This is not a ticket — yet.

Our nation’s rail system is about to take a big step forward by placing less emphasis on paper tickets and introducing the iPhone as an important tool for conductors.

The New York Times has a story on Monday about the ongoing trials in which Amtrak is using the iPhone as a ticket scanner and a more efficient way of boarding passengers and filling in empty seats. The report says Amtrak has been training conductors since November 2011 to scan tickets with the iPhone. It’s only been active on a few routes — between Boston and Portland, Me., and from Sacramento to San Jose, Calif. — but they’re planning to expand.

This might sound simple and not totally novel; there are local metro systems like Boston’s MBTA that are about to start using smartphones as tickets. But as I’ve recently learned, this is a welcome improvement for the tens of thousands of people that commute daily or often travel by rail.

Amtrak isn’t a factor in people’s daily lives in places I’ve lived like San Francisco or Los Angeles to the same degree it seems to be in the Northeastern Corridor. Since moving east I’ve become acquainted with Amtrak commuting between Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C. What has most surprised me about rail travel has been how truly old-school it still is. Yes, it’s a transportation technology first invented almost 200 years ago, but it seems little progress has been made in terms of administration and passenger logistics.

Retraining conductors and passengers

I can buy an Amtrak ticket online, sure. But when I get a ticket confirmation email with a bar code, I can’t just walk up to a kiosk at the train station and scan the code from my iPhone’s screen — I either have to print the bar code or swipe a credit card. But the thing that needs the most improvement is what happens once on board: conductors still physically punch your ticket once you’re seated. He or she then pockets your ticket stub before you get off the train and sends them to a central location.

As you might imagine, passenger information and seating charts might be something useful to have in real time, especially when people change what stop they get off at or take an alternate train at the last minute. The NYT report includes how iPhone-scanning and real-time info will be a change from the current process:

With the new iPhone-powered system, conductors can monitor passenger check-ins in real time. That will help them manage seating: if there are passengers who don’t show up, for example, it will be easier to fill empty seats with other passengers.

“When it was all a manual system there was a lot of guesswork involved,” said Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which contracts with Amtrak to operate the train service from Boston to Portland.

This is great news for Amtrak — though it will cost the agency $7.5 million for the hardware and software to institute the new process. But it should also make life easier for passengers, which is why I’m so eager for late summer: that’s when Amtrak says the devices will be rolled out across the country, to more than 1,700 conductors.

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I’m one of those people who keeps my iPhone close at hand when I travel. And there aren’t many things I love more than planning and going on trips. So for you fellow iPhone-toting travelers, here are a few of the iOS apps I most rely on for planning a trip and using while making my way around.

TripAdvisor's Live View makes for a cheap self-guided walking tour.

For deciding when to go: Bing. The price predictor aspect of the travel section tells you when the price of a ticket is likely to fluctuate up or down. This is especially helpful if you’re deciding the best week or month to go to visit a specific locale. Or, if you’re a procrastinator like me and you like to wait until the last possible minute on these things, it’ll help you figure out when to pull the trigger. Price: free.

For picking the perfect flight: Hipmunk. For those who care less about cost and want to pick the most convenient flight, Hipmunk is awesome. It’s got the standard ways to filter flights–duration, arrival/departure time, number of layovers–but where Hipmunk stands out is their “agony” filter. It consider the number of stops, the length of the layover, total travel time and price to rate how much a particular flight will make you want to poke your own eye out with the dull plastic fork you got with your in-flight meal. In addition, thanks to a brilliant recent update, you can search for flights with Wi-Fi. Price: free.

Hipmunk's "Agony" filter is awesome.

For finding your way around: TripAdvisor. If you find yourself in a place you’ve never been and want to hit up the most popular sights or tourist traps hotspots, TripAdvisor’s “Live View” is a welcome feature. After you specify what you want to see (notable architecture, museums, parks, tours, etc.), click on Live View in the app. That feature activates your iPhone’s camera and brings up an augmented reality view that, when you hold the phone up in various directions, will label what you’re looking at right on screen. Price: free.

I found this feature very helpful when traipsing around Manhattan this spring on my own architectural history walking tour sans any physical map. It’s probably the cheapest tour you can go on.

