October 28th, 2008
Over time I’ve noted that readers here at Geeky Traveller are pretty split down the middle with about half of you being vacation people and half being business travelers. For the latter half of you, you should be interested to know that our network, b5media, has launched Bizzia.com.
Bizzia is a fantastic business-related portal that covers everything from business news to tips to breaking stories. The portal pulls in information from 30 amazing b5media business blogs, all in one location for your convenience so you can keep up to date on whatever business stories are important to you, whether it’s sales, marketing, finance (who isn’t interested in finance these days?), small business tips, and more.
Bizzia’s official press release is right here if you’d like to read more about the launch.
Image: b5media
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By Sherry -- 0 comments
October 27th, 2008
Now that just about everyone owns a digital camera, taking pictures of your travels is really easy. There’s no film to buy or develop, and depending on the size of your camera’s memory card, you might be all but unlimited in how many times you can take a shot of the Grand Canyon or the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
But what do you do when you get home? Do you want to keep them on your computer’s hard drive? Or do you want to have beautiful prints to put in an album to show friends and family?
With the Epson Artisan 800, you can create beautiful, physical memories of your favorite parts of all your vacations. Epson’s own description says:
It has a 7.8” smart touch panel and 3.5” LCD that lights up only the buttons necessary to the user, making it effortless to select, copy, enlarge, rotate, crop, and print photos without a computer. It also uses Epson’s Ultra Hi-Definition Claria ink for vivid, true-to-life photos that are smudge, scratch and water resistant.
As a nice bonus, the wireless feature allows you to print pictures without a computer, you can play with different layouts, and you can even turn your pictures into coloring book pages - if you take your kids to Disney World, imagine how thrilled they’ll be to color in a picture of themselves meeting Mickey Mouse or Cinderella!
Here’s the best part of all - Epson has offered up one Artisan 800 to one lucky reader here at Geeky Traveller. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment below and tell me the one place you would love to visit that you haven’t had the chance to see yet. That’s it! Please note you may only enter once and I do check to make sure! The contest runs from right now until Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
Good luck!
Photo used with permission: Espon Artisan 800
Edit: Please note, this giveaway is now closed! Please check in to Geeky Traveller this weekend for the lucky winner!
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By Sherry -- 317 comments
October 26th, 2008
You can’t always count on finding someone to point you in the right direction when you’re visiting another city and need to get around - if there’s also a language barrier, it can be all the more difficult.
Metropoliphone is an iPhone application that loads the device up with an enormous collection of subway, bus, and train maps from cities all around the world. The maps are completely free to access, provided by each city’s transportation service.
With Metropoliphone you can get maps for over 60 different cities in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, mostly in PDF format. New York and Paris also include ferry and bike paths on their maps.
This is a service which will continue to grow over time as more maps get added on a regular basis. The best part (aside from being free) is that while Metropoliphone was originally designed with the iPhone in mind, it can also be accessed by most of the net-accessible mobile devices, including smartphones and handheld gaming devices. And it’s certainly more convenient than carrying around bulky maps!
Get the app over here!
Photo: Flickr
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By Sherry -- 0 comments
October 25th, 2008
Now this is totally my kind of hotel! The Malibu Beach Inn has gone tech-crazy and when they hand you over access to your room, they also give you (on loan!) an IPod Touch. However, it’s not so their guests can rock out to MP3s. The Touch is loaded with Hotel Evolution which is a multi-application service that allows users to order in some room service, set up a dinner reservation, book a massage in the spa, send out dry cleaning, contact the concierge, request house keeping, set a wake up call, look up night life entertainment, and so much more.
You do it all from your iPod Touch screen, no more phone calls or running down to the front desk to quiz someone on a good bar recommendation.
I love the idea! What do you think?
Source: Geeksugar // Photo: Flickr
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By Sherry -- 0 comments
October 24th, 2008
SoSauce.com is another fun site that combines travel with social networking. Their Travel section allows you to share your travel stories with other visitors.
In the My Trips area, you can view you global footprint that shows a map of all the places you’ve been. Mine is woefully empty in comparison to the overall size of the planet. I’ll have to work on filling it out more! You can also show off your trips by posting photos, travel journals, tips you picked up (like where to go to get the best deals on local goods), reviews of the places you went (hotels, restaurants, clubs), and your favorite tourist spots.
As you make “friends” on the site, you can check out their travels as well, both via maps and their own review listings.
The community area allows you to ask members for tips on good places to go, and you can also view the editors’ picks for the most popular destinations and locations.
