Travelling with your smartphone
Local information
You’re familiar with Tripadvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk) and its millions of reviews of destinations, restaurants, hotels etc. collected by travellers all over the world. But did you know that you can also use Tripadvisor as a free app for your smartphone? You can find it at http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/MobileApps. An especially useful function is Near Me Now, which helps you tofind reviews of, for example, a hotel in the vicinity. Plus, Live View option has recently been added: it displays extra information superimposed on the street view that you record by means of the camera on your smartphone. In addition, you can watch a Virtual Tour of a destination consisting of Street View images plus ratings by Tripadvisor. This app works on various smartphones, but iPhone users have the most options.
We can also recommend Wikitude (http://www.wikitude.com). This app lets you retrieve information about the things to see in the immediate vicinity. Point your smartphone’s camera to, for instance, a monument or museum, and with a bit of luck you will obtain information, such as the history or the opening hours. Wikitude is said to recognise some 150 million items at present. In addition, you can search actively as well. For instance, type “sushi” and this app will list relevant restaurants in the vicinity. This app runs on various smartphones.
Transport
The Métro app (http://metro.nanika.net) allows you to make efficient use of public transport systems worldwide. It shows the maps and schedules for more than 400 cities. The app also calculates the fastest route between two stations and has a handy Back function for the return journey. In addition, there are lots of apps for looking up taxi services close by, although they are generally limited to one country. Fortunately, there’s Clever Taxi (http://www.clevertaxi.com - runs on Android only), which covers more than 5,000 cities in 267 countries. On the iPhone you can install Rocket Taxi (http://www.edovia.com/rockettaxi - $2.99), or search for other apps by typing “taxi” in the iTunes Store.
Translation
Several apps can translate words and phrases on your smartphone. Google Translate (search in the iTunes Store or the Android Market) even offers an interpreting service: say a word or phrase in your mother tongue, and the app will read it aloud in the foreign language. In this way you can make yourself understood everywhere. Another handy app is Pointer Cards (http://www.pointercards.com - for iPhone only): it provides a written, oral and visual translation of foreign words, whilst icons help you to make clear exactly what you mean.
More
Dopplr (http://www.dopplr.com/iphone - for iPhone only) allows you to check whether any friends or colleagues are present in the same city. Finally, there’s the Tripline app (http://help.tripline.net/mobile - for various smartphones), which allows you to create a visual travel report. It consists of a timeline on which you add “stops” and insert texts and photos you’ve taken with your smartphone. Your trip is charted on an interactive map.
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