Today's business traveler must navigate mobile devices as smoothly and accurately as his home airport. While many professionals who frequently travel for work have been able to scale back thanks to videoconferencing and cloud computing, there will always be a need to sit in a distant boardroom, look someone in the eye and shake hands over the deal. That being said, the Smartphone’s and tablet devices in the business traveler's toolkit can be utilized to make that travel more effective, and to take as much of the headache out of it as possible. Here are just a few of the most essential Smartphone apps for business travelers.
While Google has done a great deal to make web searching the easiest it has ever been, perhaps their best offering to the business traveler is Google Voice. It's their VoIP service that may be one of the most useful apps available today. Google Voice gives you a dedicated phone number that you can give out and access from any web-enabled device. You can also set your service to ring through to your cell phone, so you don't have to give out your personal number to business contacts. You can even make outgoing calls on your cell phone and have it show up as originating from
the Google Voice phone number. Just a fantastic service.
Dropbox is one of many cloud storage services available as an app, but it may be the best designed for mobile integration. It allows you to create a folder on one computer and sync it with all of your devices. That means you can prep for your trip at the office, add things to the folder you forgot from your home computer, access it all from your tablet or smartphone and share the contents with others anywhere in the world. The Dropbox app also integrates with other applications you might have, so you can open all sorts of files, from word processing to .PDF and other image formats.
One of the larger frustrations of business travel is the constantly changing airline schedule. Sometimes you can be fully prepared, with all the documents you need and a detailed itinerary, and their last minute changes will bury your plans. Check out an app called FlightTrack Pro. It will show you all of your flight information in an easy-to-read graphical display. It will also give you real-time weather reports so you can anticipate delays before they are even announced by the airline. And FlightTrack Pro is available for Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices, so you're fully covered.
Bored at the airport? Unexpected delays can leave you with hours to kill, and there is only so long you can spend staring at the report you have to give. Check out GateGuru, a free app that details the available services at more than 100 international airports. It will help you find exactly what you want to eat, where you can buy that otterbox iPhone 5 case or where to locate a new magazine or a movie to rent. Another great app in these situations is called Wi-Fi Finder. The app will locate any available Wi-Fi service, whether it is advertised by the airport or not. If you need to take advantage of your down time by catching up on the latest business news, this could be hugely useful.
While Google has done a great deal to make web searching the easiest it has ever been, perhaps their best offering to the business traveler is Google Voice. It's their VoIP service that may be one of the most useful apps available today. Google Voice gives you a dedicated phone number that you can give out and access from any web-enabled device. You can also set your service to ring through to your cell phone, so you don't have to give out your personal number to business contacts. You can even make outgoing calls on your cell phone and have it show up as originating from
the Google Voice phone number. Just a fantastic service.
Dropbox is one of many cloud storage services available as an app, but it may be the best designed for mobile integration. It allows you to create a folder on one computer and sync it with all of your devices. That means you can prep for your trip at the office, add things to the folder you forgot from your home computer, access it all from your tablet or smartphone and share the contents with others anywhere in the world. The Dropbox app also integrates with other applications you might have, so you can open all sorts of files, from word processing to .PDF and other image formats.
One of the larger frustrations of business travel is the constantly changing airline schedule. Sometimes you can be fully prepared, with all the documents you need and a detailed itinerary, and their last minute changes will bury your plans. Check out an app called FlightTrack Pro. It will show you all of your flight information in an easy-to-read graphical display. It will also give you real-time weather reports so you can anticipate delays before they are even announced by the airline. And FlightTrack Pro is available for Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices, so you're fully covered.
Bored at the airport? Unexpected delays can leave you with hours to kill, and there is only so long you can spend staring at the report you have to give. Check out GateGuru, a free app that details the available services at more than 100 international airports. It will help you find exactly what you want to eat, where you can buy that otterbox iPhone 5 case or where to locate a new magazine or a movie to rent. Another great app in these situations is called Wi-Fi Finder. The app will locate any available Wi-Fi service, whether it is advertised by the airport or not. If you need to take advantage of your down time by catching up on the latest business news, this could be hugely useful.