Here are a few free mobile apps to check out as you plan your next trip to Michigan:
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Explore Greater Lansing-This app from the Greater Lansing Michigan Convention and Visitors Bureau and works as a nice on-the-road tool to supplement Greater Lansing's printed visitors' guides and other online resources.
Clicking on Greater Lansing Guide from the app's main page takes users to a list of categories like Where to Stay, What to Eat and Things to Do to find more detailed information about offerings around the area surrounding Michigan's capital city and Michigan State University.
Click on the "+" at the bottom of a page for an individual attraction or business to find maps, phone numbers, links to Web sites, business hours, photos and other helpful information.
The app's Calendar of Events arranges listings by categories like Family-Friendly Events, Michigan State University Sports, Fairs/Festivals and Music. You can also call up events by date by clicking on the calendar at the bottom of each event category page.
I found that using the Search tab from the main page worked well. For example, my search for "Old Town" gave me a number of links to businesses and events in the Old Town area.
Be sure to check out the "Offers" section for discounts, primarily for food and admissions to Lansing attractions like the Michigan Historical Museum, the Impression 5 Science Center and the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum.
The latest update for the app was January 2014.
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Visit Ann Arbor-This app from the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau catalogs the offerings in this college town (University of Michigan) about an hour west of Detroit.
We're frequent visitors to A2, so it was fun to explore this app and see many places that I do know, as well as a few new (to me) discoveries that we'll need to explore during future visits.
The app is an abbreviated version of the CVB's main site with lists of dining, accommodations, events and other attractions.
To search by category for events, go to Categories from the Events tab, leave the choices you want to see checked and uncheck the rest of the choices, and enter a date to see what's happening on that day. This process was a little clunky, but it worked well enough for checking things on the go.
The "augmented sight" feature promises to help you identify landmarks in town by pointing your phone at the site. Since I'm sitting here in suburban Detroit at the moment, I wasn't able to test-drive this feature, but it looks like something fun to try next time we visit Ann Arbor.
The app also has suggested itineraries for a brewery tour and a fairy door tour (fairy doors are a series of miniature doors placed around town, usually at ground level, that often resemble the building's main entrance in miniature. The fairy door itinerary includes a half dozen of the many fairy doors in A2 to get you started on this hidden treasure hunt!).
The latest update for the app was December 2013.
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Pure Michigan Film Office-I downloaded this free app with the idea that I might find some cool locations for future photo opportunities or story ideas.
I wasn't disappointed.
The app allows users to access more than 80,000 images of more than 5.600 locations throughout the state collected in the Michigan Film Office's database.
You can search by region, city, landmarks, or type of site.
I tried a search for vintage train depots near my home by going to the general category of Trains/Railroads, selecting the subcategory of Train Stations/Depots and checking Southeast as my region choice and came up with seven possibilities within 65 miles of my house that included the Lapeer Train Depot that we visited and photographed last year, plus a few others that looked like real possibilities for a photo or story trip. Each location had a short description of the site, usually a photo or two, addresses and links to Google maps for a map and directions.
The same search on the full Web site yields identical results, but you can more precisely pinpoint locations by individual cities or counties or specific mileage from your current location and see larger versions of the same photos you'll see on the app.
Filmmakers will also find other resources here like links to available crews and other support services.
I can tell I'm going to have fun with this app because it makes it easy to find some of my favorite photo subjects (depots, county courthouses, bridges, lighthouses) when I'm traveling on the road.
The last update for this app was October, 2013.
© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved
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