Category: Apps

When you’re riding…

your smartphone can make just as much of a difference to your experience as it does when you’re not on your motorcycle.  It’s true that distracted riding is just as dangerous as distracted driving. However, that doesn’t mean that your smartphone can’t play an important role in helping you get more out of every trip.

You can still get away from it all while enjoying the features some great riding apps can provide.

In fact, instead of distracting you from the road, they can actually help to improve your safety. The key is to make sure you don’t forget your mobile motorcycle phone charger so you can keep your device charged. Without a power socket or USB port on your bike, it’s up to you to have a good backup battery bank to get the job done.

The following are some of the best apps currently available for motorcycle riders:

• Eat Sleep Ride – a solid all around motorcycle app that offers everything from group ride tracking to route planning and sharing and even ride replay. It also features CRASHLIGHT which works with your accelerometer to detect if a crash has happened.  If you don’t deactivate its warning after a small amount of time, it automatically alerts emergency personnel of the situation and your precise location.
• Waze – this is the biggest traffic navigations and directions app in the world. It shares road and traffic conditions so you can get information about your route in real time. While it was developed with commuter drivers in mind, its design makes it perfect for riders, too. One fantastic feature is that it can help you to find the best spots to get cheap gas along your route, too.
• FuelLog – this is an amazing gas and fuel mileage tracker that also lets you monitor additional issues such as motorcycle maintenance and costs. It provides you with automatic calculation of certain handy stats like mileage.  That said, it can also give you a pretty good average cost per distance or tell you the amount of gas needed. It can tell you how much you’re spending on fuel every year or month, how far you’ve ridden and a great deal more.
• NOAA Weather Radar – knowing the weather along your route is super handy. This app lets riders have a look at what Doppler radars say you’ll be riding through on your route. This is highly useful for route planning.

The giant retail chain is testing the new smartphone based program following the release of its Cartwheel app.

The Cartwheel app first debuted three years ago and now Target mobile rewards appear to be the next step. In the company’s ongoing effort to promote a better m-commerce experience, a pilot program is underway in locations in four cities.

The Minneapolis based retailer is testing the new mobile commerce feature in four stores.

There will be 126 stores with the new Cartwheel Perks Target mobile rewards program. This is the largest update the company’s mobile app has ever experienced. If it proves to be successful, it may experience a nationwide rollout. The current version of the mobile app makes it possible for customers to find product deals on their smartphones. Then, when they reach the checkout counter, they can apply the savings and pay less for their purchases.

There have already been 27 million people who have signed up for the mobile commerce app and its benefits. There are discounts available for up to 700 Target products with this application. Since it was first introduced, Cartwheel has generated a total saving of about $600 million for Target customer purchases.

Now the retailer is testing to see if the Target mobile rewards program can be equally successful.

The pilot for the mobile shopping rewards program is running at the stores located in Houston, San Diego, Denver and St. Louis. The feature is available to customers who update their mobile app to the latest version of Cartwheel. The program makes it possible for customers to collect rewards that can be redeemed for merchandise. Reward merchandise ranges from $10 to $20 in value. They can include free laundry detergent, sunglasses, athletic apparel and other items.

Customers use Cartwheel Perks to collect 10 points each time they spend a dollar at Target. Exceptions include gift cards and CVS pharmacy purchases. The first redemption level is at 5,000 points, at which time they can select from among 25 possible reward items.

A spokesperson for the company, Eddie Baeb, explained that “We’ll continue to test it and see how guests respond.” He explained that the Target mobile rewards program may one day extend to other stores and possibly to online purchases, too.