While I always have my phone on me, sometimes I prefer the real estate of a bigger screen. Fortunately a number of my ‘Scouting Apps’ have iPad optimized versions.
Troop Badges is one of my favorites. Think of it as the 2010-2011-always being updated Requirements Handbook. There’s detailed requirement info for ranks, merit badges, and every special award I could think of so far. The basic version will let you record the activity of one Scout. the premiere edition enables tracking of multiple Scouts. If your using it to track activities right now you can only export the data one Scout at a time. in an email with the developer he leaned towards a bulk export becoming a feature in the future. Even if you don’t use it for requirement tracking it’s worth the price for the reference features alone.
** the official BSA iPhone app is supposed to be releasing a supplementary (integrated) merit badge tracking feature to the current iPhone app sometime in January. At present the BSA iPhone app isn’t adapted for iPad but the original design and level of detail works well at 2x mode. its actually more usable than it’s intended iPhone resolution as you can see the whole page at once in a legible size.
GoodReader is the best document manager and reader for the iPad. I use it for a lot of subjects but Scouts has a drawer or two and unlike my basement there’s a a working search function.
For my more permanent reference books and those after campfire fictional escapes iBooks let’s me carry a whole Scout trailers worth of books in barely the size of one.
I have a number of really good ‘find a hike/trail’ apps for the iPhone but none of them scale. So far Campwhere looks like it’s got the best info on local destinations to get outdoors no matter where you are.
If you need to brush up on your own rope skills, Knot Guide HD is a well presented and easy to follow.
If your looking for a solid BSA Field Guide so far there isn’t one. There are a couple Audobon Guides that could be great to flip through sitting in your camp chair while the Scouts make dinner but the prices put them out of reach for my present level of interest. If I win the “Billionth App” maybe I’ll reconsider.
Lately there seem to be a lot more astrological phenomena happening – or maybe it’s that I’m better tuned in to know when they’re happening and have gotten a chance to see them. Pocket Universe is a great app for stargazers and guys like me who love a night under the stars but would like to be able to identify more. On one campout we saw the ISS from Earth and another counted planets rings through telescopes.
With a little encoding you can get the rank videos offered by BSA.
The only real question is is the iPad something you can practically carry and not look out of place with your backpack and well weathered coffee mug. This could help:
Geogreen
February 8, 2011 at 10:29 am
Fantastic article! You’ve got me considering buying a second iPad for our household specifically for Scouting, the first one is just plain unavailable since it’s constantly being used. The iPad sounds like a good way to lighten my backpack by eliminating handbooks, reference and record keeping.
However, one thing I’ll have to research is the availability of these apps in an off-line setting. I recently spent three days at a Scout camp deep in a valley with no cell phone signal or data options. Besides suffering from basic Internet feed withdrawals, I felt crippled by the inability to pull out my smartphone to reference online information dozens of times.
Scouter Doug
February 8, 2011 at 10:34 am
Almost all of the apps mentioned function without an internet connection. The exception is mapping applications and/or those that utilize GPS for functionality which isn’t available on the iPad anyway.
dr.burnsie
September 13, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Great article. Could you provide links to the iBooks, even if they need to be purchased? I like your collection and want to start mine in a similar fashion.
Also, are your documents that you have in your GoodReader documents that you have developed or downloaded or both? If they are downloaded, can you provide links to those as well?