Woman arrested at Ben-Gurion airport with 44 iPhones strapped to her legs

by Scott Carmichael on

Forget drugs, animals and bomb parts – the new hot commodity of choice for smugglers is apparently the Apple iPhone. At Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, a passenger was caught trying to smuggle 44 of the smartphones into the country.

The Israeli woman was returning from London when security guards noticed the phones on the screen of their full-body scanner. Apparently, the passenger had dressed herself in layers of traditional Georgian attire, but failed to realize that the scanners would be able to see right through them.

When she was scanned, the operators were amazed to see the 44 phones in her stockings. After the catch, she was released and a decision will be made later this week whether to indict her.

At least the iPhones were relatively “normal” – other smugglers have tried to import live pigeons, a dead relative and a monkey.

[Photo: AP]

The Apple iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless is here – what it means for travelers

by Scott Carmichael on

Well, it finally happened – the largest mobile carrier in the United States is getting the Apple iPhone. Ever since the original iPhone was announced back in 2007, gadget sites have been speculating about a magical “can you hear me now” version of the phone.

But now it is here – the news isn’t really as spectacular as it could have been. A mere week after companies like Samsung, HTC and Motorola announced 4G versions of their handsets, the Verizon iPhone brings little new to the table. On the inside, it is exactly the same as the AT&T iPhone, albeit with a different radio system (for the Verizon CDMA network).

And that CDMA network is a major problem for people who plan to travel with their Verizon iPhone 4 abroad. With the AT&T (GSM) version of the iPhone, you can take it to Europe, Asia and most other countries and get access to a GSM network. CDMA users have never been that lucky – the list of CDMA countries is tiny when compared with GSM (44 CDMA networks compared to 255 GSM networks).

In other words – take your new Verizon iPhone 4 to Canada or Mexico, and it’ll work just fine. But take it to France or Australia, and you’ll only be able to use it when you find a Wi-Fi hotspot. Of course, with roaming rates as expensive as $5/min, sticking to Wi-Fi isn’t that bad a plan.

And unlike some of the newer Android devices on Verizon, their iPhone does not do dual mode CDMA/GSM. This limitation is of course not that important if your travels don’t take you outside the limited CDMA lineup, but if you are regularly in Europe, you may want to think twice about this investment. And finally, because this new iPhone uses CDMA, you will not be able to do simultaneous voice and data connections.

St. Regis launches ‘E-Butler’ application for guests

by Melanie Nayer on

Need a last-minute wake-up call or tickets to a sold-out Broadway show? No problem, if you’re staying at the St. Regis New York. The luxury hotel recently launched the St. Regis New York “E-Butler,” a PDA application that allows guests to interact with the hotel’s butlers and concierge via their iPhone or iPad.

This application will offer guests the ability to “chat” directly with The St. Regis E-Butler in real-time via their iPhone or iPad, before and during their stay. The hotel also included the help of New York personalities including André Leon Talley, Jason Wu, Alexis Bittar, Alain Ducasse, Doug Blonsky, President of the Central Park Conservancy, Danny Meyer, David Rockwell, Dale DeGroff, Harold Koda, Michel Musto, Peter Som and Preston Bailey to share their favorite shops, restaurants and city landmarks.

Once guests have made their reservation at The St. Regis New York, they will receive an email confirmation, including a link to download the St. Regis New York E-Butler application directly to their iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Andriod or other smartphone. Guests will also be able to download The St. Regis E-Butler application via iTunes. The St. Regis New York E-Butler will allow guests to speak directly with their butler prior to and during their stay.

The best part? The E-Butler is a complimentary service offered to all guests in residence at The St. Regis New York. The St. Regis does have plans to launch a version of this E-Butler to the general public, which will include a number of features such as the Insider’s Guide to New York and the seasonal calendar of events.

Merry Christmas from Lonely Planet: 13 free iPhone city guides

by Scott Carmichael on

Lonely Planet just unwrapped an early Christmas present for us all – 13 of their popular iPhone city guides went from $9.99 to $0. The guides are on sale until 1PM December 23rd, so grab them while you can – and remember, even if you don’t need them right away, once purchased, you’ll always have access to them for free.

Here are the 13 guides (iTunes store links):

This is the second time they’ve made the iPhone guides free – last time was to help stranded passengers during the volcanic eruptions in Europe. And don’t think that Lonely Planet forgot about Android users – the Android versions of these apps dropped to 99 cents. Not quite free, but still very generous!

Word Lens: the iPhone app that will change travel

by Stephen Greenwood on

There aren’t many apps that come along and significantly alter the way we live or travel, but this is one of them. The future is here.

Word Lens, released yesterday by QuestVisual, is an iPhone application that analyzes text in either Spanish or English and produces live translations in real time on your iPhone’s screen. Just point your iPhone’s camera at a sign, menu, or document and the application will display the translated text on top of the given object; arguably the most useful iteration of augmented reality to date.

Founders Otavio Good and John DeWeese have been hard at work for 2 1/2 years to make this a reality, and promise to expand with more languages soon. The app is available for free in the iTunes store, but the Spanish to English and English to Spanish dictionaries each cost $4.99.

At the moment, the application only processes text word-for-word, so there is no grammatical evaluation. But this is still useful for deciphering road signs, menus, and the multitude of printed text that one encounters when traveling in a foreign country.

DeWeese commented that they are also looking into non-latin character sets such as chinese, which is (understandably) “a few orders of magnitude more complex”.

So if you have an iPhone, head on over to the app store and download it for free to try out the demo and believe the magic yourself. If not, check out the video below.