Posts filed under 'Travel'
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Simon Willison is a smart guy. I can tell from his blog.
On this recent blog post, Simon introduces wikinear.com, a free mobile service that provides information about nearby locations found in Wikipedia. The intriguing aspect is that the service utilizes geolocation to pinpoints your location, then automatically retrieves information about the nearby points of interest found in Wikipedia.
Simon’s idea of how this mobile service came about was interesting:
The idea for the site came from living in Oxford for a year. The city is full of beautiful old historic buildings (many of them colleges), but very few of them are labeled or signposted. With wikinear.com and a GPS hooked up to Fire Eagle, I can pull out my phone and see a list of the closest points of interest, plotted on a handy map.
Technologies used in wikinear.com:
You will need a beta invite to Yahoo! Fire Eagle in order to use the service. I have a few extra invites, so if you need one, send me a note at mobilefreakmobilemammoth.com. First come, first served.
If you are not excited about the potential of mobile apps after reading his summary of not only what wikinear does, but what other mobile services are possible on a tight budget, then you may need a pulse check.
Mobile Website:
http://wikinear.com
March 31st, 2008
Today we highlight a service designed for frequent travelers, which I ran across over at WapReview.
The Dopplr service starts on the desktop, though many features can be utilized from the mobile phone as well. To summarize, you can check out their about page, or read an excerpt from that page below.
Dopplr is an online service for intelligent business travelers.
Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues. The service then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too. You can use Dopplr on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks.
The service has attracted a following among business travelers around the globe. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia recently named Dopplr his “favorite non-wiki website” in The New York Times Sunday Magazine: “You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is. I love it.”
Any Dopplr users out there want to share their feedback? Let us know how you like it.
Mobile website:
http://m.dopplr.com
March 19th, 2008
My Grandparents were from County Cork and County Roscommon in Ireland, and to this day St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. I think that also has to do with the fact that my birthday was yesterday, and that NCAA March Madness comes around this time of year. In any case, today I’ll cover a mobile website highlighting the great country of Ireland.
What is it?
If you are looking for a good Bed and Breakfast in Ireland, this is the mobile website you’ll need. I must admit the URL (guide-to-ireland.mobi) can be a bit deceiving, as it is specifically for B&B’s and not a more general tourist guide, but the listings are rather comprehensive.
Navigation
You navigate first by region, and then by county within that region of Ireland. Upon selecting a county, a full list of Bed and Breakfast establishments are displayed. Each listing we found included the address, several pictures, and a phone number which makes it very convenient to call them directly.
While I’d imagine most B&B customers are rather finicky about their accommodations, and therefore make reservations well ahead of time, this mobile website is great for people needing to make quick, yet informed decisions about their next stay in Ireland.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Mobile Website:
www.guide-to-ireland.mobi
March 17th, 2008
Want to know how to get from Long Beach to 7th Street on LA’s Metro system? Now you can do it on your way to the Metro station, right from your mobile phone.
Today’s mobile website offers most of the content from the regular website for the LA Metro system, which is managed by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The mobile version offers LA Metro maps, a Metro trip planner, fare information, real-time LA traffic updates, and more. Check it out for yourself below…
(By the way, Long Beach to 7th street is an easy 54 minutes on the Blue Line, and will cost about a buck twenty-five.)
Mobile Website:
http://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/metro.net/default.asp
March 4th, 2008
jetBlue Airways offers a mobile website that lets you track your flight status, review weather delays, and even preview the in-flight entertainment available on jetBlue flights.
The image to the right is a screenshot of the mobile homepage. Like the rest of the jetBlue mobile website, the homepage is simple and clutter-free. The flight status checker allows users to check by either flight number or a combination of airport code and flight time.
Fly airlines other than jetBlue? You can also find links to the American Airlines mobile website or this mobile flight lookup tool for United Airlines and others.
Mobile Website:
http://mobile.jetblue.com
February 11th, 2008
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the BART rail system began letting riders pay with their mobile phones.
Here’s a quote from the article:
The $200,000 pilot project, which will be tested by about 230 riders for the next four months, utilizes a wireless chip that lets people pay by passing their phone over a wireless reader. BART has been using the contact-free technology in its EZ Rider pilot program, which allows riders to pay at the turnstiles by waving a plastic card that has a wireless chip.
It’s great to finally see this in the States. If anyone is one of the 230 participating in the pilot, or you know someone who is, drop us a comment to let us know what you think!
January 31st, 2008
The large majority of mobile websites still display the same information as their regular site, without taking into account that the mobile visitor is out on the go. They are not sitting in front of a PC on a T-1 line with 20 minutes to spare. They are riding in a cab, in a meeting, or waiting in line somewhere.
If you want to see a travel website that gets it, .
Many have used Kayak.com, the “travel search engine” that searches other travel websites for the best travel deals. Their mobile website, on the other hand, offers something specifically for the mobile user. Kayak Mobile allows users to search by city, zip code, or area code for same-day deals on flights, hotels, and restaurants.
Kayak Mobile is a great example of a company that understanding the context of the mobile web user. Enjoy!
Mobile Website: www.kayak.com/moby
January 17th, 2008
We at MobileMammoth.com have put together our Top 7 Mobile Websites from 2007.
If you surf the web from your phone at all, then you really need to consider bookmarking these in your mobile browser. They are all truly useful, and will save you time all year round. So without further delay, here they are:
Top 7 Mobile Wesbites of 2007
- Bloglines (Skweezed)
Bloglines is one of the most popular RSS readers on the web, and now that they’ve integrated Skweezer’s mobile browsing gateway, mobile users are touting it’s ease of use. If you already use Google Reader to browse your RSS feeds, their mobile version will do you just fine.
- The Weather Channel
There are some alternative mobile weather sites out there, but so far the Weather Channel stays on top.
- Yahoo! Mail
You will need to go here and enter your mobile phone number for the link, or type m.yahoo.com into your mobile browser and click on the Mail link.
- Google Search
Much like Yahoo!’s directions, you will need to go here and enter your mobile phone number for the link, or type mobile.google.com into your mobile browser.
- FlightStats
As noted by one of our readers in our mobile website contest, FlightStats provides a variety of useful tools to make sure you optimize your time on travel days.
- Dodgeball
This social networking service lets people “check in” through Dodgeball, which in turn alerts your friends of where you are. There’s a lot more to it, so go check it out.
- ESPN
Still the most comprehensive sports destination, and the mobile interface works well. A visit there today showed one small graphic on the mobile home page (to save bandwidth), and the navigation items on the bottom of the screen where they belong on a mobile display.
And because we always like to exceed expectations, here’s one more site for your mobile browsing pleasure…
- Google Maps
I much prefer Google Maps over MapQuest for its accuracy and intuitive interface. The same holds true for the mobile web. To visit Google Maps for Mobile, click here and enter your mobile number, or text “MYLOCATION” to 33669.
Enjoy these sites, add some more in the comments to this post, and Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2008
Flying American Airlines over the holidays? Use American’s mobile website to check your flight status and schedules, and save yourself some time in the process. It will be well worth the minutes used on your wireless plan.
Mobile Website:
http://www.aa2go.com
November 16th, 2007
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