Ok I hadn’t intended this week to be mostly iPhone apps.

But this one is to cool to pass up Hipmunks new iPhone app!

Now you can take the agony out of searching for flight on your iPhone.  It doesn’t get much easier than this.  The results are very straightforward and  easy to understand.

Currently there is no in app purchasing of flights.  After you select a flight you are given a time sensitive link to complete the transaction on a computer.  I wonder if Apple wants 30% if you purchase through the app (gross speculation on my part, most likely not the case)

Get it app from the app store. Hipmunk should really have a landing page or a “we have an iPhone app” splash thingy (or acorn to stay within the theme) somewhere on their homepage.

This is a tip for everyone that uses a computer, whether it’s a Mac, Pc or Linux.  Get a Dropbox account.  It’s dead simple to use.  When you install Dropbox on your computer it creates a folder in your favorites.  Anything that you put in that folder is automatically uploaded to the cloud.  You can access your files from any computer that has internet access.  The biggest benefit is Dropbox will then automatically download those files to any other computer that you have installed it onto.

If you have reliable internet it’s the fastest way to transfer files from one computer to another.  Far faster then sneakernetting a thumbdrive back and forth from computer to computer.  I have Dropbox installed on my Mac, Desktop pc and my laptop. When I move something into the Dropbox folder by the time I get to the other computer that file is already there.

You can get a free account that has 2GB storage.  You can get extra storage by add inviting your friends, friending Dropbox on Facebook. Occasionally they will have a scavenger hunt which gives you more storage. There is an 8GB limit for free accounts.

Use this link to sign up for a new account.   Using this link will help me out by giving me a little bit more storage.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to most people but did you know most airlines have an app now? You can book flights, check your points, get arrival and gate information? Even many of the smaller airlines have them too!

The big exception is United, which for it’s size, is late to the game.

American Airlines	Delta Airlines	KLM Airlines	Southwest Airlines
Continental Airlines	British Airways	Alaska Airlines	Lufthansa
Air Canada	Virgin Atlantic	Swiss Air	Air France
Singapore Air	Thai air

And two Airline alliances

One World	SkyTeam

How often have you heard people complaining about slow internet while traveling?  Enter a website, click, wait on the blank white screen to load.  Sound familiar?  Here’s a tip for all those that travel with a WiFi phone, pad, netbook or laptop to squeeze all the bandwidth you can out of that hotspot you’ve connected to.

Run Google’s DNS benchmark tool,  Namebench.  Here’s why it will help.  When you are surfing the internet the websites you are going to are actually not the words you type in the address.  There’s a number that the words get translated into in the background.

This is the analogy that best fits: When you use the phone book to call someone you don’t type the persons name into the phone, you dial a number.  When your surfing the internet this is all done for you in the background.  Your computer has the “phone book” that looks up the numbers.  The “phone book” is the address of a DNS server, the one I had been using was Comcast’s in Chicago.

If you bring your laptop to Bratislava and your from Minneapolis, everytime you enter a new URL your computer is still using the the Minneapolis “phone book” to look everything up.  This causes a delay because the request has to travel out of it’s way to use the DNS server in Chicago. (and yes, I do realize this isn’t exactly true but it helps make my point, work with me here…)

Namebench will scan for DNS servers that are fastest and closest for your location. Which are not always the same thing.  This even helps at home actually.  I switched the computer I writing this from to one that is 44% faster and definitly notice a difference. The images are from the results of the test I just ran on my laptop.  If your using a WiFi phone or pad you may need to run this from a computer however the server setting will be the same.

This will NOT help upload and download speeds.  You will notice a difference surfing, it will increase you page load speeds (technically the query before the page load). Windows by default is set to automatically get DNS server however it may not be the fastest one. I’m using Comcast right now and when windows gets new DNS numbers it will always get the Comcast server even though they are slower.  The test takes about 5 minutes to run and the FAQ at Google states the first time you run it gives you the most accurate results.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

via Unplgged (Awesome site you should bookmark it)

Over at Hipmonks blog they have an infographic made by Shawn Sanders that is nothing short of mind blowing!

All you can say is WOW!!!

It’s an infographic visualizing baggage fees.  It is no surprise to anyone that baggage fees have gone up over the last couple years but once you make it visual it’s staggering!

The airline with the highest fees?  Delta.  (Gasp! I’m shocked!)  Deltas fees are more then American and United COMBINED.  Delta made $733 Million  and the next closest airline was American at $432 Million. And this only covers the first 3 quarters of 2010.  They are on track to make a Billion dollars (that’s  with a B) on Baggage fees alone!

Now I’m all for a company making money, but having fees that are nearly twice what any of your competitors are charging a little exorbitant?

Who is the Lowest?  Southwest with $23 million, no great shock there.  You have to look for it in the graphic it’s easy to miss.

