Happy New Year to you all!  I hope that the year is progressing as you would have to be, including all of the business travel you enjoy.

Having fallen in love with my iPhone at this point, I’ve decided to periodically review groups of iPhone apps that are applicable to business travelers.  My interest in reviewing apps is not just about the deals you’ll find, but how easy the apps are to use.

This month I’m reviewing a hotel booking apps that are tied to major travel websites whose names you’ll recognize.  I was prompted to pursue this idea by a hotel booking advertisement on TV that features two skydivers booking their hotel reservations just after jumping from their plane.  While we get to stay on airplanes until they land, I thought the metaphor of booking one’s hotel room while “flying” through the airport to grab a cab was appropriate.  Can I thumb-tap my way through the booking app while dragging my bags to the taxi stand?

The apps I have chosen to review are for aggregator sites.  As a business traveler I don’t usually use this type of site to book travel, unless I’m on a spontaneous or previously unplanned trip, where finding a deal on a hotel immediately is more important than finding a specific hotel in a particular neighborhood.

Six Hotel Booking Apps for iPhone

What startled me most about comparing these 6 apps is the wide variety of what they assume are traveler priorities.  This means that home screen layouts, navigation buttons, and how quickly one arrives at search results varies widely.  I’ve listed as bullet points the aspects of each app that made an impression as I tapped my way through them.

Note: these apps are mobile versions of websites that aggregate listings from multiple hotel sources, not apps for specific hotels.  I’ll review hotel-specific apps in a future newsletter.

www.Hotels.com

The app took 45 seconds to configure itself before displaying information the first time.  The app immediately asked to use my current GPS location.  Has Tonight’s Local Deals button on home screen Easy to filter by name, price range, rating, etc. Easy to sort by rating, distance from current location, guest ratings, etc. Regular search picks up current location, assumes 1 person for 1 night, but it’s easy to increase the number of nights, rooms, and people with a quick screen tap.  Results viewable as a list or as map locations.  Sign-in available to your existing Hotels.com account, or sign up on your iPhone.

www.Priceline.com

The app took 30 seconds to configure itself.  It asks to use your current location via GPS but doesn’t show local deals as a result.  Clicking the map locator button will then show local deals.  The app has 3 main navigation buttons:

- Negotiate: gets you prices for hotel rooms and the areas where they’re available.

- Radar: this feature (including a pinging sound) shows recent winning bids in the area and their prices.

- Browse gets you prices and locations for a “book immediately” option as opposed to bidding blindly.  You can filter by popularity, star rating, and neighborhood.  Prices shown are before local taxes.  Sign-in makes booking go more quickly, but booking without sign-in is available.  The home screen also has a car deals button.

www.Hotwire.com

The app takes about 30 seconds to configure itself.  It asks to detect and use your current GPS location.  The app immediately starts with requirements: assumes check-in date is today for 1 night, 1 person, 1 room, all easy to change from drop-down lists.  Shows number of results, then asks to list by price, star ratings; to filter by neighborhood or amenities.  No photos: this is a blind search.  When selecting by star rating, it shows price and neighborhood, but no hotel name or photo.  Amenities are listed.

www.Expedia.com

The app took 15 seconds to configure itself.  The app immediately asked to use GPS Showed hotel availability first based on GPS location rather than asking any details; 1 night, 1 person assumed, but buttons there to change those details.  Names, photos, ratings and prices are all immediately visible Sort and filter available Same list viewable as pins on a map Nice size photo slideshows; link to reviews on same screen Red pins indicate that prices are currently discounted

www.Kayak.com

Didn’t ask first for GPS, asked to send “push” notifications: alerts, sounds, and icon badges.  The app includes search for hotels, flights, cars, and a flight tracker.  The Hotel search came up with Los Angeles as the starting city, but when I challenged the location by tapping on the name, THEN it offered a GPS fix as an option.  The search assumed 1 person/night/bed.  The remainder of the list included thumbnail photos, prices, locations, and star ratings.  Buttons include Filter, Sort, Map, and Compare.  Filtering by stars meant UN-checking the star ratings you don’t want to see.  Filtering options included price, brands, and name but NOT location!  I was seeing Seattle hotels despite my Bellevue specification, and there are 15 miles and a body of water in between the two cities.  Half of the results listed were links to Hotwire deals.

