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Whether you're looking for a bite to eat or the nearest (and cleanest) public restroom, smartphone applications can help you explore New York City with ease. We've compiled a list of some of our favorite NYC-centric apps so that, wherever you are, you can have the City at your fingertips.

Don't forget to visit nycgo.com's very own mobile site for great info on attractions, dining, shopping, events, deals and more, and see below for a list of helpful apps for navigating the City.

Navigation
Attractions
Dining
Museums and Art
Miscellaneous

Navigation
Making your way through the streets of New York has never been easier thanks to these navigational apps, which provide detailed street and subway maps, transit information, the best corners for hailing a taxi and more.

CabSense NYC
Use with: Android and iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
CabSense NYC analyzes data from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission and other sources to help users find the best nearby street corners to hail a taxi based on the day of the week, the time and their location. The app even comes with a built-in "cab hailer"—simply shake your phone and it will whistle and display a flashing message.

Exit Strategy 
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Android and Blackberry
Don’t waste time mentally calculating which subway car door will bring you closer to the exit at your destination—this app does it for you. In addition, Exit Strategy provides detailed maps of the entire subway system, as well as bus maps for all five boroughs and an offline street map of Manhattan (which works underground). Note: while the iPhone/iPod touch version 2.0 includes the entire subway system, the Blackberry and Android versions include every stop in Manhattan but only some in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

Get There By Bike
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 
With the expansion of bike paths and lanes throughout NYC, the Get There By Bike app is a useful tool to help cyclists, leisurely riders and daily bike commuters navigate the road. Powered by Google’s Bike There service, the app provides directions for users that account for traffic, hills and local off-street bike paths. Bike boulevards, lanes and routes are also included. Record your own routes and mark dangerous intersections, safe bike parking options and bike-friendly businesses on the shared map, too.

iTrans NYC Subway
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
In a rush? This app finds the fastest route between any two New York City subway stations, taking into account current schedules and service changes. iTrans NYC Subway provides users with detailed maps and walking directions, and even works off-line (or underground).

MyCityWay
Use with: iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry
Find yourself longing for the nearest wireless hotspot, craft beer bar or pharmacy with late-night delivery? MyCityWay combines urban reference apps and app platforms with important City info and its own user community to bring you a super-loaded City navigating tool.

New York City Compass
Use with: iPhone and iPad
This minimal app provides users with one simple but vital piece of information for efficient urban orienteering: whether they're going uptown, downtown or crosstown (east or west).

NYCMate
Use with: Android and iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Suburban commuters can now breathe easier; not only does this app contain the official NYC subway map and every neighborhood map and bus maps for each borough, it also comes with maps of the Metro-North Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit and PATH trains.

NY Waterway
Use with: Android and iPhone
NY Waterway's East River Ferry offers frequent and fast service connecting Manhattan with locations in Brooklyn and Queens as well as Governors Island. With the NY Waterway app, users can consult route maps and schedules, get service advisories and look up bus options near ferry terminals. Best of all, the app allows users to buy paperless tickets and simply present their phone as proof of purchase.

WayFinder NYC
Use with: Android
This award-winning augmented reality app helps users identify the subway or PATH train stations that are closest to their current location. Using GPS and your phone's camera, WayFinder locates your position on any street and offers step-by-step directions to the nearest transit stops.

Weekender
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Have you ever found yourself standing on the subway platform on a Sunday night, tapping your foot franticly only to find out there was work planned on your line? Well, the Weekender app—the only official MTA app—is your guide to getting around NYC when construction alters your weekend subway service. The app displays all service changes so riders can navigate around diversions.

Attractions
Whether you're a lifelong local or a first-time visitor, there's always plenty to discover in NYC. These apps provide key information on the City's top tourist attractions as well as on lesser-known destinations that might not have been on your radar.

Central Park
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
The official mobile guide to one of New York's most popular green spaces, this app from the Central Park Conservancy provides users with a wealth of information about the many attractions and activities in Central Park. View a fully interactive map, read up on the park's history, get the latest news on concerts and other events and much more.

Citysearch
Use with: BlackBerry and iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Find out where everything is in your current neighborhood or elsewhere in New York City with this app, which gives users information on restaurants, bars and shopping in NYC. Citysearch also includes local business listings, reviews and ratings and maps.

Downtown NYC
Use with: iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad 
This is the official app of the Downtown Culture Pass, which offers visitors and locals discounts to Lower Manhattan cultural attractions. The app also features downtown event listings, restaurant recommendations and more. Visit Wall Street, Century 21, the South Street Seaport and other popular destinations.

Explore 9/11
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
The official mobile app of the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan offers information and insight regarding the tragedy. Users can view a timeline of the day’s events or take a walking tour of the area around the World Trade Center, accompanied by audiovisual narration and first-hand reports by first responders, rescue workers, volunteers and others. The app also includes an augmented reality mode, which overlays images taken by survivors and witnesses on your phone’s camera view.

myNav: Central Park
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Considering its size—over 800 acres—it can sometimes be difficult to navigate through the sprawling green spaces of Central Park. Worry not with this app, which provides users with an accurate and interactive map of the Park’s pathways, destinations, amenities and surrounding neighborhoods streets and subway locations, as well as realtime directions to destinations.

