If taking the hassle and guesswork out of revamping your home sounds like a breath of fresh air, then you’ll want to check out our roundup of the best user friendly interior design apps on the market. Now you can stay abreast of trends and plan your next project from the palm of your hand.

Whether you’re building a new home, remodeling your existing one, or simply trying to redecorate an outdated space, these undertakings have the potential to become very stressful in an instant. Attempting to stay within budget and on schedule, keeping ideas and plans organized, visualizing the space, and even arguing with your sigg-O over which shade of beige works best in the living room are some of the common challenges homeowners face when trying to give their space a facelift.

Another hurdle can be the overestimation, or resulting waste of construction materials, as well as the source and type of materials – the greener the better – which is where a couple of these interior design apps become quite helpful in their ability to locate or suggest eco-friendly finishes and furnishing for your projects.

Fortunately, for your convenience, we’ve gathered a few of the most popular and well-rated–and all free!–mobile apps on the market, so pull up a chair and let’s get started!

1. Houzz

With over 8 million high-resolution photos, Houzz is the destination for professional remodeling and redecorating ideas and resources. Unlike many of the photos on other apps like Pinterest, Houzz is chock full of professionally curated projects – from architects to interior designers to interior decorators – there isn’t a shortage of beautifully executed homes. Furthermore, it also has furnishing and professional resources, which can help you locate that reclaimed wood entertainment center you’ve been looking for, or hire the perfect interior designer for your upcoming project. 

2. Wayfair

Unlike the others, this app doesn’t have any fancy or high tech virtual views, but it does give you the power to pick your décor from the comfort and convenience of your smart phone or tablet. From natural rugs to eco-friendly sofas, the Wayfair app can help homeowners choose their décor by browsing furnishings quicker and easier than shopping for it in person.

3. Planner 5D

This app allows you to view your space in multiple ways – 2D, 3D, and 5D projections, but you can begin by creating floor plans of your own or choosing from the existing selection. The interaction is as simple as drag and drop and it allows you to pick home furnishing so you can get an idea for how certain items will look in the room. In addition to that, you can easily transform your floor plan into a 3D rendering which allows you to view chosen areas of the completed space. And, if your resources permit, with the aide of virtual reality glasses, you can utilize the app’s 5D technology and actually “move” or “walk” throughout the space in real time.

Homestyler Interior Design

Brought to you by the maker of AutoCAD, a popular tool among professional interior designers is Homestyler Interior Design from Autodesk, Inc. This combines the planning capabilities of the Planner 5D app with the convenience of the buying options on Houzz. Play around with your potential purchases and make sure that they look great before whipping out that credit card. This app also allows for wall color previewing and you can even incorporate your own home interior photos for the most realistic outcome possible.

Paint Harmony

If you’ve ever tried to visualize a wall color with a tiny can of sample paint, then you know how many factors can ultimately affect the end result of this experiment. Not only can lighting play a role, but the surrounding wall color (the one you’re trying to paint over) can play tricks on your eyes by influencing the tint or shade of the sample hue. In other words, unless you paint an entire wall, it’s really difficult to know how the color will look.

And although the colors in the app aren’t one hundred percent accurate, you can easily fill in an entire wall with the touch of a finger. This app works in real time by allowing you to move the device over your walls and watch the color magically change on the screen, or you can use previously snapped pics on which to try out your new colors.

Now that you’ve read our rundown of the latest interior design apps, we want to hear from you! What did you think of our suggestions? Do you prefer doing it yourself, or hiring professionals for your projects? Let us know your thoughts on the EcoSalon Facebook page!

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The post The 5 Best User-Friendly Interior Design Apps appeared first on EcoSalon.

Apps for adventuring.

Sounds contradictory, but sometimes technology can actually help you get closer to nature. Take, for instance, the following eight iPhone and Android mobile apps, which arm you with ways to find nearby green spaces and the information to identify anything from animal tracks to constellations to rare butterflies. Most of the apps are available offline as well, so you can venture as far off the beaten track as you please.