For foraging for decent meals: Yelp. If you’re in a major city, Yelp’s “find nearby” feature can be a life-saver if you want to find out the closest, well, anything. But it’s especially good at sorting by restaurants that are open, cuisine type, rating, and more. Price: free.

Bonus food finder: Foodspotting. Since local tastes vary, a restaurant rated 4.5 stars on Yelp in, say, rural Montana won’t necessarily mean the same thing as a 4.5 star-rated place in a San Francisco. That’s where Foodspotting, the app that ranks individual dishes, not just overall restaurants, can help you hone in on where you may want to eat. Pictures, I’ve found, can be worth a thousand Yelp reviews. Price: free.

Foodspotting lets you see what a restaurant serves.

For an app that does almost everything: Kayak. This app helps you with almost anything related to travel, and as a result, it’s probably my most-used app overall. I like to launch Kayak on my phone to check the status of a flight, seek out the best rental car rates, start a packing list, search for a history of my trips, and when abroad, easily convert currency. Price: free.

Apps I haven’t used in a real-life situation, but can’t wait to try: Hotel Tonight and Trover. Hotel Tonight looks like a nifty way to find last-minute lodging, though it’s limited to a few major U.S. cities right now. The way it doesn’t kick you out to external sites when you’re browsing hotel maps and pictures is much appreciated. But the true test will be whether it comes through next time I find myself in this situation. Price: free.

Trover is another promising app, which I discovered thanks to Colleen’s recent profile on GigaOM. It allows users to catalogue photos of places they’ve been, which are automatically geo-tagged, creating a kind of travel journal social network. Others can browse your suggestions/photos as a means to find off-the-beaten-path places they’d otherwise not know about. As a traveler it’s likely to be most useful for those among us who’d rather avoid popular monuments, historical sites, and tours and stick to the dive bars, food trucks and hidden beaches that the locals like. And, by definition, to keep away from what the locals don’t: tourists. Price: free.

Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr user J▲hn Steven

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My biggest reason for considering the Mini 9 was the ethernet port. Some of the hotels I’ve stayed in in the past only had ethernet jacks. Fortunately I wouldn’t have to worry about that.

I had no problems getting the iPad through TSA. Our flight over was about seven hours long, from Chicago to Heathrow. The iPad worked pretty well at keeping me entertained so I didn’t notice the time go by. First, I watched a movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, which looked great on the iPad’s screen. That took up about an hour-and-a-half. Then I started reading The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace, which I got about five chapters into (I’ve read it before), and then I listened to music for the rest of the flight. I was pretty limited in what I could do without Wi-Fi. I’m always reminded how much we rely on the Internet when I’m stuck with my Wi-Fi-less iPad. 33 of the apps on my iPad require WiFi to work. I have 65 apps in total, so that’s about 50 percent.

Once we got over there, my iPad became useless. I didn’t need it to entertain myself and I couldn’t use it to communicate with my family, as most of our hotels didn’t have free Wi-Fi, and I refused to pay for it. Our first hotel did have a “free 30 minutes of Wi-Fi” thing going on, but when I connected to the router, I got a page asking me to sign in, offering no hint of this 30 minute deal. One of the hotels advertised free Wi-Fi, but I could never get it working. It wasn’t until the last hotel that I actually got free Wi-Fi that worked. That hotel was cheap, with small rooms and showers that didn’t even have hot water. Comme ci comme ça, I guess.

Another thing about traveling with the iPad: You never want to take it out, for fear of someone knowing you have it, and then stealing it. I had several roommates during this trip; people I didn’t know. It wasn’t until halfway through that I trusted them enough to reveal my iPad. One of my roommates asked me to give him a demo of it, as he was planning on buying one.

Also, I never charged the battery. I was amazed at how long it lasted. Of course, it was in standby mode most of the time, but this trip was nine days, so that’s pretty amazing. (Though some have said the iPad can last up to a month in standby, but I can’t find anywhere on Apple’s website where it says that, so correct me if I’m wrong.) The battery didn’t die on me until the flight back, and then only after I’d gotten a couple more chapters through my book.

I saw three other people using iPads on this trip; two in an airport, and one on the flight back. I was actually surprised at that.

