livecams

Latest

  • Visit the famed San Diego Zoo with your iPhone

    by 
    Mel Martin
    Mel Martin
    12.15.2011

    The San Diego Zoo is arguably among the very best zoos in the world. With more than 4,000 animals and 800-plus species, it's a national treasure. My visits are fondly remembered, and starting today you can visit some of the best of the zoo from the comfort of your iPhone. The free SanDiegoZoo app is chock full of pictures, maps, visitor info and live cams showing pandas and polar bears, among other features. There are hundreds of still images of zoo residents, and all are sharable and can be saved locally. There are also guides to the many restaurants at the zoo, but no menus. There is also a detailed zoom-able map, but I'd prefer GPS integration so that people who are actually at the zoo could see where they are and easily find their way around the huge facility. This official, zoo-sponsored app has a lot to offer for animal lovers and fans of the San Diego Zoo. The app could use a bit more detailed information in certain areas. The app is an 18 MB download and is for iPhone and iPod touch only, although armchair travelers would probably appreciate an iPad version of the app. SanDiegoZoo is a good app, and with a few changes could be great. Even if you never get to visit the zoo, this app is a great introduction and offers some good information and striking images. Check the gallery for some sample screens. %Gallery-141922%

  • My wife needs an intervention for her Live Cams addiction

    by 
    Steve Sande
    Steve Sande
    12.23.2009

    It's a problem worthy of an episode of Intervention. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that my wife is addicted to the Live Cams app on her iPhone. It all started when she was searching for new apps in the App Store, and she noticed a little app called Live Cams [US$0.99, iTunes Link]. It sounded innocuous enough -- the app provides a way to search, browse, view, and in some cases, control live web cams all over the planet. At a price of less than a buck, Live Cams couldn't harm anything or anybody, could it? We were both sure that the developer, Barry Egerter, couldn't have any evil intentions, so she bought Live Cams and installed it on her iPhone. That's when I noticed the changes coming over my wife. Rather than conversing over dinner, she would stare at her iPhone, occasionally touching the screen to switch to a new webcam or aim a camera at a new target. She'd interrupt my constant attempts at reaching a new high score in DoodleJump [iTunes Link] by waving her iPhone in front of my face, forcing me against my will to look at cute kittens cavorting on a cat cam in Tokyo. And when she started waking up at 3:30 AM to see what the "Really curvy road in Slovenia" looked like in daylight, I knew she had a problem.