NatureFind

Discover nearby parks, zoos, botanical gardens, nature centers, wildlife refuges, and more with the location-based NatureFind app. The app also pulls from event listings so you can join organized hikes or participate in educational lectures.

Available for iPhone for free.

SciSpy

With the Science Channel’s SciSpy app, you can capture, tag, and share your wildlife sightings. Once your photo of, say, that funky looking beetle is uploaded, it is date-stamped, geo-mapped, classified, and offered up to a worldwide community to advance scientific research.

Available for iPhone for free.

Audubon Guides

Audubon’s array of more than a dozen Mobile Field Guide apps are a trusted source of information for wildlife enthusiasts. Whether your passion is North American Butterflies or Fishes of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, there’s probably an app for you. Or, splurge on the multi-pack.

Available for iPhone, Android, HP Touchpad, Amazon Apps, and Nook for various prices. Click here for a full list of apps.

MyNature Animal Track Guide

Identify mysterious paw prints with the MyNature Animal Track Guide app, which offers a searchable database with illustrations of both fore and hind feet and complete descriptions of track measurements, gait patterns, and animal life cycles.

Available for iPhone for $6.99 and Android for $4.99.

iBird Backyard Plus

The iBird Backyard Plus app is the ultimate birdwatcher’s tool, with 15 search attributes, 234 backyard bird species profiles, and two hours of audio bird songs and calls from Cornell University.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Leafsnap

Researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution joined forces to produce the Leafsnap app, which uses innovative visual recognition software to identify tree species from photos of their leaves. The app is currently limited to trees found in New York City and Washington, D.C., but continental U.S. expansion is in the works.

Available for iPhone for free.

Google Sky Map

Google’s Sky Map app was developed partly to show off the sensors in first-generation Android phones, and partly because the Google developers are admitted astronomy geeks. Now open-sourced, the app provides a “window on the sky” augmented with nifty facts and information.

Available for Android for free.

Trailhead

If trails, hikes, and bike routes are your jam, the Trailhead app from The North Face is a must-download. Not only does it help you locate nearby trails, it can also track your route, distance, speed, and elevation in real-time and let you post the results to your social media channels. What is a challenging outdoor adventure if you can’t tweet about it?

Available for iPhone for free.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

The post 8 Apps to Help You Get Closer to Nature appeared first on EcoSalon.

Apps for navigating the complicated world of conscious consumption.

When I vowed to become a more conscious consumer last New Year’s Eve, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Measuring the impact of your purchases can be a hefty task, between considering environmental impact, ethical manufacturing, animal cruelty, anti-trafficking practices, carbon footprints… it’s enough to make you reject shopping for good. But neither is the “Buy Less” philosophy a perfect one, and even the most ardent minimalists need to buy necessities like soap and toothpaste from time to time (we hope). These iPhone and Android apps can help you put your dollar where your values are.

GoodGuide

By scanning a product’s bar code, the popular GoodGuide app lets you instantly access health, environmental, and social performance ratings for over 120,000 food, personal care, and household products. The app also provides customized product recommendations and lets you create your own personal shopping lists.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Fair Trade Finder

Discover and share fair trade products with the Fair Trade Finder app from Fair Trade USA, which relies on crowd-sourcing to spotlight fairly traded items available in local shops.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Green Globe App

Travelers can locate sustainable hotels, resorts, attractions, cruise lines, tour operators, and other sustainable tourism projects that have received the Green Globe stamp of approval through the Green Globe App.

Available for iPhone for free.

Cruelty-Free

Find products that haven’t been tested on animals with the Cruelty-Free app, which pulls from a database of companies approved by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ Leaping Bunny Program.

Available for iPhone and Android for free. 

