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Apps for Your Smartphones

Forbes India Global Business Traveller's Guide: Give your smartphone a bit of a boost

Published: May 3, 2010 06:53:09 AM IST
Updated: May 7, 2010 06:42:17 PM IST
Apps for Your Smartphones

BLACKBERRY APPS
BeWeather (Free)
Instant current weather conditions, detailed 7-day and 24-hour forecasts for locations worldwide. You can keep up to 10 locations at the same time. Gives temperature, wind, pressure, dew point and humidity. You can also track your location via GPS/cell. Switch to nearby weather stations, and add custom web cams and other media links (weather radio, video, HTML etc) to any location.

Business Card Reader ($9.99)
Import contact information painlessly from business cards directly to your BlackBerry contacts by taking a photo of a business card. It ‘reads’ the picture and enters the data into appropriate fields of the BlackBerry address book. It recognises English, French, Italian, German and Spanish business cards and supports the Tour, Curve 8900, Storm, Storm 2 and Bold 9700.

Kayak Travel Search (Free)
This connects to kayak.com, a travel search engine that compares hundreds of travel sites at one go. You can find airfares and hotel prices immediately for free, and book online (it also shows hotels that don’t have online booking), or just press a button and your ’Berry will call them up. Features include searches for flights, hotels and car rentals with various filters. It allows you to track your flight’s status. In addition, there’s an airlines phone directory, Kayak Buzz (which gives you price trends) and free itinerary management.


iPHONE APPS

Apps for Your SmartphonesiCurrency Pad ~ The Currency Exchange Rates Converter ($0.99)
Apart from being a currency convertor and calculator, it also offers an up-to-the-minute world exchange rates “electronic board” and detailed charts showing current and historical trends of currency movements.

WorldCard Contacts ( $1.99)

A contacts management tool that combines your contacts with images of business cards taken from the
built-in iPhone camera. You can choose either the List mode or the Card mode to view or search contacts, call, send SMS, send email, browse Web sites and even check the map to pinpoint locations.

ICOON Global Picture Dictionary ($0.99)
A universal phrase book with a collection of pictures for everyday symbols in twelve different categories, from clothing, hygiene products and health to administration and leisure activities. Whether you need a toothbrush, safety pin or swimsuit, or want to explain hay fever without using words, it uses the world’s most universal language: Pictures.

World Customs & Cultures (Free)
Includes customs, cultural information, and facts on over 165 different countries.



SYMBIAN APPS (Applies to most Nokia phones)

Apps for Your SmartphonesWorldmate Gold ($49.95 per year, www.worldmate.com )
Create and manage your entire travel itinerary: It includes all your flight data, hotel and car rentals, and your meeting times. Things like flight delays and terminal changes are automatically synchronised and presented in the local destination time zone.

Ovi Maps (Free, maps.ovi.com )
Nokia’s free maps offering allows you to download complete maps of the cities or countries you’re visiting, so you don’t have to rely on expensive data roaming plans just to find your way around. Also offers turn-by-turn navigation and integrated information from Lonely Planet and Michelin Guides.

Tube 2 ($10-20, www.visualit.co.uk )
A guide to public transport routes and schedules in the cities around the world, it features scrollable subway routes and city maps, helping you plot your commutes easily.

 

(This story appears in the 21 May, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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