SoSauce isn’t groundbreaking; more and more social networking travel sites are popping up these days. However, it’s a great and handy site and I really like the way it’s all laid out. Check it out and start sharing info while you pick some up for your next getaway!
Image: sxc.hu
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By Sherry -- 0 comments
October 23rd, 2008
I’m the queen of falling asleep when I travel. I can sleep pretty much anywhere - in a car, a train, a plane, a bus, the subway. If it’s moving, I’m quite possibly slumbering unless I’m actively engaged in a conversation or a book. I may or may not be mildly narcoleptic!
Have you ever fallen asleep and missed your destination though? If you’re traveling by train or bus, and you’re particularly exhausted, you might end up snoozing right through your stop and wake up 50 miles away from where you meant to be. Oops.
Clearly this is a common problem because you can now get iNap, an iPhone and iPod Touch application (get it here) that will help you avoid this problem. Using Google Maps and GPS, you simply enter the address of your destination. After that, iNap will keep watch for you, just like a friendly travel companion. When it determines you’re getting close to your arrival point, it will set off an alarm to wake you up so that you don’t miss your stop.
I swear, that is brilliant! Where was all this technology when I was traveling on a two-hour bus commute to college starting at 6:30 am every morning?!
(photo - flickr)
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By Sherry -- 2 comments
October 22nd, 2008
Traveling is fun and a great way to gain experience and understanding of other cultures and countries. However, traveling alone can be a little risky, depending on your destination. The Ila Personal Alarm is a device that will let out a sound much like a woman screaming to help you out if you get into trouble. Shaped much like a cell phone, it has a pin that you pull out the same way you would with a grenade (not that I have any experience with grenades!). When you do and then press the button, the screaming starts. The idea is that, at 130 decibels, it will either bring about help or at least scare off the would-be attacker.
What’s interesting to me - and more than a little sad - is that a woman from Guardian.co.uk tested it out on the streets. Check out the video! Not only did no one try to help her or see what was wrong, people generally ignored it the way we all do when someone’s car alarm goes off. A few people looked around to see where the noise might be coming from, but no one ran over. That says a lot about society these days.
Still, a screaming device that loud might just discourage a mugger (or worse) and make them run off in search of someone a little quieter to bother. Not available yet, the Ila will be available at Marks & Spencer for £19.50.
What’s your favorite safety device when you travel solo?
Source: Chip Chick // Photo: flickr
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By Sherry -- 1 comment
October 21st, 2008
Anyone can sit down and wade through their music collection to put together some sort of playlist to have something good to listen to while you’re on a road trip. But really, where’s the surprise in that? You know your own music, why not something different?
Amplified Journeys is an interesting site which will create a personal playlist based on some basic information. Simply go to their site and enter in your departure point and your arrival point on your road trip. Select the genre you prefer for your travels, and you’ll receive a special, tailor-made playlist.
It’s an entertaining way to spend your drive and gives you the chance to hear some new-to-you music.wr
Source: Chip Chick // Photo: Flickr
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By Sherry -- 0 comments
October 19th, 2008
If you feel like camping but you don’t like dealing with setting up tents - or if you’re in a situation where you’re driving and just really need to pull over and sleep - you can look into the Skeeter Beaters! Using strong magnets, these screens attach to your car’s windows. Once they’re firmly in place, you can open your window and get a nice bit of ventilation just like you would with a tent, and the screens stay where they’re supposed to.
I can’t imagine actually camping out in my car on a regular basis. I’m much happier with a nice tent and a warm sleeping bag in the woods. But I could definitely see how useful this could be for impromptu “I’m going to fall asleep at the wheel and there’s not a single motel in sight” stops.
Source: Trusty Pony // Photo: The Skeeter Beater
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By Sherry -- 1 comment
October 18th, 2008
Here’s yet another application for the iPhone that can benefit travelers of the road trip variety. Trapster helps you locate and avoid cops who are hiding out in a speed trap. As you’re driving along and notice a cop hanging about with a radar gun looking for people to ticket for speeding, grab your iPhone (or better yet, get your passenger to do it!) and tap on the map to note your current location.
After that, people using Trapster can then get alerts if they’re going to be in that area to let them know about a speed trap lurking in the shadows of an overpass.
Because I’m safety-conscious, I should note that excessive speeding is dangerous and reckless, and you should obey traffic laws. However, it’s not uncommon for people to drive just a little above the speed limit so I can see where this could be a useful application.
Get the app here.
Source: GeekSugar // Photo: Flickr
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By Sherry -- 0 comments
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