Ben Kazez

If you travel frequently, keeping track of all your flights, hotels and car trips can be made easier using a few different iPhone apps that consolidate all that information in one easy to access location. These iPhone apps are great because not only do they give you a dashboard for your flight information, but they also help you keep track of changes to your trips and easily input your information into the apps. Price: $3.99 TripIt is hands down the best trip and itinerary app for the iPhone. This is not only because TripIt offers a great application but also due to the unique service that TripIt provides which helps you automatically create trips using your confirmation emails. Once you’ve setup your account at tripit.com, all you have to do is forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and they will instantly add the information and create trips for you with all the flights, lodging and car detail information. The professional version of TripIt costs $4 which removes the ads, which I highly recommend. The app shows your upcoming trips in a list where you can tap to get details. There are color coded icons for flights, lodging and cars. Plus TripIt adds convenience items to your trip like directions from the airport to your hotel, and a map of your destination city. Flight details include links to seat details, terminal and gate info, flight check in websites, and more. You also have passenger info, confirmation numbers and contact numbers in case you need to call the airline. The design of the app is very easy to read. There is no push notification feature for flight changes built into the TripIt app. You can view maps of addresses, but for some odd reason you have to tap the view in Google Maps link to get there. If you pay for a TripIt account ($49/year) you should download the free app, and you are also able to track your rewards points in the app. Finally in the Network section you can find out when your TripIt Connections are traveling. The app also lets you add new trips or add new plans to existing trips, although the interface for adding changes uses a tediously slow web based interface. Another missing feature in this app is the ability to view past trips. The TripIt app purchase comes with an iPad optimized version as an added Read More

Mike Haney puts the latest smartphone applications to the test to find which make work — and life — easier on the road. Don't miss these Travel stories As usual, It's a Snap fans submitted stunning photos from their travels. Check out this week's gallery and vote for your favorite. ON THE MOVE Organize your itinerary:TripIt is the easiest way to consolidate all your travel details—flights, hotels, cars, events—on one site. Just forward your confirmation e-mails to plans@tripit.com and the site will instantly pull the relevant info and build your itinerary. The app includes basic flight tracking, terminal maps, driving directions, and airplane-seat advice (good for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone; free); the Pro service adds loyalty-program tracking and recommends other flights if yours is canceled ($69 per year). Though a bit slower to upload your trip details, TripCase works in a similar manner and automatically adds itineraries booked through a Sabre reservation system (good for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile; free). Keep an eye on your flight: Most flight-tracking apps offer international coverage and gate info and update TripIt itineraries. What sets FlightTrack Pro apart is its push alerts: notifications of flight delays or cancellations that buzz your phone even when the app isn't open. Like most apps, FlightTrack gets its data from FlightStats, which bundles info from the FAA and airlines (good for Android, iPhone; $10). Book last-minute flights, hotels, and car rentals: For sheer comprehensiveness, Kayak's app is a good place to start any search (good for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile; free); Kayak First lets you search for premium-class seats ($2). But when it comes to booking hotels, it's much faster to use Android's Hotels Near Me, BlackBerry's HRS Hotel Organizer, or iPhone's HotelPal—all save your account info to spare you tedious typing (free). Kill time at the airport: GateGuru provides terminal-­specific guides to restaurants, bars, shops, and services at 85 U.S. airports (good for iPhone; free). ON THE GROUND Find a taxi:TaxiMagic ties directly into dispatch systems in 25 U.S. cities, so you can use the app to book a cab, track its progress toward you, and pay. In other cities, it'll bring up numbers of local companies (good for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone; free). Cab4me lets users rank taxi services (free with Android; $3 with BlackBerry; $1 with iPhone), while Rocket Taxi covers several European countries including Germany, Italy, and Spain (good for iPhone; Read More

