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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10 products for your JetBlue “All You Can Jet” high-tech survival kit

by Scott Carmichael on

So, you just booked yourself a JetBlue All You Can Jet ticket? 30 days of non stop jetting around the country (and beyond).

You are either extremely smart, or up for a month of hell in the skies. Either way, on your trip, you are bound to run into all kinds of challenges. Getting a good seat is going to be the least of your worries. For the next 30 days you’ll need to worry about packing light, keeping gadgets charged, and what to do if you find yourself stuck at the airport overnight without a hotel reservation.

Worry not – we’ve collected ten brilliant products designed to make your life easier during your 30 days of All You Can Jet.

[Photo credit: AP Photo/Seth Wenig]

Suite Arrival deliveries

The idea behind Suite Arrivals is brilliant – pre-order toiletries, snacks and other items, and have them delivered to your hotel or other address. Now, before you leave on your All You Can Jet adventure, order up whatever you think you’ll need, and it’ll be ready waiting for you when you arrive. Prices start as low as a dollar, up to around $20 for a well stocked snack and toiletries set. Keeping toiletries out of your bags means less time messing around at the security checkpoint.

Price: $1 & up
Product page: Suitearrival.com

Boingo Subscription

When you travel, The Internet can quickly become your best distraction from the otherwise boring hotel or airport. Instead of paying $10 for each online session, sign up for a monthly pass to Boingo, and use a single monthly fee to get online as often as you want. With thousands of locations, you’ll quickly find that Boingo is almost everywhere you are.

Price: $9.95/month for unlimited domestic usage
Product page: Boingo.com

Eye-Fi card

During your All You Can Jet adventure, you’ll (hopefully) be making as many photos as you can – which means your memory card will be filling up at an insane rate. For active photographers, not much beats the convenience of the Eye-Fi memory cards. These 4GB and 8GB memory cards can upload your photos any time your camera is in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Best of all, when you combine your Eye-Fi card with Devicescape and a Boingo subscription, you can turn your camera on as soon as you land at a Boingo airport, and instantly upload your photos. All without having to press a single button. Photos that have been successfully uploaded can be wiped from your card, means you’ll almost never run out of storage space.

Price: from $49.99
Product page: Eye.fi

ZAGGsparq 2.0

During your 30 days of flying, you’ll probably only have a couple of days of access to a power outlet. For the days your phone is away from AC, the ZAGGsparq 2.0 can be your new best friend. Inside this compact USB charger is a massive 6000mAh battery pack, with enough juice to keep your iPhone or other phone going for almost a full week.

Its own AC charger is built in, so as soon as your are near an outlet, plug it in, and get it back to 100% in a few hours. With its two USB ports, you can charge two devices at the same, as long as your remember to bring the right USB device cables!

Price: $99.99
Product page: www.zagg.com

HotelPal, FlightTrack Pro, TripIt

This trio of smartphone software provides the ultimate in travel support. With TripIt, you can gather all your flight plans, FlightTrack Pro keeps track of your flight status, and HotelPal lets you search and book local hotels. Seriously, load these three on your phone, and you’ll have everything you need to prevent, avert and resolve flight delays and cancellations.

To use the apps, simply forward all your confirmation emails to TripIt. TripIt will then translate all the information in the emails, and load your itineraries into its system. FlightTrack Pro then syncs with TripIt and constantly monitors for delays, cancellations, gate changes and more. FlightTrack Pro and HotelPal are available for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Pro-users can even setup shared TripIt calendars, so friends and family always have easy access to their itineraries.

Price: TripIt (Free), FlightTrack Pro ($9.99) and HotelPal (Free)
Product page: Tripit.com / Mobiata.com

Briggs & Riley BRX luggage – 22″ Upright

If you are a smart planner, you’ll try to minimize your time in hotels, along with the weight of your luggage. The new Briggs & Riley BRX line of luggage takes the luxury side of Briggs & Riley, and turns it into a super-lightweight adventure style line of bags. The 22″ BRW Upright weighs just 7.5lbs, features wide all-terrain wheels, a sturdy handle and four compression straps. Its front zippered compartment holds a 16″ laptop, and thanks to its outer handle assembly, the inside is nice and flat, perfect for keeping shirts wrinkle free.

Price: $290
Product page: Briggs-riley.com

Griffin Travel Stand for iPhone and iPod

Sure, JetBlue may offer live TV and radio, but at the end of the day, there is only so much you want to watch on TV. If you’d rather sit back and enjoy your own programming, consider the compact Griffin Travel Stand for iPhone and iPod. Don’t let the name fool you, this smart gadget works with almost any smartphone, and combines a device stand with a neat headphone case.

Price: $14.99
Product page: Griffintechnology.com

Monster Beats Tour High Definition headphones

I don’t care how much of an aviation buff you are – after a couple of days, the jet noise will get to anyone. Even pilots wear good headphones, but your lightweight packing procedure won’t have enough space for a pair of bulky headphones. So, unless you want to leave your clean underwear at home, consider a pair of good quality headphones.

The Monster Beats Tour headphones block out a good amount of outside noise, while providing fantastic audio and bass. Best of all, their connector is ultra low-profile, which means it won’t stab you in the side when plugged into the seat audio jack.

Price: $179.95
Product page: Monster Beats Tour

Smartphone, iPad, netbook or laptop

Picking the best device for your trip is a tough one – everyone has different needs, and not everyone will want to be connected all the time. If you just want an affordable media player, you could consider the affordable Archos 5 series or 7 series Android tablets. For a lightweight laptop without compromises, check out the Toshiba T135. For a lightweight media tablet with fantastic app support, you’ll obviously get a lot of love out of an iPad.

