Insight Community

The best mobile phone travel accessory is... the ac adapter!  You're not getting very far with your mobile device on vacation without some way to recharge from a "standard" outlet (whatever "standard" is where you're going). 

Seriously, though, the best website I use for vacationing is citysearch.com, because they can get me a good list of venues and entertainment in many major cities.  Their catalog is so comprehensive that I regularly find stuff there in the city I live in, that I didn't know about. With google maps and/or mapquest, and citysearch, I pretty much don't need a travel guide for a city.  the other important site for vacations is gaspricewatch, if you are intending to do a lot of driving.  

I can see shopping for airline tickets via mobile, but I'd want to be 100% sure of the security settings before I tried to buy ANYTHING over a phone.   As for managing work vs. non-work, I don't see how that's much of a big deal... what would be the conflict between work and non-work?  If you don't want to get work emails while you're on vacation, just turn off email checking on the work account.

+{ Windows Live Mobile Search is by far the handiest and most full-featured traveller's assistant. }+

It's available for free download to Windows 5.0 & 6.0 Smart Phones, Blackberry devices and Pocket PC's -
and it's hands free (speech recognition enabled)!

** The service also uses Global Positioning System (GPS) data on GPS-enabled phones,
to provide location-aware local search for customers.

In Microsoft's last release of Live Search for Windows Mobile they built in a very forward looking feature:
Allowing users to send feedback directly to the engineering team.
Many requests were for new functionality.

Here's what's built in now:

Weather By far the most often-requested feature: get current weather conditions,
and a four-day forecast by clicking the Weather icon.

Bluetooth headset support:
Now you can use the speech recognition feature with your Bluetooth headset (available on select devices).

Map a contact:
Open up a contact, press Menu, and then press Show On Map to view that Contact's location on a map!

Delete a recent location:
Simple, yet effective. Click the label showing your current location
to display the list of recent locations, scroll to the item you want to delete,
press Menu, and then press Delete.

These were the most common asked-for features;
but Microsoft received additional requests for custom, personalized content.

Consequentially, Microsoft built a way for users to access even more relevant content, on the go.

Web search:
Search the Web, news, images, and more just by clicking the Web icon.

Increased traffic coverage :
Piggy-backing on great work done by Live Search Maps, view up-to-the-minute
traffic info for more cities, like Indianapolis, Oklahoma City or Memphis.

Collections:
Looking for wireless restaraunts in orlando florida?
Or maybe you wish to find a bicycle paths in New York City?
Mobile search can definitely help. Users can search community-generated content such as..
Virtual Earth Collections and/or Google KML and find what they are looking for.

--> But; there are more services offered:

Find businesses and restaurants

• Search by business name
  
  (Anthony’s Grill)
  
• Or search by type of business
  
  (Sushi restaurant)
• Narrow listings by city, neighborhood, or street

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get traffic, movie times, weather, and more

• Get links to maps, driving directions, and traffic
  
• Find movie showtimes and get tickets
• Hear current weather and forecasts
• Access travel resources

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Free 411 Services

• Call 1-800-CALL-411 for free from any phone
• Connect directly to businesses for free
• Share listings with friends
• Receive text messages of listings

There are, of course, other similar applications; but to date, none work as well, especially
with the incredible speech recognition accuracy Live Mobile Search offers the everyday user!

Check out the demonstration video below.. It's more than impressive!
|| Live Search for Windows Mobile -- Now with Speech! ||

Whenever I take a vacation, there's a minimum of two things that travel with me: my Blackberry and my Macbook Pro. Why? I run a business. Business doesn't stop because I am taking a vacation. And that's fine. If I wasn't running a business, I think I would look at things differntly. I think the question is not "what mobile services are good", but "what services do you actually need".

Why? Well, let's say I am a 'normal', private person, taking a vacation. Do I need to be reached during my vacation? Only if someone close to me has died. Do I still need to twitter, or check facebook from my mobile? I think it is much more important to look at the price and the value of your ability to twitter. If you're going abroad, mobile rates go up in a steep curve. One mb  mobile traffic does almost 1 euro when I go to any of the countries around the Netherlands. 

Are you really going to pay for that? Even checking your voicemail can be very expensive. A wellknown issue a few years ago was in the way voicemail redirection is setup from your mobile: Even if your mobile phone is switched off, a call coming from someone that goes to your voicemail is charged to your phone as a call to your voicemail. You can imagine what that does to your bill when you're abroad. 

In short: People, consider what you really need and switch everything else off. Going abroad? Get a prepaid (pay as you go) card in the country you're staying in and feed the number to your family. If your holiday residence doesn't come with internet, leave it behind. It won't kill you.

1. First of all, you need google maps for your mobile phone. There's just no doubt about it, just install it.
2. it's not a actually a service, but check out your mobile phone fees and see if there are some additional costs for using the mobile phone service in a foreign country.
3. Maybe counterproductive in this solution, but I think being disconnected while traveling makes a better experience. Talk with people on the streets. Have deep conversations with both travellers and locals instead of 'get info quick so we can see 10 things today' kind of talks. Have a real vacation instead of a twitter-updated holiday-experience everyone can follow.

