For the Computer / Smartphone savvy traveller.

With the popularity of the Smartphone on the rise, there is an increasing array of tech travel tools to use to make things easier while out and about, on the road or in the air. From booking flights to reserving a table to finding a clean bathroom, travel apps have the potential to make any vacation easier and more affordable. But with hundreds of thousands of options out there, it’s hard to distinguish the essential downloads from the clutter. Not to worry. We’ve scoured the market and tested hundreds of travel apps to come up with the ultimate tool kit for the vacation-bound!

Needless to say, the explosion in popularity of Apple’s gadgets, applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad are probably high on most lists, but there are still plenty of great tools out there for other Smartphone users and even those with just regular cell phones.

Travel Tech Tip 1: Check the Airline’s Website for Schedules.

Whether flying for work or to visit family, you want a flight that will be on time. That’s why it’s a great idea to check the websites of the larger airlines to find the on-time record of each of the flights when considering purchasing a ticket. You can learn how often that flight arrives on time — within 15 minutes of schedule — as well as how often it arrives more than 30 minutes late. You also can find out if a flight has been cancelled 5 percent or more of the time.

Travel Tech Tip 3: Kayak.com. Find and book cheap flights, hotels, vacations and rental cars with Kayak.com. Hotel, flight and travel deals. Search hundreds of travel sites at once.

Travel Tech Tip 5: Yapta.com Track flight prices and save money before and after you buy! Yapta aims to help travellers get a better handle on pricing by providing easy-to-use tools and information that assures they get the best value from their travel spending.

Travel Tech Tip 8: Yelp When travelling around the U.S. use Yelp. It helps you quickly find almost any amenity and has reviews and additional information.

Travel Tech Tip 9: Open Table. Restaurant Reservations – Free, Instant, Confirmed. With Open Table for iPhone you can make free restaurant reservations at more than 15,000 Open Table-enabled restaurants in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.

Travel Tech Tip 11: Weather.com  See what the forecast is!

Travel Tech Tip 12: AirWX.  Is an App that pilots use to get detailed aviation weather reports and forecasts, but it’s also useful for the general public to check weather at departure and arrival airports because the reports are decoded into plain language.

Travel Tech Tip 13: FlightAware.com.  Flight Aware provides live flight data, airport information, weather maps, flight planning, and navigation charts, as well as aviation news and photos to over two million users a month.

Travel Tech Tip 14: iTranslate.com. For the Business flyer, offers translation services in all the major European languages and in Japanese and Chinese. Accurate and rapid translation of all types of tender/bid documents (RFI, RFP, RFQ, RFB, etc.), technical manuals, contracts, websites, standards, specifications, marketing copy and press releases.

Travel Tech Tip 16: Star Walk. An App that allows you to recognize constellations, even on the other side of the world because the night sky looks quite different depending on where you are!

Travel Tech Tip 17: Skype. Stay in touch and stay connected with friends and business associates around the world cheaply.

Travel Tech Tip 18: Facebook. Stay in touch with family and friends on the web.

Travel Tech Tip 20: Urban Globetrotter! Your source of daily unique travel stories and tips from people that have been there and bought the T-Shirt!

 Missed anything, got any more?

What’s your favourite travel app?

See also: http://urbanglobetrotter.posterous.com/handy-travel-apps-for-your-iphone

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You can see more Travel Tips right here, and here!

The concept seat, called ‘NFW’ (not for wimps), allows for serious tech-heads to have a 3D experience whilst plugged in (with seat belts fastened, no doubt).

According to British manufacturer Factorydesign’s director, Adam White, “NFW is designed to appeal to customers who would rather spend their time on long-haul flights locked in a gaming or viewing experience rather than dropping off to sleep.” Elaborating further: “NFW is a marmite seat – but love it or hate it it has created the stir required, and for us carries the important message about change.  It is time.  There is a new generation of younger Business/First travellers who relish a few hours uninterrupted time to play PS, eat a snack of sushi and chill with the latest AV content.”

Whislt the NFW hasn’t yet been snatched up by any airlines, so it may be a few years before you’re given the choice of cattle, business or Bioshock, but White hopes that “certain, more adventurous airlines” will strip out a few seats from their business class cabins to allow for these light-weight Kevlar contraptions. New seating like this does throw up an interesting point though. If it takes up more space but is pitched to younger travellers who want to only sit up, how will it be priced? Will you end up paying a premium to be seated?

The design release was a part of the recent Aircraft Interiors Expo, which took place in Hamburg, Germany.

You can see more airline seating stories from Urban globetrotter right here:

All new Firstclass Air Beds v’s All new Cattle Class Seating.

See more articles like this in Getting There.

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