I fly quite a bit! My last couple of years of air travel could make the Up the in Air (George Clooney) character envious. One of the ways I stay on top of things while flying is to use the Gogo inflight internet whenever it's available. Luckily I fly Delta 99.9% of time domestically and they have outfitted the majority of their fleet with Gogo. While I'm usually connecting via my MacBook Pro, there are times when I've taken trips with just my iPad. Their new Gogo Inflight App makes logging on so much easier. While you could certainly log on from your web browser, having their App means that your user name and password is saved and then you're just one tap away from connecting each time. With the Gogo App getting on is less taps. Just fire up the App and connect! That's it. Even though your browser can save your user name and password, logging on from your browser requires additional steps to connect such as entering the 6 random characters to verify that you're a human. This is a universal App and therefore it's native to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. If you are a frequent Gogo user this free app will get you connected the fastest. While the App is FREE, the Inflight internet is not. 

You can get the Gogo Inflight Internet App here from the 

I have said it a lot. Terry has said it a lot. TripIt [http://www.bestappsite.com/2010/07/19/tripit-manage-your-travel-itineraries/] is hands down the best service for keeping track of your travel itinerary. The best part of the service is that it is free! Yep, you heard me right, using TripIt doesn’t cost you anything at all (unless you opt for their pro version with more features).

Almost a year ago, TripIt rolled out their own iPhone application which was great in many ways and let you keep track of your itineraries in a very smart and straightforward way. What has been missing for all this time is a native app for the iPad. Wait no more. TripIt is now on the iPad.

In the latest update to the TripIt application, it became a universal binary which means that it runs natively on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch. The interface on the iPad is pretty similar to that of the iPhone, except it is using all the extra real-estate of the iPad very well.

Using the TripIt app in portrait orientation is a bit clunky, considering you have to open the pop-out bar in order to go to a trip and then again for the trip details. I would prefer if it stayed open when selecting my trip so that I could easily check the details as I want.

A major missing feature on TripIt for the iPad is the ability to edit and add plans like you now can on the iPhone. Sure the implementation on the iPhone is just taking you to their mobile version of the service in an embedded browser, but it is still easy and painless to add and update the itinerary. On the iPad? Impossible!

If you are traveling a whole lot or just once in a while doesn’t really matter. TripIt is one of these must haves if you do travel. The account is free and the app is free (ad-supported unless you are a pro member, or pay for the app).

Get TripIt for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch:

With the troubles abroad right now causing the price of oil to skyrocket, coupled with the coming summer months where we traditionally see higher prices at the pump, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at Apps that could help me keep my out of pocket expenses as low as possible. I went looking for an App that would quickly help me find the cheapest gas around me with as little “fluff” as possible. What I found was an App developed by a very popular gas savings website that I had already been using, Gasbuddy.com. GasBuddy has been a leading gas price website for quite a few years providing quality, and timely information so it only makes sense that their App would be of the same standard.
 

How it works

GasBuddy relies on user input of the gas prices to feed its every growing database of gas stations and gas prices. The first thing that you’ll notice when you open the App is its simplicity. There are four buttons and a search bar. The buttons are as follows, Find Gas near me, my profile, settings, and win gas. If you don’t want to participate in the input of gas prices, the only button you’ll use is find gas near me. It does exactly what its name implies. Tapping on this button will use your location and find gas near you. Once GasBuddy finds the stations near you, the data can be sorted in a number of ways. The first option you have is whether you want to see a list view, or a map view of the gas stations. Each has its pros and cons. I prefer the list view because I get a larger list of the surrounding gas stations near me. Under the list view (which is the default setting), you can view prices of regular, midgrade, premium, or diesel simply by selecting the corresponding tab at the top of the screen. Below, you have the option of sorting the stations by distance, or price. I prefer price, but the default setting is distance. I don’t mind driving an extra .10 of a mile for fuel that’s $.20 cents cheaper. I have a 27-gallon tank so the $.20 savings adds up!
 

