mTrip Blog » Apple

mTrip Travel Guides are available for demo in the Apple Stores

Sabrina — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:21:50 +0000

Looking for a travel guide app but not sure if mTrip is the one & only for you? Not to fret because Apple is featuring the mTrip app in some of its stores in New York and across Europe (and possibly some other locations too)!

If you pop into one of their stores, the app will be available for demo on their iPhones. We are grateful that Apple is giving some of our customers the chance to demo the app! The ability to demo an app and have certainty prior to purchase is very valuable.

Here is a list of a few of the Apple Stores where you can demo the app:

Apple Store, SoHo, New York

Address: 103 Prince Street, New York City, NY, 10012

Apple Store Opéra, Paris

Address: 12 rue Halévy, 75009 Paris, France

Have you seen the mTrip demo in any other Apple Stores? Please let us know in the comments so we can add it to the list.

The apps are also available for direct download here!

mTrip Travel Guides offering free travel apps today

Sabrina — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:20:55 +0000

With the launch of seven new travel guides for spring, we will be offering them for free today in the Apple App Store. In the Android market, the 11 selected apps will be discounted to 0.99 Thursday and Friday, perhaps even longer so keep an eye out! Along with the 7 new city guides, some of our older destinations will be on offer for free: Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore & Shanghai. All apps go back to regular price ($5.99) afterward so don’t miss out on this promotion!

Download the apps!

mTrip’s iPhone travel apps

mTrip’s Android travel apps

Gifting an App from iTunes

Sabrina — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:41:54 +0000

Shopping for holiday gifts can be very stressful – the shops are packed to the gills and lets face it, it’s difficult to shop for almost everyone these days.

A great idea this holiday season is gifting an app from iTunes. They are easy to purchase, you don’t have to fight the crazy shopping crowds and with so many apps in the App Store, you can easily tailor the gift to just about anyone.

Here’s how:

Click the screenshot to enlarge

In iTunes go to iTunes store in source list
Search mTrip (or whatever app it is) in the top right corner search box
Choose the specific app you would like to give
Click on the arrow to the right of the Buy button
Select ‘Gift this App’
You will either be asked to sign into your iTunes account with your name and password or you will be navigated to the ‘Give a Gift’ page. Once here, you will have to fill in your details, and gift recipients details as well as a personal message. You will also be asked if you would like to send the gift via email or if you would like to print the gift yourself
Once you’ve signed in and completed the ‘Give a Gift’ form, you wil be brought to a page where you can review and confirm your purchase

It’s just that easy to gift an app. From business to travel, music to medical and more there really is an app for that person who has everything.

What kinds of gifts are you giving this holiday season? Are you planning on gifting any apps?

iTunes Rewind – Hot Trends for apps in 2010

Sabrina — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:13:39 +0000

The iTunes Store went live with its year-in-review, Rewind 2010. Among the list, they included the top App Store selections for iOS software, broken down by iPhone and iPad. iTunes chose to feature the hot trends that struck a chord with consumers this year, along with the top paid, top free and top grossing apps.

iTunes broke down the top apps by individual categories. For the city guides category we are honoured to say we were rewarded #1 in Germany for our Paris city guide and #3 in France for our Amsterdam city guide!

Hot Trends for 2010

For iPhone, the hot trends categories featured were Augmented Reality, Fun for Foodies, New News, Generative Art & Sound, Tech for Tots, The Cloud, Quick Fix Games, Hardcore Games, Retro Revival Games, Multiplayer Games, On the Grid, Personal Training, Band in your Head, Zombies and Shoot, edit, share.

One of the hottest trends for 2010 was Augmented Reality (AR) and we are happy to say we made the iTune’s Rewind list for 2010! Another app that made the AR list was Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner, which claims to turn ones surroundings into epic space battles. Other AR apps featured include Style.com, ARDefender, and Hidden Sky.

iTunes Rewind: 2010 Hot Trends Augmented Reality

For iPad, there was much overlap in the categories chosen. They didn’t include photo and video apps due to the iPad’s lack of camera but they did include new categories like Pen & Brush and Mobile Office, which are much more relevant for iPad users.

If you regularly go on the App Store, their top paid and free apps won’t come as a big surprise. The top overall paid iPhone apps include Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Skee-Ball, Bejeweled 2, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, GAMEBOX 1, Plants vs. Zombies, and Pocket God. Top overall free iPhone apps include iBooks, Pandora Radio, Netflix, Google Mobile App, Solitaire, Movies by Flixster, IMDb Movies & TV, Kindle, Google Earth and Virtuoso.

To see all the top iPhone and iPad apps as well as the top TV shows, music, movies, audiobooks and podcasts for 2010, visit the iTunes Rewind microsite

mTrip Travel Guides for Singapore, Shanghai & Tokyo are free in App Store today

Sabrina — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:30:50 +0000

Last week we launched Asian destinations for our travel guide app, mTrip Travel Guides. We are celebrating the launch by offering our customers the Asian guides for free, just today.

The travel guides for free today:

Singapore
Shanghai
Tokyo

All three travel guides are available from the Apple App Store.

Features include:

‘mTrip Genius’ – Automatically plans personalized trip itineraries
Travel guide with attractions, restaurants, bars, hotels, shopping destinations and more with ratings and reviews
Augmented Reality
Offline map and directions
Sharing electronic postcards by Facebook and email
Free daily updates
No Internet required (except sharing and updates)

Download your mTrip Travel Guide

We hope you enjoy the new Asian guides! Leave a comment and let us know what you think of them.

mTrip Travel Guides celebrates Black Friday with a sale in the App Store

Sabrina — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:39:33 +0000

Happy Black Friday!

mTrip Travel Guides is kicking off the holiday season with its iPhone and iPod Touch apps on sale in the Apple App Store.