In the end, the iPad turned out to be a great travel device. It’s thin, it’s light, it’s easy to stow, and it has a long-lasting battery. However, for those of you with the Wi-Fi-only version, or those who don’t want to pay for roaming, the iPad’s utility is limited based on the availability of Wi-Fi, so make sure your hotel has Wi-Fi that actually works.

What about you? Have you taken a long trip with the iPad in tow? Anything you found really great or really frustrating?

According to Kaplan, future publications of the sketchbook will remain largely the same except for a few minor changes suggested by current users, like perforated pages or different page sizes. “Customers love the look and feel of the book, that it lays flat, and it’s one place to hold all their designs,” he says. “Future modifications will no doubt be slight.”

The opportunity to work with Apress came about after Kaplan “threw the idea out there and they jumped on it. Amazon did a great job but they don’t offer the same impact. I like the PR and advertising [opportunities] the new company offers.”

Apress announced the deal today at the 360 iDev Conference in Denver, CO, and gave out books to everyone in attendance

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Did Snow Leopard leave your old AppleTalk printer out in the cold? Grab a hot cup of cocoa and warm your printer up with some of these handy tips to continue to use your classic AppleTalk printer with your state of the art operating system.

Print Via USB

Of course! Get a longer USB cable if possible, but what if your printer doesn’t have a USB port? It may have an old-style parallel port probably marked “LPT.” For those people who have not seen them, here is a picture of one of these ports. Support for laser printers with these can be spotty, so use at your own risk. Not all the USB to Parallel Port adapters work well with the Macs, so do some research beforehand or buy from a place with a generous return policy.

Print Over IP

Some printers that support AppleTalk support other protocols such as IP. Many old LaserWriter workhorses such as the 16/600 fall into this category. If you are in a large office, ask your IT staff for help, but for those in a small office environment who are their own IT person, follow along! The hardest part is figuring out how to configure the IP address of the printer.

Step one is to find an open IP. Don’t try to use DHCP settings because if the IP address changes for some reason, it will be invisible on the network. Look at the IP address on your Mac by going to System Preferences and then Network. Your IP address will be in the format XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. If you are using an Airport router, it’s probably 10.0.1.x, other routers will most likely be 192.168.1.x or 192.168.0.x. I always make printers .150 simply because I was taught that in school. Why? Just because. Avoid numbers in the low single digits, one hundreds, or two hundreds. Other devices may use these. To be extra safe, open up terminal and ping the address you decide on just to make sure nothing else is using it.

Actually configuring the printer may be tricky. Some will let you do it in the printer’s control panel in a “Network” or “TCP/IP” sub-menu. Let Google be your guide and simply search for your printer and TCP/IP settings or address. I wish I could be more specific. Some printers will have a “Printer Utility,” but those may not work in Snow Leopard. Try and print a test page so you confirm that you set the IP address correctly. Since HPs are such popular printers, here’s a link that covers most of its printers.

Next, go to the “Print & Fax” system preference pane and click the plus icon and then “IP” icon. Which do you choose from under the “Protocol” options? First try “HP Jetdirect-socket,” even if it’s not an HP printer. If it’s an older printer, start with LPD. Newer printers might accept IPP. Just type the IP address. Even if the IP address says valid and complete, that doesn’t mean you are talking to it. Most likely, Snow Leopard won’t be able to figure out which driver it to use. You’ll need to select it manually from the “Print Using” drop down. Since the printer worked in Leopard or Tiger, you’ll most likely have the driver already. Click “Add” and then run a test print. One of those three protocols should work. If not, you have other options.

Personally, I’ve had to do this with quite a few clients lately, printing to the larger business machine class multifunction copy stations, and it works like a charm.

Use a Parallel (or USB) to Ethernet Print Server

These boxes cost around $50. In my experience, I’ve rarely seen an Ethernet-only printer. As stated earlier, they usually have a parallel port as another port option.

You’ll need to confirm the print server supports printing over TCP/IP, but I’ve found that most do. It may have a Windows-only configuration utility, so be sure to check if it supports Mac out of the box, if you don’t have access to a Windows machine. Follow the procedures in the Print Over IP option above to pick an IP address and add the printer.

