A list of iPhone apps to help navigate the streets of San Francisco -- apps I have on my own phone. Most of the apps here are free, offering tools that range from real-time Muni schedules to car finders for the lonely, lost parked car.
1. Routesy San Francisco
$2.99
Routesy will locate you then serve up the closest Muni station, along with a list of Muni transit lines and estimated arrival times.
2. Hop Stop
FREE
The iPhone app for Hop Stop trip planner works precisely the way the website does -- plotting door-to-door directions throughout San Francisco. The app allows you some variables: more walking, less walking, transit only. It also maps your current location for easier point plotting.
See also: Overview of Hop Stop
3. iBART
FREE
iBART from Pandav gives you a trip planner, station information, a system map and a tab for BART advisories. It will also find your current location and add the closest BART station automatically to your itinerary.
4. Where
FREE
Where uses GPS to find things in your vicinity. And by things, I mean restaurants (from Yelp), gas stations, Starbucks stores, movie theaters and Zipcar locations. Where also includes Sky Buddy (star locator), HeyWhatsThat (nearby mountain IDs), and the ability to mark your own locations.
5. iWant
FREE
iWant, like Where, finds nearby amenities -- but adds other functionality such as grocery stores, pharmacies and ATMs. You can view a list or a map, and sort by venue rating or distance from your location. Try both apps (both free) to see which one works better for your purposes.
6. Take Me To My Car
FREE
Take Me To My Car is just what it claims to be. With two taps, you mark your parking spot. And, tracking your movements by GPS, one click later you can get directions from wherever you've wandered back to your vehicle.
7. Taxi Magic
FREE
Taxi Magic offers instant booking and dispatch updates in some cities (San Francisco is one of them). In connected cities, you can book and pay for your cab through your iPhone. In cities not supported, you'll get a list of cab companies and numbers.
8. MotionX GPS
$2.99
MotionX GPS lets you track your location while biking, hiking trails, boating, or just out on a walk. You can save Waypoints -- about 300 of them -- on road or topographic maps, and use a virtual compass for navigation. There's also an interactive stopwatch.
9. Schmap Geotweeter
FREE
Schmap's GeoTweeter adds maps and associated coordinates to your Tweets and photos on Twitter. You can snap pics and add a thumbnail to your updates, along with some 100 characters for comment.
10. Kayak
FREE
Like the Kayak website, the Kayak iPhone app helps you find flights, hotels and vacation deals, searching through more than 140 travel sites. The iPhone app will find your current location and the nearest airport for easy navigation.
11. Shralp Tide
FREE
Shralp Tide finds nearby tide monitoring points and tables, or allows you to search by location. In addition to five days worth of tide information, the app also has an interactive graph that lets you pinpoint times of high and low tides.
12. Next Bus (Mini Website)
FREE - Website-based
NextBus isn't a downloadable app. But it's a website with an iPhone/PDA mini-version that automatically loads when you navigate to the URL on your iPhone. The local Bay Area version includes schedules for: San Francisco Muni, AC Transit (East Bay), Emery-Go-Round (East Bay), and Water Emergency Transportation Authority (Alameda, Larkspur, Oakland, Sausalito and Vallejo ferries).
