Useful iPhone Apps for Travel

For the longest time, I was totally uninterested in iPhone apps.  To me, when I thought of iPhone apps, I thought of video games or iFart or the one where it tells you what kind of cry (sleepy/hungry/wet) your baby was crying.  Useless and a waste of time.

Change that: now, I'm addicted.  What changed?  Well, I actually went to the iTunes app store and started browsing.  And now, I have suggestions.

Yelp:  For those of you who use Yelp religiously on your computer, why wouldn't you also want it on the go?  And it's FREE!  Yelp gives you user reviews of anything you can think of in the city you are visiting:  restaurants, tailors, manicures, parks -- you name it!  Whether it's business travel or a vacation: The bigger the city, the more reviews.  I find the service essential.

Currency Converter Pro: For a mere ninety-nine cents, this app gives you over 220 currencies to convert -- and not just into dollars -- into any other currency.  It's easy to use and it's one less thing you have to concern yourself with.  Especially if you're bad at math and a nervous Nelly while you travel.

Flashlight: This seems a little silly, but it's always good to have a flashlight with you.  Dark hotel room.  Don't want to wake your husband. .  It's a free app that turns your iPhone very very BRIGHT.  Hence, the name.

Sit or Squat:  Bathroom Finder  When I lived in New York City, I prided myself on where to find the most luxurious public bathrooms (Bendel's on Fifth, downstairs -- like a studio apartment!  My god, you have to see this bathroom!) because I was always on the go.  Now, I don't have to work so hard.  When you're in a strange place, you want a stable, clean toilet.  Am I right?

Audiobooks: I just blogged about it recently, but it bears repeating.  This app gets you thousands of free, public domain books that are read by volunteers streamed or downloaded to your iPhone.  For $.99, it's a huge bang for the buck.

Pocket Express:  Also a free app, this one gives you all sorts of general information.  The weather is what I've keyed into.  It's easy to use and you really need to know what to wear in the morning, boots or sandals.

I was also going to tell you about Trip It: it's a free app, but for the past 72 hours, the website that accompanies it is down.  That's a LONG time.  Not sure what's happening.  Well, if it's just a blip, it's a great place to congregate all of your travel plans, no matter where you booked them: hotel, car, appointments, etc.

Go ahead to the iTunes store and start poking around.  I guarantee that you'll find something useful.  Even if it's just a game to while away the time while you're waiting for your delayed flight to arrive.

Late Night: Why Ellen Should Host the Tonight Show

I'm not an expert, but I'm smarter than the average bear.  Why is NBC is shuffling a bunch of low-rating losers like Jay and Conan?  Last summer, it was perfectly obvious to me that the best choice for the Tonight Show was and is Ellen DeGeneres.  Why isn't it obvious to everyone else?

First off:
Most of the Tonight Show's current viewers are the "coveted" 18-49 year old men.  Why are they coveted?  Dunno.  In my reality, women who love Ellen (35+, I'm guessing) have FAR more buying power than this group of men.  Does NBC seriously not know that women buy 80% of EVERYTHING!  That includes cars, electronics, major appliances -- you name it.  That's a LOT more buying power than a 35 year old guy who hasn't yet earned his highest pay potential and who is just starting out.  Compare him to the 50 year old woman who spends not only her paycheck, but the majority of her husband's (groceries, clothing for the family, vacations, etc.).

Secondly:
If you court the audience that has the most buying power and they start to watch, you can get the most advertising revenue.  Right?  (I told you I was smart.)  And so what if you get a drop off in the 18-49 year old men?  You get a whole new demographic for late night.  I would venture that much of Ellen's current audience don't watch Conan -- but that they would tune in for her.

Lastly:
Ellen is delightful.  Who doesn't like Ellen?  She's not a middle-of-the-road ass-kisser like Jay.  People like Ellen who have the moral courage to come out of the closet before it's fashionable to do so are definitely not ass-kissers.  They are trend setters.

I don't watch her daytime show, but I like her.  If I watched daytime talk shows, I would watch hers.  I've seen it a few times and she's always funny -- authentically funny.  Why do you think American Idol picked her up?  People like Ellen: they want to hear her opinion on things -- even things she probably doesn't know much about, like pop music. 

So why is NBC sticking with the losers?  Here's my best guess:  middle aged moms are so unappealing, so unsexy to the executives at NBC that they would rather lose money than have to court this demographic.  They would like to make a show that their younger selves would watch. To me, this sounds like a shaky business model.

Free Audio Books for Children

OK, almost free. All you have to do is buy a 99 cent app for your iPhone. That's pretty close to free for a long car ride with two kids in the back seat, no?

There is a wonderful organization called Librivox. They take books in the public domain and have volunteers record them and then distribute them on their website. You could listen to the books on your computer for free.

An enterprising company called AudioBooks has created an app whereby you can download these books to your iPhone et, voila! You're all set. There are new titles being added all the time and tons of books for kids.

Here's the bad news: the people reading the books are not actors and god bless them for volunteering, but some could use a little pep, zest and tone fluctuation. And some ACTING LESSONS! It's not like listening to John Lithgow, people! But it's free! (OK, 99 cents)

Here's what you do:

• go to the iTunes store -- for those of you with PCs, yes you can download iTunes and go to the iTunes store (did you really think that Apple was going to miss out on all that revenue?) and...
• go to the App section and search under "audiobooks."
• Now buy the app. It's called "Audiobooks" and has a blue background. Version 3.1 as of today.
• Now sync it to your iPhone.
  

You are done.

Oh, here's the other kind of down side: the catalog could use a little bit better organization. And perhaps, user reviews. And key word searches like say "boy" or "girl" and "Princess" -- stuff like that. But it's almost free! And there is a children's category to search. Look, for free, you can spend 15 minutes searching the catalog and figuring out what to play before you get into your road trip. Right?

What do you mean you don't have an adaptor to play your iPhone through your car stereo? And you don't have a headphone splitter so that both kids could listen to the story on separate headphones? Honey, start clicking. This is a GREAT investment.

It's only getting better, people.