by C L Smith

Created on: July 03, 2009

Traveling is never easy. However, an ever-increasing list of mobile applications is being developed to simplify at least some elements of a Road Warrior's travel days. Hundreds of such travel applications have been developed which help users orient themselves in unfamiliar environments. The applications handle the more mundane problems of the road leaving the traveler free to focus on business and or pleasure. The set of mobile applications that are available include those that serve up information about city landmarks, restaurants, local traffic, airlines, airports, and flights. Some applications even allow the user to pinpoint a location using G.P.S. The following are but a few of the popular mobile recommendation and navigation applications on the market today.

Nirvino

Nirvino is a free mobile application available to all Web-enabled mobile devices. The service provides access to professional wine reviews as well as amateur ratings of a favorite vintage. The service also provides information regarding beer and cocktails and uses location-aware technology to alert users to the highest-rated bars in their area.

GeoPedia

This free IPhone application delivers information about landmarks in your actual physical vicinity. The mobile application displays Wikipedia articles relevant to the traveler's current location. Geopedia is a service provided by Trivialware that provides data regarding museums, historical points of interest, and other spots of interest to the traveler in major U.S. cities.

TrafficGauge

With TrafficGauge the traveler can view real time traffic by simply referencing a map display on an iPhone, Blackberry or Web-enabled P.D.A. The map shows actual stop-and-go, medium, slow and fast traffic patterns.

Flight Stats

Conducive Technology developed this mobile application for frequent flyers who are also users of Web-enabled devices. The user has access to global flight, airline and airport information regarding more than 1,000 airports world- wide. The mobile app allows you access to flight status, airport delays, airport weather, flight arrival gates and airport parking data.

Taxi!

This iPhone application locates a taxi service for the traveler in more than 260 U.S. cities. The service searches are based on a current location of the mobile device. The mobile application also provides the user with a one-touch telephone connection they can use to summon the ride. Additional information is provided about the cab company such as customer ratings.

Urbanspoon

This is a free mobile application that aggregates user reviews of top restaurants across the U.S. If the location aware version of the application is used, your mobile device can also display a list of local recommended restaurants. This application is available to all mobile devices.

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