The iPhone Mom

Anyone out there traveling this summer? We’ll be visiting family but there are no big road trips on our agenda. We’ve learned in the past that for us traveling with a baby is exhausting. When you add in our three other children a vacation starts to feel like less of a vacation. So we’re planning something big and fun for next year. Not sure exactly what it will be but at least we’re thinking about it. That’s progress for us! When we do eventually hit the road it’s possible I’ll put the Best Western To Go app to use on our trip. I was impressed by this free app and the folks at Best Western have done a nice job with it. It allows you to look up nearby Best Western hotels, view pictures, check availability and book a room from within the app. You can also access your Best Western rewards account and look at existing reservations. My favorite part of the app is it’s ability to save information about different locations while you travel. You can map these locations, add in photos and notes. Different locations can be grouped together as a “trip” and the trip can then be shared with others. This is a nice way to map out places you want to visit again. Best Western To Go packs great features into their free app. If you’re traveling this summer it’s definitely worth a look.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app in iTunes

Seller: Best Wester International

Goby is a nicely organized app full of information about places to go and things to do in your area. In fact as I’m typing this I’m remembering that one of it’s main categories is actually named “Things to Do”. Other categories include “Food & Drink”, “Events” and “Places to Stay”. There is also a featured category as well, “Summer Fun”. Once you select a category you’ll be able to view subcategories. To give you an idea of what’s available, some of the different subcategories are “Outdoor Recreation”, “Sightseeing and Tours”, “Family Life” and “Festivals”. Once you’ve chosen a subcategory you’ll be able to view results. The results can be sorted by relevance, distance from your current location and name. You can also filter the results by distance. Results provide a summary of the location or event and show photographs, phone numbers and addresses. Goby also provides directions and maps for the different locations. Goby also allows you to view results for other areas, not just your current location.

As I was browsing through my area’s results I was surprised at how many were available. I’m not sure how up to date the Goby information is so I’d always want to call and verify times, etc. before loading my family in the van. But I’m always thrilled to have another free resource available to answer the “There’s nothing to do….” summertime dilemma.

There were times when I would tap on categories and nothing would happen, no subcategories, no results. A glitch that will hopefully be fixed in future updates.

*Goby works on both the iPhone and iPad. I tried it out on my iPhone.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app in iTunes

Seller: Goby

We have constant fights over who sits where in our van and it seems to be worse in the summer when we’re together in the car more often. When our baby was little and we were still trying to battle her acid reflux she screamed constantly in the car and nobody wanted to sit next to her. Now that she’s feeling better and is at a very fun age the other children fight over who gets to sit next to her. Plus there is one spot in the backseat that is preferred over the other for some unknown reason. My girls have worked out a rotation amongst themselves but when something throws that off the battle begins all over again. I know that we’re not the only ones who have issues over seating in the car and I got confirmation of that fact when iCall Shotgun came to my attention.

iCall Shotgun was born from a mom’s frustration over the passenger seat battles in her family. Her husband developed the app to solve the problem and I think it’s a brilliant idea. You configure a “car” so that it has the same seating arrangements as your own. Next you enter in the passengers. You can block out certain seats, in my car it’s the front passenger seat and the seat where the baby sits. The app will then randomly assign seating assignments for your car. No more negotiating, no more trying to remember a rotation. Let the app be the bad guy from now on!

*I have one promo code to give away for iCall Shotgun. Leave me a comment and I’ll randomly select a winner tonight.*

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

See the app in iTunes

Seller: TejasSoft

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

The Road Trip Bingo app is a modern version of the classic travel game that I know as Car Bingo. The app’s screen shows a bingo card with twenty five squares. Each square contains a different picture of something you’d see out your window as you’re traveling by car. To play the game you watch out your window and tap on the pictures as you spot the items. When you’ve marked five squares in a row you win. When you reset the game the pictures will appear in a different order so the game is different every time.

I’ve always been a fan of Car Bingo and I like this iPhone version for several reasons. First, it lets you play a Bingo game by yourself so there’s no competition between siblings. When we’re traveling it’s amazing how quickly a game involving siblings can turn into a fight. Second, I like the fact that no two games of Road Trip Bingo are the same because that keeps the game fresh.

I have a promo code for Road-Trip-Bingo HD which works on an iPad. If you’d like to win the code for a summer road trip leave a comment below. I’ll randomly pick a winner on Monday. Promo codes only valid in the US App Store.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Bright Bunny

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Baby Travel is a travel app that has very thorough packing lists for traveling with baby. The app describes itself as “baby travel made easy” and while I don’t know if baby travel can ever be totally easy the app definitely makes the packing part simpler.

There are several different parts to the Baby Travel app. Here’s a rundown on each of them.

