10 Common Situations Where GPS Technology Helps

When you want to find out ASAP what's near you right now, there's a mobile app for that. Of course you could easily google what you're looking for, but either way, smartphones are making your traditional orienteering skills more interesting.

1. Staring at Tits, Boobies and Hooters

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Get your mind out of the gutter, we're talking about birds of course! Exploration of the natural world has always involved mapping the locations of various fauna. Ornithologists record sightings of the feathered species by creating lists, which is technically called 'twitching'. A serious pastime, birdwatchers are using more digital means of creating a journal of routes and spots worthy of their binoculars.

2. Oh wow look, it's some street art!

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It's more than a brick wall or door. You might want to impress friends and show them that cool graffiti or Banksy spot. Maybe you want to come back and take some arty photos. Perhaps you're actually the artist doing the spray paint job. Whatever your reason for loitering, Street Art rocks, but it's not exactly officially listed, so you need a way to tag these spots.

3. OMG is that a photobooth?

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It's #SELFIE crazy right now and everyone uses Instagram. But yeah, sometimes you want to be zany and pay for pictures on printed film, like in that movie Amelie. Mostly you probably just need some new passport photos. Look around and you'll discover that retro coin-operated kiosks are still out there, not just for hire at weddings and parties.

4. Here, There Be Hairy Beasts

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Is it Movember yet? It's hard to tell who's a Mo Bro raising money for charity, a regular gentleman with fashionable upper lip hair, or just a hipster. Why not make a note of which coffee shops, barbers, public houses and other establishments are staffed by men with moustaches? Admittedly, beards are all the rage at the moment, but maybe people suffering from pogonophobia would be interested in knowing which fearful follicle places to stay clear of.

5. Dude, where's my car?

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If you parked your vehicle somewhere other than a car park, or locked up your bike, and you need to remember the exact street or lamp post, today's map apps can help you. So relax, your ride's not been jacked, well, unless it's really been stolen...

6. Look for the Bare Necessities of Life

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In the urban jungle you'll come across vegans and vegetarians being selective about where they eat. However, there's also a unique tribe of foragers who gather their food from the natural environment. Rather useful skills during an apocalypse or Z-day right? For every green space, there's a potential food source from fruit trees to a variety of edible plants, including tasty mushrooms...

7. Where the Wild Things Are

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On the subject of being outdoors, Spring has arrived, and Summer is coming! This means barbecues, camping, beach bonfires, park life and tent cities at festivals. An adventure in the middle of nowhere or in the expansive countryside is fun, but being lost without your friends isn't. Also, it's just as frustrating being surrounded by sunbathing bodies or grassy fields, and you can't spot 'that patch' where the picnic is at. How you charge your phone is another matter, but yeah your mobile can work as a sat nav now.

8. You dig hanging out with the dead

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Tourist itineraries will include historical graveyards and crypts. Cemeteries also make for suitably dramatic locations for film makers and photographers. Some people really like plotting various burial grounds to visit. Whether famous or anonymous, looking at the epitaphs can be an interesting hobby. Maybe soon they'll have their own Yelp style reviews. Watch out for potential tomb raiders, vampire slayers and twilight goths.

9. Sending out an SOS

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You paint the town red and find yourself stranded later that night because you don't quite manage to hail a taxi and you also missed public transport. Thankfully your phone battery still has juice, and you remain capable of drink-dialling your beloved girlfriend/boyfriend/relative to ask them to pick you up. With a blurry vision, you're not quite sure where you are. Unless you've got flares, you need a homing beacon, like when Batman needed rescuing from Alfred.

10. Love being Lost In Translation

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In a foreign country where you can't quite read the signs or characters?

You can explore your surroundings without worrying about the language barrier, if you plan in advance and search for the locations you need, translated in your own native tongue. You might also find somewhere local that doesn't have an address and is off the radar from any guidebook. So, unless Scarlett Johansson is staying in your hotel, don't hide in your room or the bar. Then again even if you have a Scarlett, you should take her out on an adventurous date to that divey karaoke place.