Alternatively, if you have a Airport Express or Airport Extreme, hook the printer up to that if the printer supports USB.

Use a Windows Machine as a Print Server (GASP!)

If you’ve tried everything else and it just doesn’t work, or you happen to have an old PC lying around, you can make it into a print server. Install the printer normally (if there is such a way) in Windows and make sure it works. Then go to “Add Printer” and click on “Windows” and your PC and the associated shared printer should appear. If it doesn’t, additional info can be found in this Apple Support document. Not all printers can be shared over Windows, but if it worked over ethernet, it should work over Windows via Print Sharing. Setting this up is not easy nor for the faint of heart! Often times a firewall needs to be configured on the PC to allow printer sharing.

Buy a New Printer

If your primary method of printing was via AppleTalk, your printer is probably pretty old, so maybe it’s time to buy a new one. A new printer has easier-to-find consumables and is most likely more energy efficient than your old one. Sure, you’ve already got money invested in the toner for the old one, but check its specs as compared to a new printer. Look at the material and labor cost of retrofitting your old printer versus buying a new one. You might be surprised at the ultimate value of buying a newer printer.

None of these solutions are a perfect guarantee you will be able to use your old printer forever, but they might help you get life out of the old bucket of bolts for a while longer, saving you money while letting you enjoy the features of Apple’s latest and greatest cat.

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In “Share,” the focus is squarely on the new peer to peer connectivity introduced in OS 3.0 that allows iPhones in close proximity to discover each other for multiplayer gaming and sharing. The ad features three apps that use peer to peer in different ways. Mover (free, iTunes link) allows image sharing using an innovative and well-designed interface tailored to the iPhone’s touchscreen controls. Bump (free, iTunes link) allows contact info exchange, and is the app that won Apple’s billionth app downloaded contest. Finally, EA’s Scrabble ($4.99, iTunes link) demonstrates the iPhone’s multiplayer gaming capabilities.

“Travel” provides a selection of apps handy for the globe-trotting iPhone owner. I was expecting Apple to throw in at least one that takes advantage of the new compass features in the 3GS, but they clearly wanted to stick to apps that would work on both the 3G and the 3GS. Rick Steves’ Historic Paris Walk ($4.99, iTunes link) is the first featured app, which provides a guided, narrated tour of the celebrated European capital. Next up is Paris Metro ’09 ($4.99, iTunes link), which provides a transit map for the Paris underground. Finally, Freeverse’s Postman ($1.99, iTunes link) allows you to create and send custom postcards using photos in your album or that you take with your iPhone’s camera.

Apple clearly wants to focus more on what both currently available iPhone generations can do, rather than on the distinguishing features of the new 3GS. Since they’ve already tried to set up that distinction in the past, I think it’s a good strategy to just try to market a unified iPhone brand and let consumers make their own choices.

This series of ads continues to be a great way to show off the iPhone’s flexibility to consumers who may not be aware of its capabilities, but I’m surprised we haven’t yet seen a fan-made parody featuring a list of unfairly rejected or hamstringed apps, i.e., “Want to use Google Voice to connect with friends and family? There’s no app for that.” or “Want to stream your own, fairly acquired media from your home Slingbox over 3G whose usage you pay for? There’s no app for that.”

Someone make it happen. And please, Apple, by all means, continue to use Matt Costa’s Mr. Pitiful, because even just hearing the instrumental intro to that song has it stuck in my head for days, which is definitely a good thing.

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Like some of you, I’m quite the “Apple purist.” I’m not a fan of fancy cases that junk up my Macs. I don’t like skins for my iPods and those plastic snap cases for my laptop. We all know that Apple designs beautiful products, so we might as well show them off! Balancing protection and beauty, the stylish and functional cases from Waterfield Designs are some of the highest-quality cases I have ever used.

Originally starting with one case design in the late 90s, Waterfield now boasts a collection of more than 50 uniquely designed cases for portables, iPhones, iPods and even some unique items, such as the iPod Hi-Fi. Though Waterfield Designs does not sell its products in retail stores, it has still managed to garner quite a following from Apple users around the world.

