Mobile & Wireless
Ten essential BlackBerry apps for travel
Perfect tools for business travellers
By Logan Kugler | Computerworld US | Published 15:45, 28 May 10
Whether you're out on the road for weeks at a time meeting with clients, just popping into the city for a weekend conference or taking the family on a hard earned vacation, a few well chosen applications can turn your BlackBerry from a communications tool into a road warrior's productivity powerhouse.
You can track expenses, mileage and business calls; find the perfect places to stay, eat and work; keep on top of your travel arrangements; and even call on a virtual concierge to handle last minute changes of plan, all from the comfort of your BlackBerry's familiar screen.
Also in this channel
Here are 10 BlackBerry apps, some of them free, that could be invaluable for your next trip. When you're done reading, tell us about your favorites in the reader comments.
Keep all your travel details readily accessible with WorldMate Live, an itinerary manager packed with useful features for frequent travelers. All you have to do is forward your airplane, hotel or car rental confirmation emails to WorldMate. The service parses out the relevant details and makes it all easily available.
Additional features in the free "lite" version include location-based search (using Yelp), currency conversion, hotel and limo booking, world time and the ability to search for local LinkedIn contacts. The paid Gold version adds flight status lookup, "push" text alerts for flight delays, and a travel directory with contact information for airports, airlines, hotel chains and rental companies.
Exgis Time & Expense Enterprise
Track travel expenses by client or by project with Exgis' BlackBerry interface for its web-based service. With customizable currencies, locations and expense types, Exgis Time & Expense Enterprise lets you quickly enter expenses, mileage or time spent working on a task, and associate each entry with a specific client or project for billing.
Online reports can be generated that list expenses by month, client or specific project, or all your data can be imported into Inuit's QuickBooks 2008.
If you do not need the advanced options offered by the enterprise option, such as the ability to sync to a corporate server, there are lower-priced single function programs for expense, time or mileage tracking, as well as Exgis Time & Expense.
