Flyover Country provides endless entertainment for travellers.

1. 19TECHNOLOGYTHEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016
@thephuketnews
The Ground Below
H
ave you ever been sat in the
window seat, looking at the
landscape below and wonder-
ing just what exactly you were
flying over? Learn about the
ground beneath you as you
fly with the all-new Flyover
Country app.
Designed to let travellers track their
flight with a mobile phone’s GPS, Flyover
Country is an outstanding app funded of-
fline by the National Science Foundation.
The National Science Foundation utilises
the app for geoscience outreach and data
discovery. The aim of Flyover Country
is to educate avid travellers and normal
people, not just scientists, about the
world around them. It is an educational,
entertaining app to keep on one’s mobile
phone.
Flyover Country has been designed
to let users know what areas of inter-
est are near the land they are travelling
over. Whether users of the app are hik-
ing, flying or simply on a cross-country
road trip, Flyover Country analyses the
surrounding area. The app then provides
interactive points of interest such as sce-
nic areas, popular landscapes and tour-
ist attractions. Flyover Country is also
able to reveal the location of fossils based
upon previous georeferenced Wikipedia
articles. The app provides information
for where users are located at any given
moment.
Flyover Country is an amazing app to
use while flying. Flyover Country is able
to track the user’s GPS location including
speed, altitude and the path in which the
airplane is heading. Analysing the given
flight path, Flyover Country caches points
of interest and informative map data
which in turn allows travellers to read
about the exact locations that are current-
ly beneath the airplane. The app is able to
be used offline, so travellers do not need to
rely on an airline’s sketchy Wi-Fi connec-
tion to use it. Flyover Country can provide
hours of educational fun during even the
longest of flights.
Worried about downloading too much
data? With Flyover Country, by download-
ing only the necessary data to a flight
path, cache sizes remain manageable, al-
lowing for a more robust experience offline
when using the app.
Flyover Country is not limited to air-
planes. It is also a wonderful app to use
when hiking or while on a road trip or
enjoying outdoor activities. Users are
indeed able to learn about the world with
this very innovative app.
Flyover Country is available for both
Android and iOS, and the app is free to
download.
Amy Bensema is a long-term Phuket ex-
pat with a keen interest in social media
and tech. Check out @phuketstagram.
SpaceX lands Falcon 9 rocket after launching Japanese satellite
S
paceX successfully landed a reusable Falcon 9
rocket on a floating drone ship at sea early Sun-
day (Aug 14) after the vehicle had sent a Japanese
communications satellite into orbit.
The California-based company's eighth launch this
year was part of its ongoing effort to re-use costly
rocket parts instead of jettisoning them into the
ocean.
It was also the fourth time SpaceX has vertically
landed a used Falcon 9 rocket aboard a floating plat-
form at sea.
The white rocket launched under a dark night sky
from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:26 am (0526 GMT).
Less than three minutes into the flight, the rock-
et's main stage separated as planned, with SpaceX
mission control erupting in cheers as live video
showed the moves.
Around six minutes
later, the first stage
landed on the Of Course I
Still Love You drone ship,
drawing more cheers at
mission control.
The vertical landing
on the reconverted deck
barge in the Atlantic
Ocean was especially
challenging because the
JCSAT-16 satellite had to
be carried into a highly
elliptical orbit some
22,300 miles (36,000 kilo-
meters) above the Earth's
equator.
“The first stage will be
subject to extreme veloci-
ties and re-entry heating,
making a successful land-
ing challenging,” Space
Exploration Technologies Corpora-
tion – SpaceX's full name – said
prior to the mission.
The communications satellite
will help provide more stable satel-
lite services for video distribution
and data transfer communications
in Asia, Russia, Oceania, Middle
East and North America.
It was the second JCSAT satel-
lite SpaceX has launched in four
months for satellite operator SKY
Perfect JSAT Corporation.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk wants
to revolutionise the launch indus-
try by making rocket components
reusable.
AFP
SpaceXFalcon9rocketsitsonalaunchpadinCapeCanaveral,Florida.
Flyover Country provides endless entertainment for travellers
Application ABCs is a monthly column
highlighting the latest in tech, social media
and mobile phone applications.
APPLICATION ABCs
Amy Bensema
bensema.amy@gmail.com
High level of detail.