Bencredible

One thing that really annoys me is once I have my basic trip confirmed with flight, car, hotel is that I then have to go back and enter all that data in to my PDA, which these days is my iPhone. I already did all this work once, why can’t I just have it automagically added for me?  Well, I can!

The free service TripIt.com is an awesome web site that I don’t think gets enough attention. Sign up for free and you can organize your trips and vacations in their easy to use interface. You can share these trips with fellow travelers as well as with spouses who may not be coming with you (sorry Cariann). Get tips from other travelers who have already been to that city and suggest things you should do and places you should go. And finally, since it has a social media aspect, link up with others who may be traveling to that city at the same time. Pretty awesome stuff.

But that doesn’t solve my initial problem of being too lazy to enter my details in to my iPhone. That’s where TripIt.com’s awesome e-mail planner comes in. Forward your travel confirmations e-mails to plans@tripit.com from the same e-mail you signed up to the service from. TripIt will scan the e-mail and auto-create a new trip for you. The hardcore awesomeness is that if you forward your plane confirmation, hotel and car all to TripIt, the system will scan the dates and automagically put them all within one trip! If you send a different plane confirmation with different dates it will create a new trip. Quite intelligent! So now all I need to do is forward on two or three e-mail messages and I’m all set to go!

Well, almost.

I still need this information on my iPhone so I can see where I’m supposed to go. Generally I have no idea what city I’m going to, where I’m staying or what I’m doing. I just go where I’m told when I’m told and do stuff. So I need all that data on my iPhone. Enter a nifty little app called TravelTracker Pro. This $13 application also has a $5 upgrade that allows me to sync my iPhone to TripIt.com. I can now have TripIt automatically create my trip which is then sent to my iPhone. I then tweak and modify things on my iPhone as the travel plans change in real-time in the city I am in which re-syncs back to TripIt.com. Flippin’ amazing stuff!

There is also a pro version of TripIt.com which I think is pretty cool. It will analyze my current trip and SMS me any alerts like flight delays, gate changes, etc. so I am on top of my travel plans in real time. It also allows me to create an ‘Inner Circle’ so someone like Cariann can look at, modify and tweak my flight schedule. This can be handy for any office road warrior who may need to have their travel plans changed by someone in a different state. Just have them log in to the TripIt.com site, they can see your entire trip schedule, make changes as needed, and those changes get downloaded to your iPhone.

In my opinion, TripIt.com with TravelTracker Pro is a hardcore awesome combo that can’t be beat!

I’m going on the road, possibly quite a bit this month.  As such I thought I would share some of my tips on how I travel and stay techie.  Tip #1:  Bring your own WiFi.

While AT&T is fine when it comes to the iPhone, their broadband service is worst of class.  I don’t suggest using your iPhone as a WiFi or WAN gateway as the AT&T network will just strain under your attempted load. And by the way, if you’re in California like I am right now, AT&T will just simply give up and give you no bandwidth whatsoever. The cold hard reality of it is: AT&T can’t keep up with demand. Until they roll out their 850MHz spectrum across the US I suggest getting a Verizon MiFi.

Sprint sells the MiFi as well, and rumors are that AT&T will be bringing it on board soon too.  Ignore all of the other providers. When it comes to 3G access that is equal across the US, Verizon is the winner here. Sprint is a fairly close second, but unlike Verizon the network will vary quite a bit from city to city and frankly their support sucks.

The Verizon MiFi is an amazing device.  You can get up to 4 hours of WiFi access off this little box.  It is small, light and easy to carry with you.  Turn it on and BLAM, your computer connects via WiFi.  No stupid WAN card to plug in, no dumb Internet sharing settings, just turn it on and let trusted people join your WiFi network.

It comes with the SSID and WiFi password printed on the bottom of the device. The first thing I did was log in to the device and change the SSID and password to something that matches my own internal networks, so I can easily get family and friends on my WAN network.  You can tweak the device to your hearts content. So long as your hearts content consists of only tweaking the SSID and security settings.

There is one major downside: pricing.  With a 2 year contract the device is $99 after a $50 mail in rebate. That in itself is not too bad, but where they get you is the contract. You get up to 5GB of transfer for $60 a month. That is the largest package they have. Of course Sprint and AT&T are no better with the same pricing and same caps (note that at this time there is no MiFi for AT&T). It used to be that one could get unlimited bandwidth for $99 a month, but that option seems to be all but gone. Seems the cellular carriers are starting to see the strain of data access on their networks.

I’m not 100% sure but I think you might be able to use Verizon DayPass with this device which allows you to pay just $15.00 for 24 hours of access.  This way if you only travel once a month or so can just pay for the device as you need it. That is about the same cost as the access at an airport and you can still use it at your hotel. Not for me as I want, really, unlimited bandwidth but it may work for some.

All in all this is a great device and I highly suggest everyone check it out. Novatel did a fantastic job here and I’m thus far impressed with Verizon’s data network. Never been a huge Verizon fan, but I’m starting to swing that way more and more every day.