The personal attention and customer service from the company is second to none. In the past five years, I have owned around eight Waterfield bags (for various equipment). Out of all of them, I only had an issue with one particular sleevecase. Being that it was a few years old, the velcro was no longer as “clingy” as it once was. One simple email to the company resulted in a wonderful email that said, “Hey, no worries! Just send it on in with a note that says ‘Please fix my case in a hurry! I’m going to miss it!’” I mailed my case in, Waterfield replaced what needed to be replaced and priority mailed it back to me. Now how’s that for customer service? Not only that, but every time I buy a product from them, inside is a handwritten “Thank you” note from Gary, the founder.

Smart Case for iPod touch & iPod classic

The big secret to Waterfield Designs is that its success is completely customer-driven. With not selling products in retail stores, I am constantly amazed when I see more and more people with these unique cases and every owner is literally beaming about their purchase.

Much like Apple, Waterfield sweats the small things. For example, the inside of most of Waterfield’s bags are gold, simply because that makes it easier to see the contents! Latches to access the cases, including the signature aluminum aircraft buckle, are designed for one-hand access.

Many of you have probably already realized that buying a case for a laptop can be a pricey endeavor. With the customization options available on most cases from Waterfield, you’re not buying things you’re not going to use (like excess shoulder straps). Beyond accessories, even certain elements of some cases are customizable. For example, I keep my MacBook Pro in a standard sleevecase when I travel most places. Unlike traditional sleevecases like you would find with Incase, Waterfield gives customers the option to have their case open vertically instead of horizontally. Simple as it may seem, this means I can charge my MacBook Pro while it stays inside.

Travel Cases for iPod Speakers

Waterfield Designs also shines in its product selection, with cases for more unique items as well, such as the Apple Keyboard, Mac mini, SLR cameras, the Amazon Kindle and more. The best part is, all of these cases are custom designed to fit these products, so it’s not like you’re buying a stylish bag and just hoping your PSP may fit inside it.

Before you march off to the Apple Store for another case, give Waterfield Designs a look. It is definitely worth the time. If any of you are current Waterfield customers, please leave comments and let me know which bag or bags you’ve purchased and your thoughts on them. The advertising Waterfield Designs gets comes directly from its customers so don’t just take my word for it; let’s hear what everyone else has to say.

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Feeling the cash crunch around this particular time? Not to worry, most of the applications mentioned here are free or just a couple bucks. A nice print-out of your gift tucked or wrapped nicely in a festive Father’s Day envelope will more than likely communicate your genuine appreciation for your dad. So since all dads are obviously not the same, breeze through our list and find our top picks for your kind of dad.

The Stay at Home Dad

iHandy Level (Free)
For the Stay-at-Home Handy Dad — utility belts and their attachments are so passé! Consider surprising your stay-at-home Dad this Father’s Day with gadgets that reside in his iPhone.

iHandy Level is a free application brought to you by iHandySoft Inc. This stunning application exploits the iPhone’s Accelerometer and Proximity sensor to bring your stay-at-home Handy Dad a truly unique handyman experience. From balancing and centering picture frames on the wall, to leveling a floor tile — this is definitely one unique application that no handy dad should be without!

If you’re feeling extra generous this Father’s Day, you may consider the iHandy Carpenter which includes five handyman tools in one for the ridiculous price of $1.99!

iHandy Carpenter Notable Features

• iHandy Level
• Plumb Bob – the easy method of verifying the verticality of walls
• Surface Level – the best tool to level any flat surface
• Steel protractor – OK so it’s not made of steel, but it sure is pretty and measures angles beautifully
• Steel Ruler – again, not real steel – but smarter and more compact than any steel ruler you may have come across and it actually measures a few times longer than the iPhone, too

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (Free)
If your stay-at-home Dad isn’t particularly the handyman type, but perhaps more of the kitchen connoisseur, the Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner app may be more his taste.

He can swipe away at the Spinner sorting by Dish Type, Ingredients, and Prep/Cook time to view recipe matches of his choice — or, if he’s feeling “saucy,” he could simply tap the Spin Categories function for a totally impromptu pick. One thing is for sure, the recipe of choice will definitely be one to delight since all recipes are based on ratings and reviews of millions of home cooks. To top it off, each recipe comes complete with its own Nutritional Information chart to keep a stay-at-home Dad’s family happy and healthy.