www.TripAdvisor.com

The app took 15 seconds to configure itself.  The app asked to use GPS fix, and asked to send Push notifications.  This site relies heavily on user ratings.  Search menu options include hotels, restaurants, things to do, flights and a link to their user forum as a link to write a review.  Home screen buttons include Home, Near Me Now, and Faves buttons, with the search box at the top.  Hotel search asked for city, zip, address, or the option to use a checkbox called Near Me Now.  Ratings take precedence — links in hotel listings also to guest ratings are right there on the same screen.  Checking rates brings up tabs for Hotels.com, Expedia.com, Venere.com, Orbitz.com, the hotel’s website, Priceline.com, and Travelocity.com, each with their own deals listed.  Not all sites showed the details for the hotel you select; some provided their own listings for other hotels instead.  I would use this for ratings, but probably not for directly booking the room, since TripAdvisor is only a ratings service NOT a booking agent.

From a usability standpoint, I think the Hotels.com mobile site has the best, most compact design.  I found it easy to, with one or two taps, find a deal for the night.

Got a favorite travel app for iPhone, Android, or other smart phone?  Use the comment section on post to tell me which apps you like to use.

I have long been an advocate of using mass transit while traveling. I’ve been on trains and subway systems all over the world. I know most of you would prefer to rent a car to get around, but sometimes that’s just not an option.

For me, planning a transit excursion was fun; coordinating time schedules, locating bus stops, determining connections and layovers. Transit schedules have been readily available on the Internet for close to 10 years now. Even in countries where English is not the primary language, signs are often posted in English as well for the convenience of visitors. I’ve been all over Hong Kong island by bus, and it’s a great way to see the city and feel like a local, even if you don’t look like a local.

I recently acquired a full-time, on-site consulting contract near my home and decided to use mass transit rather than commuting by car through what is one of the worst highway bottlenecks we have around here. The bus to my client’s location uses surface streets and back roads, so the commute is quick and painless. Of course getting up at 6 am is challenge for me, but one I am committed to overcoming.

Naturally I began planning for my commute using the online transit pages. I remembered that a colleague on my last contract mentioned an iPhone App that delivers real-time bus information to your device. I installed it then but didn’t have much use for it until now. Having figured out the route, the iPhone app would be helpful in knowing exactly when the busses would arrive.

That one “timeliness” feature turns out to be a godsend. It removes the anxiety and frustration of wondering 1) whether you missed your bus, and 2) when it’s really going to show up. What’s nice about this particular application is that it not only shows you the bus you’re expecting, but every arrival at that stop, in case using an alternate bus is an option.

Timeliness is Next to Godliness

For business travelers, getting there on time is everything. We usually schedule our trips down to the last minute if we can, hoping that everything goes as planned. I think more travelers would consider using mass transit as part of their plan if they knew that the transit was reliable and timely. There is good news on this front; the increase in smart phone usage has encourage app developers to produce more of these real-time transit applications for our use.

Seattle is a high-tech town, so I would expect there to be coverage like this available. I went searching through iTunes, though, to see what other cities might have apps covering their territory. Naturally, having apps developed would depend on how much the local population depends on mass transit and/or how good the transit coverage is. As you might expect, the larger metropolitan areas have many apps available for download (most of them free). For example:

New York City Subways
Long Island Railroads
New Jersey Transit (Rail)
New Jersey Transit (Bus)
PATH Train (New Jersey to New York)

SE Pennsylvania Transit (SEPTA)
Washington DC Metro
NextBus DC

Chicago L (eLevated trains)
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
METRA: Long-distance Northeastern Illinois trains

San Francisco (bus)
CalTrain: SF commuter rail
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) around San Francisco
San Jose (bus)

But there are applications available for other metro areas as well.
Here is a partial list:

Denver
Los Angeles
Greater Boston (MBTA)
Miami-Dade County
Sacramento
San Diego
Seattle/Puget Sound

And don’t forget cities outside the USA:

Taipei
Bangkok

These are just the cities whose applications included the name of the city. There are dozens more applications in the list that didn’t include the city or region name, such as mine, titled “OneBusAway.”