Doing your part

If you decide that you’d like to do your part and input prices either when you happen to see them, or when you’re filling up, GasBuddy makes it easy. Under the “my profile” button you’ll find a member login section. There you can sign in if you already have a GasBuddy account, or create a new account (it’s free). Once you have created an account, you simply search near you again, find the station that you are currently wanting to input data for and select it. At the bottom of that gas station’s page you will see a button titled “report prices”. There you can report what the current price is for others to see and search.
 

Win Some Gas!

I know, this is what you really wanted to hear about. It’s easy. All you have to do is input gas prices. Each time you input a gas price you earn 150 points. After you earn 1000 points, you can enter into the weekly drawing for $250 in free gas! It seems like a pretty fair trade off to me.
 

Conclusion

GasBuddy has everything that I want from a gas finder App. It not only finds and helps me sort the lowest prices near me, but also gives me the chance to win free gas! To me this is a win-win. If you want to save on fuel quickly and easily this is the App for you.

You can get GasBuddy for Free here from the 

Last Friday I reviewed a free App that shows you the coverage maps of the 4 major US based wireless providers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile & Verizon). While that App does an adequate job it reminds me that you get what you pay for. Free is good, but today I get to tell you about an App aiming to give you more features called Coverage?

What's the difference?

First off Coverage? is a Universal App taking advantage of the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.  The next major difference is that you can overlay the maps of a particular area to see who as the best coverage at a glance. Lastly, this App shows you the differences between 2G and 3G areas and even who has deployed 4G coverage (not very much 4G out there yet at all) as well as roaming. 

The Bottom Line

Like I said on Friday, these Apps show you the provider's "Coverage Maps", which ARE VERY HANDY. However, the maps don't tell you exactly how your mobile device will perform in an area, how crowded that area is or any other issues. It's just coverage. What the App will tell you though is where there is NO coverage and that's great for travelers. The one thing I would like to see is the ability to key in an address/zip code to goto a specific spot quickly. Otherwise you have to scroll around the map/zooming & panning. Also keep in mind that just because an area doesn't have 3G, doesn't mean that you can't use your phone. You have to tap 2G

If you're looking for the "Best App", this is the best one I've seen to date.

You can get Coverage? for $1.99 here from the 

You can't throw a rock in the App Store without hitting a Tip Calculator. There are plenty of both free and paid ones to go around. My current favorite is CheckPlease (iPhone | iPad). These Tip Calculators work great for me here in the US, the problem I have is when I travel abroad not knowing what's customary and what's expected in other countries. In some countries the tip percentages are much lower than the 15%-20% here. Other countries you're not expected to tip at all (and they look at you funny when you do). 

Tipping Guide is the answer

Tipping Guide at first glance appears to be a global directory of tipping practices and while that would have been worth the price of admission alone for me, I later discovered that it is in fact a tipping calculator too. While it won't replace CheckPlease for me here domestically (because I like the CheckPlease interface ten times more), it will definitely be both my guide and tip calculator for my international travels. Also no data connection is required. The Tipping Guide info is built-in.

The Bottom Line

This App is just what I was looking for! It has the best UI (user interface) of the ones I've seen to date. The only real reason I can't give it 5 stars is because while the built-in Tip Calculator is functional the UI for it (the calculator) is kinda lame. You have to use the spinny wheels to enter the amounts. A standard numeric keypad would be much better and FASTER. With that said, having a tip calculator built-in beats switching between Apps any day. Aside from the Tip Calculator UI, I love this App!

