Apps to watch the world go by with…

Whether you are traveling for just a short holiday, taking a sabbatical from work or going all out on a year or more of seeing the world – one thing’s for sure, there will always be arduous moments when you are “in-transit” so-to-speak.

These moments can be filled with things like listening to music, reading a book or, if you’re that way inclined, maybe even some conversation – yeah right, me either!

If however you are like me, apps will be the perfect way to beat the boredom while traveling and even enhance your trip. You can find apps that provide games, puzzles, guides, language tips, currency converters etc, all without the need for the internet.

Angry Birds Seasons HD: Free this week only for iPad

Download from iTunes here.

 

When in Rome … buy an iPad apparently!

This weekend I solved the age-old saying of “when in Rome” and made a very nice excuse for buying an iPad 2.

While I was passing through Rome airport on a stop over (yes I iz well jet-set) I had four hours to kill and so did what most people do in this situation, I had a browse. One of the first shops I stopped off at was the airports Dixons Travel and I was met by a clearance sign for iPad 2s … with an iPad 2 16GB wifi-only for around £289! (rrp £329).

Getting online and mobile in Argentina

A little while a go I was looking into options of a pre-pay no-contract way of getting online in Brazil and found that it was working out to be pretty expensive. A pre-pay modem / satellite internet install in the home was working out quite a bit of dosh just to set up, plus the pre-pay cost of the internet was working out a lot.

Before I left Argentina for Brazil, I was in a similar situation looking for a cheap and pre-pay internet option, but found nothing. Well, upon my return a two weeks ago I was in for a happy surprise!

Fake Apple stores in Argentina just don’t put the effort in …

The book police are worse then the grammar police! Me and my new Kindle …

I love a new gadget and while I have been traveling I have been longing for a new bit of tech to get my pulse racing. As you can imagine, my budget is a little tight and so an iPad 3 really isn’t on the cards. My decision needs to be based on what I really need and what could fit into my budget … of not much.

After a visit from a couple of friends sporting Amazon Kindles, I realised I had an idea in mind, yes you guessed it … an Amazon Kindle wifi plus 3G. The main selling point for me was the free 3G, I have an iPhone 3G and laptop for connectivity when there is wifi and what I really need is a cheap way to connect when there is no wifi available.

New DrawSomething app is Drawsome!!!

The other day I noticed a few of my friends on twitter conversing about their drawing abilities and seemed to all have examples of how good and / or bad their drawings were. I had a deeper look and noticed they were using the hashtag #DrawSomething … the plot thickens.

As it turned out they were playing a new Pictionairy-style game called DrawSomething, which is an app for smartphones running iOS and Android. It comes in two versions for iOS, one that is free with ads and one that you pay a small fee of 69p to get rid of the pesky ads. Likewise on Google Play, you can opt for free and paid versions. I went for the paid version as I am not a fan of ads. You can pay within the app for new coins that you use to buy new colour packs to boost your chances of creating a masterpiece, I have listed the costs of the coins at the end of this piece.

Has Apple lost its touch with new iPad?

Apple device launches are one of the most anticipated and watched globally, with every ounce reported and scrutinised by the media. The latest being the lack of queues for the new iPad 3, or iPad as Apple has confusingly decided to call it. But why is this? Do people no longer “need” or “want” the devices, are people not willing to make the upgrade due to the lack of change in the iPad 3 from the iPad 2? Has the sheen of Steve Jobs rubbed off?

When’s My Bus twitter bot is awesome!

Are you bemused by complicated London bus timetables, the TfL website and which bus is going to come first? Well that is where a very cool twitter account called “When’s My Bus” can step in and rescue you. The idea is simple, you tweet @whensmybus with the bus number, your location or geotag and its replies within minutes with any route information it has plus the time of the next bus.

The bot uses TfL’s real-time data to provide you with information and the location of your tweet to provide you with the most accurate details. If you do not have a GPS-enabled smartphone you can simply tweet the number of the bus as below:

Of course the more information you include in your tweet the better the results. For example “@whensmybus 29 from Wood Green” or even better, you can use the SMS code provides by TfL at the bus stop “@whensmybus 135 from 74754”.

If you want to hedge your bets on a few different routes, you can tweet multiple bus numbers to find out which is the first bus to arrive.

For those that prefer not to share their location with their followers, you can also Direct Measage the bot on Twitter and it will respond to you via DM, just make sure you are both following each other – nice touch.

The person behind this clever little bot is Chris Applegate, to whom I had the pleasure of working with at We Are Social. You can find out more from Chris here and if you have any questions feel free to tweet him at @qwghlm.

Apple iPad 3 event announced

This week is Mobile World Congress, without a doubt the biggest event in mobile for the whole year, and one of the most notable companies missing from the Fira is Apple. Well as reported just now by The Loop Apple has gone and stolen a couple of the headlines during the show’s second day by announcing an event for the iPad 3 – you gotta love Apple.