Notable Features

• Choose by Dish Type from Appetizers through to Dessert (cocktails included)
• Choose by Ingredient
• Choose by desired Prep/Cook time
• A light shake will present random recipe ideas

The Sports Fan Dad

ESPN ScoreCenter (Free)
Forget about losing your sports fan Dad’s attention to the TV, that’s a worry of the past. A glance is all it will take to get the latest scores, results and stats of his favorite sports team — all from a one-tap access interface. With the recent release of the iPhone and iPod touch 3.0 software update, the new ESPN ScoreCenter will also feature push notifications.

Results are available for:

• Football/Soccer
• Baseball (MLB)
• American Football (NFL)
• Basketball (NBA)
• Ice Hockey (NHL)
• NCAA College Football, Basketball
• NASCAE, Formula 1, Indycar
• Golf
• Tennis
• Cricket & Rugby are both coming soon

Sports Radio (99 cents)
Is your sports fan Dad a multinational sports fan Dad? Place the world of sports radio into the palm of his hand with a single app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Not only can your dad tune in to over 6,400 sports radio stations around the world, but with the newly added Facebook and Twitter integration, he can keep his friends in the know as well.

Notable Features

• Includes users favorite MP3 iTunes stations
• Pick from favorites or recently played stations
• Includes Public Radio streams and over 2,100 MP3 stations from Europe, Australia, and Canada
• Dynamic directory for adding new directories and stations without application updates, 
email links to a station stream to friends using iPhone or iPod touch Mail application,
 Radio for iPhone supports MP3 and AAC stream formats and then some

The Athletic Dad

Yoga STRETCH (99 cents)
Now don’t let the womanly image fool you; these days yoga is a very acceptable, manly athletic activity (and I’m not saying so just because I do it — cough).

Having the mind in tune with the body through yoga has proven to yield many benefits, especially for me. These include lowering blood pressure, weight normalization, and an increase to energy and endurance levels. This progressive app displays traditional yoga poses at individual intervals and comes complete with a personal yoga instructor that walks students through a successful session. Since the application is designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch, your athletic Dad can strike his pose in his office or from the comfort of his own hiding place.

Notable Features

• Consists of traditional yoga poses sequencing with a Vinyasa flow
• Designed to improve strength, balance, posture and flexibility
• A personal yoga instructor walking each through a full session including audio commentary, images and music

iFitness ($1.99)
If your athletic Dad doesn’t happen to be the posing, flexing type, iFitness may just be what he needs for an all-around healthy, accurate and comprehensive workout. Forget about breaking the bank to get your dad a personal trainer for Father’s Day — a single solution has been developed just for the tech- (and financially-) savvy individual and it’s available on none other than the iPhone and iPod touch.

Notable Features

• Over 110 beautifully illustrated exercises with accompanying text
• Favorites option to create your own custom routine
• Preset routines that our experts have made for reaching different goals
• Exercises organized by the muscles they target

The Business Dad

TravelTracker with TripIt ($7.99)
With just one tap you can download all of your trip information into TravelTracker. Not only will it download each of the your critical trip details, such as flights, hotel reservations and car rentals, but it also goes the extra mile to fetch the pertinent details of your trip, such as your meetings, activities, notes and yes — even your restaurant reservations. Yum!

Does your airport lack sufficient mobile coverage and/or is not yet equipped with free Wi-Fi? Never fear! TravelTracker with TripIt works sufficiently offline just as beautifully as it does online. Oh, and if you’re still trying to figure out what exactly TripIt is, check out this amazing free add-on: tripit.com.

TravelTracker is your all-in-one virtual travel assistant and companion. It stores all vital information for your trip and displays it in a convenient optimized itinerary screen that allows you to record all of the key aspects you need before, during and after your trip. This is every business Dad’s winner.

