Mobiata’s FlightBoard app arrives in the Android Market – with live wallpapers!

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, we took a quick look at FlightBoard by Mobiata for the iPhone. This app mimics the beautiful flight schedule board found at Charles de Gaulle airport, and displays live flight information on your phone.

This morning, Mobiata announced an Android version of this popular app. The basic feature set is the same as in the iPhone version, but Android users get one cool additional feature – a live wallpaper of the FlightBoard! Sure, you need to be a bit of an aviation geek to want flight schedules as your live wallpaper, but it certainly makes for a good conversation starter.

When viewing the flight display, you can switch between departures and arrivals, and share flight information through SMS, Twitter or Facebook.

Mobiata FlightBoard for Android costs $3.99 and is available in the Android Market.

Mobiata introduces HotelPal 2.0 for the iPad

by Scott Carmichael on



HotelPal has long been on our “must carry” list of mobile applications – Instead of browsing individual hotel chain sites, or navigating non-mobile web sites, you can find, research and book rooms from right inside the app.

Until now, HotelPal was only available for Android and the iPhone/iPod Touch. Of course, you could use it on the iPad, but it wasn’t “made for” the iPad – until today.

In HotelPal 2.0, the app has become iPad native, which means gorgeous map based price searches, a new page-turning interface for hotel navigation and the ability to view side-by-side hotel listings.

And just like the previous version, HotelPal 2.0 is still free of charge. You’ll find download links for the various versions at Mobiata.com.

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Business travelers want mobile, Expedia picks up Mobiata

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I guess Expedia is watching the market. The online travel agency just snapped up mobile travel application developer Mobiata. Mobiata’s claim to fame is FlightTrack, and the other apps in its portfolio include TripDeck, HotelPal, FlightBoard and FareCompare. For Expedia, it was a no-brainer, as 4 percent of its traffic is coming from devices, a number the company would like to kick a bit higher, according to TechCrunch.

Beyond the fact that it gets more reach and better footing in the mobile space, Expedia’s Mobiata acquisition is interesting in light of a recent Deloitte survey. Business travelers are increasingly turning to their smartphones to research and book travel. The global professional services firm reported that 63 percent of business travelers earning more than $150,000 a year have web-enabled smartphones. Twenty-six percent of survey respondents, Deloitte said, have even downloaded hotel apps to these devices.

Given this trend in business travel, an important market for the travel industry, Expedia’s pickup makes good sense. The big question: who’s next?

[photo by Ed Yourdon via Flickr]

FlightTrack 4 updated with seat maps, flight alternatives and more

by Scott Carmichael on

FlightTrack, my all-time favorite mobile application just got better – In addition to its arsenal of flight tracking tools, the new version adds a much cleaner interface, a delay forecaster and instant access to SeatGuru seating charts.

The tracking feature now also lets you search for alternative flights and information about diverted flights – something that will (sadly) come in quite handy this holiday season.

FlightTrack is available for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Palm WebOS. The new features are currently only available in the iOS and Android version. The Pro version of FlightTrack adds TripIt synchronization, push alerts, terminal maps and FAA notices about airport delays and closures.

To compare the various features, head on over to Mobiata.com.

One more excellent reason to invest in this excellent application – all purchases made before 11:59PM on November 23, 2010 will help support Mercy Medical Airlift thanks to a 20% donation from each purchase.

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FlightBoard by Mobiata brings an airport flight status board to your iPhone

by Scott Carmichael on

Tomorrow, Mobiata will release their newest travel application to the iTunes App store. FlightBoard minicks the flight board at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, which means you can turn your iPhone or iPod into a handheld airport flight board.

The application supports flight information from over 4000 airports and 1400 different airlines, and data is updated every five minutes. Inside the app, you can sort results by flight, origination, gate, arrival and status. Once you select a flight, you can share its status through email, Twitter and Facebook, which means you’ll be able to keep friends and family up to date with just a couple of clicks.

As with all other Mobiata Applications (like FlightTrack and HotelPal), this is a well designed and easy to use app. FlightBoard costs $3.99 and will be launched in the App Store tomorrow.