6 Awesome travel apps to use for your Spring Break trip

ARTICLE – The information age has opened new avenues when it comes to travel. You can choose to stay in someone’s home in a foreign country to fully immerse yourself in the culture, or book an inclusive resort vacation, with a few keystrokes from your smartphone or laptop.

There are so many travel apps out there it can be hard to choose the right one, so we’re here to help. We’ve gathered a list of apps you’re probably missing out on.

For the sake of this piece, we’re going to focus on lesser-known apps, so you won’t see Priceline, Travelocity or Airbnb on this list.

1. Tripit

When you’re planning a vacation, whether you’re heading across the county or around the globe, you probably have dozens of emails to sift through.

You’ve got booking confirmations, hotel and flight information, not to mention any dinners, tours or activities you may book in advance. Even in a clean inbox, it’s easy to lose a vital piece of information, or accidentally delete it.

Tripit is a free app that links to your email and collates all that information in one simple, user-friendly program. It picks through your email to find the relevant information and pulls it together for you in one place. Never lose a digital hotel reservation or boarding pass again.

2. PackPoint

Just about everybody loves to travel, but far fewer of us enjoy packing before we do! If spring weather rolls around and you’re ready to “spring” out your front door, pause for a beat and ask yourself: do I have everything I need? In three hours’ time, will I be wishing for my neck pillow on the flight — or thinking about looping back home to grab my travel-sized Waterpik? If you want to take the guesswork out of packing for your next getaway, consider enlisting PackPoint.

PackPoint is a free app for iOS and Android that brings some intelligence to the process of packing.

All you have to do is input your destination, length of stay, and a couple of other details, and the app generates a surprisingly inclusive packing checklist for you. After the list is complete, you can add or subtract items as needed.

3. HotelTonight

There’s nothing worse than showing up for a hotel reservation, only to find the facility is overbooked and you have nowhere to stay. It can put a damper on even the best vacation. HotelTonight takes all the hassle out of finding a last-minute hotel room when you’re far from home. Enter your destination and dates of your stay, and the app does the rest.

There is a web version of HotelTonight too, but if you’re on the road, download the app, and you’ll have all the local hotels and the best deals right at your fingertips.

4. Dark Sky

Most people manage to squeak by with the stock weather app on their tablet or smartphone. But whether you travel regularly or you’re proudly sedentary, Dark Sky is a great ally to have on hand. The Dark Sky API is built on open-source code and serves as the foundation for other weather apps and services.

More importantly, its feature set won’t leave you wanting. For travelers, the ability to save multiple destinations is handy for planning your next jaunt around potential foul weather.

Dark Sky’s marquee feature is probably its “hyper-local” forecasting and down-to-the-minute push notifications for precipitation and other weather events. Wherever life takes you, grab a companion who can tip you off about what the sky has in store for you.

5. Rome2Rio

Once you get off the plane at your destination, getting from point A to point B can be challenging. The bus and train schedules are probably in a different language, and figuring out which bus to get on, or which subway you need to ride to get to your hotel, can be a nightmare.

Rome2Rio does all the hard work for you. It has databases of bus, train, driving and ferry schedules, instructions on how to ride and tools to help you map your way to your destination.

You can plan your whole trip itinerary in the app, and follow it to help you make it where you’re going safely. It will even tell you how long your trip will take, and the approximate cost!

6. Detour

Walking tours are an incredible way to experience a city from the ground, but they can be expensive, and you might find yourself left behind if you prefer a stroll, but your tour guide is into power-walking. Instead of booking a tour, download Detour.

This app provides immersive self-guided walking tours, and all you need is your phone and a pair of earbuds.

Audio giant Bose bought Detour in 2018, which means the app may soon be coming to Bose’s AR glasses, which would take these walking tours to a whole new level.

Go off the Beaten Path

While mainstream apps like Priceline and Travelocity can be useful tools, they’re not your only option when it comes to travel apps.

These hidden gems might help you find an affordable flight, a last-minute hotel or a new hole-in-the-wall restaurant you never knew you needed in your life.

Image via Roman Carey

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: ,

6 Awesome travel apps to use for your Spring Break trip originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 15, 2019 at 8:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

Share Encrypted Files for Free with Mozilla’s Firefox Send

This week Mozilla launched a new file-sharing service that solves a problem. It can be difficult to share larger files because many times they are too large to send in email. That leaves us with sharing over Dropbox or another cloud storage service, even if we have no desire to save it, just to send it. Mozilla solved this problem by launching Firefox Send, a free, encrypted file-transfer service. It allows users to share files over a a browser, and it doesn’t even have to be through Firefox. Mozilla’s Firefox Send You won’t ever struggle to share a larger file again, as long as it’s… Read more

Posted by / March 15, 2019 / Posted in News

How to Add Text to a Video in Final Cut Pro

By using titles, you can add text to your Final Cut video projects. This could be something like the title of a video, the location of a scene, the role of an interviewee, or a source for archive footage. All these are different forms of the humble title, included in Final Cut Pro X. Add Titles to a Video in Final Cut Pro Start from an existing Final Cut Pro X project. Titles should be added near the end of the editing process, after the primary picture and sound have been largely locked. Related: How to Get Started in Final Cut Pro Adding the Title… Read more

What Is svchost.exe, and Should You Stop the Process?

If you use a Windows-based system, you may have opened your task manager to see a swarm of processes called “svchost” taking up a lot of room. It can be worrying to see so many copies of this process working away silently as you use your computer. What is this odd process, and should you try to prune them down to size yourself? The short answer to this is a definite, strong “no!” Do not force any svchost process to stop! They’re very vital for Windows to do its job properly. In order to understand why they’re so important, however, we need to break down… Read more

Carbon fiber makes everything cool, including musical instruments

NEWS – If you’ve ever wanted to learn to play a stringed instrument but were intimidated by the number of strings and frets on a guitar, then you should really consider a ukulele or in this case, a banjolele. This particular instrument is the Outdoor Ukulele Banjolele and what makes it special is that it’s made of carbon fiber with eye-catching radial bracing.

Outdoor Ukulele banjoleles are available in four versions. You can choose between a coated or clear banjo head and nickel or gold plated tuners. What’s great about these instruments from Outdoor Ukulele is that they aren’t made of wood so you don’t have to ever worry about them cracking due to lack of humidity. On the flip side, the tone of a non-wood ukulele might not be as warm as a traditional wooden uke. But that shouldn’t be a big issue with a banjolele because bright twang is a good thing.

Ukes are really fun and easy to learn. I used to play guitar and switched over to ukuleles because I liked the smaller size overall size of the instrument and the narrow fretboard which makes it easier to make chords. If you’re interested in one of these unique musical instruments from Outdoor Ukulele, one of their banjoleles will set you back $245 – $255 depending on the model. Visit outdoorukulele.com for more info.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: ,

Carbon fiber makes everything cool, including musical instruments originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 14, 2019 at 6:05 pm.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.