Tag: Travel »

Keeping track of health data and checkup information for all the family can be pretty tedious. After all, who wants to focus on their ailments all the time? Potentially knowing that knowledge or, more importantly, having that information on hand at all times, could save the life of a much loved family member. As an example, I'm allergic to paracetomol so what happens if I fall unconcious and wind up in hospital in need of painkillers urgently? An app like medAssist will ensure that such allergy information is readily available for any medical professional.

The app offers a place to store simple information such as date of birth as well as more complex and involved knowledge such as allergies, family disease history, blood group, even when the user had surgery or an X-Ray last. Chronic ailments such as joint problems or disease can be stored along with contact details for the family doctor making it easy to check in.

medAssist is one of few apps that could genuinely save lives. At $3.99 that's a small price to pay.

I wouldn't normally copy and paste directly from a press release announcing a new app but I feel that this one is worth the exception. Emergency Voice has been described as an "app that combines the awesomeness of sparkling unicorns with the usefulness of a spoon." Besides raising quite a smile from me, that's actually quite a good way of describing it. For travellers who don't know the local language while abroad, Emergency Voice certainly has the potential to be as vital to them as a spoon.

It's an app that contains recordings and writings of 5 different emergency sentences in 80 different languages. In theory this will cover users for a wide variety of situations! Emergency Voice appreciates that there are certain priorities in life so these sentences consist of 'I need help!', 'I need food!', 'I need water!', 'I am hurt!' and 'I need to get to the embassy!'. All the essentials basically.

Emergency Voice is only $0.99 so this is certainly an inexpensive backup plan for travellers this summer.

We all know that we need to do our bit to help the environment and reduce carbon emissions but it's not always as easy as we'd like it to be. Carsharing is a great way of doing this. The amount of cars on the road with only one person in them is massive and goes a long way to damaging the environment as well as causing more traffic congestion. A website by the name of Zebigo has been making it easier to arrange carshares and now there's an app devoted to that same purpose.

The whole service allows users to be matched up with others going to the same place. It's ideal for commuting, going to events or one way trips. It could even potentially help people find new friends. Cautious types will appreciate that a free background check can be arranged which increases the likelihood of being matched and also makes the whole thing much safer. Users can also choose to travel with the same gender or only with other employees at their company. There's even a ratings system so that riders and drivers can check out past comments before accepting a match.

The app is free while riders can pay the driver through their PayPal account just to cover transportation costs as well as Zebigo's small fee for using the service.

Banksy is a mysterious soul indeed. A British graffiti artist and political activist, he travels around creating street art that's frequently dark and satirical. It's admired by many, considered as vandalism by few, but ultimately it's very memorable. Banksy himself is memorable by name and reputation but he's also an enigma as no one knows his true identity. That's boosted his career a fair bit however with books of his artwork selling well (I have one on my coffee table as I write this) and his first film Exit Through the Gift Shop also proving very successful.

While fans can always consult his work online or through his book, a much more satisfying way of doing so is to go to the artwork itself. A new app by the name of Banksy-Locations sets out to make that all the simpler by offering a personal tour of all the street art. The app allows users to find Banksy locations via dropping a pin on a map, looking up via the user's current location or by searching through images in a gallery or by name. It's pretty acurate stuff too and certainly saves a lot of aggravation.

For users who would rather stay at home, there's always the option of viewing videos by and about Banksy as well as the image gallery that offers photos of his street pieces as well as installations. Banksy news is regularly kept up to date too with presumably new artwork kept track of once he devises some.

Throughout the app maintains an appearance that is bound to appeal to the minimalist nature of Banksy style art with a great gritty edge. Banksy-Locations is a pretty comprehensive app for the graffiti or Banksy fan and looks set to be a great way of discovering new art.

It's out now, priced at $1.99.

Summer is upon us (although us Brits wouldn't be so sure about that one) and so begins the great holiday rush. One such popular resort in Europe is that of Santorini, an island just off Greece's mainland. There's a lot to like about the place, with some fantastic geography thanks to its volcanic cone and all the great mythology that comes from Greece and its islands.

For those who intend to visit the island, there's now an app to help guide the way. Experience Santorini is available in iPhone and iPad varieties, both offering a user friendly and welcoming way of helping its users get acquainted with the island. It promises to reveal the place's darkest secrets and offers more than 500 suggestions for places to stay, eat, shop and enjoy. The app works offline also to ensure that there are no pesky excessive roaming data charges involved too. As is always useful with such things, the app tells the user what attractions are nearby them, whether it be a beach, museum, archaeological site or just a nice cafe to relax at.

The iPad version also boasts more than 20 minutes of videos offering interviews with archaeologists and winemakers of the area amongst others.

Throughout the rest of the app, the general ambience and design looks ideal for the tourist, so hopefully it'll be a great help to anyone visiting Santorini this summer.

The app is out now and priced at $4.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch version and $6.99 for the iPad HD version.

There's a new competitor for the navigation app throne and its name is Don't Panic. Admittedly this is a new competitor for the UK crowd as it only currently works in the UK but it could be well worth a look for those from these fair shores.

