Travel
I just returned from a wonderful and refreshing vacation which did, surprisingly enough, include traveling. Terry has covered some of his favorite traveling apps before, including TripDeck and FlightTrack Pro and they are very close to my heart to, syncing with TripIt, the online service that just makes it easy to manage your itinerary.
At the time Terry had a look at TripDeck it outran TripIt’s own application by miles (pardon the pun). Months later however and TripIt has for a while had a new version of their iPhone app available, putting some more power into our hands. So, how well does it work?
Interface
Let us start with the interface, like I always do in my reviews. TripIt does not have a bad interface at all, but can still make improvements.
For the main listing page of all your trips, they have used a very standard design built up by a table with all your trips and a tab bar at the bottom, giving you a choice between the different sections.
When you get into a trip, it is still very consistent. Clear icons are showing you what type of event it is (flight, train, activity etc.) and a heading shows you which date it is on. If you are using TripIt Pro, it will display a clear bar at the top which hopefully is green, meaning that everything is scheduled and OK (in terms of flight tracking).
Google Earth has always been an amazing thing on the desktop. It was even fun on the iPhone. However, Google didn't stop there. They recently updated their iPhone App to be a "+" App, which gives it native support for the iPad too. The App allows you to explore the world in all of its visual glory from a satellite view. You can search for locations or use the built-in location services to show you where you are on the map. There are different layers you can turn on/off such as the new Roads layer, Places, Businesses, Panoramio Photos, Wikipedia, Borders and Labels and Terrain. The high res photos and Wikipedia integration are awesome features. It's like having an interactive globe in the palm of your hands.
This is one of those apps that you have to experience for yourself.
You can download Google Earth here from the App Store for FREE: 
You want to go on a trip and your loyalty to any one carrier is only superceded by your desire to save money. That's where KAYAK Flights App for iPad comes in. This free App allows you to put in your destination and the dates you want to travel and then it goes out and searches for the flights headed there and then sorts the results by the lowest fares. If you decide to go with one of the fares you found you can tap to book it, but you'll be taken out of the App to book the flight on Orbitz or whichever site had the lowest fares. It would be nice to be able to do it all in the one App, but it's not the end of the world that you leave the App once it finds your fare. KAYAK flights can also search for Hotel and Car Rental discounts, but again it does so outside of the App. The App is free and really only geared towards Flight searches.
You can download it here for your iPad or here for your iPhone/iPod touch.
FlightTrack Pro is one of those rare Apps that occupies a spot on my 1st Page of Apps on my iPhone. I depend on it and use it every week and sometimes every day. I remember hesitating when I first bought it months ago because at $9.99 that's considered expensive for an iPhone App. However, I'd easily pay that again for it without hesitation. This App just keeps getting better with each update and this latest update brings iPad compatibility at no additional cost. The real beauty of FlightTrack Pro (besides being a very visually compelling App) is that it integrates directly with TripIt.com. Don't get me wrong, you can certainly use the App without using TripIt, but with TripIt, everything is sync'd automatically to FlightTrack Pro.
FlightTrack Pro Push Notifications Saved The Day!
I was headed home from Germany. I was on my flight that was going to connect through Paris. Just as I sat down after boarding, I got a push notification on my iPhone that my next flight had been cancelled. It was because of this notification that I was able to call my travel agent and rebook on a better flight immediately instead of a couple hours later after landing in Paris. That was certainly a day that the App paid for itself (again). You can even look for alternate flights right in the App!
It's gorgeous on the iPad
While it's certainly functional on the iPhone, this App is stunning on the iPad. You get a beautiful detailed map of your flight(s) routes from point to point. FlightTrack Pro gives you just about every detail of your flight including gate information and stats on how often that flight is on time or not. You get the type of aircraft it is as well as your reservation number, seat number take off and landing times and if you're tracking someone else's flight or on a plane with WiFi you can actually see where the flight is at any given time on the map.
You can get FlightTrack Pro here from the App Store:
Any frequent traveler will tell you the value of sticking with one hotel chain and one airline as much as you can. It's all about the points! Sure there are times when it makes more sense from a location and price factor to stay at a different hotel, but when all things are equal it pays to stay at the same chain as often as possible. One of the perks (and trust me, there aren't many of them) business travelers often get is the ability to keep their points/mileage. This really comes in handy at vacation time because it often means that you can go to a nice place and stay for free! Although I've traditionally been a Marriott guy, I'm finding myself at more Hiltons these days than ever before. So I went in search of an App and yep, Hilton has one.
Hilton gets it with their App
It doesn't take much to make a good Hotel App. Think about the things you would want. You probably want to be able to do a search, see the rates, book your stay, see your upcoming reservations and view your points. Hilton's app does all of these things plus a couple more. The App is pretty straight forward. It's Free and does what I need. One thing that I think is pretty neat is that you can pre-order amenities to be in your room upon arrival. For example, let's say you know you're going to be getting in late. Probably too late for dinner. So you can order a couple of snacks to be on hand to tie you over until morning. Nice! The App also has a Specials section with deals and most importantly offers the option of remembering your username and password for the Hilton Honors screen. If you frequent Hilton properties, this is an App you'll want.
