Travel

The Sena Watch Roll is a great travel companion for Apple Watch users

One of the greatest first world problems of our century is figuring out how you're going to carry all these extra bands when traveling with an Apple Watch. There are of course many solutions available to you, such as throwing everything in a box or in a pocket of your backpack/luggage, but that is a somewhat inelegant way of going at it.

I recently came across the Sena Watch Roll, a neat-looking leather roll that stores your Apple Watch bands and small accessories in a tight package, offering a worthy storage solution for the classy traveler you are. We'll have a quick look at it in this short review.

Quick review: traveling smart with Radar, Yahoo’s new iPhone app for planning trips

Yahoo today released a brand new mobile application for planning trips, Radar for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app is available at no charge in the App Store and includes a smart chat bot that you can interact with. Using data from a number of popular third-party services, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, Radar delivers personalized recommendations of sights to see, activities and restaurants in an attractively designed mobile user interface.

After using it briefly, I can safely say that Radar is one of the best mobile apps Yahoo has published in a while.

United Airlines app gains handy new passport scanning feature

United Airlines updated its iOS app this morning, bringing the client to version 2.0.16. The update includes support for a new feature the company is testing out that enables users to scan their passports to check-in for international flights using their device's camera.

United is calling the trial feature "Expanded International Check-In," and its purpose is to allow international passengers to complete their check-in process and print their boarding pass before arriving at the airport. All it takes is a quick photo scan of their passport...

Kayak Pro goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has named the popular hotel and flight-booking app Kayak Pro its App of the Week this week. This means that through next Thursday, you’ll be able to pick up the application for both your iPhone and iPad, for free—a modest savings of $1.

For those unfamiliar with Kayak, it's considered by many to be the top mobile travel app. It essentially works as a search engine for hundreds of travel sites, allowing you to compare prices for things like flights, cars and hotels, as well as book them...

Expedia now giving away free travel-related iOS apps, starting with Over

If you're the type who enjoys seeing new places and meeting new and interesting people, chances are you're using Expedia to plan your trips.

Originally started by the Windows giant Microsoft, the online travel service was later spun off as a separate entity because it was "no longer about software intensive technology" and they were "concerned that they would not do their best at this."

Since then, Expedia's been doing great: it's grown into a multi-billion dollar business and is now the world's largest full-service online travel company. Expedia.com is ranked the 138th website in the United States by the web traffic reporting service Alexa.

They have a decent iOS application and now Expedia is offering free iPhone and iPad apps related to traveling as part of its new 'Media Lounge' service.

Expedia Hotels & Flights for iOS has been bumped to version 3.6 and can now be downloaded free from the App Store. Hit the break for more info...

United Airlines to launch free inflight movie service for iOS devices next month

United Airlines is looking to introduce a new inflight movie service for iOS users next month, according to a new report. The service will allow iPhone and iPad owners to watch over 150 movies and 200 TV shows on their devices for free.

Users will have full control of the content, meaning they can stop, pause, rewind and switch between videos. And it sounds like all you'll need to access the service is the United Airlines app—no purchase of an in-flight Wi-Fi plan required...

ETA lets you easily check driving time to your favorite locations

I often go to the Bay Area, which is about 100 miles from where I live. If you know anything about California traffic, you’ll know that a simple 100-mile trip could take anywhere between an hour and a half and four hours. So, knowing drive times in advance is very important when I’m trying to make it to a show on time.

ETA is a very simple app that lets you check the estimated time of arrival for any location you save in your iPhone. Plus, you can get driving directions through the app as well…

Hotel chain testing iPhones as room keys in pilot program

When a hotel clerk first hands you your room key card, one of the first things they usually say is "don't put it in the same pocket as your phone." They say this can cause your key card's magnetic strip to malfunction, although some people question the logic behind it.

But this may not be an issue much longer. Starwood Hotels & Resorts has begun a new pilot program in two of its major hotel locations in Manhattan and Silicon Valley that does away with key cards altogether by allowing guests to enter their rooms using smartphones...

Street Notes will get you ready for the most organized trip of your life

I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love lists. I am a big fan of organizing everything. I know it is silly, but I am not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl. I like to know what is coming, even when I’m trying to plan a trip to go sit on a beach and do nothing.

Street Notes is an organization app that lets you prepare for your trip in advance by collecting and storing notes, websites, and other information to get you ready for the best, most organized trip of your life...

Best travel apps for iPhone

Around this time of the year, families are preparing to hit the road, over the mountains and through the woods. Holidays mean travel. You may be only be a few hours away from the in-laws, or you may be thousands of miles from home.

If you are planning a trip this Thanksgiving, or anytime in the future, you can use your iPhone to take care of pretty much all of the arrangements. Whether you want a great deal on a hotel, recommendations on good eats, or are planning an all-inclusive trip to the Bahamas without the kids, we’ve got a list of the best travel apps that will help make that come true…

Pinterest app updated with new ‘Place Pins’ for planning trips

Pinterest announced last night that it's moving into new territory: travel. The popular photo-sharing service announced Place Pins, a new feature that will allow its users to share photos of the amazing places they’re visiting.

That new feature is now available in the iOS app. And with it, users can essentially plan vacations by easily adding maps to their pin boards, as well as other useful travel information like hotel addresses and phone numbers...

iTravelGo, your no-nonsense iPhone guide to the world’s 36 most famous cities

I'm a Sagittarius so traveling, meeting fresh new people and exploring interesting new places I've never been to is my thing. As any world traveller could tell you, planning a journey normally involves doing extensive research about your favorite destination. But yours truly is a lousy planer: I'm the type of person who instead pulls an iPhone out of my pocket  to check out the top places to eat or stay, educate myself on a specific landmark, learn a little history and so forth.

But as much as I'm inclined to research places on the spot, roaming charges on my wireless bill are a painful reminder that pulling quick facts from the web, while abroad, is a big no-no. Having tried lots of similar apps that offer offline functionality, the iTravelGo app by developer Oleg Baranovskyi in my view is one of the more compelling city guides on the App Store.

Not only does it look nice, it sports a high-quality database of points of interests and is packed with useful information on the world's 36 most famous cities. And as a bonus, there's even a handy glossary in seventeen languages...