These are just the iPhone applications — I saw many of the same apps in the Android Market as well.

Most of us travel pretty compactly, so hoisting a bag onto a transit bus isn’t any more difficult than hoisting it onto a hotel shuttle (except that you have to do it yourself). With the availability of this real-time transit information, the option to use mass transit on your next business trip should be seriously considered.

I invite you to jump on and enjoy the ride.

As a resident of the Seattle area, there are two big business influences on us: Microsoft — where I used to work, and Boeing — on whose planes I’ve flown the most.

This past Wednesday, the first 787 Dreamliner rolled out of the hangar in Everett, Washington (about 30 miles north of my home) in a special celebration with the CEOs of All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Boeing, along with the workers who produced the airplane. I watched a summary video of the celebration on the Boeing website, and I have to admit I felt a certain pride in being a resident here. When there’s a downturn in the airline business, we all feel it. Now that Boeing was able to finally deliver this plane, everyone who lives here is breathing a sigh of relief! I’m especially proud because they pulled it off despite the current economy.

I am looking forward to the days when the first 787s are delivered domestically, because I want to ride in one! When I travel internationally I look for flights with the Boeing 777 because I love how that plane is put together. I can only imagine how wonderful the 787s are going to be when we here in Seattle get to ride in one.

Improvements in the Airplane

The first thing I noticed on the Boeing videos is the in-seat entertainment. For Economy class, there are individual video screens in the headrest of the seat in front of you. I also noted ample storage bins, roomy lavatories, and tinted windows! No more having to sit in the dark just to be able to see the video screens. The windows are 30% larger, for those who want to look outside, and there are improvements to the Rolls Royce airplane engines that offer a smoother ride.

The new plane uses LED lighting instead of fluorescent lighting, which gives it a softer glow and lower electrical consumption. Personally, I’m looking forward to that — fluorescent lighting makes you look even worse than you already do after flying all night on an airplane.

Here is the micro-site for the airplane on ANA’s website. It will detect your language and display English, if that’s your default.

Http://www.ana.co.jp/787/

We Get Around

Among the destinations listed for this plane are cities within Japan, as well as Hong Kong and Frankfurt. According to the CEO of ANA, “The B787 is considered a medium-size aircraft but it can travel more than 52 per cent further than a similarly sized B767, while using 20 per cent less fuel. This brand new aircraft presents a new business opportunity for us to open new routes that would not have been viable before and gives us the chance to expand our network.”

That’s a really critical issue these days. The cost of fuel is already high, so a plane that can travel further and save 20% on fuel costs is a welcome addition to the skies. One can only hope that it might ultimately mean cost savings passed on to the passengers. (Hey, I’m an optimist!)

I am pleased to report that one of the 787s currently in production is scheduled for United, so I look forward to getting on that plane in due course.

It’s been an odd day today. I heard a sound in my office that has NEVER been heard before: the startup sound of a Mac Mini! I inherited my Dad’s Mac Mini after he passed away in January, and this is the first time I’ve had both the room and the time to set it up (I’m using it for testing websites on Mac browsers). Exposure to The Fruit Side has been an interesting and engaging experiment.

I am pleased to say that I have resisted buying a bunch of apps for the iPhone, but I have been looking through the iTunes App Store and collecting items that may be helpful for business travelers BESIDES the obvious travel guides and airline sites. Skip the iTunes desktop application and go straight to the Apple website:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/mobile-software-applications/id36?mt=8

These are the apps on my iPhone now:

eSpeakers
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/espeakers/id426816714?mt=8
This application goes with the eSpeakers service of which I am a subscriber. The National Speakers Association utilizes eSpeakers to manage their member profiles, but the eSpeakers app has so much more: schedules, booking dates, and so on. It was a natural fit for my business.

