Posts Tagged travel app
What’s my Room Number? There’s an App for That
Occasionally, I run across a travel app that’s useful but also gives me a laugh because it reminds me of some of the unusual things that have happened on the road. Such is the case with Room—a free, simple iPhone and iPod Touch app that does nothing but keep up with your hotel room number.
I’m sure some people have no trouble remembering their room numbers, so this program isn’t for them. But there are times when I’ve found myself going to eat and then heading back to the wrong room—and wondering why my key stopped working!
I don’t consider myself too absent-minded. But my work trips typically last three or four days, usually in a different hotel (with a different room number, of course) every night. My thoughts are focused on scheduling and what needs to get done. Room numbers are little bits of clutter that, to me, are easy to forget.
Room, by nodconcept, is simple to use. Just open the app and enter your room number. Then, the room number displays with the app’s icon on the home screen. There’s also a space in the app for notes.
Now, you ask—why not just look at the room number the hotel clerk wrote on the sleeve that your electronic key is inside? Well, it’s not a good idea to keep your key with something that has the room number on it. If the key fell out of your pocket, a thief would know exactly where to go to clean out your room. So, that’s my security lecture for the day.
Room is free in the iTunes store. There’s nothing to lose by trying it. The developer does offer an upgraded version, for 99 cents, that allows multiple room numbers ito be entered if you’re traveling with a group.
I’m sure not everyone needs this app. But if you’ve ever (like me) walked up to the wrong room, it could be very handy.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on April 27th, 2010
Keep Your Travels Organized with TripIt
For the past year, I’ve been using TripIt to keep up with trip details such as flights, confirmation numbers for rental cars and hotels and meeting schedules.
Here’s how it works. I forward confirmation e-mails to Tripit and it neatly arranges the information for viewing online. You can let friends view your itineraries and also see if any traveling friends will be close by during your trip.
I can edit my itinerary to include meetings and other details. Then, I can export the information and bring it into my Outlook calendar. In my experience, Tripit does an excellent job of grabbing the information from confirmation e-mails, and that saves a lot of time compared to entering the information manually.
Tripit also offers free apps for the iPhone, Android phones and the BlackBerry platform for viewing the information on mobile devices. I also print out a hard copy and keep it with my boarding passes and other travel documents.
TripIt will even print out maps for getting from the airport to the hotel and to meetings, though I depend on my GPS for directions.
One improvement I’d suggest is using actual weather forecasts for where I’m traveling instead of historical averages. Historical data tells me nothing about actual conditions on the ground. And with all the weather providers available, it seems that would be an easy addition.
The basic version is free. TripIt also offers a pro version, for $69 a year, that will monitor your itinerary and send information about flight delays, cancellations and gate changes, and will also suggest alternate flights. There’s a 30-day free trial available for TripIt Pro.
I’m using the free version of TripIt and depend on flight alerts from the airlines for notifications of any changes.
For my travels, TripIt performs better than another travel app, Tripcase. I can’t get Tripcase to look up itineraries using a reservation number with flights booked directly on American Airlines’ website. Tripcase is adding the ability to get the information from confirmation e-mails, but that part is still in beta.
After using it for dozens of journeys, I can recommend TripIt for keeping up with the many details that go into trip planning. A few improvements, such as real weather information, would make it even better.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on March 9th, 2010
Trapster Warns of Speed Traps, Red Light Cameras
CB radios were once the fad for tipping other drivers about speed traps. But the CB is so ’70s.
Enter the modern-day replacement, Trapster—a free app for smartphones that can give drivers advance warnings of speed traps and red light and speed cameras.
Trapster’s database includes more than 1.5 million reported traps around the world. When your iPhone or other GPS-equipped smartphone gets within half a mile of one, you’ll hear a voice warning and the spot will be marked on a moving map. The warning distance can be set from one-fourth to one mile.
When you see a trap, you can add it to the Trapster database with the push of a button. Other users can confirm the location, which helps make the map more accurate. A data plan is required for your smartphone to send the information to the company’s server.
