Get yourself in the holiday spirit with Slacker iPhone Holiday Radio

by Scott Carmichael on

In need of some cheering up this holiday season? Slacker just released a free Christmas version of their popular iPhone/iPod Touch streaming music app.

The Holiday version includes 11 festive channels, including “Dysfunctional Holiday” and several channels to cater for your personal taste in music.

As with the regular Slacker player, this one is free of charge. When you upgrade to Slacker Plus, you remove the ads from inside the app, and add the ability to skip more than 6 times per hour.

Still, even without the plus upgrade, this app is a fun and free way to get your daily fix of Christmas music. Thankfully the app also allows you to “ban” certain songs, which is exactly what I’ll do when “Last Christmas” pops up in my playlist.

You’ll find Slacker iPhone Holiday Radio in the App Store under “Slacker Holiday”, or by clicking this link (iTunes URL)

The iPhone holiday airport survival guide

by Scott Carmichael on

The holiday season is a tough one for air travelers. Bad weather, oversold flights and flight cancellations can really screw up your holiday plans. Sadly, when things do go wrong, airport staff are not always able/willing to assist, and when they do, the line to reach the desk can be huge.

Thankfully, if you have an iPhone, you really do “have an app for that”. In this lineup, you’ll find six iPhone apps that can help survive the worst the airport throws at you.
LiveATC.net

Don’t rely on the announcements from gate staff – stay one step ahead of everyone by listening to the air traffic controllers at your airport. The application covers 100’s of airports, in the US and abroad, and streams the live conversations between the controllers and aircraft. So, next time the tower tells your plane that it’ll be 2 hours, and the captain tells you on the intercom that they wait “won’t be too long”, you’ll know the real situation.

This app also works great from the gate, or even on the drive to the airport. Sure, you need to be a bit geeky, and it’ll take a little practice to understand all the various aviation terms used, but before you know it, you’ll be a pro at deciphering all the communications with your flight.

Price: $2.99
iTunes app store link: LiveATC

FlightTrack Pro

This is an indispensable application for any traveler with an iPhone. FlightTrack Pro links to TripIt, allowing you to import all your itineraries. The app keeps a close eye on your flight, and alerts you of any delays, gate changes or cancellations.

In my experience, FlightTrack Pro can even alert you to these changes before the gate agents or PA announcer are informed.

It has happened to me several times that I walked to the new gate 10 minutes before the rest of the passengers even knew about the change.

FlightTrack Pro is also fantastic for gate notifications on connecting flights. Simply turn your phone on when you land (and when the flight crew say it is OK), and you’ll immediately see where your next flight departs from.

Price: $9.99
iTunes app store link: FlightTrack Pro

HotelPal

Sooner or later you’ll hear the dreaded announcement – “flight canceled”. If the delay is weather related, the airlines will usually just close up for the night and leave you on your own. At this point, most passengers will be running for the hotel booking desk. You are prepared, so grab your iPhone, start HotelPal, and within 20 seconds, you have a list of all the local hotels, their current rate for the night and their distance to your location.

You can reserve a room directly inside the application, view detailed information about the hotel and even see its location on a map.

Price: free
iTunes app store link: HotelPal

preFlight

preFlight displays current FAA supplied delay information for virtually every airport in the country.

It shows departure delays, arrival delays and any other specific delay information.

Best of all, it shows why the airport is suffering delays, which can give you a good idea how long you’ll be stuck at the airport food court.

Price: $0.99
iTunes app store link: preFlight

FlightSites

Do you know the phone number for your airline? Or a quick way to reach their online check-in site? FlightSites is a really simple collection of airline phone numbers and web sites. It covers most of the US carriers, and provides links to their customer support pages, frequent flier site, online check-in site and a quick way to call their customer support.

Price: free
iTunes app store link: FlightSites

Airport maps for iPhone

What do you do when you arrive at an airport you’ve never been to, and only have 10 minutes to find your connecting gate?

Or what if you arrive at the airport in desperate need of a Big Mac? Airport Maps for iPhone covers 59 major North American airports, and displays gates, amenities and other services.

The app shows easy to navigate maps of the airport, with pinch and zoom control.

Since the application stores all the maps locally, you can browse your destination while still in the air (with your iPhone in flight mode of course).

Price: $2.99
iTunes app store link: Airport maps for iPhone

Dexim P-Flip iPhone battery doubles as a portable dock

by Scott Carmichael on

There are quite a few iPhone/iPod touch battery packs on the market. They vary from the dull and mundane to the creative and innovative.

The new Dexim P-Flip folding power dock clearly falls in the latter. It is part battery pack, part charging dock and part syncing dock, all in one unit. It is available in three “flavors”:

  • The DCA165 includes the P-Flip dock and a 2000 mAh battery pack. It comes complete with an AC adapter and USB cable.
  • The DCA132 offers the same battery power, but comes in matte black, pearl black, pink, gold and silver.

The first of the docks (the DCA165) is available right now from Brookstone for $69.95. The battery inside the P-Flip is powerful enough to add about 8 hours of talk time to your device (or up to 15 hours of video / 80 hours of audio playback).

The best part of these docks is that they use a standard MiniUSB port for charging the battery, powering your iPod and syncing it, which means you can leave your iPod cable at home, and rely solely on the P-Flip.

By sitting the iPod upright (or on its side), you can also use it with one of the many alarm clock programs available from the app store, which means you can also leave your travel alarm at home.. The P-Flip works with all versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

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.