It’s that time of year again when everyone starts to carry out their New Years resolutions (or try to). If you've mixed travel in with your New Year’s resolutions, here are some free apps that you should have before you get on board.
Wi-Fi Finder
When you are traveling abroad, you probably want to avoid international data roaming rip-off. However, most of the apps on your smartphone are dependent on an internet connection.
A quick download of Wi-fi finder will give you access to more than 650,000 locations in 144 countries worldwide. With this free app, you will be able to see if a hotspot is free or not. It also allows you to download all of the locations offline and learn how to stay connected when you are on the road.
Google Translate
I personally am a language enthusiast, and have tried out lots of different translation apps. And yet, Google Translate still ranks top on my list. It’s just like the Google Translate web service, except that you can save yourself some time from looking up phrases using a web browser. My favorite feature of this app is the voice recognition. After speaking the phrase you want to translate to the app, no matter what your mother tongue is, it will translate what you said into the language of your choice. Having trouble communicating with a person who doesn’t speak your language? Don’t worry, call it your best interpreter friend, this free app will do the job.
Google Goggles
When traveling abroad, you would probably want to try some local eats. Unfortunately, if you go to a non-touristic restaurant, it’s very likely that you will get a menu full of words that you can neither pronounce nor type. Yes, Google Translate is great, but under such circumstances, you’ll need some help from Google Goggles. This innovative app allows you to take a picture of texts written in foreign languages, and then run it through Google Translate to figure out what they actually mean. You wouldn’t want to put a scoop of monkey brain into your mouth without knowing what it is, would you?
Wikitude
This app serves as your “third eye” and allows you to see things you wouldn’t normally see. This handy location guide draws a plethora of all the helpful information about your surroundings –– all you need to do is to hold up your smartphone and use the camera on it. The app will then retrieve all the relevant information from the Wikitravel database and use augmented reality to display annotations of nearby landmarks over the top of the regular camera display. What’s even better? By downloading Wikitude, you will get access to other useful apps such as TripAdvisor, AroundMe, and Yelp within one single app!
Xe Currency
If you are looking for an app that can save you from clumsy currency conversion, Xe Currency is the one! Not only does it provide accurate currency conversion, it also gives you the historic rates for the currency. You can view different currencies at once and monitor any real-time update. Wanna keep your budget smart? Download this app and rate the highs and lows of the currency before you even start planning your trip.
Convert Clothes
Fancy some shopping while you are traveling abroad? This free app will help you find the foreign size that fits you. Whether you are looking for a pair of nice oxford shoes, a nice Italian leather jacket, some french velvet pants, or even a samurai underwear, Cover Clothes has you all covered. Instead of searching through a clothing size conversion table taped on a wall that’s five trailers away, this app will tell you the right size in seconds.
Honorable Mentions
AccuWeather (there are just too many apps for weather forecast out there...but we like this one best)
Fotopedia Series (A series of helpful apps, all are free)
Tipping Bird (Free, but only available in Google Play)
AroundMe (Location finder, but very common)
SnapCast (Video Narrative Producer, but it’s still in its beta stage...only available on its website)
About Author:
This article is written by Ruqing Pan of Fueled, a world-class iPhone application development agency in NYC.
Image Source: Ashtonleehudson