Good thing is most of the accommodation in Iceland provides WiFi or Internet connections in other forms. If it doesn't, getting a phone card with Internet access is not difficult at all. Actually if you don't want to join a regular tour for getting around, I would highly recommend buying a phone card for Internet. You don't have to rent a Navi, and you stay updated with weather and news.
For safety reasons, I have: 112 Iceland (free app)
It's an emergency app specifically developed for you and me, aka. tourist. Iceland is famous for its ever changing weather and definitely your biggest enemy . This app would come in really handy under these circumstances.
After filling in information about Emergency Contact Person, you're good to go. Check-in in the app frequently by clicking the Check in Button in green, your GPS locations would be sent and stored. In case of emergency, such information would be revised by the rescue authorities. (Just make sure you have minimal GPS signal strengths, or else your details wouldn't be sent.)
In worst case, you can click on Emergency Button in red, and a text message would be sent immediately to 112 emergency centre with your GPS location. You can send a text message even if your handy tells you there is no signal.
For Northern Light, I have: Aurora Alert (cost low amount of money)
One of the reasons why people choose to visit Iceland in Winter is to see the Northern light. Aurora Forecast is available on vendur.is which is very user friendly...with a computer. Somehow if you want to check the following few hours, it is very possibly that you find yourself poking stupidly on your tablet or handy. Then I found this wonderful app. It accesses to your location and calculate automatically how much chance you have at the current location and what time it could possibly come up. The Index shows possibility rates every 2-3 hours in the last 48 hours and 3 days in advance. The information seems quite frequently updated and very close to the forecast on vendur.is. PLUS it gives you a signal if the (Kp) index is high enough.
But then the most important element is after all the weather conditions and light pollution status. And I have to say you shouldn't rely too much of these indexes. We have had 0 Kp when we had seen the northern light the first time in Myvatn; while 4 Kp with nothing at all.
For accommodation, I had: booking.com (free app)
We rented a car so we didn't know how far we would go in 14 days, so we ended up booking the next accommodation the night before or in the morning. I am not really brave enough to do walk-in cause I always like having more options to choose from. This app works really fast listing places to stay and connects automatically to Google Map and even Navigation for finding the address. It saves the most recent booking and accommodation details in the app and you don't have to look for that email(s) again. It was excellent.
Except it reminds you often that you can review and rate the place you stayed.
For exploring, I had: TripAdvisor (free app)
I guess it was too much for my phone, sadly. It almost died off, after all it's almost 4 years old.
Instead I checked the website. It works well.
