Description:
Jules Verne may have proposed the whirlwind 80-day journey around the world, but he would have been on the road a lot sooner had he used Handmark's Travel Assistant. A combination of several unique applications, Travel Assistant helps to arrange and organize your travel plans, make sense of foreign lands, and communicate with the natives. Planning your trip is a straightforward process with the itinerary application, albeit somewhat confusing as to the language used for information (for example, a vendor is never defined, and we're still not sure what it really means). But the itinerary function does allow for a logical display of your information, sorting by airline reservations, rental car information, and lodging plans on separate pages. Additionally, the itinerary offers the ability to plan several trips at once and categorizes each accordingly, which is good for differentiating between the family's summer vacation and your company's annual retreat. Once your bags are packed and you're on the road, you can check in with the Travel Mate, a skinny, all-purpose reference tool. It offers clothing sizes (ranging from suits to women's dresses, including UK, U.S., and European sizes), currency conversions (which you can update manually at will), and standard conversions (temperature, distance, volume, and weight). Rather than rely on hotel personnel to help you meet your tour group on time with a wake-up call, use the SuperClock, a large display time (approximately one inch high and very bold) that makes an ideal bedside clock. Alarm settings allow for a basic alarm sound, varying days (such as weekdays only), and a customizable snooze function. Still, the most compelling reason to purchase this application is the translator function, which will undoubtedly serve as your traveling language coach and constant companion. With 39 languages available, users can select up to nine at a time, so hopping from country to country is no sweat. We found a pleasant surprise after installing Spanish and Yiddish: words are sorted by types that include directions, shopping, places, and much more. Even though the translator offers no pronunciation help, we found that the selection of words and the accompanying look-up function would prepare travelers for intercultural communication. By combining travel dictionaries, scratch-paper notes on confirmation numbers, and day-to-day plans, Travel Assistant proves to be useful for both the business commuter and the leisure traveler.--Emilie Dirks
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