We wanted to do a Hot Topic on the iPhone and travel related applications (“apps”) in this issue, however, the New York Times, Nat Geo, Travel Insider, and others beat us to it….see below:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/07/travel/0907-IPHONE_index.html
http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/best-iphone-travel-apps-text/1
http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/03/13/five-reader-approved-travel-apps-for-the-iphone/
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/the-best-iphone-apps-for-travelers/1

Undaunted, we asked an unnamed road warrior friend to give us his spin on the same subject, as he is a real user of the services and we wanted a rating and some comments on them for our Hot Topic…with an emphasis on free. Here is his take on the subject – his favorites that he bought or downloaded free from the iTunes store. No doubt, every iPhone user has his or her favorites (but we wanted the perspective from a real user on this one). Apologies to readers outside the US, as our road warrior travels mostly in North America. However, as the functionality and number of hand held connectivity and travel solutions increases, this trend is guaranteed to expand world-wide.

Flight Track – Rated 8/10 – $4.99
This is a great application for airplane travel! Users are able to input flight details (even months ahead of time) and then get gate and departure time updates on flight day. In flight, you can also get real time flight status/position updates via Wi-Fi, including airborne flight track map. I’ve never had any sort of issues running Flight Track on my iPhone…and that says a lot since my iPhone is jailbroken and unlocked!

AAA Discounts – Rated 6/10 – Free
A reasonable application for finding places that offer American Automobile Association discounts. There are many sales and service discounts available but who has the list with them at a point of purchase? Functionality is somewhat limited, but it is a free app.

Coffee Finder – Rated 7/10 – Free
I like this application a lot. It uses the iPhone 3G GPS to find the nearest Starbucks. It also gives you the option to send an invite via email to an associate plus it provides directions. I would have rated this application even higher except it does have one annoying flaw. The application does not seem to take travel direction into account, for example, if you are heading south on a freeway, Coffee Finder might show a Starbucks nearby an exit you recently passed as being closest. In practice, most of us wouldn’t want to turn around; we would just go a few more miles to the next closest one.

Travelocity – Rated 4/10 – Free
This application can get you information on hotels, flights, etc, but strangely, you can’t book them online.

Hotels.com – Rated 7/10 – Free
Nice application with a lot of functionality. Very similar to the online app, you can research and actually book hotels via this iPhone application.

UrbanSpoon Rated 8/10 – Free
A very nice application designed for choosing restaurants. Enter in the type of food and the price range you want and it pulls up great options. (Editor’s Note – We also like Yelp!)

Kayak – Rated 8/10 – Free
Probably the best application for searching airline fares – I use it quite often. Works in a similar fashion to the online app and really brings a whole new level of functionality to the iPhone. A must-have application.

Lastly, two comments: 1) Websites like Gizmodo and Lifehacker regularly pick out their favorite apps or try “appadvice.com”; 2) New phones like the Palm Pre and Droid are rushing to deliver phone applications noting that there is money to be made here. We ask, why not a netbook iPhone emulation and store whereby non-iPhone and Windows users can get the same functionality?