You can get Tipping Guide for $0.99 here from the 

Every now and then an App comes along that makes me say "Whoa! How the heck did they do that?" Word Lens is the most recent one that left me speechless. I got an email from my buddy Colin Fleming suggesting that I take a look at this App. Now I get those kinds of emails daily from developers and friends. A quick look at the description and I went ahead and downloaded it since it was "Free". What I expected to happen next was that I would fire up the App and then take a picture of something and it wold translate it. It was at that point that I said, "holy S#$t!!!" I held my iPhone 4 up to a sign in my car dealership and it started translating the sign IN REAL-TIME without having to take a picture. OMG!!!! Not only did it translate the text, but it did so in place matching the size of the font and characters. Again, OMG!!! I don't speak Spanish, so I can't verify how good the translation is, but again OMG!!! Rather than continuing trying to explain it, here's a clip showing it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs

It's AMAZING How Far Technology Has Come

I can't get over the fact of the way this thing works and it's doing it from a freakin' phone in my hand. OK, I've calmed down a bit. Now for a few details. First off the way they've set up this App is that you download it for free, but what you get for free is really just a demo. It will do the translation "backwards" so that you can see it work. If you like it and then want to use it the way it was intended to be used, you then do an in-app purchase of the languages you want to convert. Currently it only supports English to Spanish and Spanish to English. Each translation language is a $4.99 purchase. In other words if you want to do bi-directional translations it will cost you $10. While I don't have an issue with the price, I do have a slight issue with the model. I would prefer to see a "lite" version for free or ad sponsored that perhaps translates one language in one direction. Then if you like it, you can do the in-app purchase for the other direction and to turn off the ads. There's nothing technically wrong with their current model, it's just that people will download this expecting to be able to use it as is and you really can't unless you make a purchase. Otherwise, bring it on! Give me more language choices and I'll be an in-app purchasing son of a gun.

Once you've locked in on what you want translated you can FREEZE the image. It seems to be geared and small amounts of text (like signs) as opposed to paragraphs. I can definitely see lots of use cases for this technology. I showed it to my car dealer (a non techie guy) and his first response was, Wow! that would be great in a restaurant for the menu. As someone who travels globally for a living I can see this thing being used all over the freakin place. Perhaps next time I won't accidentally walk into the ladies room in Germany (you guys really do need graphical signs)

You can get Word Lens for FREE here from the 

When I travel sometimes I just can't get a direct flight. Although I live in a Delta hub city, Delta doesn't fly everywhere from where I live. This is especially the case internationally and connecting internationally is usually a little more frustrating because the airports don't usually have as many flight boards as domestic airports do. As a result I have to hustle to the closet board or tackle an airline rep to see which gate my connecting flight is going out of. This is where the FlightBoard App comes in. FlightBoard covers just about every airport in the world and as the name implies it displays the current flight board with arrival and departure status for the airport of your choice.
 

Styled after the flight board in Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport, Paris

FlightBoard takes on the classic flight board of the Charles de Gaulle International airport in Paris. You can sort by any of the columns and you can see either departures or arrivals at the tap of a button. The App is great, however it's dependent on the airports themselves to provide gate information. Sadly many international airports don't provide the gate information (outside of the actual airport) until just minutes before the flight if at all. Usually on a connection this is ok because the information will be there in the time window of your landing and next departure if it's going to be there at all. FlightBoard also allows you to share any of the flight information you see via email, Twitter, Facebook or SMS. Domestic airports provide this information several hours in advance so you'll be good for your connections in the US. Although FlightBoard works as a universal App for both iPhone and iPad, I really wanted this for my iPhone as that's the device I have a 3G data connection on internationally. I don't pay for international roaming on the iPad. Also if you have FlightTrack Pro on the iPad you can get this same functionality as an in App purchase for the iPad.

If you're a frequent air traveler, you'll love this App. So far the information updates have been accurate for me.

What I would love to see

I know that the gate information is crucial and is only as good as what the airlines/airports provide. I also know that these apps are at the mercy of available information. However, I'd love to see MORE information in apps like this. I'd love to know as I'm leaving the plane which baggage carrousel my bag is going to be on (on those very rare times that I check a bag). How about estimated walk times from gate to gate? There are so many more little things that would make our lives a little easier if everyone would play along.

