Tag Archives: Travel Apps

Travel App Tuesday

Posted on by

Don’t Throw Away That Old Phone – Not Yet!

On a recent trip to Italy, there was a necessity for two phones.  I already had a European phone and thought it would be necessary to buy another upon arrival.  However, we discovered another option…use an old phone no longer on any kind of plan.  In our case, we had an old 3GS IPhone that was not being used and not under contract.  We  had the former carrier, in this case AT&T, unlock the phone so we could insert an Italian sim card when we arrived.  At the airport, we bought a prepaid sim for 15 euros at a phone store which lasted for our entire 2-week stay.  We could have also purchased a data plan for more money but opted out of that.  The phone worked beautifully and we still have time left  of the card next time we go back.

This worked for our 3GS iPhone because it is capable of using the european cell phone system (GSM). Some US carriers use a different system (CMDA), and not all of their older phones will work in Europe. The best way to find out if your old phone can be unlocked for use with GSM is to call the carrier or take it to the carrier’s retail store and ask someone there.

Travel App Tuesday

Posted on by

Travel App Tuesday

Everyone’s heard of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader but have you heard about the free Kindle App? It allows you to turn your smart phone, computer or tablet into an e-reader without having to buy the Kindle e-reader. If you download the app from the app store on each of your devices, everything downloaded will show up on all of your devices. Even better, with something Amazon calls

 Whispersync, all of your devices will know exactly where you stopped reading on all of the other devices. All of your notes, highlights and bookmarks will sync as well. This is what is promised.

There are a few quirks however. The syncing did not work with all my devices. I have a Mac, an IPad and an IPhone. (I’m married to an IPerson!). I found a Kindle forum on Amazon and followed a suggestion of one of the posters. Re-downloading the book after deleting it, solved the problem. The problem repeated with more highlighting. This is definitely a kink that will hopefully be fixed with an update soon.

I still intend to keep the Kindle App on all three devices and hope for better syncing. When traveling, it’s a lot easier to carry an IPad instead of several books.

The Kindle App works on the following devices;

Smartphones:
IPhone & IPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7 &
Blackberries

Computers:
Windows & Mac

Tablets
IPad and Android Tablet

Travel App Tuesday

Posted on by

Travel App Tuesday

Everyone’s heard of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader but have you heard about the free Kindle App? It allows you to turn your smart phone, computer or tablet into an e-reader without having to buy the Kindle e-reader. If you download the app from the app store on each of your devices, everything downloaded will show up on all of your devices. Even better, with something Amazon calls

 Whispersync, all of your devices will know exactly where you stopped reading on all of the other devices. All of your notes, highlights and bookmarks will sync as well. This is what is promised.

There are a few quirks however. The syncing did not work with all my devices. I have a Mac, an IPad and an IPhone. (I’m married to an IPerson!). I found a Kindle forum on Amazon and followed a suggestion of one of the posters. Re-downloading the book after deleting it, solved the problem. The problem repeated with more highlighting. This is definitely a kink that will hopefully be fixed with an update soon.

I still intend to keep the Kindle App on all three devices and hope for better syncing. When traveling, it’s a lot easier to carry an IPad instead of several books.

The Kindle App works on the following devices;

Smartphones:
IPhone & IPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7 &
Blackberries

Computers:
Windows & Mac

Tablets
IPad and Android Tablet

Travel App Tuesday

Image

It’s Travel App Tuesday!

Every Tuesday I will be covering and hopefully introducing a travel app that seems helpful.

Today’s travel app is Packing Pro.

Ever wish you had made a list for your pre-trip ‘to dos’ and items to pack? Every time I go to pack for a trip, I wish I had a previous list to help me remember everything. Now there is a very handy app called Packing Pro, for the IPhone, IPad and IPod Touch, that comes with a master catalog of 800 items organized into 13 different categories. A brand new feature allows you to sync all your devices with iCloud.To get you started there is a demo trip that shows how a finished packing list might look. Playing with the components help to get acquainted with the app.

When you create a new list, a menu with 7 possibilities comes up allowing you to choose to create a new packing list from one of your other packing lists, a sample packing list, from scratch, or with Expert Help.Choosing Expert help brings up questions that will help populate a list based on the number of female adults, male adults, children and days of the trip. There are other choices based on weather, destination (domestic or international), food preparation and clothes washing. Each item can be further described with the number required, its weight and value, whose item this might be (or whose responsibility), which bag the item will be put and a place for a note about the item.After choosing how to set up your trip, you have the opportunity to edit the items in each category. Items can be deleted or added, or rearranged within the category.Categories and items can be added to the Master Catalog and different ways of sorting the items, including showing all the items that are not packed.Other features include the ability to import and export lists, possibilities for custom designing the look of the app and complete instructions in the info section.

The app costs $2.99 through the app store of the device.

Click here for the developer’s webpage.