I’ll skip the whole Southwest-has-made-money-forever and the other-business-models-have-always-struggled discussion.

Via Hipmonk blog

This is a little know website that has huge benefits for the business traveler as well as the leisure traveler.  It’s Syncing.net (no affiliation).

If you rely on a computer for your livelihood you will definitely want to check this out.  Syncing.net syncs one computer to another, live.  If you make a change to a document on one computer it will automatically update the file on another computer.  So if your on a business trip where you’ve done a ton of work on your laptop you don’t have to transfer anything to your office computer when you get back.  We’ve set this up on a couple clients computers where their business is dependent on their laptops.  They have a “hot spare” at home so if they spill or drop their laptop (which happened) they grab the hot spare and thier businees isn’t affected.   You don’t have to run a hot spare if you don’t want, you can work on your laptop in your kitchen and go to you desk, continue working for a while, then go back to the laptop in the kitchen.  Making changes to the same document, All seamlessly.

PLUS it will even sync your Outlook!

Oh and the personal edition syncs up to 300 Outlook folders.  This is usually a huge problem to get set up correctly without duplicating everything.  Well there is a limit of 50 folders for the personal edition.  Normally when you use Outlook it’s difficult to have more then one computer use the same database.  Syncing.net fixes this problem by syncing any change you make in Outlook with your other computer immediately.  Of course there are some requirements – you need to be connected to the internet.  You can also change when and how often the computers sync as well as pausing a sync if you need to.

It’s like Evernote and Dropbox but for the whole computer!

Several years ago I had worked as a baggage smasher handler at a major airline.  One tip that is often forgotten is to take the batteries out of your items that go into your checked bags. They have a tendency to turn themselves in transit.  You can put the item in ziplock bag along with the battery to keep them together, that way they don’t get misplaced.  There’s no sense in bringing something with you only to have it dead when you go it use it.  It may also save a few arguments whether or not new batteries where forgotten or not charged.

Here’s a helpful tool when planning a RTW ticket.  If you’ve ever used the planners from OneWorld or Star Alliance you’ll definitly appreciate this one.  It has a clickable map that gives you a price estimate.  It’s the AirTreks.com trip planner at BootsnAll.

The overland segments show up as red

If you’re in the beginning stages of planning your RTW trip (as I am) this site is way faster.  You still have to email your itinerary to get the most accurate prices, which is understandable.  One tip is don’t forget to select Overland if you want to fly into one city and out from another one.

The above is just a quick estimate of for my plans for this year Chicago-London-New York (TBEX)-Athens-Moscow(overland)-Ulan Bator(overland)- Bejing(overland)-Bankok/Singapore(overland)- Sydney- Seattle.  Which I already know isn’t entirely possible but it’s in the direction I would like to go.

Via BootsnAll

I StumbledUpon this map a while back that is tremendously helpful if you plan on traveling internationally in the next year.

image from Eurocom.com

There are a couple different maps on Wikipedia but I think this one is the nicest and the easiest to read.

The screens are small. Some people just can’t get used to a screen that small.  It doesn’t feel like they can do any ‘real’ work on it. They get all hunched over and squinty trying to use it.

The keyboard is cramped.  Some people  (mainly guys) think their hands are to big for the keyboard.  If you think so do a comparison with a normal laptop (one that does not have the 10 keys on the side).  It’s more of an ego thing that threatens their manhood.  Get over it, measure the keyboard.

Is it a want or need? Seriously look at why you want to bring one. Do you really Need it? Are you just bringing it to email home because a phone does that now you know.  You need is one that will do WiFi is all.

Will you break it. If you know your rough on equipment and you plan on chucking it in the bottom of your bag only to use it to ask for more money from home.   Again, get a cell phone.

No CD rom. Not having a floppy is one thing but no DVD?  That’s barbaric.  How are you going to get all those cds ripped into the netbook?  How are you going to burn a cd of pictures to send home to your mom?

You have to keep an eye on it. All the time.  If your going to worry all the time whether its going to get stolen or you take it with you to every bar and nightclub and freakout every time someone uses it as a coaster.  Save yourself the aggravation. Again bring a cell phone.

There are better ones coming out soon. There will always be better ones coming out soon.  This time you may actually want to wait however.  If your not going to be traveling this winter or spring it’s going to be worth it.  Some of the new netbooks are reporting 14 hour battery life.  Also Apple is going to release a 7inch touchpad in January. (I’d expect it to run the iPhone OS).  Which with the iPhones ability to do graphics makes it worth a look to see what it’s capable of.

You want to edit video.   Adding the occasional video to youtube once every couple months is about all your going to want to do.  If you want to do more frequent videos or to vlog your going to want a laptop. But you already knew that.

Saturday I’ll address the rumors surrounding the new Atom processor and the impending Apple release and what it means for travelers.