Let’s set aside the question of whether you should get an iPad and suppose you already bought one last weekend. You probably floated home and loaded it with a few whiz-bang apps and maybe even passed it around to your friends. At some point in all the euphoria, you may also have wondered whether this device is just a trophy or something you can actually use. Such self-doubts can be easily cast aside, providing you delve a little more deeply into the App Store than the Top 100 list — and are ready to open the wallet again. If you budget around $100 for a few new and upgraded apps, you can easily make the iPad into much more of a constant companion than something you just trot out when the neighbors are watching. Start with productivity apps, because a mobile device is most valuable when it lets you work anytime, anywhere. The big knock against smartphones is that you can’t effectively view or edit a Word document or Excel spreadsheet or read a PowerPoint presentation or PDF on something with a puny screen. On the iPad, you can at least read PDFs and, with a little more work, Office files, with the GoodReader app ($1). Air Sharing HD ($10) reads PDFs and helps you organize and print other Office files easily from the iPad. If you want to edit Office files, you’re on thinner ice. The only iPad-specific apps for that task this week were the Pages, Keynote and Numbers apps from Apple ($10 each), the company’s answer to Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The apps earned high ratings from users, but also some complaints about how poorly they worked for importing PowerPoint files or for exporting Excel files edited in the Numbers app. Heavy users of these applications should closely read those caveats. Outside of work, dozens of other apps will help you turn the iPad into a go-to device. For instance, you can find, manage and share recipes with the Epicurious app and watch movies or manage your queue with the Netflix app. Both are stellar, and both are free. Check the weather and watch high-definition videos on the Weather Channel Max (also free), which is so nicely designed it puts the iPhone version to shame. You can catch up on news with The New York Times Editors’ Picks, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters or BBC News. Read More

The time for Macworld Expo 2010 is upon us and the handiest tool you’ll bring to San Francisco with you is, of course, your iPhone. What apps should you install on your phone to enhance your Macworld experience? The iMacworld is a handy guide for navigating the show floor and planning your day. iMacworld, featuring maps and a show directory, was just recently updated for 2010, so jump onboard. For those who don’t travel often, favorite airport amenities frequently change and may be difficult to find. You’ve got 30 minutes between flights and can’t play “Where’s Waldo” to find your favorite coffee dispensary. Did Peet’s moved to gate 12 from gate 18? Gate Guru can help. Additionally, the app has a review function so if you aren’t sure where to eat, let the wisdom of crowds guide you. The interface is a bit clunky as you can’t search by airport, only by terminal within the airport, but otherwise it is handy and accurate. Traveling requires corralling an endless stream of alpha-numeric confirmation codes and repeating the same information over and over again to family and friends. Setup a TripIt account and email TripIt your confirmations, and they’ll automatically put it all into an itinerary complete with additional hotel information and links that you can share with others. When the front desks says they have no record of your reservation, pull up your TripIt app and you’ll have all the data handy. Flight delays are a fact of life and getting accurate information is sometimes a challenge. Like many other apps, FlightTrack Pro will track flights for you. What’s special about this app is that it will also give you handy access to the airline’s phone number and provide push notifications. An indispensable feature is its ability to find alternate flights that match your planned itinerary should your flight be cancelled, as well as integrated access with TripIt. iCommute is similar to MuniApp and iBART, except that it also covers the AC Transit system which serves the East Bay. Utilizing Nextbus information, it offers real time and predictive information as to when the bus or train will arrive. It might be the best “jack of all trades” for general getting around, but the interface was a bit more cluttered the MuniApp’s UI. Still, with the more complete data, if you had to pick a single app, iCommute is probably the one. MuniApp focuses Read More

