iPhone apps for travelers

How do you say "no MSG" in Mandarin? You might not have a clue, but your Apple iPhone can help.

Downloadable applications from Apple's iTunes App Store can turn your iPhone into a helpful traveling companion. As of this writing (early August, 2008), the App Store's Travel category includes foreign language translators, currency and weight/measure converters, a smattering of guides to municipal transportation (such as one for London's Tube), and Frommer's city guides for New York and San Francisco.

I tested two programs I thought might interest travelers: Urbanspoon, a free restaurant guide/recommendation program, and TravelTracker, a US$30 program designed to help you keep tabs on your itineraries, expenses, and such. Urbanspoon is a useful tool, if imperfect, but TravelTracker doesn't seem worth the money n its current version.

Worth noting: If you're traveling internationally, be wary of using any iPhone application that connects to the Internet for information, as roaming charges for data access can be substantial.

Urbanspoon: Shaking Up Restaurant Reviews

Urbanspoon's clever interface is the biggest reason behind its cool factor.

The free, location-aware restaurant finder features an interface resembling a slot machine's three reels. To start the reels spinning, shake your iPhone--literally--or tap Urbanspoon's Shake button. Instead of cherries and oranges lining up, one reel lands on a specific neighborhood, the second on a type of cuisine, and the third, a price category. A restaurant that matches all three attributes is displayed at the bottom of the Urbanspoon screen. Tap the restaurant's name to read brief reviews, or tap the restaurant's phone number to call.

For example, let's say you're visiting Boston, with no idea where to dine. Launch Urbanspoon, and it will find your location (as long as the city is in its database, which Boston is). Shake your iPhone, and you may get Newton (for neighborhood), American (cuisine type), and two dollar signs (price range). The restaurant displayed matching those three attributes, in my test, was Union Street Restaurant. You can lock any of the reels, too. So if I only wanted to look for restaurants in Newton, I could click the lock icon under the neighborhood reel after it landed on Newton. I could also manually spin any of the three reels. The interface is fun to use and encourages exploration.

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