5 Essential Phone Apps While Traveling: Part 2

With the technology currently available, your phone can prevent you from getting lost on your next summer vacation trip. Here are 5 of my favorite phone applications to use while traveling. This is part two of my list.

1. Qik

Qik fits in a category all by itself. Qik is unique in that it allows you to stream video live from your phone. Qik is a rare case with iPhones in that it does not yet offer support. Anyone can check if their phone is supported on Qik's website. Be forewarned however that streaming video will use up your battery fairly quickly, make sure to have a charger nearby.

2. Picture Shopping

Traveling is not the appropriate place to purchase items for everyday use. Perhaps a figurine of the Eiffel tower, but certainly not a mouse wrist wrest or something of the like. The power of image recognition technology now allows us to use phone camera applications to shop. Simply take a picture of whatever you want and the app will figure out what the object is. On the Blackberry, Amazon offers Amazon mobile, it can automatically add the object into your wish list or it can also be used to purchase the object. Purchasing usually takes around 10-15 minutes to complete the order. Amazon mobile is also available on the iPhone. iPhones have a better choice available to them, however. The application SnapTell works similarly, but searches and works faster than Amazon.

3. Speed Trap Finder

The application Trapster collects data from its thousands of users and forwards of incoming speed traps, cameras mounted on red-lights, and any police checkpoints that you may run into. For accuracy, the reports which have been confirmed by many users are given more weight. Trapster will run on almost all phones, with the exception of Treos and Android.

4. Weather

There may literally be thousands of these, so take your pick. A good indication of a superior weather app is if it is able to track several locations, allowing you to track weather as you travel. I personally like to use WeatherEye. While it doesn't allow you to add more than one city, the variety of both long and short-term forecasts make the application worthwhile.

5. Travel Planner

WorldMate will run well on Windows Mobile and Blackberry, you will have to perform a search for compatibility with other phones. WorldMate stores travel trip destinations, and will send notifications of any information which is time sensitive such as flights or train schedules. WorldMate also features a fairly good weather application, so you can kill two birds with one stone if you are able to install it. The great thing about WorldMate is that you can forward emails of reservation confirmations, and they will automatically be entered into your itinerary - it does an awesome job of pulling up the relevant data as well.