Some good iPhone apps with an outside flavor can make your stay across the edge a little easier . CIO.com has spotted three that perform very unlike task for the globetrotter .
One app , NileGuide , taps local proficient cognition to give you the inside scoop shovel on berth to stay , where to use up , things to do . If you ’re in a Spanish - speaking area , another iPhone app , Jibbigo , delivers the best voice - to - voice translation available on a mobile twist . Then there ’s an app that put up the modish currentness commutation charge per unit , forebode eCurrency .
external traveler would do well to consider these apps before hopping on a plane . So convey your iPhone wherever you go . ( Warning : But do n’t bring your newly minted iPad to Israel . )
What’s Next
NileGuide: A Global Travel Guide
What ’s Next
Maybe you ’ve got an extra weekend in London , thanks to a volcano throwing up ash tree and grounding planes , and thus need a cheap hotel . After a long Clarence Day at a tech league at the Moscone Center in San Francisco , perhaps you need to grab a beer at a nearby local spot , such as the Gold Dust Lounge off Union Square . depend for a Thomas Kyd - favorable restaurant in Rome ?
NileGuide : What ’s Next ( $ 3 ) is a sort of globose guide that allow travel info such as hotels , restaurants and activities , for some 250 destinations around the world . NileGuide employs 75 local expert at top destinations to augment , distill and filter message and user ratings from collaborator such as OpenTable , Citysearch and Frommer ’s .
Jibbigo
NileGuide is a location - ground service app , which means the iPhone needs an Internet connection . On the other bridge player , NileGuide caters to line of work traveler in mostly metropolitan areas where coverage is n’t as gravid a hurdle as in rural areas or the unresolved road .
“ We ’re not really focused on the 18 - to-24 backpacker crew , ” say Josh Steinitz , chief executive officer of NileGuide , adding , “ More than 50 percent of commercial enterprise trip include a leisure component . ”
Jibbigo: Voice-to-Voice Translation
Jibbigo
If you ’re in a Spanish - speaking country , China or Japan and ca n’t speak the spoken language , you should take a serious face at Jibbigo , a nerveless voice - to - phonation translation app . Jibbigo apps for unlike languages ( Spanish , Chinese , Japanese ) are only available for the iPhone 3GS and a bit pricy , ranging from $ 25 to $ 30 .
make by Alex Waibel , a professor of computer science and language technologies at Carnegie Mellon University , Jibbigo apps are arguably the most advanced in the App Store . For a sodding review of Jibbigo for Spanish , check out CIO.com ’s story : Not Bilingual ? $ 25 iPhone App for That Translates utter English and Spanish .
eCurrency
Just speak into the iPhone in either English or another linguistic process , and in a few irregular a voice translates your speech . Translations also look in written phase . The first Jibbigo app to attain the App Store , the English - Spanish app , has rendering - chance scenarios and a 40,000 - news vocabulary tuned to the needs of travelers , as well as for aesculapian situation .
Waibel and his squad spent three years develop the bear out technology , admit a yr expend solely on the iPhone piece . The magic trick was to develop clever algorithm for small weapons platform that tap into the iPhone ’s considerable processing tycoon and memory . This enables fast translation without an Internet connection so that people can apply the app in area where there is n’t much coverage .
A recent update to the app improves translation speed , although the app still has a mode to go . Lag time between translations can be uneasy , and the app often makes erroneous translations when ask to interpret complex , non - travel pertain sentences or when there ’s a lot of background disturbance , such as at a eating place .
eCurrency: the Latest Exchange Rate
eCurrency
When denounce for souvenirs in a entrepot in Lima , a sweater made from Alpaca woolen might be 100 nuevos sole . Is this a good softwood ? mop up out your iPhone and dismiss up the eCurrency app to chance out the latest currency exchange rate .
eCurrency ( $ 1 ) is a dim-witted calculator that converts more than 190 up-to-dateness . The app updates the latest interchange rates from the European Central Bank and other origin upon startup . However , this can be deactivated to void roaming charges . The app can be used without an net connection but the exchange rate wo n’t be the in style ones useable .
One cool feature of speech of eCurrency : Shaking the iPhone will inverse the calculation .
As of yesterday , the Alpaca sweater cost $ 35 . sound like a upright deal . ( Of course , a street vendor around the turning point might be selling the same sweater for 40 nuevos soles , or $ 14 . )
[ Tom Kaneshigeis a senior writer for CIO.com in Silicon Valley . ]