New York City Essential Guide
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 
There’s a lot to see and do in NYC: the New York City Essential Guide app is here to help you narrow down your sightseeing options. Browse through hundreds of neighborhood attractions, landmarks, shops, shows and hidden gems throughout the City. There are 12 self-guided walking tours and tips for an affordable trip—from free things to do, to money-saving advice and estimated taxi fares.

New York: Condé Nast Traveller City Guide
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
This all-inclusive app has everything you need for a trip to NYC: GPS; hundreds of searchable restaurant, bar, hotel, shopping and attraction listings; off-line maps; and exclusive recommendations.

NYC SampleSales 
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 
Do you know what time the Theory sample sale starts? Is it uptown or downtown? The NYC SampleSales app answers all those questions, plus informs you of dozens of sample sales throughout the City that you might be unaware of. This app also features Apple’s latest location-awareness technology, so while you’re walking through SoHo, you’ll be alerted of a sample sale within a one-mile range. 

NYTimes The Scoop NYC
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
This app from The New York Times provides users with the paper's staff picks on places to go and things to do in the City. Browse a variety of restaurant, café, event and shopping listings, as well as compilations of "New York experiences" and day trips around the five boroughs.

NYPL Mobile 
Use with: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch  and Android 
Losing yourself in the New York Public Library’s catalogue can be fun. The NYPL Mobile app makes it even more of a pleasure to browse the library’s titles—along with discovering works, placing holds, renewing items and creating lists. The app also features up-to-date information on branch hours and locations.

Time Out New York
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Time Out's app provides up-to-date event listings as well as reviews of art exhibitions, concerts, bars and restaurants. Listings can be further broken down into the Critic's Picks and Free & Cheap categories. Users can also save their favorite venues and locations and send listings to their friends.

Top of the Rock
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
The Top of the Rock app makes taking photos from one of NYC’s most recognizable vantages a snap. Get postcard-esque pictures of the view, using special effects to mimic shots from years past. Options date back to 1933 (a time machine that does work!), and the app allows users to share and upload their images via social media outlets. It also serves as a high-tech pair of binoculars, digitally labeling notable landmarks in the distance like Central Park, Yankee Stadium, The Met and the George Washington Bridge. The app also includes “Shop & Eat” functionalities, a virtual reality guide to the top stores and restaurants around Rockefeller Center.

Treasure Walks 
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 
Treasure Walks turns exploring Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge and more into a family-friendly game. The app features interactive walking tours that are filled with fun activities (think scavenger hunts). Follow the route and answer questions posed by the app; tours are timed so the quicker you respond, the more points you earn. You may even win a prize at the end.

UrbanWonderer Audio Tours
Use with: Android, iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad
UrbanWonderer Audio Tours are the perfect self-guided way to discover New York City. This free iPhone app offers GPS-driven, self-guided sightseeing tours for first-time visitors and business travelers, as well as native New Yorkers.

VanDam NYC ShopSmart
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
This app features a helpful shopping guide that provides information on hundreds of the City's best stores, in addition to an interactive map and top attractions.

VanDam NYC StreetSmart
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
With so many attractions to visit in New York City, planning a trip can sometimes feel daunting. This app provides users with a guide to the top 120 New York sights, complete with clear and detailed maps that let you zoom in quickly and search off-line.     

Dining
With some 18,000 restaurants and countless bars located within the five boroughs, New York City has a dining destination suitable for every budget and taste. With these apps, you can browse some of the City's finest eateries, find reviews by critics and locals and more.

Menu Pages 
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and Android
Look up menus and restaurants by cuisine type, neighborhood (Brooklyn and Manhattan only) and price range. The app also allows users to download delivery menus from takeout eateries. 

New York BlackBook
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Get the lowdown on New York's hottest shops, hotels, restaurants, bars and nightlife with this app, which gives users information on noteworthy venues nearest them at any given time. BlackBook also provides exclusive discounts, deals and VIP access at certain spots.

OpenTable
Use with: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Nokia, Palm webOS and Windows Phone
The perfect app for the foodie on the go, OpenTable allows users to search for restaurants, see menus and reviews and make reservations. Users can also earn Dining Rewards Points redeemable for "Dining Cheques" good at any restaurant on OpenTable.

Real Pizza of New York
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
New York City is truly a great pizza town, so you don't want to waste time filling up on mediocre slices. This app provides recommendations for New York pizzerias that would get the stamp of approval from discerning local pie aficionados. Real Pizza of New York also includes the history of select pizzerias as well as all the information you need to go on self-guided pizza tours.

Tweat.it
Use with: iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Hunt down your favorite gourmet food truck with this easy app that offers a real-time food-truck map. It follows vendors’ tweets to mark their locations and share the day's specials, secret discounts and more.

Urbanspoon
Use with: Android, BlackBerry and iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
With this app, you can search for and browse nearby restaurants and read ratings and reviews from newspapers, bloggers and other diners. Still can't decide where to eat? Depending on the type of mobile device you own, just shake your phone or press the app's "spin" button and the Urbanspoon slot machine will choose for you.

