One iPhone Travel App To (Almost) Rule Them All

April 15, 2009 at 9:31 AM | by Omri | Comments (8)

Back in the old days, before you kids got all these newfangled Robots and Compact Discs and Moving Pictures, traveling was a genuine challenge. You trekked to the airport for miles through the snow - uphill, mind you - wondering all the while if they would have an airplane that could take you somewhere close to where you wanted to go.

"Somewhere close," by the by, was good enough. You were going to get lost once you got there anyway. So no reason to be picky.

Now travelers have this iPhone thing, which is basically like cheating. There are applications that track flights, map out attractions, and manage everything in between. We know because every day we get inundated by dozens of "Top 5 iPhone Travel Apps" posts. The current Google count for that search: 3,310,000. By the way, have you seen our own Five Best iPhone Apps for Your Next Trip?

Instead of all that nonsense, how about just using a single travel app? Or, failing that, a single app and just one small friend so it doesn't get lonely?

The big iPhone buzz from the last few days has been all about the free app that Web 2.0 darling TripIt just published. TripIt takes every aspect of your itinerary - flights, hotels, cars, attractions, etc - and organizes them into something approaching coherence.

Their app takes the resources that TripIt normally makes available - phone numbers, maps, weather reports - and links them to the iPhone. In addition to being pretty awesome on its own, it makes a lot of other unitasking travel apps redundant. Which won't stop the Top 5 lists, but still.

While TripIt is excellent about telling you where you are going, it's pretty much useless for telling you where you should be going. For that you might want to avail yourself of GeoNova Publishing's Discover Guide Map. There are maps for ten major US cities, including New York, DC, and Vegas. The app locates you, maps out all the nearby landmarks and attractions, and even hotlinks them to web resources. See? Cheating.

[Photo: leo.prie.to / Flickr]

Related Stories:
· iPhone Travel Applications [Jaunted]

Comments (8)

Return to » One iPhone Travel App To (Almost) Rule Them All

iPhone has a calendar and an Address Book. Why not use those applications? And my article about the best iPhone travel aps is here: http://www.examiner.com/x-2219-Louisville-Budget-Travel-Examiner~y2009m1d7-The-eight-best-iPhone-tra vel-applications

As the former comment points out, it does produce some redundancy. One advantage to Tripit is the Linked In plug-in, which allows your "contacts" to see where you're going to be heading -- if, of course, it's information you wish to share ;)

I do fine with a combination of flight trackers, Calendar apps, and Taxi Magic -- which shows up on a lot of top travel apps, coz getting stranded at the airport without a taxi (and without cash to pay the taxis that DO arrive after 45 minutes of blustery waiting) is the frequent bane of the biz traveler, as I can attest to.

Also Flashlight, which is on Jaunted's list. I have never seen an app so simultaneously frivolous and useful.

New app for travellers: VitalStatistics now available on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=319224934&mt=8

VitalStatistics is a utility for globe trotters, travelers, fashion gurus, personal shoppers and just about anybody who ever buys shoes, clothes or jewelry when away from their home country.

VitalStatistics is a cross between a database and a conversion utility that lets you store the 'VitalStatistics' of friends, family, colleagues or customers in your home units and then convert these to a wide variety of foreign units at the touch of a button. Indispensable if you regularly shop abroad for yourself, your boss, your clients or your significant other!

VitalStatistics allows you to set your 'home' units as US/Canada, UK, EU, Japan, Australia or New Zealand and then convert between these and many others. It converts tops size, bottom size, dress size, bra size, shoe size, hat size and ring size for women and suit size, shirt size, collar size, waist measurement, chest measurement, inside leg, shoe size, hat size and ring size for men. It also allows you to store fragrance preferences and add a note to each record.

Key words: Database, conversion, personal shopper, fashion, traveller, globe trotter, personal assistant.

Dear Omri, Great article ! I thought your readers might be interested to know about LocoTrivia, the world's first location based trivia game. When you launch LocoTrivia, you will be asked trivia questions about the world around you. It is a great way to learn about a new city. If you have a great idea for a trivia question, you can add it to LocoTrivia.

I have some really good apps reviewed on my blog and advice for traveling with an iphone. My blog provides news and analysis on the latest web and mobile travel apps. http://azitravel.com/blog/ Taige

TripIt is a very helpful app to plan your next vacation, but Beautiful Planet exceeds it not in laying out an itinerary, but in letting you see the world without ever leaving your living room through exquisite images and rich descriptions. I think that Beautiful Planet exceeds all travel apps in offering inspiration into about our world. http://bit.ly/61b42T.

Really interesting blog! You might like this, you can share your adventures online with your iPhone, with geotagging! check out www.traveltrac.com

There are so many iPhone travel apps out there today it can be confusing. Call me old-fashioned, but in my opinion there is nothing more effective than using a good travel guide. Before a trip it is always best to check out an online travel guide like http://www.twitter.com/dozentravel. There are now so many iPhone travel apps on the market that people will stop looking at the scenery and enjoying their vacation, instead they'll be using their smartphone to find out info, text, check emails, flight news and whatever else. We managed quite well without travel apps and iphones.

Jaunted

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