Notable Features

• One-touch flight status
• Customizable packing lists
• Records all details of your travel expenses
• Record-keeping of all of your frequent traveler award programs
• Airplane database with link to seating charts
• Email your itinerary and expenses to contacts
• Download current weather conditions & forecasts for your chosen airport
• Download current exchange rates to determine your trip total in your own currency

Currency (Free)
These days, with business deals flowing like water across oceans, the Internet has skyrocketed business transactions into oblivion and the only way for your business Dad to keep up with the world’s currencies is through a single intuitive application such as Currency. This app provides the latest conversions in every exchange language (18 languages, to be exact) and in every currency (which total 90 currencies for over 100 countries).

Notable Features

• 18 exchange languages
• Up-to-date exchange rate information for over 90 currencies and 100 countries
• Common currencies: Dollar, Pound, Yen, Peso, Dinar, Yuan, Baht, Dirham, Real, Kuna, Riyal, Lira plus many others

The Single Dad

Urban Spoon (Free)
No single Dad will ever be without ideas as to where to take the kids (or a hot date) for the best eats in town! With similar functionality as Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner, the shake of the iPhone or iPod touch will jolt Urban Spoon into emulating the function of a classic slot machine to present a random restaurant pick in the vicinity. Another shake will simply pull up another selection — and just keep on shaking until satisfied. Arm getting tired yet? Just set a lock on any of the three criteria items (Neighborhood, Cuisine, Price) to narrow the selection.

Notable Features

• Use GPS to find a restaurant nearest you
• Filter by Neighborhood, Cuisine and Price
• Search and browse local restaurant and check out their reviews
• See a list of all nearby restaurants
• Compare restaurant picks with your friends

NYTimes App (Free)
For the single Dads (or really any dad) who are always on the go, they’ll never miss a beat (or an important news update) from the newly polished NYTimes App. No longer is this news application painfully sluggish, as its version 1.0 predecessor was. In fact, NYTimes App zips across the wire to download up-to-the-minute news in a flash and even works just as feverishly offline or in airplane mode (just as long as the app has downloaded the articles previously, which is still quite instant).

Notable Features

• Gorgeous and sophisticated interface
• Access to the latest articles and photos of the day
• Customizable toolbar with favorite sections of NYTimes.com
• Read anywhere – After a quick sync, articles and photos are available offline

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uSonar (Free)

There are lots of apps available that let you keep up with your social networks while you’re on the go, but what about when you’re bored and want to find someone local to hang with? uSonar lets you know who’s around and what they’re up to, whether they are someone you already know or not. Members post “blips” about their activities and locations, then you can message them directly through your iPhone or iPod touch. Everything about uSonar is opt-in, so you’re in control of who can see where you are, or send you a message or email. You can even post anonymously if you’d like.

Loopt (Free)

If you want people outside your immediate location to be able to find you, try Loopt. This app lets you broadcast your whereabouts or send pictures to everyone in your social networks, like Twitter and Facebook. It works across all major mobile phone carriers and supports over 100 different models of phones so your buddies without iPhones can find you. It also integrates nicely with the review Web site Yelp, so if you’re stumped on ways to spend your Saturday afternoon, you can find something to do.

Hear Planet (Free)

If you like to go sightseeing when you travel, then you’ll love Hear Planet. It uses geolocation to determine where you are, then feeds you tons of information about the area’s landmarks, famous buildings, historical sites, and more via your headphones. More than just an audio tour guide, listen while you drive around running errands and you just might learn something you never knew about your hometown.

Whrrl (Free)

Some folks love micro-blogging so much that they want to document every minute of their day. If that’s your thing, let Whrrl help. Use your iPhone’s camera to snap pictures of your lunch, trip to the market, and visit to the dentist, uploading to Whrrl as you go. You can even add text and messages if you choose. Your location and micro-stories are shown on a map, which is really neat if you happen to be around other Whrrl users doing the same thing as you. Imagine attending the Super Bowl and updating the experience as it happens, while simultaneously watching someone else across the stadium do the same. Cool. If any of this sounds familiar, it’s a lot like Brightkite.)

Traffic ($1.99)

This app will let you know what the traffic conditions are like in your area and display them in list form or superimposed on a map. Traffic gives you details on how severe the traffic situations are — is there a 4-alarm fire with road blockage on Main Street, or a small fender bender with a slowdown due to rubbernecking? The app automatically locates where you are, but you can enter the location of your choice so you can get traffic conditions anywhere.

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