As mobile phones continue to add features on top of their core calling functionality, more and more they're resembling fully functional mobile computers. Smartphones are the beginning, but some devices like Apple's iPhone and Sprint's Instinct are stretching into new territory. And that evolution is great for vacationers because it means that the same access to information and applications that's available at home follows them everywhere.

But which of the comforts of home are most relevant to someone on vacation? Certainly a lot of that depends on the individual but I'm willing to bet that there are some frequent requests, the most obvious probably being good phone coverage and Internet access.

Can anyone even remember when you had to be at home or work to make a phone call?

Cell phone carriers are offer a variety of packages that include Internet access. With AT&T it costs about $130 per month for an unlimited data plan, and Sprint is making waves with its $100 plan that includes unlimited data plus unlimited access to most of its other services.

Here are some other services that might be useful while on vacation, organized by task:

• Check E-mail
  
  • Gmail mobile, provides a simplified mobile web site and a downloadable application.
  • Yahoo Go essentially provides a portal interface for your phone, including e-mail and flexible widgets for other content.
  • Teleflip takes a different approach by converting e-mails you specify into text messages sent to your phone. Great for people without a data plan.
• Look for good restaurants
  • Google SMS is the popular first choice for finding local restaurants or any other sort of business. Text message a query and receive results back in a few minutes.
  • Google 411 allows you to do the same thing using your voice and it's still free.
• Look up prices
  • Amazon's TextBuyIt, if you've got a good keyword, UPC or ISBN text it to Amazon for a response back on price and the option to purchase via a phone call.
• Take and send pictures to friends back home
  • Lots of phones provide the ability to take pictures and e-mail them out to friends and family. Just memorize where that camera button is.
  • Flickr also offers the ability to upload files to its service via e-mail or through a series of third party partners.
• Record video of special moments
  • Videos are usually pretty easy to e-mail as well.
  • YouTube allows you to upload videos using MMS.
• Create a daily log of activities to remember the good times
  • Jott can help with this by allowing you to voice dictate your narrative and translating the audio to text.
• Access to emergency services
  • Almost every mobile phone provides 911 access even when a service plan isn't active. Outside of the United States things get a bit more complex.
• Geotag where you went while you were traveling
  • Some phones like the Sony Ericsson allow you to mark a location on the map and create a log entry which could then link up with a site like EveryTrail. iPhone 2.0 also incorporates this feature.
• Find other single people for dating, especially since you're in unfamiliar territory
  • Install an application like MobiLuck to wirelessly link up with other users nearby looking for love. Of course, eye contact can work wonders too.
• Check your bank account to see how much fun money is left
  • Most major banks offer mobile banking, it usually requires a data plan and Internet access.
• Calculate tips
  • Many phones offer an installed application that will allow you to customize tip percentages and provide the tip total plus the grand total.
• Listen to music
  • Sprint and AT&T both have integrated with Pandora Mobile, so your tunes travel easier than ever.
• Watch the news
  • This is easy with the Simply Everything plan with Sprint, which offers unlimited access to various mobile TV channels. It requires a separate fee with AT&T.

• Several cities now have some great phone services available. TalkingStreet used to provide walking tours of Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. narrated by celebrities like Larry King. Many other services also offer cell phone tours -- so do some research before you head out!

• A surprisingly handy new service called "SlyDial" allows you to leave a voicemail message -- without setting off a ringtone. This is a nice way to avoid interrupting someone on vacation -- or to avoid interrupting yours, if you want to pass on a message without getting drawn into a conversation!)

• If you're travelling in Europe, always bring an adapter for their wall sockets. But more important than that -- make sure your cell phone is compatible with their carriers. And if not, here's a great piece of advice. Buy a cheap alternate cell phone, just for the trip! Some resorts will even rent you a phone for the length of your stay. Just be sure you to check the per-minute charges!

• Don't forget that you can use your cell phone to find cheap gas. (For example, sites like MobileGasPrices.com and Triple A's Gasfinder.)

• My friend lost her charger on vacation -- and had to interrupt her frolicking to hunt for a cell phone accessory store. Vacations are a great time to buy a spare charger. If you lose one on the trip, you'll have a backup. (And if you make it home with both -- you'll have a backup!

• Plan Ahead. Enter all the crucial phone numbers in your address book ahead of time. (And you might even add bookmarks places you want to visit, in case you need to review their hours of operations or find driving directions.) And don't forget the obvious: maps.

• Make room for photos! If you're taking cell phone photos, free up some storage space! Download those old photos off your phone -- to make room for some new ones!

• Know When to Unplug Some people forward their work number to their cell phone during vacations -- but other people make a point not to! When Air France announced they were letting passengers make in-flight phone calls for a three-month trial period, one crank passenger complained "It's an invasion! Let us alone!" In fact, last summer Forbes even ran a list of cell phone-free locations to eliminate the temptation to receive work calls when travellers are supposed to be relaxing. (Topping the list: Death Valley -- as well as Yakutat, Alaska) And whatever you do, if you're going to your daughter's wedding -- be sure to turn your cell phone off.
  
  Unless you're planning on letting your friends listen in over the speakerphone...