For the longest time I’ve been ranting and raving about not been able to use my iPhone when I travel. Apparently that is about to change. In my quest for using my iPhone overseas I discovered a few useful tips that can help me along my trip. Here’s how to prepare an iPhone for an overseas trip:

Step 1: Jailbreak it!
Yup. Jalibreak it. It is not illegal to jailbreak your iPhone and it will pay off if you want to use it in another country. Many publications actually recommend Jailbreaking the iPhone. Just follow the instructions on this website and you’ll be good to go in no time.

Step 2: Get yourself a Global Pre-Paid SIM Card
There are many options to choose from depending on the country you live in. But you want to make sure whatever plan you choose will have at least FREE unlimited incoming calls and GPRS data available (3G network), also make sure is a Pre-paid SIM Card

This company (GO-SIM) for example has a travel plan for €27.60. In Germany T-Mobile offers a plan called “Smart Traveler” with quite a decent offer.

Step 3: Get some travel apps
Here a few of my favorite apps to use when traveling:

	DB Navigator: Let’s you check out the train schedules of the Deutsche Bahn at any time. Useful even without WiFi network.
	Tripwolf: This app currently has a free and a paid version. It downloads a city guide to your iPhone (for just about any city) that you can browse without having to be connected to a network. On the paid version you can get additional info. If you are connected to a network, you can get pictures with each review.
	Qype: International community with recommendations on Restaurants and Bars. Since is international, once you are connected with your Sim Card, you’ll be good to go.
	Lonley Planet Travel Guide: Travel guide for any city with recommendations from other users.
	Sit or Squat: is an app that helps you locate the nearest toilet. With your 3G network activated you’ll be able to use it in any country.
	Lufthansa Launcher: If you are traveling with Lufthansa, this app will help you book flights, check in, check timetables and check the flight status.
	Wikitude: This is an augmented reality app. It will inform you about places by using Wikipedia and other sources. Please note this app only works with the iPhone 3Gs

One of the coolest application I’ve seen in a while.

More and more we see the emergence of Location Based Services for those using smartphones (or app-phones as I heard recently). Although there is not a definitive app the space is getting crowded.

Take for example Loopt, a company that offers a service to help you find your friends on the go. They are now introducing a new search service called Pulse. Not only it will provide suggestions according to where you are, but also based on your past history will generate a personalized and ever-changing list according to the time of day and also based on where you and your friends have been. This makes the suggestions and information even more relevant to the user. But that is not all. Pulse includes also a ranking to suggest places that are popular among other users. This opens a great deal of possibilities for the users and also for the retail and food industry who are planning to offer coupons to potential visitors. Everyone wins.

Last night I had a chat with my friend Alex Holden and he pointed out something that makes a lot of sense. How come popular sites like facebook for example are not picking up on the fact that people would like to know where their friends have been, or even if their friends are close by. Using a filtering system you can catalog people that you really know, people that you’ve met and people that you would like to meet.

Aka Aki is has a similar concept. So is Google Latitude. The problem is, that they are lagging behind in popularity. Even my 75 year old dad has a facebook account! Then again I wouldn’t be surprise if that feature will come sometime soon in a new update.

I installed an TV from Telekom on my iPhone a few weeks ago. So far the only one watching the stuff is my 8 year old son. As it turned out, there are a couple of channels (like Cartoon Network) not available by our current cable provider. Honestly I installed the app just to test it, but I realized how handy it becomes on the train when I am embarking on long trips.

TV as we know it is dying. My son find it entertaining but at the end of the day, he wants interaction just like he does with his Playstation. The passive user type is an endangered specie in the realm of modern technology. TV will evolve for sure, I cannot wait for the era of the real converged media.

The service for having “Mobile TV” from Telekom is another 5 Euros a month on your bill. If you ask me is worth the money. At the same time it makes me realize that iPhone users or as I heard the other day “App Phone” users are the only one with a flat rate that allows this type of app. If you think about it, most people who can actually afford app phones grew up watching TV.

On my way to work I’ve seen people watching morning TV shows. I find it interesting because Germany is a country that is not very keen on “TV watching” lifestyle. It makes me wonder how it will be in USA…

So what is the use of having an iPhone that is completely useless outside your country? Apple has a problem of always complicating the most simple things. Tying up the iPhone with a particular mobile operator was certainly a smart business move, but a lousy branding exercise. Will there ever be a day when we can use our phones everywhere? I really hope so.

