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many high-quality paid apps out there, I am perfectly happy with the free, cross-platform<br />
Google Maps (you can download one, some, or all the Google Mobile apps at that link).<br />
Google Maps does a great job of creating directions, finding nearby businesses, listing<br />
traffic in major metropolitan areas, and if you‟re not too worried about the privacy<br />
implications, letting selected family members know where you are (using the new<br />
Latitude system).<br />
2. Local Search: Google Maps is pretty good, but sometimes a dedicated local search app<br />
will find businesses that Google doesn‟t – or present other information in an easier-to-use<br />
way than Google. On my Blackberry, I like Poynt. It‟s slick, easy to use, and does local<br />
search and movies (for when I‟m back home). It also has maps, but like I said, I like<br />
Google Maps best. Similar apps on other platforms include Live Search Mobile for<br />
Windows phones and Yelp Mobile for iPhone (non-iPhonies can ac<strong>ce</strong>ss Yelp through<br />
their phone‟s web browser, too). Palm users are pretty much stuck with Google Maps,<br />
which sucks because on<strong>ce</strong> upon a time they had the best of all local search apps, Vindigo,<br />
now gone forever.<br />
3. TwitPic: Technically not an app, TwitPic is nonetheless useful on the road where you<br />
might not have the time or ability to download pictures and email them to friends and<br />
family as you travel. Instead, take a picture with your cameraphone and email it to your<br />
personal TwitPic email address (under “Settings” – TwitPic is free, by the way) to have<br />
the picture posted online and a tweet automatically sent to Twitter with a link. Any phone<br />
with email can use it, although some Twitter clients have TwitPic functionality built in,<br />
too.<br />
4. A Twitter client: On Blackberry, there‟s really just TwitterBerry. On Palm Treos, there‟s<br />
MoTwit. Windows Mobile users like PocketTwit. iPhone users have 16.482 different<br />
Twitter clients to choose from, all of them good. Point is, you‟re traveling – forget email.<br />
Forget postcards. Tweet. 140 characters from the base of Carhenge (in Allian<strong>ce</strong>,<br />
Nebraska – go now if you‟ve never been!) or the rim of the Grand Canyon is enough.<br />
Keep the wordiness for when you get home.<br />
5. GPS Tracking: Track every step of your trip with a good GPS tracking program. The<br />
best are the ones that produ<strong>ce</strong> a stream that can be merged with your geotagged pictures<br />
to create a visual map of your voyage, but even if you can‟t (maybe your camera doesn‟t<br />
geotag?) you can still create a pretty nifty map using something like GPSed on your<br />
Blackberry, iPhone, Win Mobile, or Symbian devi<strong>ce</strong>. (Sorry Palm users – if it‟s any<br />
consolation, maybe the release of the Pre next month will attract developers? In the<br />
meantime, Garmin used to make a pretty good GPS tracking program that it sold with it‟s<br />
Bluetooth GPS devi<strong>ce</strong>s – and maybe still does?)<br />
6. Qik: Qik is in a category of its own, allowing you to stream live video from your phone.<br />
In a rare turnaround, iPhones aren‟t supported (yet); everyone else can look for their<br />
phone on the supported phones page. Streaming video from your phone will burn through<br />
your battery pretty fast so make sure you have a car charger handy…<br />
7. Picture Shopping: On the road is nowhere to be buying everyday items. A wooden<br />
carving of Mt. Rushmore, <strong>ce</strong>rtainly, but not a wrist-rest for your mouse. Now image<br />
recognition technologies allow you to use camera-enabled apps to shop – you just take a<br />
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