International Mobile Experience: GOOD!

For this year's Thanksgiving, we decided to take a short vacation and spent 5 days in the beautiful city of Barcelona.  My last trip to Europe was about four years ago and the mobile experience is obviously much better today but to my surprise, it was beyond "better"... it was GREAT!

Before I begin to describe my experience, I want to address that while my experience is based on an iPhone 4  I do believe any eligible smartphone running other OS like BB should provide similar experience.

For starters, I noticed considerable amount of more WiFi connection everywhere I went this trip, albeit most are secure and I have no access, I managed to find a decent open network to stay connected (mostly from larger hotels like the Hotel Mandarin, Hotel OMM, etc.).  I was lucky enough to have free WiFi at the hotel where I stayed.  Within 4 days, I was able to take 4th position on foursquare of all Barcelona.

WiFi also provides another layer of comfort while traveling abroad.  I was able to use the SKYPE app and TANGO app to keep in touch with friends and family in Spain and back at home.  It was really amazing that at one point, I was having a drink at a small local pub and holding a video call with my pal Dan over Tango via the free WiFi in the pub (I'm sure the Catalans must thought I was a major geek but you really get a sense that you are now living in the "future").  I was thankful to have access to wireless internet without being charged $20/MB via AT&T's international rate.

Mobile apps helped the experience considerably.  I have always have had the habit of setting up a custom My Maps within Google Maps to set various pin-points we wanted to visit.  I was able to download a cool little app on iPhone called "MyMaps".  It allows me to save map tiles on my iPhone and import the custom maps I created from Google Maps.  Even though I had my 3G data and Cellular Data turned off abroad, while standing outside, I was able to get the embedded GPS chip to pickup my position making me ditch the fold-able maps.  This experience is very empowering...

Other things like dictionary apps and powerful camera/camcorder is very helpful as well.  When we visited a famous spot, La Sagrada Familia, my amazing Canon SD4000i had ran out of power.  Thankfully, my iPhone 4's decent camera and HD recording was able to step in and fill the void.

Since we only have access to one of those European wall-outlet adapter, every night, we struggle to decide which device to charge before going to bed.  Given the flexibility and the necessity to keep my iPhone powered up, priority was always given to the iPhone.  The lesson is to remember packing more than 1 outlet adapter moving forward.

Mobile Technology Facilitates Traveling

I recently took a short trip to Chicago, one of my favorite cities in the U.S. and I’ve decided to rely less on paper itinerary and use my smartphone to manage; the end result has been quite positive. Let me share that experience:

Before the trip, I visited my airline AA.com and learned that they have a mobile friendly site simply by pointing your browser to their website (more info here); this is great to know that I can keep up to the minute update on flight status. Their website also allows you to sign-up for flight SMS text alerts. In addition, our company outsources employee travel arrangements with an agency, so my itinerary was emailed to me. The travel agency works with a service called "Virtually There" which dynamically recalls my itinerary as my trip goes on; they provide a hyperlink within the email that works for both desktop and mobile browser which makes it very convenient for me to retrieve flight number and hotel address while I am on the go. As a backup plan (in case I can't get 3G data access), I also kept a text version of my itinerary using the mobile notepad. I also setup my Nokia calendar to remind me of my flight, meeting and other notifications.

During the trip, I relied on all the mobile services above; it was nice not having to always pull out my paperwork and shuffling around to get the info I needed. I've also used Google Maps a whole-lot especially when looking up meeting locations and restaurant information. Having Assisted-GPS to identify my location within a building is a must. Google Maps application for Symbian S60 now offers "favorites" which allows me to save a location where I frequent; I could have added to favorites before the trip but it all worked out on the fly. One of our vendors invited us to a Cubs game at a nearby roof top party; taking a cab from downtown Chicago to Wrigley field at 6PM is not wise; I used Google Maps to study the traffic updates which gave me a good estimate on my arrival.

Overall, I think the advancement in mobile functionality is going great for people who frequently travels. Services like Orbitz offering travel alerts as well; which makes a lot of sense. The current state of our domestic travel is very intense; we deal with the extra long wait in security, flight delays, FAA regulations and rising gas price. Mobile technology has been a silent contributor in all of this by providing a better traveling experience. I can see this area continue to grow and cannot wait to see the day when I can check-in via mobile on my way to the airport with one-click and line up all the peripheral services like ground transportation, hotel accommodation, etc.