Packing Lists-This is where you create packing lists for your trips. Once you’ve created a list it will show up as an “active list”. When you’re done with it you can add it to the list archive and make it active again when you need it. This saves you the time of having to recreate lists. When you make a packing list you’ll give it a name and select the dates that you’ll be gone. You’ll want to enter in the number of days you’ll be traveling and the type of climate you’ll be experiencing. The app then asks you for the number of babies, toddlers, children, women and men who are taking the trip. These numbers come into play later on. Once you’ve entered in the data the app will generate a list for you. It takes the climate information and tells you what types of clothes to pack. Using the number of days you’ll be traveling it will give you quantities of items as well. If you have a baby coming along then baby items will appear on your list. The list that the app generates is very thorough. As you look it over you can delete items that don’t apply to your situation and check off the items as you pack. Baby Travel also allows you to enter in your own items so you’re not restricted to the list that they provide.

Blog – Here you can view blog articles about traveling with baby.

Helpful Sounds – This is a collection of soothing and silly sounds. I think they’re designed for times when you’re stuck in a car or on an airplane with a fussy baby. They’d be good for calming and distraction.

Social – Takes you to various social media websites.

Website – This will link you directly to the Baby Travel website.

I found Baby Travel’s packing lists to be very helpful. The items that it suggested were right in line with the travel information I had entered. Having the ability to add my own items, delete unnecessary ones and save my lists for future use makes this a great travel resource. And it’s a free resource at that!

Price when Reviewed: FREE

Seller: Jacobs Media

Version 4 of Mom Maps was released last week. I given it an authentic test run yet because my schedule has been too tight and I’ve had no time for any fun outings. I’m looking forward to breaking out of my drive to school, WalMart, Costco, home and repeat  rut and finding some fun things to do here in Boise.

Jill from Mom Maps wanted me to let you know that they appreciate all the feedback from users regarding location information. When I was writing my original review and requested information on good ol’ Boise, Idaho they were terrific and added it into the app.  The new version now includes more than a dozen metro areas and they’re adding more all the time. Vancouver was just added as well – hooray for the Olympic spirit!

The new maps on version 4 have worked great for me so far. Now you can also enter in your own kid spots as you’re out and about. This means that the locations featured in the app will continue to grow even more. There’s also the ability to add pictures and search within the app. Mom Maps also has several travel bloggers who are adding in reviews of their favorite spots.

Last, but definitely not least in my opinion, Mom Maps is now free. Hopefully more people will grab this app and we can all contribute and help it’s content to grow and grow and grow….

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Family Travel Tools

I recently put the free Redbox and Southwest Airlines apps on my phone. So far, so good.

The Redbox app lets you search for movies and then reserve them at a nearby Redbox. You will need to have a Redbox account to do this.  You can also search for the Redbox that’s closest to your current location. My husband and I used that feature on a date the other night. We had a movie that needed to be returned and we forgot to do it at the Redbox by our home. We’d ended up downtown but were able to find a drop off spot thanks to this nifty little app. It saved us paying another $1.06 on a kids movie that was a painful viewing experience. Painful for us anyway, the kids loved it.

The Southwest app appears to let you do everything that you can on their website via your iPhone. That includes receiving fare alerts, making air and car reservations, checking in for a flight and checking on a flight status. I went through the motions of making a flight reservation and I liked it as much, if not a little more, than the website. I didn’t go as far as buying a ticket with my phone but I tried everything up to that point. I also like the idea of being able to check in for a flight from my phone. I tend to forget to do it on the web before I leave home and end up with a lower boarding pass than I’d like.

Have any of you had experience with either of these apps? What did you think?

Summer road trips are now a thing of the past but soon it will be time for the holidays. Before we know it we’ll be back in the car heading over the river and through the woods with bored children in the back of our van. The Fun Kids Car Travel Game is an app designed for keeping your kids entertained AND interacting with each other in a non-combative way. With this app they can work together and play as a team against the clock or they can play against each other.

Begin by entering a team name (if you’re playing against the clock) or the names of up to six players (if playing against each other). Next choose “Town” or “Country” questions. This means the questions you’re given will relate to where you’re traveling – in the town or in the country. You can also select how many seconds are allowed between questions and what the winning score needs to be. Once the game has begun questions will appear on the screen. They’ll ask you to look out the car window and find different things. One person needs to be in charge of the score keeping. It will be their job to tap the team name when the object has been spotted. If you are playing against each other then the score keeper taps the name of the first person to spot the object. For each tap the app will keep score. When someone reaches the winning score the game is over.

The Fun Kids Car Travel Game is an app that will keep your kiddos entertained on a road trip and hopefully co-existing in peace in the back of your car.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Mark Sanchez/Notion Arts

The Hazel Mail app lets you create a personalized postcard from your iPhone. You create it and the folks at Hazel Mail will print, stamp and mail it for you. The app is easy to use. Just take a photo with your phone or choose one from your camera library. Then choose a background and shrink or stretch your photo. Type in your recipient’s address and a message then tap the button to pay and mail your postcard. It takes a few minutes to upload your postcard but then you’re good to go. The postcard should arrive within four to seven days.

The Hazel Mail app is free but the cost to send a postcard is $1.50. You can purchase Hazel Bucks on the website for only $1.00 though. When I downloaded the app I received a Hazel Buck which I was able to use for my first postcard. I like the idea behind this app. It’d be neat to be able to send out a unique postcard from whatever exotic location you found yourself in.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app at iTunes

Seller: ThinkAmerica, LLC