Sherman's Travel

Now, more than ever, technology plays a huge role in booking, planning, documenting, and navigating during your travels. Gone are the days of carrying around printed guidebooks and wind-and-snap cameras; now we rely on crowd-sourced travel and sharing our photos via social media. There are a ton of cool apps out there that help make traveling the world better. We did some research and scouted out some must-try tech tools that will make your next trip that much better. The best news? All but one of the apps are free! Read more

Windows Phone may be the new kid on the mobile block (until BlackBerry 10 launches later this month), but it’s quickly shaping up to be a reliable platform for travelers. The user interface is one of the most beautiful out there, and a number of developers are embracing the new landscape to produce some incredible programs. Here are a few can’t-miss downloads for travelers from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Last quarter, we recommended that owners of Lumia devices – Windows Phone handsets made exclusively by Nokia – download a suite of top-tier navigation tools. Since then, Windows Phone 8 has shipped, and with it has come one hugely important change: the Nokia mapping suite can now be downloaded and used across all Windows Phone 8 products, not just the ones produced by Nokia. This means that WP8 phones from HTC and Samsung can now enjoy Nokia Maps, Drive, and Transport. Drive supports offline turn-by-turn navigation, while Maps and Transport can help you get from Point A to Point B, even via mass transit options.

Next, no avid flyer should be without FlightAware. While Flight+ works wonders for those with an iPhone, this app is an excellent alternative for users of the Windows Phone platform. It’s free, astonishingly, and provides real-time tracking of commercial flights worldwide (and private flights within the U.S. and Canada). You can search by aircraft registration, route, airline flight number, city pair, or airport code, and even if you’re not checking up on your upcoming travels, it’s a pretty awesome way to kill time.

It comes recommended on other platforms as well, but WorldMate‘s Windows Phone app is without question its most elegant. For those unfamiliar with the service, it’s effectively a rival to TripIt, but it tends to handle multiple flight confirmation numbers a bit better, and generally rings up a bit cheaper for the Pro level of service. Even for those who use the free services, you’ll be able to keep track of all of your forthcoming itineraries, including flights, hotels, rental cars, train reservations, and more.

Our prior recommendations for Android can be found here, while iPhone users can look here.

It’s that time of year! And by “time of year,” we’re talking about standing in endless lines, catching untold illnesses, and wondering where all of those spare vacation days went. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re on the hunt for the perfect gift for that special someone, you can save yourself tons of time and stress by deciding on a product ahead of time. If you’re looking to gift the road warrior in your life with some new technology, here’s a list of gizmos that any traveler would appreciate.

iPad mini ($329+): Yes, it’s the easy choice. But it’s more than just Apple’s best tablet ever, in my humble opinion. It’s way more portable than the full-size iPad, significantly more affordable than the original, and it has a trick that travelers will love. Pick up the Verizon Wireless LTE version, and watch as your new tablet turns into an LTE hotspot with a battery that will keep your Wi-Fi devices online for up to 12 hours. Read more