Free2Work

Created by anti-trafficking organization Not For Sale and supported by the International Labor Rights Forum, the Free2Work app lets you instantly see how different products and brands relate to trafficking and forced labor with rankings on a scale from A to F.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Closet Swap

“Don’t shop – swap!” proclaims the Closet Swap app, which facilitates clothing swaps by letting you snap pictures of items that have been sitting in your closet and share them with friends.

Available for iPhone for free.

Thrift Buddy

If your ethical shopping strategy includes thrifting, the Thrift Buddy app can help you locate thrift and vintage stores in your area from a database of more than 10,000 spots.

Available for iPhone for free.

The Good Shopping Guide

Drawing from the popular print Good Shopping Guides from the U.K.-based Ethical Company Organisation, the Good Shopping Guide app lets you compare more than 700 brands across seven categories: Food & Drink, Health & Beauty, Travel, Energy, Fashion, Home & Office, and Money. Summary tables display the good, bad, and ugly within each product category.

Available for iPhone for £2.99 (around $4.75).

ALSO CHECK OUT:

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

The post 8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer appeared first on EcoSalon.

Cut back on your CO2 impact with these apps.

News flash: global warming is very real, and it’s not disappearing anytime soon. While some might say that the only answer is worldwide systemic change, there are ways for individuals to make a small difference by taking steps to reduce their personal carbon footprints. This selection of iPhone and Android apps can help.

Green Outlet

Cut back on your household electricity use with Green Outlet, which helps you identify which appliances use up the most energy. Not only does cutting back on usage help save the planet, it also helps save money. The app also alerts you when you’ve exceeded the U.S. government’s recommended carbon usage and links to TerraPass.com where you can purchase carbon offsets.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Just Science

Draw your own conclusions on climate change with the Just Science app, which shows recorded changes in land temperature from the past several centuries on a user-friendly color-coded map. Drawing from Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study data, the app aims to show the effects of global warming, rather than just say them

Available for the iPhone for free.

greenMeter

The greenMeter application uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to analyze the environmental impact of your driving practices. The app also provides tips on how to increase efficiency and reduce fuel consumption and cost by moderating acceleration and choosing more efficient cruising speeds. Though reviewers dispute that the software “pays for itself within 1-2 tanks of gas,” the technology is so cool it warrants a test run.

Available for the iPhone for $5.99.

Clean Energy Fuel Finder

Do you fill your car with compressed or liquefied natural gas? The Clean Energy Fuel Finder app can help you find the closest service stations and even uses GPS to provide directions.

Available for the iPhone for free.

Light Bulb Finder

Easily switch from conventional to energy-saving light bulbs with the Light Bulb Finder, an app that helps you compare the costs, savings, and environmental impact of different bulbs.

Available for the iPhone and Android for free.

Google Maps

It’s not technically a “green app,” but Google Maps can help you find the most direct driving route, as well as cut back on all that fuel wasted on getting lost. Plus, the Android version includes biking directions to keep cyclists on the safest routes.

Available for the iPhone and Android for free.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

The post 6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint appeared first on EcoSalon.

This post was written by Rob Reed. He is the founder of MomentFeed, a location-based marketing, strategy, and technology firm.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.

Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn’t been the technology itself but how we’ve used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.

Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We’ve decentralized media production and distribution. We’re doing the same for energy. And we’ll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.

The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us—namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

1. Checking in for Good: If Gowalla and Foursquare have taught us anything, it’s that people respond to simple incentives. By offering badges, mayorships, and other intangible rewards, millions of people are checking in to the places they go. Apps like Whrrl take this a step further and enable like-minded “societies” to form on a local basis. The next step is for these apps to add greater purpose by encouraging more meaningful checkins and offering corresponding badges and stamps, thus mapping the cause universe. Or for a dedicated app to be developed that rewards conscious consumption, social responsibility, and civic engagement. Yes, the CauseWorld app features a cause element, but it’s not about cause-worthy places.