Price: from $199

Monsoon Multimedia Vulkano placeshifter/streamer

This is the only product in the list that doesn’t actually travel with you. The Monsoon Multimedia Vulkano stays home, connected to your TV and cable box. With it, you can remotely watch and record anything you receive at home.

Want to watch the latest episode of your favorite show when you wait at the airport? Watch it live over the Internet, or download it to watch on your device during your flight. Want to watch live TV in your hotel room? Connect your laptop to the hotel TV and forget the lousy channels the hotel provides. Landed at your destination, and want to setup a recording? Browse the electronic program guide, and tell the Vulkano to record what you want, when you want. On-the-road entertainment doesn’t get much better than this.

With the Vulkano, you’ll be able to stop spending money on movie rentals or streaming video purchases, and get to enjoy the content you want.

Price: From $259
Product page: myvulkano.com

[Wi-Fi sign photo from Flickr/Futureshape]

Five fantastic travel friendly iPad apps

by Scott Carmichael on

The iPad has been out for over a month, and it already has a decent lineup of travel friendly applications. Of course, the iPad can still run the 200,000 apps designed for the iPhone, but to take full advantage of its large screen, you’ll want to stick to apps specifically designed for the iPad.

We’ve picked the five best looking apps available for the iPad right now, and best of all – these five apps are all under ten bucks.
1. FlightTrack Pro

What happens when you take one of the best selling iPhone travel apps, and update it for the iPad? Well, you get FlightTrack Pro for the iPad. FlightTrack Pro integrates with TripIt, allowing for easy itinerary imports and trip management.

In FlightTrack Pro, you can track the exact location of a flight, check for delays and even look up the weather at your airport. Best of all, if you are on a flight with Wi-Fi from Gogo Inflight, you can use your iPad as a replacement for the boring Airshow screens. To make a great app even better, if you have a 3G iPad or manage to find Wi-Fi on the road, FlightTrack Pro will keep you updated with information on departure gates, delays, arrival gates and more.

iTunes app store link: FlightTrack Pro
Price: $9.99

2. Kayak

Car rentals, hotels and cheap flights all in one app – that describes Kayak. The app provides easy access to the awesome multi-airline flight search system that made Kayak famous. On a single screen, you can see past searches, hotel deals and airline search options.

iTunes app store link: Kayak for iPad
Price: free

3. Couch Traveler HD Earth Explorer

Got a week where you are stuck at home? How about traveling the world from the comfort of your sofa and iPad? Couch Traveler is a really well designed app that harnesses the power of Google maps and aerial images to provide a fun way of sightseeing. It works just as well at home as on the road if you are looking for something to see.

iTunes app store link: Couch Traveler HD
Price: $1.99 (introductory price)

4. UpNext 3D cities

When Google maps are not enough, you should check out UpNext. The app currently covers Austin, Washington D.C., Boston, San Francisco and New York. Once a city has been downloaded, you have access to maps with 3D buildings – along with a powerful search system.

Need somewhere to eat? Browse the categories and navigate using the well designed 3D maps.

iTunes app store link: UpNext 3D cities
Price: free

5. PointInside for malls

We recently took the iPhone version of Point Inside for a spin – and the company behind this mall mapping app managed to be one of the first to make it onto the iPad with a dedicated new version.

As a reminder – Point Inside is a mapping and search app for shopping malls. Found yourself in a mall you’ve never visited? Use this app to find what you are looking for. The app also offers quick search access to things like restrooms, ATM’s and food.

iTunes app store link: Point Inside
Price: free

Number one iPhone travel app developer announces TripDeck

by Scott Carmichael on

Mobiata, the developer behind FlightTrack (number one travel program in the iPhone App store), FlightTrack Pro and HotelPal just announced their newest application; TripDeck.

TripDeck is an itinerary management application with real-time flight status notifications. The program can integrate with your TripIt itineraries, and warns of delays, gate changes and other alerts.

I’ve been using FlightTrack Pro for some time now, and it has become an invaluable tool when I’m on the road. In many cases. FlightTrack Pro has been able to warn me of changes, even before the airline notified their own gate staff.

TripDeck takes the best of FlightTrack, and focuses on alerts and other status updates as well as a really easy to use interface.

The program allows you to manually import your trip, or link to your TripIt account. Once a trip is in TripDeck, it is organized into “trip cards” for each part of your trip (flight, car rental, hotel). With a simple finger swipe, you can browse through each segment. The cards hold all the information you need to make your trip a lot easier, including phone numbers,directions and more.

The application costs $9.99 and is available as of today from the App Store.

Flight tracking for your iPhone or iPod Touch

by Brenda Yun on

If you’re a frequent flier and an iPhone or iPod Touch user, then you’re in luck. The latest version of Appropos Mobile‘s FlightTrack application will likely save you a lot of time and spare you of some travel woes and headaches.

For just a few bucks, you can get up-to-the-minute flight arrival and departure information through the easy to use FlightTrack application. No longer will you have to check the internet or call the airline to make sure a flight is delayed or cancelled. The user-friendly application will give you the most accurate information for you, the busy traveler. You can even check your own flight status and altitude in the air!

As an added bonus, FlightTrack Pro teamed up with TripIt, the online trip planner, to serve as your very own personal assistant. Once you plug in your travel details, the application will automatically keep up with and inform you of your latest and upcoming whereabouts.

The FlightTrack application has consistently ranked among Apple’s top travel applications, so there’s something to be said about user satisfaction. To find out more about FlightTrack or to download the application, visit this site.