Five Travel products for the wine lover

by Scott Carmichael on

Traveling with (or for) wine is not as simple as it used to be. I’m by no means a wine expert, but before 9/11, even I traveled with a pocket corkscrew and foil cutting knife. For a brief period, the TSA banned any and all corkscrews. Nowadays the rules have been relaxed a little – corkscrews are once again permitted, as long as they don’t have a blade.

Of course, wine is a different matter altogether, and unless you are able to pour your bottle into small containers, and store them in a Ziploc bag, you are going to have to check those bottles in your luggage.

In this lineup, I’ve listed five wine related products that can help travelers transport, open, enjoy and learn about their wine.

Packable plastic wine glasses

If you have ever been unlucky enough to have to drink a $100 bottle of wine from a plastic bathroom cup, you’ll learn to appreciate portable plastic wine glasses.

Sure, they may not be as charming as a good set of crystal glasses, but they sure beat the alternative. These glasses are BPA free (which is all the rage nowadays).

Price: $14.85 (for a set of two, with travel pouch)

Where: magellans.com



TSA approved corkscrew

I’ll admit right away that “TSA Approved” isn’t really something granted to a corkscrew. But the Oxo Good Grips corkscrew is one of the better rated corkscrews that doesn’t violate any of the rules laid out by airport security.

That said – when traveling with a corkscrew, it does make sense to keep the product in an outside pocket, because sooner or later, one of the screeners is going to confuse it for a lethal weapon.

This corkscrew is simple to use, and comes with a built in bladeless foil cutter.

Price: $24.99

Where: Amazon.com and most Oxo retailers


BottleWise Duo wine travel bags

Wine travel bags don’t get more sophisticated than this – the Bottlewise Duo holds two bottles of wine (or other bottles).

Bottles are double-protected, from breakage and leakage. Because lets be honest – the only thing worse than losing your wine, is losing it all over your clothes and toiletries.

Price: from $48.95 (for the black version)

Where: www.bottlewise.net


Tide Stain remover pen

Bet you didn’t see this one coming in a lineup of wine accessories?

Anyone who has enjoyed (a little too much) wine on the road will know what a hassle it can be when you spill. Even the smallest drop can ruin a shirt, and possibly screw up your entire wardrobe if you traveled very light.

The Tide To Go mini stain remover pen is brilliant. Unlike a lot of other fabric product promises, this thing really works. I’ve used it on red wine stains on a white shirt, and after applying, and letting it dry, the stain was nowhere to be seen.

Price: about $4.50 at your local store, or $33.06 for a pack of twelve through Amazon.com

Mobile Phone wine applications

When it comes to wine, there are three kinds of people – those that know their wine, those that pretend they know their wine, and those that don’t know and don’t care. I’m in the middle. I like to pretend I know what I’m talking about, and I’ll swirl my glass making it appear like I know what I’m smelling.

For those of you like me, you may want to look into some of the fantastic applications that are available for your mobile phone. One I can highly recommend is “Hello Vino” (for the iPhone/iPod Touch). This free application lets you search for wine pairings based on meal, occasion, taste/style and country/region.

Its database covers thousands of wines, and shows the year, label, star rating, winery, region and flavor description.

Never again will you be at a loss for words when you are asked to describe a wine!

Price: free

Where: iPhone/iPod Touch App store

Make hotel reservations on your iPhone with HotelPal

by Scott Carmichael on

The Gadling hotel month may be slowly coming to an end, but we are always on the lookout for new and interesting applications to help make traveling a little easier. HotelPal is such an application.

Imagine pulling up your current GPS location on your iPhone, and getting a list of all hotels in your area. The application can list the distance to you, current rates, photos and even availability.

Once you find a good looking hotel, you can go ahead and make a reservation, all from the comfort of your device.

You’ll be able to download HotelPal in the App store later this week. Best of all, the app will be free of charge! If you leave your email address on their site, they’ll drop you a note when the application is ready to download.