Yesterday I reviewed the HazelMail App and while it's good, I think I like the Postino App better. The one thing that really bugged me about HazelMail (which I stated in the review) was that if the image you're using doesn't quite fill up the card your only options were to stretch your image (um, no!) or to fill it with a background color of your choice instead of white. Neither option seems professional especially when you can simply zoom your image up in most apps with a pinch. The ink wasn't even dry on my HazelMail review when my friend pointed me to Postino. So rather than delete the review I had already written on HazelMail (after all this is the "BEST App Site", I figured I would let it stand and give you a new review on Postino for comparison.
Postino gets it right
Right off the bat Postino gets it when it comes to the importance of image placement. The images can be zoomed/cropped/scaled to fit the physical postcard without stretching them. So I'm already a fan. Next, is the fact that with the one App you can send your postcard via email OR snail mail (regular postal mail). I did a quick email test and the card came through almost immediately. I haven't been home yet to check the quality of the printed cards from either app/service, so I can't give comment on that yet. Another thing that I really like about Postino is the fact that they let you "sign" the card. You can use your finger on screen to draw/sign your name. That certainly makes it a little more personal than just text. The cost of the Postino cards are higher. You buy "stamps" ahead of time and a single stamp (1 card) will set you back $1.99. The more you buy, the cheaper it gets.
I travel a lot and I'm a photographer so I'm always shooting everywhere I travel too. As I'm going through the airport and shops I sometimes take time to look at the postcards on display to get ideas of things I might want to shoot while I'm there. It's rare that I'll actually buy a postcard with the intent to fill it out and mail it. I have done it in the past and in most cases I usually beat the postcard home and could simply mail the person a photo or send them one via email.
HazelMail take the pain out of sending postcards
However, if there were an App that let me choose one of my own photos, lay it out, compose a message and upload it and that card would be physically printed and mailed, well I'm all over that! That's exactly what HazelMail allows you to do. My colleague Jill was telling me about it and at first as she started I assumed it was a simple upload/email service, but when she said a "physical" postcard gets mailed she got my attention. So I downloaded it on the spot. The way it works is that the App is FREE. You're paying for the actual cards you (they) send out for you. The photos can either be photos you've taken with your iPhone or ones in your library. You'll get to compose your message using a variety of fonts. The cost of sending a single card (front and back) is $1.50. You fund your account with a credit card or PayPal. As an added plus you can enter your Delta Skymiles account number in your profile and earn bonus miles for every postcard you send (it's the circle of life or travel)
A couple of weeks ago I went on a two week business trip to Europe. The trip was great, but one thing happened that I wasn't really expecting and that was total dependency on my iPhone 3GS. I can believe how much I relied on my iPhone and more importantly, 3rd party Apps to get me through each day. Now of course there are some great and useful built-in Apps that helped two, but there were 10 3rd party Apps that totally rocked!
My 10 Favorite Travel Apps for the iPhone
FlightTrack Pro – this is already my preferred flight tracking App, but it was worth its weight in gold especially on the last day of my trip. I was literally walking down the jet bridge to board my first flight (3 flights total) to come home. I got a Push Notification that my 2nd connecting flight was cancelled. Because I got this notification early enough I was able to call my travel agent and get rebooked on a direct flight home in the 2nd city. Had I not gotten that notification, I wouldn't have found out about the cancellation until hours later and possibly too late to get on the flight I ended up taking home.
iPass Global Wi-Fi – this App allowed me to connect to hotel and airport Wi-Fi connections without having to pay separately each time. My company has a master account for us to use and I used this app multiple times to avoid the high cost of data roaming abroad.
As a frequent traveler I depend on my iPhone to keep me up to date with my itineraries and flight information. While there are lots of Apps on the App Store to accomplish these tasks I look for the ones that simply have the best interfaces and provide the most information. Two apps that I depend on the most are TripIt and FlightTrack Pro. While I love both of these apps, I'm always looking for ONE app that will do the job of these two. TripDeck may be just the app I'm in search of.
What makes a great Travel App?
I define a great travel app as one that can give me all the information I need in a very intuitive and slick UI (user interface). Having the information I need in the app is meaningless if I can never find what I need when I need it. Unfortunately with hectic travel schedules sometimes a matter of minutes can make all the difference in the world when your flight is canceled and you need to rebook! A few seconds even can cost you the last available seat on the next flight. So I need an app that has it all and can alert (via push notifications) me when I need to make a change. FlightTrack Pro has been a fantastic travel companion and just last week the push notification that I received alerting me that my connecting flight had been canceled allowed me to rebook quickly before the first flight even took off. TripIt has been great in giving me my itinerary at a glance including the all important confirmation numbers, addresses and phone numbers for each location. While this dynamic duo works great, I wanted to see if I could do it all in one App and it looks like TripDeck may be just that App!
If you travel then you probably stay in hotels. Sometimes we have no choice in where we stay because it's been mandated by the company we work for or it's just simply more convenient to stay at the location where the event is taking place. So in those cases you just go with the flow.
When you're spending your own money
When it comes to travel for leisure or when you do have a choice then chances are you want the best deal you can find in the area. When I travel to a new location I may not even know what hotels are in the area let alone which ones have the best prices or deals. This is where HotelPal comes in. In one tap HotelPal can show you all of the hotels in a given area and then quickly sort them by rate based on the dates you want to stay. It's actually pretty amazing the way this thing works and the speed at which it works. Once you find a location that looks interesting you can drill down for more details and even book it right within the app.
