I have become intrigued with the idea of using a PDA or fancy cell phone to store travel info. Hotels, numbers, addresses, restaurants, historical site info and such. I did a search and found some threads from several years ago that touched on this a bit. Have any new gadgets come out, perhaps with specialized apps for travel? Do any of you use one of these for this purpose and what would you recommend?

Thanks,
JB

I think the PDA market is dead. It's been taken over by the smart phone and I guess the small laptop markets.

It's sad. A half decent reasonable priced PDA would be great for travelling. Instead we get half baked phones.

Take a look at the smart phones. I think personally I'd lean towards one of the smaller laptops and a basic phone.

A have used software called "Documents to Go" that allows you to put Microsoft Office documents on a PDA. I made a spreadsheet for places in Florence that allowed me to see what sights were in what neighborhoods, what stores and restaurants were nearby, etc. This was useful, although a bit timeconsuming to construct. I also used the Word module to store and carry information about things I would see. I think that there have been upgrades to the software since I used it.

The biggest drawback for me was that I had to get my glasses out a lot to see the small screen on my Palm, while with paper I can print big enough to see without them.

-Flo

quote:

Originally posted by JuniorBalloon:
Have any new gadgets come out, perhaps with specialized apps for travel? Do any of you use one of these for this purpose and what would you recommend?

Not the latest electronic gadget but the PocketMod is a new/old way to have travel info at your fingertip without spending money on a gadget. Marta recently posted about the PocketMod here.

I think what Nick says is true, although I do still find my Palm PDA very handy for storing travel info and e-books. I think that eventually the iPod Touch (or iPhone if you want the phone part) will work as a pretty good PDA, but it's going to need more 3rd party software. Right now using it that way requires a lot of workarounds.

- Roz

I use my Palm for travel, and have for years. Like Roz, I have travel info and e-books on it. I also have a set of Rome maps from Visual IT's Tube series. If you haven't seen this series, they are really quite nice.

I am now in the process of switching my info to my new iPod Nano. I like the podcasts for travel information and language drill. I have "talking books" on the iPod.

Since they are so small, I will take both this summer. This way I can see which one I like better.

DMae

I just use my trusty old Palm Pilot! Store hotel info and plane/train schedules in my calendar on the appropriate day; use doc. to go to keep copies of Word or Excel documents, and the memo feature for quick notes. Works great for me, and I know I'd don't use nearly all of the capabilities.

Anne

I have a Blackberry 8820 (via AT&T) that comes equiped with built-in GPS. I don't pay the monthly fee for the commercial GPS servoce AT&T offers, but I can use it with Google Maps for free, and have found it reasonably helpful for helping navigate in both the countryside and in cities. In Rome recently I was easily able to find the restaurant for which we had lunch reservations once I was able to get clear of overhanging buildings that had been blocking the satellite connection. It also is handy for locating a specific address, and in this case I had pre-programmed in the address of our restaurant when I checked to get an idea of where it was in the Ghetto, so when time came to get there, it was simple to use. I wouldn't get an 8820 for that capability alone, but it did come in handy in this instance.