You can get FlightBoard here from the 

One of the Apps I missed right off the bat when I got my iPad was the iPhone's built-in "Clock" App. On the iPhone you have an App that allows you to add in various clocks for regions around the world. You also get a timer, stop watch and Alarm Clock. Since this App isn't built-in to the iPad I started looking for alternatives. The World Clock certainly fills the gap left from not having a multiple-timezone clock on the iPad nicely. The App shows you a real-time map of the earth with the daylight and night time areas nicely displayed. You can add multiple clocks for the cities/ time zones that you want to keep track of. You can also display additional information besides the time such as the date, GMT offset, time difference (from the iPad's clock), solar noon and sunset times, and a digital time display. 

It's interactive too

Besides having a pretty look to it, the map is actually interactive. Just drag the map left or right to see a time offset in all of your clocks. This can help you figure out what time it's going to be in various places when you adjust the map. This is all great, but I would like to see a few more "scheduling" type features for picking the best time in multiple timezones to have a meeting. For that feature I LOVE Time Scroller on the iPhone, but Time Scroller isn't a native iPad app yet. 

If you're a frequent traveler or you deal with multiple time zones on a regular basis, this is a great App to have on your iPad. 

You can get The World Clock here from the 

click the images to view them larger.

One of the iPhone Apps that I have been waiting for the longest is a native App from Delta Airlines. I Fly Delta several times a month on average and having a native App means faster access to my itineraries and check in info. Recently I reviewed the American Airlines App and although I rarely fly AA, I can appreciate their well thought out App. As a matter of fact their App kinda set the bar for how well an airline App can be done. My long wait was ended this week when Delta released their "Fly Delta" App for iPhone (only works with iOS 4 and higher!) The App covers my basic needs in that I can save my login credentials, view my itineraries, see my mileage balance, search for flights, check in for flights and even mark my parking spot with a location tag, note and a photo. 

This is great, but there are missing features

While I applaud Delta's efforts and am truly thankful to have this App, there are some features that I'm missing right off the bat. For example, I can see my current Medallion Skymiles balance, but that's it. I can't get a breakdown of my miles, nor does it seem to show your remaining miles to fly to achieve the next Medallion Level. While I can search for flights, I can't actually book flights using the App. There are no terminal Maps, nor does there seem to be any push notifications of flight changes/cancellations. It would also be nice to be notified via the App when it's time to check in. Lastly, while I rarely ever check a bag, when I do I'd love to see which baggage carrousel my bag is going to be on from within the App as I leave the plane.

The Bottom Line

This is a great start, but there are so many more possibilities. I look forward to continued progress of this App. If you fly Delta, then you should probably go ahead and get this App. It is FREE after all, so there's really no reason not to have it. Also one thing that may tick a lot of users off is that this App requires iOS 4. So it really cuts out a large user base that otherwise would probably benefit from the App. 

You can get the Fly Delta App here from the 

Yesterday American Airlines released a GREAT NEW APP for iPhone and other iOS devices. The App is extremely well done. It offers the things you would expect like the ability to log into your frequent flyer account, see your upcoming flights, check schedules and book new flights, see terminal maps,  and get push notifications of departure times and gate changes. That's all great! There are several other travel Apps out there that do similar things. Where the American Airlines App goes beyond the basics is that it lets you track your Elite status progress, it lets you get your electronic boarding pass right in the App  and most importantly it lets you check your place on the upgrade/standby list. These are the kinds of things that only a native Airlines App can offer. They even threw in a AA Sudoku Game. That's thinking outside of the box. Who else gives you a game to play in their business app for those times while you'll have to wait? Very clever idea! They even built in a feature that lets you snap a pic of your car and add a quick note to help you remember where you parked after a long trip. The developer of this App gets it!

So what's the one thing I don't like?

It's a major thing actually and it's one that American Airlines can't fix. The problem is that this is not Delta Airline's App I'm joking of course, the App is GREAT! However, I personally almost never fly AA because I live near a Delta hub. I can't remember the last time I was on an AA flight. This App is so perfect that I just wish Delta had one just like it. It clearly sets the example as to how to do a native airline travel app right! Fantastic work American Airlines, my hats off to you!

If you are an AA flyer, then you should download this FREE App immediately!

Get the American Airlines App here from the