trip

WorldMate's travel service lands on the iPhone

WorldMate, the popular travel planning and organizational service, has expanded its mobile reach onto the iPhone. The two different versions of the app, which were released late Tuesday night (one free, and a premium version that costs a hefty $19.99), give travelers tools to create and track travel itineraries including flights, hotel reservations, rental cars, and any appointments along the way.

The two versions of the app offer identical functionality for core parts of WorldMate's service, like a flight search tool, world clock list, currency conversion, and a heads-up display on what's on your schedule. However, the … Read more

Webware 100 winner: TripIt

Site: TripIt.com Category: Location-based services

TripIt is a personal travel organizer aimed at both casual and business users. If you forward your electronic travel confirmations (from an airline, car company, hotel, etc.) to it, TripIt will intelligently collate them all into one place, parse the information, and add related information as well, such as maps, weather, events, and photos of where you're going. The goal being to replace all your pages of printed confirmations with a single online page that has all the relevant info nicely organized for you.

Along with its site, the service has applications for … Read more

Share your vacation with these online services

It's almost summer. Chances are, you'll soon be vacationing somewhere in the world. But what if you want to share that vacation with loved ones?

With the help of these vacation-sharing tools you'll be able to do just that. You can document where you've been, share pictures, and upload videos. And you'll probably enjoy reliving the experience.

Share your travel plans

EveryTrail EveryTrail populates your profile page with all the places you've been on vacation. But instead of requiring you to do it yourself, the site uses your GPS device and photos to do it for you. Whenever you go on vacation and bring your GPS device with you, EveryTrail will take your GPS tracks to plot where you've been. When you upload photos to the site, you can add them to the map to show where they were taken. You can also add descriptions to the locations and photos to provide more detail on what you've done. Although EveryTrail requires you to have a GPS device to enjoy it, I think you'll really like it.

Here or There? Here or There is a place to share all your travel experiences in a blog. You can post pictures, videos, and share your vacation with readers. You can also check out other travel blogs from other users to see how their vacations went. Here or There is a nice idea that works well.

myTripBook myTripBook lets you record and share all your travel experiences. For each trip you take, you'll create a diary detailing what you did on your vacation. You can add photos and videos to supplement your content. The site also boasts a recommendations tab so you can tell your readers which bars and restaurants you recommend. myTripBook is a nice service and its trip tracking is outstanding.

RealTravel RealTravel might focus mainly on the dissemination of travel information, but its blog page gives you the opportunity to share your travel experiences. Once you create your free blog, you can use the site's interactive maps to route your trip. You can upload an unlimited number of photos and share slideshows with friends through automatic e-mails that are sent whenever your blog is updated. You can also follow your friends' blogs. RealTravel's blogs section is worth trying out.… Read more

Webware Radar: RetailMeNot unleashes printable coupons

RetailMeNot, an online destination for coupons and discounts, announced Tuesday that it has a new printable coupon offering, dubbed RetailMeNot Printable. According to the company, users will be able to print more than 90,000 coupons from thousands of companies.

RetailMeNot also announced that it has partnered with MoneyMailer, Redplum, and Valpak, to provide its users with more printable in-store coupons. The company didn't disclose the details, but it did say that it will continue to add partners to expand the volume of the coupons it offers. Its Printable service is live now.

Rhode Island's general treasurer, Frank … Read more

Know your neighborhood: Thirteen sites

Whether you're moving to a new place or you just want to be more familiar with your surroundings, there are a variety of sites on the Web that fill you in on everything from restaurants to businesses to apartments in your area.

Find some businesses

BooRah If you're only looking for restaurants, BooRah is for you. The site features information on how to get to a restaurant, but really shines when you read through the informative reviews from users and consider the "similar restaurant" tab, which features a listing of local eateries that are similar to … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings us a retro-themed rhythm game on WiiWare and an Olympic-style competition simulator from 1985. WiiWare BIT.TRIP BEAT (Aksys Games, 600 Wii points): Retro-themed rhythm gaming at its finest! Use your Wii remote to control the beat alone or with up to four players total. The 8-bit soundtrack is sure to please gamers of all ages. Virtual Console Summer Games II (1985, Commodore 64, 500 Wii points): 1985's Summer Games II puts you up against thousands of athletes from around the world. Compete in various events including cycling, equestrian, fencing, high jump, javelin, kayaking, rowing, and … Read more

Webware Radar: Allvoices brings credibility to citizen journalism

Allvoices.com has launched a Credibility Meter across its citizen news service. According to the company, the Credibility Meter will be placed at the bottom of every news story to help readers determine the trustworthiness of a particular citizen journalist's postings on the site. The final determination of an author's credibility is based on how well the community likes content from the author, how well the community enjoys a particular report, how many contributors are writing on the same topic, and how many mainstream sources have supporting content about the report. The Credibility Meter is live now.

TripAdvisor … Read more

It's time to find the world's best vacation spots

It's almost spring, which means it's time we all start planning our vacations for 2009. To do so, we need sites to help us research new places, decide where we want to go, and figure out what we can still afford.

I've picked five sites that try to do just that. Each site offers outstanding resources to help you find the right destination. And thanks to their user communities that often discuss affordability, you can make a better-informed decision about the price tag.

Driftr Like other services in this roundup, Driftr relies on the intelligence of the … Read more

Webware Radar: TripAdvisor adds new restaurant features

Responding to its users' desire for more restaurant review offerings, TripAdvisor announced Tuesday that throughout 2009, it will be adding features that will allow visitors to do more than review eateries on the site. So far, the site features 2 million reviews and ratings on 500,000 restaurants worldwide. To help users search through those more effectively, TripAdvisor added price, cuisine, and "recommended for" filters to its restaurant page Tuesday.

Also, the company has partnered with OpenTable.com to allow U.S. users to make a reservation directly on TripAdvisor's site. The company's new iPhone app, … Read more