Pimp my iPad!

February 24, 2011 12:48 PM

Pimp my iPad! I'm going to be using an iPad for business trips in the near future. Can you help me find all the best apps for wandering through a strange city?

So I work for a textbook publisher and we are demonstrating the wonder of our books on the iPad at a big conference in a week or so. I'm looking for apps to download that will be super helpful when I'm in a city I know nothing about or visiting an unfamiliar college campus. I snagged Yelp, of course, but any other great travel apps would be welcome, especially since I'm kind of a newbie to all this iStuff.

I'm looking more for things that will make traveling easier rather than things to entertain me at the airport. I have Metafilter for that!

I've already read the previous app + travel threads and snagged some good ideas, but I was wondering if there was anything specific to the iPad and business travel I could be using. I don't really need to worry about finding gas stations or booking hotels. I'm already equipped with 3G if that matters.

I appreciate any suggestions! Thanks guys!

posted by chatongriffes to Technology (8 answers total)

Google Maps, Yelp and the internet is all I use... unless you are going to a big city like NY where there are apps for subway maps, guidebooks, etc. Otherwise, I would just bookmark the travel sites you might use most at home and rely on Yelp and Google.

Also - I've found the iPad to be great in hotel rooms on planes but not so much for getting around the city. The iphone is best for that since it's always in my pocket and I have all the same apps there anyway. I probably use Yelp a few times a day when on the road.
posted by kdern at 1:29 PM on February 24, 2011

TripIt. Basically you forward all your confirmation emails (flights, hotels, etc) and it will build an offline itinerary for you.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:35 PM on February 24, 2011

You don't specify whether it's a foreign city or not. But the recently released Google Translate seems to me a killer-app for the ages.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:36 PM on February 24, 2011

Best answer: This is for the iPhone but I use the local books app to track down libraries and bookstores when I'm traveling. I also used to like a product called expensr which has now turned into moneystrands for keeping track of expenses. Using DropBox means you can share files easily among other computers [extra important if you're not bringing a laptop]. Otherwise, yeah, location-specific transportation stuff [many major cities have public transportation apps that are totally worth having] and some sort of crossword puzzle/angry birds sort of thing for when you're stuck in traffic.
posted by jessamyn at 1:52 PM on February 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Hi!

I used Evernote when we were traveling in the UK last year. Before we left, I saved a bunch of links for things I wanted to see (well, okay, pubs mostly); if you star them once they're synced on your device, you can look at them even if you don't have a connection to the internets, and it's easy to organize things into categories (restaurants, contact info, pubs, museums, etc.)
posted by rtha at 2:08 PM on February 24, 2011

I use these on my iPod touch
All Subway - subway maps of lots and lots of cities - could be better but its ok.
Also I have a few English / French and English / German dictionaries that are 'offline' versiosn that I like.
posted by mary8nne at 5:30 AM on February 25, 2011

Best answer: I travel a lot. In the "travel" folder on my iPad, right now I have:

* Kayak HD - flight/hotel search. I've never used this to actually book (and I'm not sure you can), but it's great for finding alternate flights/hotels when plans change.
* Transit Maps - basically just a good offline PDF viewer with a focus on transit maps. I use this for walking and transit maps of wherever I'm going.
* CityMaps2Go - downloads maps (from Open StreetMaps) for use offline. Not as good as the built-in Maps app, but works offline so it's good for wifi-only iPads or international trips.
* WiFi Finder - indexes free hotspots so I can get my Internets fix.
* Urbanspoon, Yelp, OpenTable - each has different strengths, all help me find good food.
posted by jacobian at 5:48 AM on February 25, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks guys. The iPad is now officially really cool and actually a little useful, too.

Forgot to mention in my question that since I have a beasty old blackberry, this is my primary source of information when I'm on the go. Now I just need to buy one of my own so I don't have to share with the rest of the department!
posted by chatongriffes at 4:26 PM on February 25, 2011