Android Apps for Travel
The summer months are almost upon us and for many, that means the prime season for travel and vacation are almost here. Fortunately there is no better travel companion than the smartphone we carry in our pockets everyday. With built in GPS, always on data access and thousands of amazing applications, your next excursion can be made even simpler with Android. Check out these great apps for travel.
Tap the App Icon to download in the Android Marketplace
The next time you travel or just want to a cool new way to explore the city around you, check out this amazing augmented reality application.Augmented Reality is a category of app that uses your smartphone’s camera and special software to give you information about your surroundings. By simply holding up your camera and viewing the world around you, the app overlays information on top of your camera’s view and displays details about the buildings and objects in your sights. It’s a great way to find nearby restaurants, ATMs, landmarks, bars and other points of interest while traveling. The Wikitude app is chock full of information and even incorporates coupons to help you save on your travels.
Having a GPS enabled smartphone is what truly makes your device smart and with an app like Where, you’ll never be lost for a place to eat, drink or be entertained. It’s perfect if you’re traveling to a new city or wanting to explore more about your own home town. Find cheap gas, movie times, coupons and easily share your discoveries with built in social network integration with Facebook.
While traveling and seeing new sights is a great experience, the planning, organizing and keeping your friends and families in the loop about your travels can be a bit of a chore. With TripIt, keeping track of your itineraries and planning what to see while you travel couldn’t be simpler. Sign up for a free account at Tripit.com (web link). Simply forward all of your itineraries (hotel reservations, car rental, flight details) to your Tripit Account and the service organizes all of your plans in one easy to view app and web service. The service can also alert you if your plane is delayed or if there are alternative flights home. It’s like having your own personal travel agent.
If you plan to take to the open highways this vacation season, be sure to take along Waze. This GPS enabled application uses social sharing via driving to give you and other Waze users the best information about traffic conditions and the best routes when out and about. It works simply by opening up the app when you drive and giving permission to have it track your driving route. The app uses your driving conditions and speeds and aggregates it with other Waze users to produce the most accurate traffic map possible. You can also (when safe) submit photos and other road conditions to the app to alert other drivers about current driving conditions. (Note: text entry in this app is disabled when it detects the car is moving. Of course, driving safety and arriving safely are paramount – no texting while driving!)
Looking to book your travel plans and need a simple and easy way to do it? Look no further than the Kayak app. Find hotels, flights and car rentals from this easy to navigate application based on the popular travel site.
If you’re traveling to far away lands, knowing the exchange rate will be important to ensure you don’t get overcharged while shopping in local markets. Bring along the XE Currency app and have the calculations done for you. With current rate exchanges and over 180 currencies supported, the local rate exchanges are at your fingertips!
Toss aside that pocket dictionary and bring along your smartphone with powerful translation apps like Google Translate. With support for over 50 languages and audio translations for the most popular languages, communicating while traveling is a breeze with Translate.