Yelp
Use with: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Palm Pre and Windows Phone
This app allows users to search for nearby restaurants, bars, businesses and stores and also provides photos and—as you'd expect—plenty of opinionated user reviews of venues.

Museums and Art
The importance of New York's role as a center for art and culture cannot be overstated; with hundreds of world-class museums, galleries, concert halls and theaters to choose from, there's something for everyone. These apps can help you navigate and explore some of the best cultural attractions New York City has to offer.

CultureNOW: Guidebook for the Museum Without Walls
Use with: Android, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Some of New York’s best art isn’t found in the Met or MoMA—or within the walls of any museum, for that matter. This app showcases the vast number of public works of art to be found throughout the City streets. Users can find information on artists and individual pieces, browse photos, take neighborhood tours and listen to podcasts featuring artists, architects, historians and curators.

Explorer: The American Museum of Natural History
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
This app serves as a personal tour guide through the halls of this world-renowned museum, providing users with customized information and step-by-step directions to exhibitions. Users can also share their discoveries with family and friends via email, Facebook and Twitter. The American Museum of Natural History also offers some exhibition- and collection-specific apps, which you can find at amnh.org.

ILoveNYTheater
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
With this app, you can browse current and future Broadway productions, as well as see show info, curtain times and ticket prices. Users can also find hotels and restaurants in the Theatre District.

MoMA
Use with: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
The next time you're planning a visit to The Museum of Modern Art, use this app to plan the best way to navigate the museum's permanent collection and current exhibitions. You can thumb through thousands of works, take multimedia tours or learn about featured artists. This app also allows users to take a photo via MoMA Snaps to send to family and friends.

Museum of Jewish Heritage
Use with: iPhone, iPad and Android
The museum's first app offers a free mobile app walking tour that expands on a recent exhibition, Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles. Explore 19 historic New York sites, from Lower Manhattan to Chelsea, through the eyes of the 19th-century poet who penned the famous lines memorialized at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . .”

New York Philharmonic
Use with: Android and iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
With this app, you can listen to the New York Philharmonic's weekly radio broadcast, hosted by Alec Baldwin, and also access podcasts, videos and event information.

Miscellaneous
Best Parking
Use with: iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
The bestparking.com app hunts down the cheapest and most convenient parking lots and garages near you.

Grade Pending 
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 
Grade Pending is similar to the NYC Health Ratings app in that it provides graded restaurant results for users, but this app takes it a step further, showing eateries on a map with color-coded dots that reveal their rating—green for good, red for…not so good. You can also search by restaurant name, street or cuisine type and bookmark your favorite dining spots. There’s even detailed information for restaurants including walking directions, phone numbers and weekly inspection result updates for the app.

Jollyfy
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Take on the role of your friends’ and family’s personal videographer with Jollyfy, an app that allows you to record and share footage of your time in New York (or any city, for that matter). Jollyfy enables users to download templates of their choice, or to create customized templates with their own travel videos (maybe even with some personal shots of NYC landmarks) to share with family, friends and the Jollyfy community.

Leafsnap
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Leafsnap is perfect for the amateur botanist. The first in a series of electronic field guides from Columbia University, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian, this app uses recognition software to identify tree species based on photos of their leaves.

New York City on the Cheap
Use With: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
This app offers tips for exploring the City on a budget, with listings of free events and tours, museums with free admission, discount shopping, inexpensive dining and more, written by author and New York City native Evelyn Kanter. For more free events, read our weekly picks at nycgo.com/free.

NYC City Hall
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
This app is your key to the City. Get the latest New York City news—mayoral announcements, photos and videos—and connect to the NYC 311 app.

NYC Health Ratings 
Use with: Android 
The NYC Health Ratings app provides restaurant health inspection results for more than 24,000 restaurants throughout New York City. This app is also integrated with FourSquare, so you can easily check in and share restaurant ratings with friends. 

NYC Tip
Use with: iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
This simple app allows users to calculate the tip for meals or services and includes standard tipping percentages.

Red Rover
Use with: Android, iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad
A social events tool, Red Rover allows parents to discover great activities for kids and to invite their friends to participate. The app allows users to share photos, make plans and tell fellow parents where you are (to make play-dates on the fly). Note: it even includes a feature that highlights clean public restrooms.

Refill My MetroCard! 
Use with: Android and Blackberry 
Do you have a hard time figuring out how much money to add to your MetroCard? The Refill My MetroCard app will help you come up with an exact amount to add, so you don’t have a leftover balance after the MTA’s 7% bonus. It also works with no Internet connection, so you can use it underground.

SitOrSquat
Use with: BlackBerry and iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
When nature calls, you'll be glad you have this app. SitOrSquat will pinpoint your exact location at the press of a button—or you can enter an address, intersection or zip code—and the app will find the nearest public restrooms. Users can even see which bathrooms are currently open and which have changing tables, as well as browse ratings to find the cleanest facilities.

Sportaneous
Use with: iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Find and join a nearby pickup game of all sorts of sports, or propose and start your own. Sportaneous has been featured in publications like The New York Times, WIRED and ESPN The Magazine.