How Siri can help you travel smarter in 2012

by Elizabeth Seward on

Even if you own the iPhone 4S, you may not know ‘Siri’. And if you don’t already have the 4S, you might only know about Siri, if you do at all, through hearsay, abundant resources online introducing you to Siri, or a phone belonging to someone else. You may, on the other hand, use Siri regularly and effectively and, in that case, you’re ready to optimize your Siri use for travel. Siri is, in a nutshell, a voice-driven, personal assistant software built into the 4S. Siri doesn’t know the useful answer you’re looking for to every question you ask and calling upon Siri doesn’t always save you time – it depends. But Siri can do most things a real-life personal assistant can do, and more. Some of Siri’s functions can and will help you to make your travel experiences less stressful, more efficient, and, I daresay, better. By simply pressing and holding down the home button on the 4S, Siri comes to attention. And if you get to know Siri well enough, Siri will help you to travel smarter in 2012.Navigation and safety
While traveling, you’re not always in a safe position to be fussing over your GPS, especially not if your GPS is built into your phone. Distracting yourself with GPS can lead to avoidable accidents, no matter what sort of vehicle you’re captaining. Siri is hooked up with Maps and can walk you through step-by-step directions, from beginning to end, all through voice command.

Time management
No matter how much preparation you do, wasting time while traveling is nearly inevitable. You will, pretty much invariably, find that you need something in an area you are unfamiliar with while traveling and, if you’re anything like me, waste time trying to find it. Unlike a lot of voice command systems, Siri doesn’t need you to use specific phrases. If you need to find the nearest gas station, Siri will quickly present a list of nearby gas stations when you simply say, “gas station.” This feature isn’t just for filling up, though. Siri will just as quickly aid you in locating the nearest restaurant, day care, bar, or whatever else you need to find. Siri takes this process a step further by offering you results sorted by ratings. Command Siri to find you the “Best Thai restaurant in Austin” and you’ll know what I mean.

Emergencies
“Call 911.” Say that to Siri and Siri will do just that. When in less dire need, Siri can easily pull up lists and reviews of nearby medical professionals, car mechanics, vets, or anyone else you may need to contact in an emergency situation.

Travel research
Siri can help you figure out where to go and how to get there. Phrases like these can possibly work well with Siri:

“Find me the closest train station”
“Call a taxi”
“Best bed and breakfast in Boston“
“Best dive bar in Seattle“
“Music festivals in 2012”

Traveling personal assistant
Siri is recognized, most generally speaking, as a robotic personal assistant. Relying on Siri to perform such tasks yields a decent job done. Having a personal assistant traveling with you can help ease the common stress associated with travel. Phrases like these can work with Siri:

“I am seeing a show on Friday night at 9 p.m.” Siri will put this in your calendar.
“Remind me at 10 a.m. to book my flight.” Siri will put this in your reminders.
“Wake me up at 7 a.m. to check out.” Siri will set this alarm for you.
“Add toothpaste, umbrella, and socks to my packing list.” Siri will add these items to a list in your notes.

More than anything, Siri seems to me like what Siri actually is: the iPhone’s first attempt at creating a little robot that any iPhone 4S owner can use to better manage traveling, and, of course, life in general.

Travel Smarter 2012: The best gear for your 2012 travels

by Pam Mandel on

Bad gear is dead weight, you might as well toss it right into that bin with the stuff that the TSA says you can’t take on the plane. A bag that has cheap zippers, clothing that doesn’t dry quickly when you’ve washed it in the hotel room sink, refillable bottles that don’t stay shut and ooze shampoo all over the shirt you packed especially for that client meeting… Packing smart is just, well, it’s smart. After a year of gear, I’ve got some ideas about what works well for me, but also, I polled friends and readers for the smartest in new gear. And some of it? Wow, smart stuff.

Bits and Pieces

TSA sized squeeze bottles: Essential and clever, good qualities in a travel companion. You can get the last of your favorite shampoo out because they’re squeezable. And refillable.

Solid shampoo: Lush Cosmetics makes a whole line of shampoos that you’ll be able to take on the plane without grief. There’s a solid conditioner too. Admittedly not new, but smart, indeed.

Gadgets

Kindle Fire: Readers love these things, and now that Amazon has updated the Kindle to include wifi, it’s a whole lot more than just a portable library. Browse the web, send email, watch movies, it’s a complete entertainment system that weighs about the same as a single paperback book.Morhpie Juice Pack Air: It’s a case and an extended battery. That means you don’t have to dig around in your bag to find the extra battery when your trying to Instragram your dinner and the phone dies.

