Travel Reads

Make the most of your iPhone on the road

VAWN HIMMELSBACH, Chic Savvy Travels

I have a confession: Up until a few months ago, I didn’t own a smartphone. I was still using an old cell phone that required duct tape to keep it together and a pair of tweezers to remove the SIM card.

I’m not a technophobe, but part of me resisted the idea of being “on” all the time. When I travel, I like to disconnect from the hectic pace of North American life.

After watching 127 Hours, however, something resonated in me when James Franco, playing mountaineer Aron Ralston, said: “I can do everything on my own.” And then had to hack off his own arm because no one knew where he was.

Needless to say, this motivated me to trade in my sad little piece of battered hardware for a shiny new iPhone and an actual data plan. The first thing I did was go out and buy a ridiculously overpriced Kate Spade designer iPhone case. But then… I was at a loss.

Suddenly, I had access to thousands of apps, including, I suspected, a lot of cool travel-related apps. When I was in Colombia last month, for example, I met a guy who could translate English into Spanish on his iPhone — without being connected to the Internet. And another guy was deciding where to travel next (Cartegena or Medellin?) by checking out weather conditions using satellite imagery.

Fortunately, The Rough Guide to the iPhone fell into my lap, which has been revised and updated for iPhone iOS4. It’s not travel-specific, but being Rough Guides, I expected a lot of travel-savvy tips to help backpackers and road warriors alike, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Aside from the basics, as well as tips and tricks, it covers off pretty much anything I could possibly want to know, from currency converters and weather apps with radar and satellite imagery to note-taking and file storage apps. Throughout the book are app recommendations — from cool apps for your camera (such as CameraBag, a collection of filters and visual effects for your iPhone photography), to maps (such as Google Earth, Transit Maps and iTopoMaps).

The chapter on “Connecting” explains Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other airwaves, how to connect when you’re abroad, and what to do when your iPhone just won’t connect. Of particular use is a section on calling via the Internet, so you can make free (or virtually free) calls to landlines or mobiles all over the world. Skype is probably the most well known app, but others include Truphone, Fring, Jajah and Rebtel. And Jangl allows you to leave a voicemail for someone, who will receive it as an email, from any location in the world.

There’s also a section on maintenance, which covers off crashes and software problems, as well as tips for maximizing battery life. That won’t help, of course, if you have a tendency to drop and break things. But, duct tape aside, it’s a handy pocket-size guide well worth $14,99 Cdn price tag.

Date Added: April 3, 2011 | Comments (1)