Occasionally, our hunting world gets turned on its head with a product so unique that it revolutionizes the way we conduct our affairs. In the 1970s, the use of camouflage became wildly popular. In the 1980s, climbing stands went from crude garage shop concoctions to mainstream works of art. In the 1990s, trail cameras and GPS’s became accepted scouting tools for locating and hunting deer. Today, nearly every serious hunter owns all four of these items, and would consider it taboo for anyone refusing to use them. Right now, there’s another revolutionary hunting tool on the market which has merged multimedia and the world wide web together into a package that tucks away discretely in our pockets: enter the iPhone. Over the course of this article I will explain some of the brilliant feats this phone performs beyond ordinary cell phone functionality, and how you can use it to save time, save money, and improve your hunting experiences.
Downloadable Applications
It’s best to think of Apple’s iPhone as a small personal computer. With PC’s, there are several applications you download that perform specific functions. We use Microsoft Word to manipulate text, Internet Explorer to browse the world wide web, and Adobe Photoshop to make our fish look bigger. Similarly, the iPhone has downloadable applications, called “Apps,” which each perform specific functions. The beauty is that Apple has opened up the architecture of the iPhone’s operating system to 3rd party developers, thus allowing them to create their own applications to run on the iPhone. What does this mean? Well, now that the iPhone’s application development is in the hands of the free market, whatever consumers want in a software program will come to fruition. What have the results been? At the time of this writing, private companies have developed over 25,000 Apps for the iPhone, with another 5,000 or so coming down the pipe every month; these Apps can be downloaded directly from the iPhone, with most available for free or less than $5. This means that the future possibilities for this smart phone are endless, even for hunters.
Map App
The blue dot (center) reflects your current location.
The new 3G iPhone contains an advanced global position system that achieves the same accuracies as any typical GPS receiver on the market that’s not WAAS enabled. Through iPhone’s Map App, you can view exactly where you’re at in the woods via a blue dot against one of Google’s satellite photos of the property. Several times last hunting season I wanted to position myself evenly between two oxbow lakes on the property I hunt in Avoyelles Parish because of their natural funneling characteristics. Ordinarily, I’d have to find this location at home on the internet via satellite photos, enter these coordinates into my GPS, then use my GPS to navigate to this location once on the ground. With the iPhone, everything I need is with me right there in the woods, and my scouting is not limited to whatever waypoints I’ve programmed into my GPS at that time.
I’m aware that many GPS’s already have advanced satellite imagery programmed into them, and I’m by no means suggesting you abandon your GPS for exclusive navigation via iPhone; that’s insanity. Currently, the iPhone’s built in navigation system is rudimentary and lacks many basic GPS functions, but it certainly can be used in conjunction with a GPS. The good news is that there are several GPS Apps currently under development for the iPhone, and sole navigation via iPhone is on the horizon. Won’t it be nice to download a $5 GPS App that outperforms that $400 Garmin you just bought?