Don't Panic promises to be precise in its turn by turn instructions as well as speedy with some impressive promises of being up to 100 times faster than its competitors. An intuitive search feature is easily and instantly accessible from any point within the app and the ability to find destinations via partial addresses and points of interests is possible along with other typical navigational features.

A constant internet connection isn't even needed as the maps are available offline presumably aiding the speed issue hugely with promises of no stuttering or image lag.

For the asking price, Don't Panic offers unlimited free updates for the app with iPhone users exclusively getting unlimited free updates on the maps that come with the app itself.

Don't Panic is available now for UK users and priced at £19.99.

In Britain, it'd be easy to assume that once someone's in London, there's no need for them to go elsewhere for some fantastic sights and some great day trips. That couldn't be further from the truth with there being some terrific places to go for day trips within comfortable reach of The Big Smoke. Roving traveller Earl Steinbicker, previously known for his work with Waltzing Through Vienna has come up trumps again with London's Backyard, an app that aims to provide users with 25 one day adventures within a reasonable distance of London.

In each case, a suggested walking tour is provided along with various interactive maps, photos, suggestions for attractions that could be visited and some ever useful practical advice. Pretty much everything possible has been covered here ensuring that users have everything they could need in order to get the most out of each trip.

London's Backyard covers a fair amount of places ranging from the old fashioned seafront style town of Hastings to Winchester, Guildford, Canterbury and Dover. Each area is covered extensively ensuring that there's something of interest for all people. For instance, Colchester in Essex, North of London, is not only Britain's oldest record town with some extensive Celtic and Roman history to be seen, but it also offers a great zoo, popular with many people.

Less well known places such as the canal village of Stoke Bruerne and Woodstock in Oxfordshire are also examined ensuring that people can get away from the hustle and bustle of London easily, either via public transport or by car.

Many of these places might be familiar to British readers but I doubt they know a huge amount about them all making London's Backyard ideal for everone.

It's out now for all iOS devices, it's an universal app and it's a mere $2.99 which seems a good deal for over 3 weeks worth of daytrips!

Travelling internationally can be complicated, and visiting a foreign city without doing some research is probably a bad idea. But why force yourself to do all the work when plenty of travel guides have already done the legwork for you? That's the idea behind Smart Travelling Guides, which boast that they aim to "make the experience of worldwide travel more rewarding, less mediocre, and easier to navigate."

Smart Travelling Guides provide recommendations for food, culture, nightlife, hotels, and shops. Trumpeting that it can find the "best places in town," the app displays pictures of the place in question, an upbeat description, and finally provides a map. With more than 5,000 hand-picked recommendations, Smart Travelling Guides claims to provide a unique database of great experiences, from spectacular cups of coffee and delicious meals to luxurious hotels.

For the first seven days, the app permits access to all cities at no charge; afterwards, however, each city's "guide" must be purchased. The app currently supports the following cities:

Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Dublin, Florence, Hamburg, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Marseille, Miami, Milan, Munich, Naples, New York, Nice, Palma, Paris, Prague, Rome, Salzburg, San Francisco, Stockholm, Valencia, Venice, Vienna, and Zürich.

The app's database also provides information on how other users have rated a place. Making use of the iPhone's hardware, the app can find places based on your current location. The travel guides also stay up-to-date thanks to online synchronization with Smart Travelling's online database. (Such updates come at no extra charge.) As another ease-of-use bonus, users can also download content for offline access.

So, Smart Travelling Guides provides a great resource of select restaurants, hotels, shops, and more for travelers looking to take advantage of sightseeing in a new city. Next time you're in Istanbul or Venice, perhaps Smart Travelling Guides will be of use!

Smart Travelling Guides can be downloaded as a free app, with extra "guides" unlockable via in-app purchase.

Who knows the most about an area? Tourist spot or otherwise? No, it's not the travel guide writer. It's actually the local person. Local knowledge is worth countless travel books and it's nowhere near as easy to get hold of as people would like. Fortunately there's an app out there that could well bridge the gap. It's called SpotWorld and it's a free app that combines social networking functionality and the humble travel guide.

Users simply choose from a variety of destinations or tap on Spots Near Me and there's frequently a wealth of relevant information within easy grasp. All manners of different bits and pieces pop up. For instance, where I live, the nearby bus station was listed but also numerous castles near to me. Each entry coming up with a photo, a brief overview and the ability to add further information.

In bigger cities than mine, this app really comes into its own. Users can easily see interesting sights near them that might not neccessarily feature in travel guides. Plus there's always personal experiences to consult such as a quick note about the standard of food in a nearby eatery or specific exhibits that are unmissable in the local museum.

The beauty is that everything is so welcoming to new users. They can simply rate the places they've visited or add their own tip. Even new photos can be added if the user wishes to do so.

When exploring a large area, there's also the ability to create itineraries which can then be shared with the rest of the community, creating a great tour guide feature.

SpotWorld is a free app but there is some premium content available such as sets of hundreds of articles and audio readings from the locals of San Francisco and New York City. Hopefully more will be forthcoming for other major cities.

The app is out now for all iOS devices.