Add-on software apps make iPhone a great travel partner
— -- Tech-savvy road warriors are enjoying a new era of handheld computing as more sophisticated smartphone software floods the market.
The iPhone, in particular, has amassed more than 900 applications targeting business or leisure travelers. Many applications are free, and others range from 99 cents to $19.99.
Unlike desktop software, iPhone applications are relatively simple tools that don't require hours to learn. Most rely on the phone's embedded GPS chip to tailor information to a traveler's current location, such as spotting nearby Starbucks, Wi-Fi hot spot, police radar, restaurants and taxi companies. Others transform traditional travel tools — foreign language phrase books, city guidebooks, restaurant tip cheat sheets — and render them digitally.
We recently tried several of the most popular iPhone travel applications. Here's what we found:
FlightTrack
Provides real-time flight status with scheduled departure and landing times, as well as actual takeoff and projected landing.
Travelers can save their flight schedules and check for cancellations and delays when encountering bad weather. They also can search for flights by airline, flight number or date.
Its live flight maps show weather radar, provide information on aircraft type, speed and altitude. Price: $4.99
WorldView Live
Promises the "world in your pocket" by showing video streams from 6,000 webcams worldwide.
Search for a place nearby or browse through popular locations. Images are small and often grainy, especially at night.
It's an ideal toy for tourists wishing to get a sense of the weather at their destinations, or for armchair travelers stuck in their work cubicles. You can stare at downtown Moscow or Newport Beach in California. WorldView isn't necessary for business travelers, but it's a fun time-waster. Price:$2.99
Babelingo
Contains 300 useful phrases and words in 11 languages.
You can find a phrase by using key words and tapping a button to translate. Its unique feature is the large, clear script of translated phrases that can be read easily from a distance. Need help? Just show your iPhone — with the translated phrase — to the store clerk or taxi driver.
Its selection of phrases is limited, however. There was no phrase containing "ambulance," for instance. Only one phrase containing "bank" showed up in our search. Price: $3.99
Rocket Taxi
Find a cab from its database of 17,500 taxi companies.
A local search in Northern Virginia, for instance, found more than 80 taxi companies within 12 miles. It's not always helpful when trying to distinguish the quality of service. Customers can leave their feedback by rating companies on a 5-star scale. But only two of the 80 companies in our search were rated.
It can also roughly calculate the estimated fare. Even if it's just an estimate, it's nice to know the ballpark figure before hopping in and taking off. Price: $1.99
Where
Finds local points of interest using your current location. It pinpoints on a map the nearby Starbucks, Zipcars parking spots, hotels, gas stations (with prices), local concerts — and even friends who are in your network.
It's the only traveler's application among the ones tested that contained flash ads, which could explain its slow download speed.
It also contains information that road warriors may find irrelevant, such as random photos from people nearby, user polls and constellation maps. Free
Zagat To Go '09
Access to Zagat's ratings and reviews for more than 40,000 restaurants, hotels, nightspots and shops in more than 100 countries.
Its advance search feature lets users select places by specific criteria, including food, décor and features such as "Child Friendly" or "Business Dining." Users can make reservations online for some restaurants. Ideal for those familiar with Zagat's 30-point scale. Its reviews also include a short, descriptive paragraph that highlights selected quotes from reviewers' comments. Price: $9.99
TravelTracker:
Stores information about your flight, hotel reservation, car rental and appointments in one place for easy referral. It also provides current flight status, finds Amtrak stations, shows a plane's seating chart and tracks frequent-flier miles. You can type in travel spending as you go, and it tracks and categorizes your expenses.
Travelers using TripIt.com, an online travel organization tool, can download their stored information to TravelTracker. Hyper-organized travelers may enjoy all the functions, but it could involve too much data input for those who travel simply. Price: $19.99
Global Wi-Fi Finder:
As the name implies, it uses GPS to find nearby public Wi-Fi hot spots. The list tells whether the hot spot is free or pay-only service, the distance and contact information for the host sites, which are typically hotels, restaurants or cafes. You can filter your search by distance, ranging from 300 feet to 40 miles. Free
Local Eats:
Reviews of 100 best nearby restaurants, based on your GPS location, by "serious diners" and "hopelessly hooked restaurant habitués," according to its description. Users can also search by "Best of" categories, such as "Best Japanese/sushi" or "Best brunch." You'll have to take their word for it because many entries don't contain customer reviews. Price: 99 cents
Excess Baggage:
A simple application that lists 26 domestic airlines' policies on checked luggage. It shows what extra, overweight and oversize bags cost to check. Use it to decide between packing an extra or overweight bag. Price: $1.99
Simultravel GPS Lite:
Displays an interactive map of hotels near you with their rates on the day of search. Derives prices of over 35,000 hotels from Priceline. But in a recent trial, it priced a local Hilton Garden Inn at $216. A search in Hilton.com for the same hotel turned up $209. A similar comparison for a room at a local Marriott Residence Inn showed $209, while Marriott.com quoted $242. Free