The travel guides are regularly priced at $5.99 but today you can grab your favorite guide for $3.99!

The stores will be going crazy today as will you; skip the store madness and head straight for the App Store. We hope you enjoy your mTrip Guide

Available destinations: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Istanbul, Dublin, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai.

Download your favorite Travel Guide

What do Apple iPhone apps have to offer Travelers?

Sabrina — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:44:48 +0000

The iPhone has opened the door to a world of opportunity not only in the tech world, but also in our personal lives. More and more developers are jumping on board daily to create the most interesting, useful and unique apps for every type of user you can possibly imagine.

From books and music, to travel and weather (and a whole lot more), iPhone apps are appealing to every interest, every daily dilemma and every person.

I could write for hours on how the different categories of iPhone apps benefit users but I want to focus in on the category of Travel.

So, how do iPhone apps help travelers?

From pre-trip planning, to sightseeing and post-trip sharing, there is a vast amount of apps that cover one, some or all of these activities.

Pre-Trip Planning

There are some iPhone travel apps that help you book your flight and then send you your flight itinerary so you have a record on file. Others focus on recommendations for hotels and tourist attractions to visit. Before you even leave for your trip, you can have your entire trip itinerary planned out, day by day, activity by activity. Some travel apps even take into account ones personal travel interests, trip dates and geographical locations to determine the most personalized trip for the user.

Sightseeing

This is obviously the big one. It’s not unusual for a traveler to stop by a bookstore before a trip and pick up a travel guide to take along on a trip. While paperback travel guides are the tried and tested solution for those seeking more info on tourist destinations, they don’t necessarily offer the traveler the most advanced and unique trip experience, nor do they offer much more value beyond some trip recommendations.

For travelers seeking a more heightened experience, they can opt for many different types of iPhone apps.

Types of apps include advanced travel guides that might be user-generated and/or produced by travel pro’s, traveler-generated ratings, reviews and comments for tourist attractions, map functions, directions to and from destinations, sharing features like postcards and updates sent through email and social networks, and even Augmented Reality tools which overlay helpful travel info onto one’s phone, allowing the person to experience and learn a city in a way they have never been able to before.

Users have to be careful though as some apps might require Internet and they could incur roaming fees. This is always important to check out before going ahead and buying the app.

Post-Trip Sharing

After a trip, many travelers like to have a place they can store all their memories. More and more developers are taking into consideration this very important need and are adding a new platform to their apps, the Internet. Developers are creating social network sites where travelers can share their trips, photos, memories, ratings, reviews and more with other travelers and always have a place where they can refer back to their trip and remember the good times they had.

Here are a few travel app recommendations we will leave you with:

FlightTrack – Track all your flights worldwide with zoomable maps and real-time departure info

Wi-Fi Finder – The largest directory of paid and free Wi-Fi Internet access in 140 countries

iLanguage – Quick, accurate and easy two-way translations

The Currency Convertor – Updated currency conversion info for all commonly used currencies

For other interesting iPhone apps visit: iPhoneLife Magazine

For more on planning a trip with the iPhone, visit mTrip Travel Guides

Image source by Okinawa Steve at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15427016@N02/

The iPad for Business Travelers & Backpackers

Sabrina — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:19:05 +0000

The Apple iPad hit the market last week with much anticipation. What does this tablet mean for business travelers and backpackers? Will it replace the laptop for on-the-road computing needs? Here are a few key features to take note.

Size & Shape – The iPad is .5 inches thick, only slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS, and measures 9.56 x 7.47 inches. It weighs 1.5 pounds without 3G, and 1.6 with 3G.

Camera - There isn’t one. ‘Nough said.

Touch Keyboard - It’s a bit awkward to use with a very large touch screen keyboard.

Battery Life – Ten hours of constant use, with a one-month standby rating.

Email – Similar visual signals as the iPhone but better. You can preview your mailbox from any message with a pull-down menu, and preview any message from within the mailbox, with a pop-up window.

iPhone apps – The iPad is great for apps. Plus any apps you have downloaded to your iPhone can be automatically synced for free to your iPad.

Music – The music player is even more combined and exciting, a mix between the iPhone’s iPod interface and desktop iTunes.

Maps – Very similar conversion and interface from the iPhone but way better. You can view maps from above with high-resolution satellite imagery, up close with street view or with topography in new terrain view. You can also get directions from your current location.

Calendar & Contacts - The calendar app is desktop-like, until you open contacts and calendars, which look a lot like actual contact books and organizers.

iWork – A completely new version designed specifically for iPad. Each application has a great user interface. You can create slides, documents or spreadsheets with ease. Each App also integrates the Media inspector for easy access to photos and music.

Ebooks – Apple has developed an ebook to store for the iPad called iBooks. It greatly resembles iTunes.

So how do the iPad features translate into benefits for business travelers and backpackers?

The business traveler can now travel light, check emails, view contacts and work on docs, presentations and spreadsheets with ease all from the airplane, hotel or on the go. If you are seeking an intermediate mobile device that takes up little space, offers budget priced 3G connectivity, and provides all-day battery life the iPad might be your best option.

The backpack traveler will find some of the iPad features handy such as the maps, which are more interactive and easier to view than on the iPhone. No need to break out the giant paper map anymore! While checking email and IMs from the hostel or hotel is useful is this really a priority for the backpacker? And lets face it – the camera has become an integral part of our travel experience. The fact that iPad doesn’t have a camera could be a deal breaker for the traveler who seeks an all-in-one device.

So what are your thoughts on the iPad? Will it be your next travel tool of choice?