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iPhone 5 is not ready for travelers yet

Vi — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:52:20 +0000

This week latest iPhone 5 will become available for public and the first time I am thinking about buying smart phone. Yes, I still don”t have neither iPhone, neither Samsung Galaxy as I didn’t want to waste my time everyday by looking where to charge that smart phone. Up to now I was happy with simple cellular phone without any advanced features with standby time for two weeks.

Thought during one of my last trips to London Olympic Games I started to think about smart phone purchase. It was so many information online: games schedules and results, available tickets, traffic information, sightseeing routes and etc. I could carry laptop or iPad, but I like to keep my backpack very light and smart phone would be perfect choice. Of course such events like London Olympics doesn’t happen very often and I still could survive without any smart phone, but features of the latest iPhone 5 made me think again. May be I should get one?

I am not keen to share on social networks (aka twitter, facebook or google+) my current location and all activities I am doing at the moment as I think it is not safe, so didn’t have smart phone up to now, but three features of iPhone 5 interested me:

iPhone 5 has improved iSight camera and with new A6 chip it will capture photos quicker. The new panorama feature lets you shoot up to an impressive 240 degrees high-resolution panorama up to 28 megapixels. New camera with improved video stabilization helps record stunning 1080p HD video. This camera won’t change my Canon DSLR, but I really started to think iPhone 5 could be replacement of my P&S camera.

Apple ditched Google Maps and introduced its own Apple Maps application. It is new product and still there are no reviews, but I hope it will be good and will require less bandwidth. Maps application is done in partnership with TomTom know as world’s leading supplier of location and navigation products and services.
Passbook application is the most interested new application in latest iOS 6. In the middle of this year Apple announced its Passbook program which could replace all tickets and gift cards in your wallet. But most importantly it can store your boarding passes, so you won’t need seek printer during your travels.
With Passbook, you can scan your iPhone to check in for a flight. Wake your iPhone and passes appear on your Lock screen at the appropriate time and place when you reach the airport. If your departure gate changes after you’ve checked in for your flight, Passbook will alert you to make sure you’re not relaxing in the wrong terminal. This application seems will be irreplaceable companion for a lot of frequent travelers. Of course it will take some time until major airlines adopt this technology. American Airlines, Delta, United and Virgin airlines are among the early partners and hopefully other will follow.

Will I buy iPhone 5 tomorrow when the phone will be released at Apple store? I am not sure yet. I probably will wait for more reviews of all these application I am interested in, but I feel I will buy one at the end.

UPDATE Sep 21

It seems travellers should wait with purchase of new iPhone, as there are lot of problems with their mapping application. You can check some reviews here and here. Surprisingly bad quality of satellite shots and it give wrong directions.

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Best translation tool for travelers

Vi — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:00:39 +0000

I just got news letter about sale discount for this software and want to share it with you. It called Babylon. I am using it for 5-6 (or maybe even more) years now and I am so happy with it.
You can find a lot of online dictionaries, but most travelers knows what there too many places where there are no cellular reception and usually in such remote places you are having problems with communication.
Babylon enables to translate words and expressions in 75 languages and you can use it everywhere because it has online and offline dictionaries. Isn’t that great?
I am is still using version 5 on my laptop, but I think it is time to upgrade it myself. Latest version has editions for most popular mobile phones iPhone, BlackBerry and phones with Android.

The best part. You can get 70% off using this link. It is not affiliate and I am not getting any commissions. It is just link from newsleter I got from Babylon with last sale for 2011 offer. If you go straight to www.babylon.com you’ll 30% discount, but by pressing first link you’ll get 70% discount.

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What is best digital camera?

Vi — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:01:20 +0000

Is it Canon, Nikon or Pentax? DSLR or Point & Shoot camera? It looks like difficult question, but answer can be very easy.

Today It started heavy rain today when I was walking on the street. Didn’t have umbrella so jumped into closest store. It was book store. I was browsing between book stalls and one book caught my eyes. It was “The best camera is the one that’s with you“. Thought book more dedicated to iPhone users, but main point – it doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have, how many megapixels it has. Just go and shoot. May be quality of picture done with phone camera won’t be the same as it could be done with DSLR, but it most cases the most important thing is the moment you catch, not the quality of it.

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