Technology just made being able to identify trees by looking at their leaves another useless skill - thanks guys. Leaf Snap is a mobile app that uses visual recognition technology to tell you if the tree you’re looking at is safe to eat or not. Or, maybe not exactly. The idea is more that using your phone’s GPS you’d be able to tag the tree after identifying its leaf, and then a massive database could be created of the trees across the U.S. It could be used to determine forest health and the way they change as the Earth slowly warms.

via Up Northica

Steve Casimiro of Adventure Journal has generously donated his last six months to testing about 700 iPhone apps built for the outdoors and making careful notes on all of them. And that’s exactly when I swoop in and steal his images and all his ideas, and share them in the minutes it takes to file a new post. Yeah, blogging can be awesome that way.

Here they are, Steve’s top picks for outdoorsy folks who also own iPhones.

Thanks Steve

This season Vail Resort in Colorado will be outfitting their entire resort with radio frequency towers on almost all 90 lifts. The idea is that iPhone and smartphone developers could create apps that would let skiers check-in across the hill or go online and track their progress up-and-down the resort after skiing all day. I think a lot of people will be disappointed when they find out the “thirty or so” runs they skied that day turns out to be more like 11 runs. Vail expects some apps will let people share their positions in real time, which will help lost families unite on the hill and robbers know which village homes are vacant for them to break into.

The North Face dropped some development resources into a project to put all the routes from EveryTrail.com into an iPhone app. Besides the branding they layered over the app, you don’t have to put up with ads even though it’s a free product. I installed it on my phone and so far all it does is turn my screen completely black, but in the reviews it sounds like it’s working pretty well for other people. If it ever works correctly, I’ll be able to use it to find trails across the world for hiking, cycling or horseback riding, and I’ll even be able to sort them based on activity length and difficulty.