Facebook
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook/id284882215?mt=8
Good grief, I might actually be able to keep up with social networking on Facebook! Having the free Facebook app makes it easy to fill up the loose time slots while waiting for ground transportation with messages to friends, reading the streamed comments, and so on.

LinkedIn
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/linkedin/id288429040?mt=8
I plan to do more on LinkedIn than I have in the past, so having this free app on the phone is also quite helpful.

Mobile Notifier
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobile-notifier/id343067381?mt=8
This little app tells me when a purchase has been made through my shopping cart. One has to have an account with 1ShoppingCart or one of the private label companies, which I have had for 7 years. It’s great to hear the sound of money depositing into my account.

Skype
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skype/id304878510?mt=8
I have a number of people I keep up with on Skype, and the fact that you can conduct free video calls from your phone over an Internet connection WITHOUT the computer is just aces!

QR Reader for iPhone
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-reader-for-iphone/id368494609?mt=8
I haven’t had occasion to see many of these QR codes, but starting the app and pointing your iPhone at the code will immediately open the corresponding website. I plan to add the QR code for my website to my business card.

Camera Zoom 3
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camera-zoom-3/id311657409?mt=8
I’ve missed a number of photos that I could have captured if I had just taken time to download a better camera application. This one has been around a long time, and the zoom works really well.

Here are some that look intriguing that I have not yet downloaded.

FedEx Mobile for iPhone
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fedex-mobile-for-iphone/id304462049?mt=8
When I’ve shipped boxes to or from my destination and I need to know how they’re doing, this application ought to do the trick!

USPS Mobile
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/usps-mobile/id339597578?mt=8
Same here: if I need to find a post office to mail something home, this little app would be very helpful!

OneBusAway
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onebusaway/id329380089?mt=8
As gas prices rise, I’m experimenting with using public transit more around the Seattle area, and I found this real-time application for transit that covers Puget Sound. There are more apps like this for other areas.

What is YOUR favorite business travel-related application? Comment below so that we can all benefit!

Toolie®

Well, I’ve made it through the first month with the iPhone, and so far we’re getting along. I’ve not been this deep into Fruit Territory in a long, long time. I’m a Windows geek, not an Apple devotee, but I’m willing to adapt. <grin>

Part of the reason for switching to the iPhone at this point was because I needed to use text messaging a lot for my consulting, and the old Windows Mobile phone was dying on me. The iPhone has a nice interface for text messaging, but I keep sending all kinds of odd messages because I “fat-finger” that tiny keyboard.

Computing Before There Were Mice

Yes, Virginia, there was a time when computers did NOT have a mouse driving the interface. In fact was a little over 20 years ago that Windows 3.1 came out, and I knew that computing would change forever. Yes, I know that both Microsoft and Apple had a mouse well before that, but because of the pervasiveness/market share of Windows, the arrival of a decent Windows mouse-driven interface, the culture shifted radically.

To this day, I’m a two-fisted computer user: I regularly use keyboard shortcuts with the mouse to write and move around the interface quickly. In fact I urge my clients to use these shortcuts because they’re concentrated where you type with your left hand. I’m taking about the usual Ctrl+S for Save, Ctrl+C for Copy, Ctrl+V for paste, and so on. You’d be surprised how many people do NOT use them!

With all of this background information I am leading up to the punch line: I bought a mini-keyboard for my iPhone. Now before you fall off your chair with laughter, hear me out.

I’m sitting at a desk a lot these days, so text messaging with colleagues and clients means picking up the phone and trying to aim at that tiny keyboard with hands that can easily play octaves on the piano. I was not blessed with dainty fingers, I was blessed with pianist’s fingers. So that frustration lead me to conclude that finding some kind of thumb keyboard would be a good idea for me.

