Basing their judgment on three criteria, ergonomics, richness and utility they looked at the application for both for the iPhone and for Android and gave the app a final rating of 9.5/10.

What drew the attention and appreciation of author Eric Tenin was the ability of the app to function 100% offline.  Furthermore he highlighted the ability to create easy to use and personalized itineraries, as well as the latest feature of the app: the ability to share a trip journal and photos online.

In conclusion he stated, “Ernest Hemingway or Pierre Loti would surely love this app”.

Geo Magazine - December 2011

mTrip tested in GEO Magazine

Here is the list of free guides:

These reporters had it right by really testing these products in action and following the suggested routes and itineraries. Performed in real conditions, the two reporters walked around Barcelona like two tourists discovering an unknown city. The test was based on several aspects such as: the trip planning, the content of tourist information, the tracking and guidance in the city as well as the price/quality ratio .

TEST RESULTS

mTrip Travel Guides: 11/12
Mobile app competitor: 3 / 12
Paper Guide: 4 / 12
Tourist Board Brochure: 4 / 12

So as it turns out, the mTrip Genius is indeed intelligent and the suggested itineraries are helpful and customized to the traveler. We hope you have the same success with the mTrip apps!

See the video! (in German)

….that’s because today we are offering two travel guides for free in the Apple App Store. Budapest Travel Guide & Prague Travel Guide will be free on iPhone & iPod only today. If you are on Android, the two travel guides will be at 0.99, also a steal!

Grab a guide today because prices will go back to $5.99 tomorrow!

Most of you who use mTrip though already know that everything is offline, including:

• The mTrip Genius trip planner
• Maps & Directions
• Augmented Reality
• Travel Guide directory
• Creating postcards & reviews

To share a postcard, here’s how:

Go to the ‘Guide’ tab > go to any place in the guide (attraction, hotel, bar, etc…) > tap on the ‘Postcard’ icon in the bottom right corner and voila!

Once you have a WIFI connection, you can go to the ‘Share’ tab to send your postcards via Facebook or email (or send it right away if you like)

To share a review, here’s how:

We’ve just made updates to mTrip, allowing you to send your reviews & ratings via Facebook and share with your friends. You can save them as pending & just wait for WIFI to avoid fees from your data plan. As before, you can share your reviews with other travelers inside the mTrip app.

As an app developer, especially in travel we try to be creative in offering our users an experience that is Offline yet still allows travelers to do the interesting things that are only available online. This is where syncing updates and sharing on social networks and email come into play.

To send the postcards or share reviews/tips, you just want to wait for a WIFI connection to sync the updates. In other words, if I create a postcard, I will wait until I arrive back at my hotel, a cafe with free WIFI or home to send the postcards by Facebook or email. They will be waiting for me in the mTrip share tab. Using mTrip’s postcard sharing feature saves me the task of finding postcards and stamps and sending them by snail mail. Instead, I can share the pictures along my journey so my friends and family can see what I’m doing at that moment, as opposed to much later when I have already left that location.

We hope you enjoy the sharing features! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.

Roam large with no roaming charge!

Download the iPhone & Android travel apps here!

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!

Download the apps!

mTrip’s iPhone travel apps

mTrip’s Android travel apps

So, we are happy to announce the launch of five new travel guides: Stockholm, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, Budapest & Prague.

Grab a guide here & enjoy

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

1. In iTunes go to iTunes store in source list
2. Search mTrip (or whatever app it is) in the top right corner search box
3. Choose the specific app you would like to give
4. Click on the arrow to the right of the Buy button
5. Select ‘Gift this App’
6. 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
7. 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 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.

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