The developers behind HotelPal have made quite a name for themselves with their other applications – FlightTrack and FlightTrack Pro. FlightTrack is currently the number one travel application in the App store, so HotelPal has quite a reputation to live up to.

Augmented reality: a traveler’s dream?

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Gadling has previously investigated how mobile devices are changing the way we travel, whether it’s helping us navigate public transit, letting you make cheap phone calls abroad or showing us location-based maps of nearby restaurants, hotels and businesses. Now, an emerging mobile phone technology called augmented reality looks ready to bring this mobile experience to the “next level.”

It works like this: you start up an application on your phone using a built-in accelerometer, GPS and camera. As the application scans the world around you, it recognizes what you see, providing images, web links and information depending on where and what you’re looking at. Think of it almost like the real world was “clickable.” You could be walking down the street, pass by a restaurant, and have a link pop-up with a menu and weekly specials. Or in the case of augmented reality applications like acrossair on the iPhone (shown above) it can help you figure out the location of the nearest subway or metro stop. Other applications, like Wikitude and the Dutch service Layar let you browse directories of ATM’s, bars and hotels around you.

As with any cool new technology, there’s sometimes a catch. At this point, augmented reality apps like acrossair, Layar and Wikitude are only available to users abroad in Europe, although the companies are all promising a launch for U.S. users later this year. You’ll also need to have a supported phone – in this case either a device with Android or an iPhone 3GS to take advantage. Still, the coming of augmented reality offers a bright view of our travel future. Imagine taking a trip where we were free of our guidebooks, able to have information on transit, shopping, eating and sleeping at our fingertips when we wanted it and hidden from view when we didn’t. It’s a concept that is rapidly approaching reality, though still working out some kinks – don’t throw out that map just yet.

Photo of the Day 6.22.09

by Karen Walrond on

Last week, I finally joined the 21st century, and bought myself an iPhone. This is the first phone I’ve ever owned with a camera in it; since I have a few regular cameras that I avidly use, what, I reasoned, would I need a camera phone for?

I have to say, I’m becoming a convert, especially when I see amazing shots like the one shared by Arachide, above, taken in Prague with his iPhone, and applying a toy camera application. It’s like a vintage photograph — so beautiful.

Looks like I’m going to have to take my iPhone out for a spin.

If you’ve got some great travel shots you’d love to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day.

Guilt-free vacation, part II: free your inner workaholic

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you haven’t read the earlier installments in this series, check them out:

Once you’re up to speed, check out the latest round of tips below. Here are even more ways to work yourself to the bone while you are (supposedly) on vacation while minimizing the impact on your family.

1. Bribery
Hopefully, you earn per hour more than your spouse can spend. Hand over the credit cards, and unleash your family on the mall, local shops or spa. Bite the bullet.

2. Encourage relaxation
Suggest that your spouse take a long bath or shower. Emphasize the great smell of the soaps and shampoo. Then, use that time to scratch your workaholic itch. If all goes well, you could buy yourself an hour with your laptop.

3. Bigger is not better
Devices are easier to hide than laptops. If you have an iPhone or Blackberry that’s hooked into your corporate e-mail account, take advantage of it.

3a. Leave the laptop at home
This is easy if you move all your necessary work files to your handheld device. Then, you can make a point that you made the profound sacrifice of not taking your laptop with you.

4. Phone ringers = busted
When the phone rings, you know you’re going to get caught. Vibrate is better, but you still run the risk of being heard. Instead, set your phone to silent and look for missed calls. Then, check your voicemail while you’re in the bathroom.

5. Read your voicemail
Voicemail transcription applications like PhoneFusion, Youmail and Simulscribe solve the problem of having to buy time to disappear and make a call. Reading rather than dialing and listening is much less intrusive.

Good luck out there, and don’t get caught! Do you have any other tips? Leave a comment, and help your fellow workaholics.