Olivia Suarez books a hotel room for her husband in Valencia, Spain, through a travel agent. But when he’s sent to another hotel, his bill also gets an upgrade — to the tune of more than $1,000. Now, the hotel, travel agent and reservation company are pointing fingers at each other, as she tries to recover the money.
The Travel Technologist
There are more than 50,000 iPhone applications out there, accounting for over a billion downloads. Hard to pick just a handful to take on your next trip, isn’t it? No worries.
Allow me to vent for a minute. Online video may be the future of travel, but it is most certainly not the present.
One of the most popular cameras on the number one photo-sharing site isn’t a camera at all. It’s the Apple iPhone. I mention this for two reasons. First, because a new iPhone is being released June 19. And second, because it now includes a feature that promises to change the way we travel: a video camera.
I wanted to like the Canon Vixia HFS10. I really did. I own two Canon cameras — the mercurial Canon 1D Mark III and the forgiving Canon EOS 40D — but when it comes to video, I’ve always shot Sony. Still, the HFS10 looked like the ideal travel companion. It was compact, light, had a terrific lens and most important of all, it seemed easy to use. But looks can be a little deceiving.
It’s no secret that fare rules — the all-uppercase gibberish you often see on the bottom of your computer screen when buying your ticket — are designed to make your airline a few extra bucks. Some of so-called tariff rules require a Saturday night stay. Others insist you use both halves of the ticket.
When it comes to wireless headsets, I had all but given up on finding something usable for my travels. The leading products are too bulky, uncomfortable or deliver inferior sound quality. I preferred the cheap wired unit that comes with my iPhone 3G. Then I tested the Plantronics Voyager Pro and now I can say there is hope.
Any day now, Google Voice — an application integrates voice mail, phone service and e-mail — will be released to the general public. As someone who has tested Voice since its introduction, here’s my advice to travelers: Get your number as soon as you can.
Like so many things in life, the latest Flip Ultra is two steps forward and one step back. At $199, this compact HD video camera is less expensive than the sleek Flip Mino. But it’s also bulkier than its little brother in several ways.
An Internet search for full-time business travelers who write Web logs produces astonishingly low numbers, considering the eight million Americans whom the Pew Internet and American Life Project say publish a blog.
On a recent stopover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, I flipped open my laptop PC, hoping to chip away at the 7,000-some e-mail messages that had accumulated since leaving Anchorage, Alaska, four hours earlier. “Don’t even think about it,” my laptop screen flashed back at me contemptuously (I’m paraphrasing the error message a little here). “I’m [...]
Late last year, Cox Communications in Omaha, Neb., needed new computers for its field technicians. In the past, the telecommunications company had chosen laptops over newfangled tablet PCs, the so-called next generation of portable computing. But after inspecting the new Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 ($3,200) computer, a durable shock- and water-resistant gadget that resmbles an oversized personal digital assistant, the company had a change of heart. “As far as we’re concerned, the tablet represents the future of computing,” says spokeswoman Lisa Turner.
Finding an affordable plane ticket or hotel room used to be a no-brainer for Beth Bowers, a software trainer in Cassopolis, Mich. She would click on an all-purpose travel Web site like Expedia or Orbitz and routinely find the lowest rates. But lately she’s noticed that the bargains aren’t as abundant. “I can find the same prices – and sometimes better ones – when I go directly to the airline or hotel Web sites,” she says.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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