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My Cellphone My Terms

Smartphone Travel Apps for Business Flyers

Posted on August 10th, 2011Charlie
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The smartphone world has seen an explosion of applications. You name the category and there is probably an app out there for it. For us travelers, how do we maximize the functionality of our smartphone and make life easier when we travel? By finding apps that fit our needs.

Let’s cut through the tens of thousands shall we and take a look at some recommendations:

Google Maps: FREE – a must have for travelers. Simply put, your personal navigation tool that tells you where you are and how to get where you are going.

Kayak: FREE – everything travel rolled into one. Flight, hotel and car rental search capability .The app includes My Trips so you can easily manage your itinerary. (FlyME is another cool all-in-one travel app)

Expensify: FREE – Import expenses and receipts straight from your credit card, submitting PDF expense reports by email and reimbursing up to $10k online. Great way to track and stay organized while on the go.

Fast Food: FREE -  Location app shows you restaurant deals, menu, reviews, ratings, maps and info all on one page. This app will save you money, let you find all kinds of restaurants, give you nutritional info, restaurant menu’s, reviews. Available on iPhone and Android smartphones. For Blackberry users, try Poynt. It’s FREE and provides a good experience.The Weather Channel: FREE – Enough said. Plan your wardrobe accordingly.

JiWire: FREE – helps you locate WiFi hotspots. Great for travelers looking to keep roaming costs down. Only available for iPhones

TripIt: FREE – allows you to put everything travel into one place. All you have to do is email your travel conformations to TripIt and the app will take care of the rest

FlightTarck: $4.99 – get up to the minute flight status updates, gates, cancellations. Can also sync with your calendar. Great for the frequent business traveler

MyLists: $1.99 – for the planning type who needs a list of what they need to pack. Great for the person who always arrives at their destination without key items such as smartphone or laptop charger

Juice Defender: FREE – Keep your all of your apps on hold until you access them. This prevents your battery from draining quicker. Important for the business traveler. Only available on Android devices.

There we have it. If you have any app recommendations, use our comments section!

2 comments Buisness travel tips, Cell Phone savings, Cell Phone Tips and Tricks, Cellphone Savings ,
  • Simon McNeil

    Google Translator.
    It isn’t perfect, as any trip to the bad translator website will show, but it does allow for basic verbal communication in dozens of languages.

    It’s available as an app for Android and is free.

    Other free apps I’d recommend:

    Latitude
    Tweetdeck
    Flashlight (available free with ad support which you will literally never look at).
    Tricorder (bear with me here, it may be silly and nerdy and stuff but it also taps directly into your accelerometer, microphone GPS, and your antenna to make it one of the better compasses available along with tools to detect RF signals, magnetic fields, changes in velocity, background noise levels and all kinds of other weird little features.)

  • Simon McNeil

    Wanted to provide an example of google translator.

    I open translator on my phone and tap the microphone icon. Then I say:

    Could you please tell me where the train station is.

    I ask it to translate into Chinese (simplified) and it returns:

    请你告诉我在那里火车站
    Qing ni gaosu wo zai nali huoche zhan

    Both the Chinese characters, and the pronunciation guide.

    But, it goes further. If I tap the speaker symbol the phone will SAY the translation through the internal speaker.

    Oh, and the translation literally translates to “please you tell me where (is the) train station” – which is pretty much a perfect translation (the word is a bit messed but it can be understood easily).

    You have to speak slowly and clearly for the translator to work – but if you need to use your phone translator to communicate you just tell the other party using translator that.