By Staff, Monday, Nov 30, 2009 | Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game. So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break! This week I am picking Q Entertainment’s Lumines. This game came out a little while ago with poor fanfare due to the horrible controls. Good news? There is now and update that fixes these issues and this game is now a pleasure to play. You even have in-app purchasing for additional theme packs. The music is not as good as the original IMO, but still fun!! [$2.99 - iTunes link] BitFlip is a matching/lineup style game in the style of bejeweled, where you try to match up tiles with the same color and shape. It is a little more complicated however, because in addition to swapping two tiles to line them up, you can also “flip” them to change the tiles. With two play modes, an easy interface, smooth graphics, a fun sound track, and a $1.99 price tag, it’s a fun game for those that enjoy the Trism/Bejeweled style games. [$1.99 - iTunes link] As a consultant, I am on the road each week. In order to keep my life organized, I would always enter my trip details (hotel info, flight numbers, etc.) into calendar entries. TripIt makes my life easier by automatically creating my trip entries for me. The service syncs with various iPhone apps like FlightTrack Pro [$9.99 - iTunes link] and they even have their own free app. If you don’t have any room for one more app, you can subscribe to an iCal feed right on your iPhone. Perfect for the road warrior. [Free - iTunes link] As someone who loves math and anything involving logical thinking, I am quite the sudoku fan. KENKEN took it to the next level. Just as with sudoku, each row and column must contain every number exactly once with the additional requirement that the bolded groups of blocks must add, subtract, divide, or multiply into a specific number. I love a great challenge and KENKEN is a great way to get that Read More

The iPhone itself can be a great travel companion, but an iPhone loaded with the right apps can become the perfect travel companion.  That’s why we created our new Road Warrior Apps Applist, to help you become the best road warrior you can be. The Road Warrior Apps Applist contains some of the best apps available in the App Store, apps that can not only help you get from city to city, but also to help you connect with the world back home or wherever you are. Here is just a taste of some of the apps featured in our new Applist: So check out the new Road Warrior Applist and tell us what you think.  If you believe we may have missed a perfect road warrior app, feel free to leave a comment below. AppAwards week is still rolling right along, so it’s time for another download code giveaway.  To win a download code for DrinkTracker Breathalyzer, simply leave a relevant comment about this post or about DrinkTracker Breathalyzer itself. The winner will be chosen randomly at the end of the day today (end of the day means 11:59 PM ET). Download codes are only redeemable through US iTunes accounts. Please remember to include a valid email address so we can contact the winner. Read More

Like to take trips to foreign locales, do you? Don’t forget your iPhone! Armed with the right iPhone apps, your iPhone can be an invaluable tool to help you organize your trip and find your way around not-so-familiar terrain. Who better to help you find those iPhone travel apps than the globe-trotters at National Geographic? The renowned travel/exploration publication has posted their Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps for your perusal, and it’s a good’n. From free iPhone apps like “Room” to paid apps like “Packing,” Nat Geo has all the your travel needs covered. Common travel apps like FlightTrack and Google Earth are staples of any would-be traveler, but less popular apps like Babelingo (300 common phrases in 11 languages), Room (helps you pack for your trip) and Cheap Gas (um, self-explanatory) also deserve a quick mention. Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see... Read More

Do you travel a lot for business or pleasure? If you do, then you'll find the new free iPhone app (click opens iTunes) from Tripit.com to be a great way to organize your trip plans. Tripit.com imports and interprets your itineraries from airlines, hotel chains, ticket outlets, and other travel companies. When you receive an itinerary from one of these providers, you forward it to a special Tripit email address to have it translated into a trip plan automatically (the site supports hundreds of travel providers, and the translation from email into structured itinerary is really quite amazing). You can share your travel plans with friends or colleagues via LinkedIn, and see when your fellow travelers are heading to a city near you or when their plans align with yours. That collection of trip plans is what you view with the Tripit.com app. The app is linked to your Tripit.com account, and displays a day by day list of flights, car rentals, and other events that make up your trips. Each event can be opened in further detail to show information such as arrival and departure times, confirmation numbers, and more. Links for airport codes bring up Google Maps of the airport vicinity, and other links can check your flight status with a touch. Since you can always access the mobile version of the Tripit site from a connected iPhone or iPod touch, the big advantage of the native application is that the travel data is cached locally on the phone for offline review (mid-flight, for example). More full-featured apps like the $9.99US TravelTracker or FlightTrack Pro can also store and display your Tripit itineraries via the service's API, and Tripit's developers tell us that they intend to continue supporting third-party application access. To use the app on your iPhone or iPod touch, all you need to do is sign up for a free Tripit.com account or forward your first itinerary to plans@tripit.com. Take a look at the gallery below for details of the Tripit app at work. Read More