At the moment the service works with Alaska Airlines, United, Delta, Continental, and U.S. Airways, although more may be added soon as the service grows.

When you search and find the fight and airfare you’re seeking, Yapta then gives you the option to track both the airfare and the award seat availability on specific flights. At any point that a seat is available or the airfare is lowered, Yapta then sends and email to you.

That’s pretty darn handy!

Image: Flickr

Post from: Geeky Traveller

HP has now released their HP Mini 1000 which you can get for $400. First of all, $400 is an excellent price for a laptop!

But better than that, what makes it so perfect for travelers is that the largest size is only 10.2″ diagonally, it has a nice tiny weight of just over two pounds, and it still manages to have a keyboard that is almost full sized.

I wouldn’t want this as my regular laptop because it’s a bit too small, and it might not work for you if you need a larger display for some reason, but for the average person it’s just right for using it on a bus or an airplane and for toting around with you.

Image: HP

(Source: Geeksugar)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

For instance, type in your airline and flight number (for example, “united 959″) and the first result will give you a link to track the flight BUT it also tells you right away what its current departure time and arrival times are, and whether there are delays.

Feeling hungry but have no idea where to find a restaurant that appeals to you? Type in the type of food you’re craving and the city you’re currently in (“indian, montreal”), and you’ll get a list of what’s around.

Find out other ways to make Google work quickly for you over here, many of which are good for travelers, such as immediately converting money values, finding businesses you’d like to visit, and figuring out what the actual speed limit means if you’re not sure how to convert between miles per hour and kilometers per hour.

Oh, Google! Is there anything you can’t do?

Source: Technology and Strategies // Photo: Flickr

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Originally designed for long distance truck drivers, the Anti Sleep Driving Alarm is a device that fits on your head, sitting behind your ear. The second your head tilts at a 30 degree angle, you will be jolted awake with a high pitched alarm.

On the one hand, if you do nod off, I wonder if there’s a risk of driving straight into a ditch from the fright caused by a loud alarm directly behind your ear. On the other hand, it’s an interesting option for staying awake.

When my family has to go on a long drive, especially at night, I try to stay awake as a passenger to keep my husband awake, but that can be hard too. Once I’m in a car, if I’m tired, the sensation of rolling down the road just puts me straight to sleep. This could be a good back-up for our next trip out East.

You can get one from ThinkGeek for $14.99.

(photo: ThinkGeek.com)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Not only can you get online with the Wi-Fi service to do things like check your mail, you can also use SpinVox, a mobile voice-to-text service, to retrieve and reply to your voice mail. How does it work?

SpinVox retrieves the voice mail and translates it to text, allowing you to essentially read your voice mail message. You can then reply to it in text and SpinVox sends it off.

While it could be useful for any average traveler, I can definitely see how a business traveler could make a lot of great use with a service like this!

Post from: Geeky Traveller

You simply enter the date and time you need to be picked up. Then specify your pick-up spot, the destination, and how many passengers there will be. When it searches, it will tell you which services are available to you. For instance, I asked to be piked up at JFK airport in New York City, and dropped off at Times Square. The best deal was the Corporate Sedan by NY One for $59. Two other services would have charged me $73, and the SuperShuttle was unavailable to me as they don’t pick up at that airport.

When you make your selection, you can give specific instructions, such as saying that you’ll be waiting on the South side of the street, and if you’re being picked up at the airport, you can specify what airline and flight you’re on so the service will know if your flight is delayed and (hopefully) wait for you.

The best part is that you can pay with your mobile device at the end of the ride, and receive an e-receipt in exchange, which is handy if you’re traveling on business and need to keep track of your expenses.

The whole thing sounds really cool. I would love to hear from anyone who has actually used RideCharge to get some thoughts on how it plays out in reality.

(Thanks to Mike for the tip! Photo: flickr)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Contrary to popular belief, there are people who are honest and kind enough to try to return your lost stuff. However, some things (like wallets with ID) are easier to return than others (like a camera bag with no info as to whom it may belong). At that point, you should be hoping that you used ImHONEST.com before the loss. ImHONEST.com allows you to purchase labels that come with ID codes. You simply register them and attach them to your belongings.

If someone finds something that you’ve left behind, they can call a toll-free number and use one of more than 4000 drop-off spots (including UPS stores). This includes international shipping options, so if you’re flying over the ocean when you realize your laptop is sitting in London Heathrow airport, at least you have a better chance of getting it back than you would if it had no ID at all.

ImHONEST.com even offers a reward gift to those who are honest enough to turn in an item that they’ve found. And if that’s not generous enough, they also donate 20% of online purchases to various charities – which you get to choose yourself from their list.

What do you think? Are there enough honest people in the world for this to really work? I’d like to think so – I once left my purse in a public pool changing room and was distraught because even though I had no money in it, I did have all my cards, including my children’s health cards which are all a huge pain (and cost) to replace. However, someone was kind enough to return the purse and all its belongings to the lifeguard station and I got everything back.

I just worry that there are too many people who would overlook the ImHONEST.com label and think, “cool! Free camera!” Thoughts?

(photo: flickr)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Enter the Luggage Locator Pro which you can purchase for $29.95.

You get a receiver and a transmitter. Attach the transmitter to your luggage. When you arrive at the airport and bags start spilling out, simply press the button on your receiver, then follow the beeping and the flashing light – it will help you locate your luggage much more quickly. If you require more than one transmitter, you can also buy extras for $14.95 each.

I wish I had had one of these when I was standing around the airport a few years ago, trying to find my very non-descript black suitcase!

(source: Travel Product Guide // photo: Travel Smith)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

If you use the excellent Firefox browser, you can download the FoxClocks add-on. It helps you to keep track of multiple time zones via small clocks that sit in the browser status bar. You can keep them distinct by setting each as a different color (say, green for the office back home, blue for head office on the other side of the country, and red for your current traveling time zone).

You can also set the clocks to change color at a specific time. For example, perhaps you need to call your boss at 10 am, home time. Set the home clock to turn yellow when it’s 10 am in that time zone and you won’t have to keep obsessively checking your own watch and subtracting the time difference.

It’s a tiny little add-on but it could erase a lot of time-based headaches when you’re traveling outside of your own time zone!

(photo: sxc.hu)

Post from: Geeky Traveller