The above is a photo of an automated text message I got when I landed in Bangkok. (Free pie at a Bangkok Burger King?!) Unfortunately, my phone failed about 4 days later, so I’m not going to be able to provide much of a follow up for these apps. I’m not sure what happened to it- it was working one minute, and about 350 degrees the next. It never came on again after that. I lost a few pictures and video from the trip, which I am sad about, but luckily had plenty of other devices on which to capture the trip.

My experience trying these apps was limited, therefore, but I’ll give my impression nonetheless.

Skype: Tried the calling feature a couple of times using wifi from Kanchanaburi. It never connected. Could have used this several times if it had actually worked. Didn’t get a chance to try it in multiple locations.

Convertbot: Missed this app the most. Tip: add all currencies for any country you are traveling through before you leave. That way, if you are in an airport taking a connecting flight, you won’t need wifi to get the current conversion rate for the country you are in.

ReadItLater: The notes I had saved were missed, but I managed without. I still think this is a good method for finding previously saved trip info – though I do remember that searching was a bit tricky at first.

Wifi Track: I tried to use this, but it didn’t work as I believed it should have. It never notified me of networks when I tried that feature, and required so much fussing that you might as well use the built in wifi detection.

uTalk Thai: I had played with this several times before landing. It would have been a helpful reference, and several times I wished I could look up a pronunciation for a word or phrase that I knew was in there.

I never had the chance to use the BoA app or Pano before the phone bricked. Thanks Apple for quickly and simply giving me a replacement.

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I’m off to Thailand soon. I always forget how much there is to do to get ready, and preparing gear is no exception. These applications are the ones I think will be the most helpful on my trip, and hopefully will be helpful to anyone who is traveling internationally with an iPhone where there is no cell service.

Skype
I’m not planning on doing much calling at all, but I did download the new Skype app just in case. I can make calls for free to anyone on Skype using wifi, or if I need to talk to a non-Skyper, like make a call to the house sitter or make an appointment for a Thai massage, I can do so for 2.1¢ a minute, and not have to sweat local charges or finding a phone. The Skype minimum credit available for purchase for calls to any phone is $10.00. A lot more than I’ll likely need, but the convenience makes up for it.
http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/iphone/


Convertbot
Besides just being one of the slickest apps out there, I’ll need something to convert Thai Baht to US Dollars. Convertbot isn’t perfect, but I looked at quite a few free apps, and they were way more clunky and far fuglier. Since Convertbot does about 20 different kinds of conversions, I’ll be using this app long past this trip. And speaking of Baht, you should never use your feet to stop a rolling coin or pin down a fly-away note, as Thai royalty is on all Thai currency, and it’s considered rude to do so.
Price: $0.99


ReadItLater
Naturally I’ve done quite a bit of research on the web about Thailand – restaurants, markets, things to do. I wanted an easy way to save pages as I found them for later referencing offline in Thailand. I tried both Evernote and Instapaper, and for me the ReadItLater app worked better. It didn’t sync quite as easily as it appeared it would, so double-check to make sure you’ve got your content downloaded before you go.
http://readitlaterlist.com/
Price: Free


BankofAmerica
I do all of my banking online, so it made sense to be able to pay bills that come up while I’m away.
Price: Free


WiFiTrak
I probably could have gotten along without this one, but for a buck I wanted to see how helpful it would be. The primary benefit to WiFiTrak is its ability to auto-scan and notify me. If I’m walking the streets of Ayutthaya and want to check my email, it’ll notify me with the sound of my choice, and even connect and launch Mail. Handy!
Price: $0.99


Pano
Pano takes photos from your iPhone and makes seamless panoramas from them. Ok, so this isn’t essential, but I thought this app would provide some interesting shots, perhaps in the night markets of Bangkok.
Price: $2.99

UTalk Thai
There is unfortunately only a paltry selection of language applications for the iPhone. As far as I can tell, no one is yet developing specifically for this platform, instead simply shoveling content over as sound files. UTalk seemed to be the best, but also it was by far the most expensive app I’ve bought for this trip. Unfortunately, the amount of phrases it contains falls short, and it includes whole sections not all that useful for traveling, like colors and countries. It also allows you to record your own voice practicing the words, but to what end? The majority of the app is word recognition games, which while fun, I’d prefer more of a focus on travel phrases. I’m hoping this app will at least help get my ear tuned for Thai.
Price: $9.99

In addition to the UTalk Thai app, I’ve downloaded a few Thai language podcasts. They’re not ideal, but since they are free, I thought they might be worth a listen.

Other
I looked into an app which would allow downloading and storing of Google maps for later offline viewing, but the one option out there has very mixed reviews, so I’ll stick with paper maps. I also have a few games loaded, though I’m not much of a gamer. Music is a given, and since planes now have satellite television, I haven’t bothered to download any movies. I’m more of a reader on planes, anyway.

Have I missed anything?

Impressive! My tires rot before I even get close to wearing the knobbies down to this degree.

Tip: Don’t borrow this bike if it’s raining.

Self serve grocery scanners

I saw these at a grocery store in Provincetown, MA, while visiting. Using your grocery card, you check out one of the scanners from the wall display, and grab some empty grocery sacks. As you shop, you use the scanner gun to scan each item (the big yellow button) as you put it in the bag. When you are done, you put the scanner in the checkout machine and pay.

Scanner in the cart holster

While I’m sure the novelty of laser-shooting your groceries (pew! pew!) would wear off, what I liked about this system was the ability to see a running total on the scanner. (Shown in the photo as $1.00) It also shows sale items via ads displayed on the scanner, and I have a feeling I’d be susceptible to that as well. The scanner with its few buttons is easy to learn, and offers the ability to scroll your items in the list and remove them. I wasn’t playing close enough attention to see if the checkout system verified weight to reduce theft, but I’m assuming it did.

I’d use it.