Ear buds: Last year I got a pair of Senneheisser ear buds, iPhone compatible, and they almost made me give up my bulky noise cancelling headphones. They sound great and because they’ve got three sizes of pads for the buds, I was able to get a fit that isolates a surprising amount of noise. I’m sorely tempted by the Sennheisser IE 60, but the 250.00 price tag keeps me from pulling the trigger.

Panasonic Lumix :20x optical zoom in a pocket camera, HD video, a sophisticated range of settings, and great image quality, even in low light. A fantastic travel camera, I can’t recommend this thing enough. Panasonic keeps improving it, every year, and it’s been worth the upgrades. Stellar.

Shoes and Clothes

Wool, wool, wool: SmartWool and Icebreaker both make incredibly versatile lines of clothing — skirts in a very light knit that wash well and look great, sweaters that are stylish enough to wear out but perform extremely well in the outdoors… it’s expensive stuff, but I have pieces in my wardrobe that are over ten years old and still look great.

Barefoot style shoes: I’m a skeptic, but well traveled outdoors fitness types say they swear by Skeletoes from Fila. “Hiked in the mud, went to the beach, then went to dinner…” Okay, a casual dinner, to be sure.

Born Stowaway Flats: Enough padding for serious sightseeing, and dressy enough for making it through the fancy dinner you hadn’t quite packed for. These flats pack down to tiny, so you can absolutely find room in your bag.

Luggage

Gregory Alpaca Rolling Duffel: No contest, this is my favorite new bag, the best thing I’ve seen in luggage in recent history. A duffel that’s a roller bag that you can actually carry as a backpack, and yes, it comes in carry on size.

Tom Bihn’s Brain Bag: All of Tom Bihn’s bags share an obsessive attention to detail, from the tie ons to the hardware to the compartments perfectly designed to hold just that one thing. The Brain Bag is for your laptop — and all that other electronica your dragging around. Configure it the way it works best for you.

Mission Workshop Vandal Backpack: Sometimes, you just want a cool, stylish pack for day outings. The Vandal pack is weatherproof, expandable, and yeah, it fits your 15 inch MacBook. Plus, it comes in green. Sharp.

Osprey Transporter 60: Not everything has to be a backpack. Osprey’s Transporter line comes with a harness so you can carry it as a backpack if you absolutely have to, but it’s also a top notch duffel. Weekends, road trips, short hops… a great all purpose duffel.

[flickr image via brewbooks]

Travel Smarter 2012: Use your mobile apps better

by Jeremy Kressmann on

It should come as no surprise that owning a smartphone in 2012 is a traveler’s perfect tool to better explore, organize and record their travels. And by now, there are literally thousands of app roundups out there to help lead you to the good ones. But this isn’t another one of those roundups. Instead, today Gadling is taking a closer look at how to use your existing apps – the ones you already have in 2012 – to travel smarter.

Consider the issues you typically face on the road. You’re hungry, or lost. Perhaps you’re simply trying to communicate with someone in a foreign language. The truth is you don’t always need to spend $1.99 on the newest “travel app” to do these things. Sometimes the best app is the one you already have on your smartphone.

Based on hundreds of hours on the road, both here in the U.S. and abroad, testing various mobile apps, we’ve compiled the following travel tips to help you get the most out of the apps on your smartphone. Are you a travel app pro? Click through for our tips.Use Your Camera to Save Important Information
Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you’re probably already aware of the huge boom in mobile travel photography apps and tips in recent months. And certainly smartphones (iPhones in particular) have proven themselves as clear winners for traveling photographers.

But are you using your phone’s camera to its full potential? Truth is, your smartphone’s camera makes a great storage and communication tool. Don’t want to carry around your map with directions to dinner? Take a photo. How about a snapshot of the street where your hotel is at so you can show the taxi driver? Voila. Have a food allergy? Take a photo of the food to show at the restaurant.

Get a Recommendation from a Local
Many travel apps claim to help you find cool things to do in new places you’re visiting. Problem is, they don’t deliver. The secret is that locals in your destination don’t use them. The trick to getting good recommendations is to use what the locals use, and right now those two apps are Foursquare and Yelp.