But not all the reports come from drivers who spot the traps. In Texas, the Travis County Sheriff’s Department (Austin area) is entering enforcement locations to encourage safe driving. According to Trapster, deputies also upload other information such as road closures, traffic jams, accidents and dangerous intersections.
I’m impressed by the broad range of phones and operating systems supported by Trapster. It runs on the iPhone as well as Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Phone and Palm devices, plus some Garmin and Tom Tom GPS units. If you don’t have one of those, you can get text message alerts, or use Trapster’s website to print out directions that include the locations of speed traps and enforcement cameras.
Trapster isn’t perfect. Where I live, it shows a red light camera where there’s no light at all. The information will only be as good as the number of people who actively use it and keep the maps updated. The app has more than four million users.
Also, some law-enforcement officers have expressed concern that such apps can be distracting to drivers.
My other problem with Trapster is the company’s terms and conditions, which users must agree to when they register on the site. Now, I usually don’t even read these. But I’d heard there was something particularly onerous in Trapster’s agreement—and it’s this.
If you knowingly don’t provide correct, current and complete information while registering or using the site, you agree to pay Trapster $25,000.
I asked Trapster’s Stefanie Frederick why this was part of the agreement, and she replies, “As you know, most companies have privacy notices or terms of use pages… that being said, the policy is just saying that there are penalties if a user maliciously uses Trapster on purpose. But we hope that never happens.”
For some reason, that condition still bothers me. And while the company can “hope that never happens,” users have agreed to pay $25,000 if they report false information on the site. That could make a free app pretty expensive.
If you can live with the language in the terms and conditions, Trapster is a roadworthy app to take along on your travels.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family on March 2nd, 2010
Give Others a “Glympse” of Your Travels
Ever wish, on a long road trip, that your family could know where you are and when you’ll be home—without making phone calls along the way?
Or did you ever fly into a town, hop in a rent car and want to let someone know when you would arrive for a meeting?
Now, you can “share your where” with Glympse, a free app for GPS-equipped iPhones, Android, and Windows Mobile phones.
Glympse will send your location information over cell phone data channels and let you share it with anyone who has access to a desktop or laptop computer, or a mobile phone with a Web browser. Glympse will show your position on a map, along with travel speed and even an estimated arrival time, if you set a destination.
Testing the software on my AT&T Tilt2 smartphone, it worked amazingly well. The first step is opening the program and choosing who to share the information with and for how long. Then, Glympse will send them an e-mail or text message with a link to the company’s website. Whoever received the Glympse message does not need any special software or registration. The only thing required is a Web browser.
My travels showed there is a slight lag, about one block, from your actual location to the spot shown on the map. But that’s to be expected, since it does take a few seconds for the program to send the information and for it to update on Glympse’s servers. Still, it’s about as close to real-time as you can get.
The movement shown on the map is slightly jerky, not buttery smooth. But that’s understandable and the position updates are still very frequent.
I didn’t notice any huge battery hit when using the program on the phone. But it would be a good idea to hook up a charger if the program is running for a long time.
Glympse also addresses privacy and security issues. It’s not possible to “forget” you gave someone permission to view your whereabouts and thus allow them to track you 24×7. When you start the program, you choose who to allow to see your movements and then set a time limit, up to four hours. For longer trips, the time window can be easily extended.
The minimum age for using Glympse, under the company’s terms of service, is 14. It seems that would be difficult to enforce, though.
For many uses, Glympse is better than other location-sharing services such as Google Latitude. Latitude requires registration and a software download for everyone who uses it. But those who receive a Glympse invitation can track your travels just by following a web link, with no special software or log-in required.
If you’re using a Blackberry phone, help is on the way. The company plans to support Blackberry’s operating system in the next few months and is also working on versions for other popular phones.
There are many uses for Glympse—helping with busy business schedules, keeping up with friends and offering peace of mind to families. Just a decade ago, who would have ever imagined?
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family on January 26th, 2010