2. Eating Locally: Sustainability demands that we source our food as close to its point of production as possible. Many so-called locavores subscribe to the 100-mile diet, which requires that one “eat nothing – or almost nothing – but sustenance drawn from within 100 miles of their home.” Given the difficulty of accessing and verifying this information in order to live by this standard, there’s a geo-powered Locavore app. It gives you info on in-season foods, those coming in-season, farmer’s markets, and links to recipes. This rather simple app is clearly just the start. In time, location-aware apps will guide us not only to the grocery store or farmer’s market but through them. All the while identifying foods based on our particular diet or sensibility.

3. Political Organizing: In the next presidential election, politics will not only be local but location-enabled. We saw the power of social media in Obama’s 2008 landslide victory. In 2012, location-based apps and technologies will play a central role in how campaigns are organized, managed, and ultimately won. Much of this will be visible through mobile apps and location-aware browsers. Activists and volunteers will be more empowered. Voters will be more engaged in the moment, right down to casting their votes. Behind the scenes, though, we’ll see massive new sets of data available to campaigns for targeting, empowerment, and optimization. The party, candidate, and/or cause that has the best handle on geolocation will have a measurable advantage. (The Elections app will soon be updated for 2010.)

4. Finding Green Businesses: The web has effectively replaced the paper Yellow Pages as a way to find local businesses and services. However, this “stationary web” experience is quickly being supplanted by the mobile web and mobile applications, which give us access to this information when we most need it. The Yelp and Around Me apps are popular ways to find restaurants, coffee shops, or hotels wherever you are, but what about green-rated businesses? Greenopia has transformed its printed, local guides into a dynamic, nationwide mobile application that lets you find local, green-rated businesses in any category. No more paper and a much better experience. The Green Map app is another that facilitates discovery and connects us to local green environments.

5. Traveling More Efficiently: We’ve had access to GPS navigation systems and static traffic information for some time, but only now are we seeing the full potential of these technologies. With access to more detailed traffic information that is specific to your route and updated in real time, we can minimize congestion and maximize traffic flow (as much as physically possible). The new turn-by-turn MapQuest 4 Mobile app is a good start, as you can get traffic alerts specific to the route you program. However, user-generated information from apps like Trapster and Waze can crowdsource more specific details, such as whether to avoid an intersection due to a toxic chemical spill. Or, if you want to avoid automobiles altogether, Google Maps makes it easy to use public transportation and take a bike.

6. Scanning for Ethical Products: With online shopping, we’ve become accustomed to reading reviews and making comparisons before we buy. This can now be done in the physical world through games like MyTown and services like Stikybits. By scanning a product barcode using a smartphone camera, you can unlock a treasure of additional information (not to mention deals) that can help with your purchase. This might include where it was produced, how far it traveled, the reputation of the manufacturer, chemical contents, carbon footprint, or the full lifecycle analysis. Location-aware applications can also transform commerce itself by giving us better access to local inventories and locally-produced goods. Whether it’s fruits and vegetables or books and electronics, if something can be found within blocks of your current location, it makes no sense to ship it from afar.

7. Networking Neighborhoods: One of the hottest categories in geolocation is neighborhood networking. The vision for many of these apps is to strengthen the very fabric of our communities. With DeHood, you can keep track of what’s happening in your neighborhood, share your favorite places, and grease the wheels for actually meeting people. After all, if you’ve made contact through the app, it’s a lot easier to say “Hello” in the real world. Blasterous is another that lets you share information locally, whereas BlockChalk does this on an anonymous basis. Finally, NeighborGoods uses your street address to facilitate one-to-one borrowing and trading of useful stuff. In the end, making connections with your neighbors can lead to safer, more productive, and more sustainable communities.