If you’re not already using Foursquare, it’s quietly become the new killer travel app. Most people think of Foursquare as “that service that lets you check in to bars to try and look cool.” But with a series of great recent updates, including an ability to share and make lists and the new explore feature, Foursquare is now a powerful tool to help you find good stuff to eat, see and do in unknown places. Check out their Foursquare Cities account for some great user-created tips in cities like Berlin, Milan, Sydney, London and more.

Yelp is another app many of us know from our daily wanderings in our hometown. Ever tried it on the road? Open the app and click on “Nearby” on the bottom menu, then “Hot New Businesses” to find out what local users are talking about right now.

Store Your Travel Research on Your Phone
Now that the vast majority of travel research happens on the web, there’s no reason for all that research to get stuck on your computer when you leave for the airport. Take it with you – use your smartphone to collect it all in one place.

Many people already use mobile reading apps like Instapaper (for iOS) or Read it Later (for Android) to collect long articles for offline storage – why not create a folder of great articles for your trip? Don’t forget to install the app’s “bookmarklets” on your web browser for easy adding. Another great free source of info is Wikitravel – try uploading the whole destination guide for the city you’re visiting to your Instapaper or Read It Later app for easy offline reading. Evernote is another great document storage app you may already have that lets you store everything from web links to photos to audio recordings.

Make Cheaper Phone Calls and Pay Less for Wi-Fi
If you’ve ever placed a phone call from abroad using your cell phone, you probably remember the sticker shock that came with it when you got the bill back. That’s where Skype’s suite of mobile apps can be a real lifesaver. Use your mobile phone over a Wi-Fi connection to make phone calls (and send texts) while abroad to any phone number. Did you know Skype also has an app that lets you pay-by-the-minute for Wi-Fi at over 1 Million locations worldwide? Skip the $8 daily Wi-Fi rate at the airport and login using your existing Skype credit.

[flickr image via Cristiano Betta]

Dragon Go! app adds Expedia support

by Kraig Becker on

Nuance’s popular Dragon Go! app, which is available on both iOS and Android, received a major update earlier this week that is sure to be a hit with travelers. The software, which has been accepting voice commands long before Siri graced us with her presence, now offers support for Expedia, giving us the ability to book flights and find hotels, simply by asking.

Dragon Go! has been around for a couple of years now, and over time, Nuance has continued to add new content providers to the app. With the inclusion of Expedia, travelers can now simply say things like “Show me available flights between Los Angeles and New York in April,” and the software will present a list of options that will include flight schedules and pricing. There is even a link to the Expedia’s website, allowing users to book the flight directly from their phone. The voice search options also allow travelers to search for hotels near their current location and find reviews on destination resorts as well.

Dragon Go! can do a lot more than that however, as the app also allows travelers to get weather reports on their destination, play music for the trip, and look up movie times at the local theater. It helps users find the best restaurants or shops in their area, and even shares their travel experiences on Twitter.

Best of all, the app remains completely free and is available to download in both the iOS and Android app stores.

Experiential travelers get more with new iPhone app

by Chris Owen on

Experiential travel is growing as travelers seek to enrich their lives with a collection of experiences. For experiential travelers, just seeing the sights is no longer enough. They want to go beyond the tourist areas and immerse themselves into authentic local culture to connect with people in ways that enrich their lives and create lasting memories. Now, a new iPhone app aims to deliver just that.

Afar is focused on experiential travel and has a new iPhone app that they consider “the antidote to clunky travel guidebooks and sites like TripAdvisor,” says Venturebeat. Afar started as a travel magazine offering in-depth articles about different locations and cultures. Their new app, released this week, goes a different direction with user-generated content.

“What is experiential travel? Experiences that connect you with the essence of a place and its people … simply seeing the sights is no longer enough,” says Tim Peck, chairman of OBMI, a firm that plans things like hotels and resorts. “Experiential travelers want to venture beyond the beaten tourist paths and dive deeper into authentic, local, culture, connecting with people from other cultures in ways that enrich their lives and create lasting memories.”

The Afar app lets users take a photo with their iPhone, type up a quick description, and add it to Afar’s library of travel experiences or check out the photos submitted by other users and start planning their next trip.
“It’s like Instagram meets Foodspotting, but with a focus on dreamy travel locations,” says Venturebeat, a thought consistent with Afar’s mission “that inspires and guides those who travel the world to connect with its people, experience their cultures, and understand their perspectives.”