fugu: The World’s Most Innovative Luggage?

By Dick Jordan | April 10, 2015

Suitcases The operative syllable in “luggage” is “lug.”

Even if you travel “light” you’ve still got to lug at least some luggage with you.

And how do you stuff enough clothes and other stuff for a two-week or longer trip into an airline “carry-on” size bag that will actually fit into an overhead bin or under the seat in front of you on an airliner?

Use space saving clothing compression bags?

Take a single pair of clean underwear and socks and wash out the one’s you’ve got on in your hotel room’s sink each night?

Take a larger suitcase, check it, and pay the airline bag fees?

Here’s another choice: Buy Fufu luggage. …