8. Tracking Environmental Disasters: The size and scope of environmental disasters appears to be growing. In 2008, we had the Tennessee coal ash spill, which was billed as “the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States.” And that was before we realized it was three times bigger than originally estimated. More recently, the BP oil spill set daily records for “largest environmental disaster in the U.S. ever.” In each case, geolocation technologies can be used by engaged citizens to monitor and track the effects. They can be used by response teams to coordinate containment and cleanup efforts. Ultimately, these technologies can be used to accurately measure the size and impact of a disaster in order to better understand its damages and costs.

9. Viewing the World Through an Eco Lens: Augmented reality (AR) follows geolocation as one of the hot trends in mobile technology. It enables you to view the world through a smartphone camera (or similar device) and see layers of geo-specific content or information. One of the most popular apps is Layar, an augmented reality browser/platform that lets you choose specific data layers or experiences. The potential for green- and cause-related content is tremendous. You might view green-rated businesses, LEED-certified buildings, or virtual GHG emissions as they enter the atmosphere. Combined with smart meter technology, you could see the most efficient and inefficient homes around you in real time. And for the cynics among us, you could view our mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans as they once were…before the effects of climate change and so many environmental disasters.

10. Capturing the Moment: Better access to information about what’s happening around us—right now—can dramatically improve quality of life. This sense of “geospatial awareness” is possible through today’s smartphones, whereby a piece of content or information a moment is captured and preserved based on the unique time and place in which it occurred. It is essentially to document spacetime. Protests, natural disasters, sporting events, parties, political crises – real-time information about anything happening anywhere at any time, as well as the history of what happened. This will take several years and a number of different applications to realize. In the end, though, it will revolutionize how we access and consume content. It will complete the democratization and decentralization of news and information – based on time and location.

Cautionary note: Privacy is the single biggest issue in the LBS industry. It’s important to understand what information you are sharing with regard to your location and with whom.

Author’s note: We’ll be hosting geolocation events for Social Media Week in Los Angeles this September. This is the third in Max Gladwell‘s #10Ways series of distributed blog posts. It was published simultaneously on as many as 300 blogs.

The post 10 Ways Geolocation Is Changing the World appeared first on EcoSalon.

Maybe it’s time for a tech break? A day-hike, maybe? Perhaps even an overnight in the woods, out in nature with no TV, no computers, no emails or phone calls. Ah, yes, leave that iWhatever behind, break out those boots (could it be they’ve never once been used? Not once?) and hit the trail. Shouldn’t you do this more often? You know, get more familiar with the local flora and fauna and – wait, isn’t there an app for that?! Ugh. Yes. Of course there is.

To help you with what probably should come naturally, MyNature has just launched its MyNature Tree Guide which helps you identify trees by answering a series of 15 questions (as many as you can, anyway). The app will match your answers against its database of 200 North American trees to find the one that most closely resembles what you’re encountering “in the field.” Once identified, you can see photos, range maps and profiles to learn more about the tree in question. For the drill-drown, you can access images of leaves, needles, fruit and bark, as well. There’s also a “MyNature Journal,” in which you can record the trees you’ve found, along with the location, weather conditions and whatever other musings you want to jot down to remember that not-quite-tech-free day when you encountered that killer oak.

As for the fauna, MyNature has you covered there, too, with its tried-and-true MyNature Animal Tracks application. This guy has a searchable database with track sizes and shapes in seven easy-to-place-what-you-see search categories. Like the Tree Guide, Animal Tracks features a ton of pics and drawings – even sound (.wav) files of animal “vocalizations” – that’ll help you figure out what’s what. You can check out a demo vid over at Treehugger or at the MyNature Site.

So add these apps to EcoSalon’s top 10 green things you can do with your iPhone and 10 green apps. Both are iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad ready and require iOS 3.0 or later (Animal Tracks is also available for Android). At $6.99 they’re not cheap, but c’mon, what is it worth to have access to the knowledge you need when you finally go for that tech-free day out in nature?

Just you, the fresh air, the birds and your smartphone. Mmmm.

The post Master Your Outdoor Domain with MyNature Flora and Fauna ID Applications appeared first on EcoSalon.