Oakley, Inc.

The Internet has been good to surfers and other water-sports enthusiasts, who can check a webcam or online surf report before taking a futile trip to the beach. Smartphones beat a desktop browser, however, because they put the Web in your hands when you have a few hours of free time, a long board on the roof rack and you want to check for waves. And, at least for surfers, the iPhone trumps other smartphones. Take the Surf Watch app ($10), for example. The software isn’t available anywhere on the wider Web, and sadly for BlackBerry and Android users, it’s not available on their mobile platforms. Before explaining, a little warning: for people who have no idea how coastal buoy data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration relates to a favorite surf spot, this app will mean a slight learning curve. But if, like many avid surfers, you know which buoys are bellwethers for your spot, prepare to inhale the catnip. The app will track user-specified buoys, as well as the swell direction and height, the wind speed and direction and the all-important period between successive waves. Experienced surfers will know which mix is producing the best waves. Using the factors set by the user, Surf Watch will send an alert when ideal conditions are imminent. It will even sound a highly annoying alarm. For surfers who don’t know the desired figures for good conditions, some online sleuthing will help, as well as a trip to a surf store, where an employee may help you dial in the specifications. Surf Watch exploits the weaknesses of online surf forecasters like Surfline, MagicSeaweed.com and others. These sites use data to predict surf conditions, as Surf Watch does, but their methodology yields inconsistent results. And because of the sheer number of places to surf they can highlight only well-known spots. To be fair, even if the estimates sometimes fall flat, Surfline at least signals whether a swell is coming or going and whether it is big enough to track. And Surfline has improved its wave reports in recent years, by listing wave heights that have been verified by a human at many spots. That improvement is one of the hallmarks of Surf Report, a free app that Surfline developed with Oakley, the sports apparel and gear manufacturer. Surf Report is ideal for those who get headaches thinking about buoy readings and swell periods. Read More

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the top 40 iPhone apps of 2009 in the App Store. This article got quite a bit of success (especially on Twitter) and a few of you asked me what where my favorite iPhone apps of 2009. I’ve had many apps come and go this year so I guess the best way to tell what my favorites are is to tell you the one I will keep with me for next year. Facebook – Need I say more? Indispensable if you have a Facebook account (note: you may want to join our Facebook page). Flight Control – My favorite iPhone game. Ever! It’s fun and addicting. My best score is 357 planes landed. Can you do better? Bejeweled 2 – My fiancée turned me on this game. I used to play it a lot but I got over it. Tap Tap Revenge 3 – I just downloaded it as it was free for a limited time. I drive my fiancée crazy with it because I always play the same song (Tap Tap DomiNation by Stroke 9). Pro Surfing – If you’re into surfing, this game is a must-have. Very fun and well done. Last time I checked, I was #3 in the world! Surf by Wavewatch – A great app for surfers. Gives you reports about pretty much any wave in the world. Even better, you get live cams of the spots when available! Surf Report – Yet another surf report app. Not as fancy as Surf by Wavewatch but it does the job very well. WordPress – I love WordPress as a blogging platform but the version 2 of their app is pathetically useless. It’s buggy, crashes all the time and provides very little features. Yet it’s still on my iPhone “just in case” they update it and make it a better app. Mobile Fotos – Probably the best mobile client for Flickr. I used to use it a lot to upload my pix to Flickr but now I just use the “email to Flickr” feature. Still nice to have it when I need to look for some of my pix. – One of the zillion flashlight apps in the App Store. This one does a great job for me. Skype – I don’t use this app much but it’s nice to have it, just in case I need to make a quick Read More