I haven’t yet bought a hard, protective case for the phone, so the first keyboard I looked at was attached to a hard case. That would make the phone and keyboard function as one item instead of two. I ordered the TK-421 Bluetooth Keyboard/Case from www.ThinkGeek.com for iPhone 3GS.

Http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/e66e/images/8108/

This particular keyboard appealed to me because it had a thumb-style size and functionality. The problem was that the keyboard swiveled out from underneath instead of opening like a clamshell. The keyboard itself was lighter than the phone, so it kept falling forward out of my hands. I had a hard time turning the keyboard’s Bluetooth on, though pairing happened quite easily. After working with the keyboard for 24 hours or so, I went shopping again.

I found that the keyboard portion was available separately from several vendors, but I just didn’t like that keyboard at all, separate or attached. After exhausting all the possibilities in the $35 price range, I decide to move up in size and cost, and I ordered the Verbatim Bluetooth keyboard from www.Buy.com.

http://www.buy.com/prod/verbatim-wireless-bluetooth-mobile-keyboard-for-iphone-ipad-ipad-2-and/q/loc/101/220011486.html

This keyboard is bigger than the phone; in fact the keys are almost full-size with a few exceptions. It comes with its own case, but it’s small enough to fit in my purse on the go. What’s REALLY fun is that hidden in the keyboard’s case is a fold-out stand for the iPhone that holds it in a suitable position for viewing while typing.

Turning the keyboard on is quite easy, pairing with the iPhone is a no-brainer, and with a little concentration, I can type quite quickly for emails, text messages, and writing my book.

Writing My Book on the iPhone

Yes, I am writing a book. Will I write it entirely on the iPhone? Probably not. But, having the keyboard with the iPhone turns it from a text-messaging machine to a mini-computer capable of capturing my chapters without breaking a sweat. I visited the iTunes App Store and found a simple word processing application that cost me US$3.99.

http://www.bytesquared.com/products/doc/iphone/

Because I write for the Internet, I’m used to using a text-only word processor. I write more quickly that way anyway since I’m not fiddling with formatting, so having an iPhone word processor that lets me put in bulleted lists and bold text is just fine! It interoperates with Word 2003-2010, so I can sync with my desktop and use the files there.

Typing with the iPhone on an Airplane

If you think that first-class passengers have more room on their tray tables for their laptops, let me correct this notion immediately! Maybe it’s just me, but I always seem to end up behind the traveler who has decided to kick back. They recline all the way in celebration of their spacious seat, and whatever hope I had for opening my laptop quickly goes away. But there WOULD be room for my iPhone and this mini-keyboard, even in Coach. Just imagining this wonderful scenario gave me hope of recovering all those lost minutes we spend in transit, without having to boot up the laptop!

For Me It’s iPhone Productivity Anywhere

I have a consulting contract now that sometimes has me hanging around waiting for meetings. I didn’t dare bring my Toolie business laptop to the consulting location, but I could pull out my iPhone and keyboard and none would be the wiser! I also think about returning to my satellite office (the local Red Robin) to do my planning sessions because I can access my client management website with my iPhone and keyboard. This particular Red Robin doesn’t have wireless Internet (yet), but I do get a cell signal, so I can fire up the iPhone and get answers when I need them.

OK, Maybe One More Accessory

I admit that the iPhone screen is pretty small — not the best for writing, but if I could get the phone up to eye level, that would be really helpful. Apparently a few other people had the same idea, because I found this accessory online.

Http://www.goilevel.com/

This iLevel clamp-on stand wouldn’t fit in my purse, but it would fit in carry-on luggage quite nicely. And on the treadmill. And on my desk. I haven’t bought it yet — I still feel silly trying to use the iPhone as a mini-computer. But those feelings will probably change as I embrace my iPhone Productivity Project and the possibility of actually getting my book written!

Do you use a keyboard with your iPhone? Tell us about it in your comments below.