So everything started this last summer. My bike was basically dead and I wanted to go biking with my son, so I opened an account with “Call a Bike” the renting bike service from the Deutsche Bahn (trains) here in Germany. Starting at 0,08 EUR/Min is not the cheapest service, but somehow convenient when you are bikeless. After registering online I was almost daily using the service. The whole process of renting the bike is a terrible pain in the neck. It should be easier, especially if you have an smartphone with you. I though this service needed an app to boost their business and make life easier for everyone.

A screen from my iPhone app
Click to enlarge

An app? yes. For starters finding a bike can be a challenge. Although they have many, people seem to use them a lot, so you have to find one that is free. The DB have on the Website a Google map that tells you where to find the bikes. One would think that if you are on the road it would be a mobile friendly website…think again. Frustrated by the service or rather the lack of it, I decided to create a concept for an app that could solve the problem and make the whole experience more pleasant.

I downloaded a Power Point presentation where the whole process and the customer journey is explained to the detail and used it as the basis for my concept. I was aiming for:

• Open a new account directly from your mobile phone
• Read a PDF with the more important info
• Do the whole unlocking process via mobile phone
• Have a bike locator
• Speed and minutes counter
• Street map and route recording for further sharing
• Guided tours around cities in Germany (these could be sold for extra)
• Also in two languages German and English (there are tourists that also use the service)

I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. All pieces where finish to put a presentation together. It was the end of the summer and I though it might be stupid to come up with such application now when people will rarely use this service in the next following months. So I decided to put it off to the following month: October. The app could be ready for next summer, I though.

Official Call a Bike app

Those of you with an iPhone and living in Germany probably know that an official app from Call a Bike was release recently into the app store just a few days/weeks ago. Developed by the company INOZ from Berlin, it became an instant success, featured in the top position of the app store. Tho, still in version 1.0, it features a bike locator and lets you via Click-to-call rent the bike. It won’t take long before they work out version 2 featuring what I mentioned above.

As soon as I saw the app my jaw fell to the floor. “Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today” , “The early bird gets the worm”… All these similar phrases came to my mind at once. With technology timing seems to be in most times the decisive factor. When is just the right time and when is not? Are you too early on the game or too late? I guess there is a lesson to be learn here but I don’t seem to grasp it. What I do know for sure is that as soon as I get a similar idea, I won’t hesitate to at least build a prototype as soon as possible. If the idea is crap it won’t survive anyway and if is good it will stand the test of time… No excuses, just business as usual: blood sweat and tears (well, maybe not the tears).

Among the highlights of the evening was for sure “YOUR REEBOK”. An application for the iPhone created by the UK company insidemob for shoe manufacturer Reebok. The app is totally free and allows you to customize the colors and materials of your traines, upload your design to a gallery if you want to share your creation and even order them directly from your phone. The app is been running (no pun intended) for a few weeks on the app store with a very good acceptance. The only downside is that is 62MB! which is kinda big considering how many times you will use it.

Accuterra was also very interesting. Created by geospatial solutions company Intermap it promise to be the companion of choice for those who enjoy the outdoors activities. The application is a digital map system that can be updated wirelessly and give an accurate elevation and location of the terrain around you. The app is free for download and you only need to pay for the maps. The map sheets can be bough for specific areas or for large areas for under 70 euros. The small downside is that the app is only available in the US for the moment, but soon coming to Europe.

After the presentations a nice Bavarian dinner was served buffet style including “Helles” beer. There was a good time to network and meet some people. I’ll be there for the next event for sure.

About a year ago Garmin (GPS Navigation System guys) announced the Nuvifone, the natural evolution of their navigation system, featuring local based services way before any other device at the time. In addition it was possible to play mp3 audio and video files. By far the best of its class. The anticipated iPhone killer… So what happened? Nobody knows for sure. My gut feeling tells me that it wasn’t the device itself or the technology behind it, but a serious anal-retarded-management decision of some kind.

Delay after delay kept the nuvifone from hitting the stores until today. Rumor has it, that Garmin will drop the project altogether. I would love to see what they’ll come up with next… and to be fully honest I am not expecting much. The smartphone market is filled with devices equipped with better features than any Nuvifone could offer. at the moment the nuvifone promise to deliver… Are your ready?

- Traffic alerts: Wao, I am really impressed… not.
- Ciao: connect with several social networks. The good ones. None of that facebook stuff.
- Weather: a new revolutionary service…
and in addition, flight status, panoramio, local search and safety cameras… The phone has a extremely bad SDK and no other apps can be installed. Gee, where do I sign to get one?

After the introduction of TomTom’s navigation system for the iPhone 3.0 this year, is just a matter of time before Garmin sales will start dropping like a plane without fuel. For sure there’s nothing smart about any smartphone they have or had in mind. That is the price a company pays for not seizing the opportunity and grabbing momentum by the balls.