Best Taxi Apps for City Travel

The days of calling a cab, hoping you have enough money and waiting out in the rain until it arrives are gone. Thanks to a number of helpful smartphone apps, you can do everything from booking your cab to following it through the city streets as it approaches your location.

Taxi Fare Calculator

One of the reasons people have avoided calling cabs in the past is that they were concerned about the cost. How much would the fare be to get from location a to destination b? Unless money was no object, calling a cab could leave you worrying about how much would be left in your wallet. Now, using the Taxi Fare Calculator app, found through Bing Maps, you could easily estimate the cost of your taxi trip.

Taxi Magic

Taxi Magic is actually straight into the systems of taxi dispatching companies, allowing you to book a cab quickly and easily, directly from your iPhone. Once your cab is booked, you will receive text updates to help you track your cab’s progress. The app also allows you to charge the trip directly to your credit card and even gives you an e-receipt so that you can expense the trip, an especially useful feature if you are in town on business.

myTaxi

The myTaxi app is available on both iOS and Android systems and allows you to virtually hail a cab, even if you are unsure of your location. Google maps and the GPS system in your phone work together to bring your cab directly to you. You can track your taxi’s progress on a map, which means no more waiting on a curb in the pouring rain watching for your taxi to arrive.

ReportATaxi

Unfortunately, some taxi drivers don’t play by the rules. They talk on their cells while driving, smoke cigarettes in the cab or take a roundabout route to get you home, racking up a few extra bucks for themselves in the process. Often, riders have had difficulty reporting bad drivers, and most would just rather eat the few bucks than deal with the hassle. If you have the ReportATaxi app, you can report a bad driver directly from your phone. Even better, the app also has a “Praise an Angel” option, so you can leave a glowing report about an excellent taxi driver.

Google Translate

If you do a lot of international traveling, you know how frustrating it can be to try giving directions or asking for them from a taxi driver who doesn’t speak your language. With the Google Translate app, you can speak your request directly into your phone and receive the translation in one of 50 different languages. You can even program in a series of your favorite phrases while riding to the airport in a SeaTac Taxi, so you can access the phrases even when you are offline.

These apps make calling a cab a cinch, allowing you to plan your day and your activities easier than ever before. Next time you need a cab, try out one of these apps.

Do you have a brand-new iPad and are trying to figure out the true greatness of the device? Why not play a couple of top notch games on it and bask in the greatness of your brilliant new tablet! Here are top five iPad games that you can go ahead and grab right away because all of them are FREE to download!

Harbor Master

The Harbor Master HD lineage can be traced back to the iPhone, but the iPad version is far better compared to the iPhone version. This cool line drawing game has excellent graphics and the gameplay modes have also been redesigned so you can manage literally a ton of boats on the screen at once. In this game, you need to map the paths for the boats so they can all move in and single line; it is simple enough for any user to just draw the lines, but challenging enough for even the most veteran gamers if you are looking to win. It is a lot of fun to play this game, it is free and with the extra “cheese” (read graphics), it is definitely a treat for the eyes.

We Rule For iPad

Are you glad of playing does Facebook games where you are supposed to build your own kingdom, but actually end up loitering in a very small village? Welcome to We Rule For iPad – it is way ahead of what you get to see on social networking websites and definitely better than the iPhone version; you actually get to build your own empire and design it in whatever way you want without having to worry about limitations. At the end of day it is all about social networking because you need to buy stuff from your friends’ kingdoms and vice versa, but the appeal is definitely better because of the addition of the real estate screen. We Rule For iPad is free, so just go ahead and download it right now!

Tap Tap Radiation

Tap Tap Radiation has always been one of the most well-known games on iPhone and now it is available on iPad. The gaming mechanics have been changed considerably (for good) and the game just graduated from excellent to mesmerizing – you just need to tap on the notes popping out of your home screen and the beats of real songs would be played. The graphics are excellent and it is definitely one must-have game on an iPad.

Aurora Feint 3

If you are very much preoccupied with the gratification derived out of owning an iPad and don’t really want to share your games with other lowlife forms… iPhone users (pun intended), this is just the game for you. Aurora Feint 3 has been designed specifically keeping in mind the needs of an iPad user and it is actually a match three game that combines the elements of RPG that is designed specifically for the touch interface. This game takes you to the world of fantasies and you are sure to be left awestruck by the brilliant artwork that is there. If you are more often a social animal, you can play the game in the three battle mode, else you can go solo.

Fruit Ninja HD Lite

Have you ever tried playing Fruit Ninja HD Lite in any of its different avatars available? If you have not done that, it would be very difficult to explain to you why it is so much fun playing Fruit Ninja HD Lite; if you are experienced, you would understand why we recommend this game. Ever heard the saying “the best things in life are the simplest ones”? Well, there is not much of strategy involved in this game; you just need to swipe to slice through fruits with your sword and avoid slicing through bombs. The game is very simple but the slicing sound, the satisfying sound of squishing the fruits and the amazing graphics is definitely going to leave you longing for more. The large screen of the iPad facilitates for easy sword slicing and makes the game much more satisfying.

Russ is the tech developer for the online retailer laptopcomputers.co.uk. He lives and breathes technology and when he is not working on the Laptop Computers website he writes articles on tech news for a number of well known gadget and tech blogs worldwide.

South Korean technology company Samsung recently unveiled one of their newest smartphones in the Galaxy Ace Plus S7500. This device is essentially an update of the mid-range Galaxy Ace but features a slightly larger screen and faster processor. The Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 is a superb choice for individuals who are upgrading to their very first smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus runs on Android’s 2.3.6 Gingerbread operating system and boasts a great TouchWiz user interface, giving the user a far better hands on experience. It includes a 1 GHz Scorpion Qualcomm S1 processor, has 512MB of RAM and has 3GB of onboard storage, although this can be expanded to up to 32GB via microSD card.

The phone is on the smaller side in comparison to many other Samsung offerings, with a TFT capacitive touchscreen that measures in at 3.65 inches. Screen resolution is 480 by 320 pixels, while the camera is 5 megapixels and includes LED flash, autofocus and video capturing ability. The Galaxy Ace Plus is Wi-Fi capable, runs on Bluetooth 3.0 and uses a microUSB slot for connecting to your computer and for charging.

As with all Android powered phones, you can customize the look of the Galaxy Ace Plus’ screen. TouchWiz typically offers you four shortcut apps shown in dock fashion at the bottom of your home screen as well as in the app launcher. You can easily change your wallpaper as well as these shortcuts or add additional widgets. Swiping left or right enables you to rearrange widgets smoothly and effectively.

Unlike many other Samsung phones, the Galaxy Ace Plus sports a single core processor instead of one that is dual core. However, this does not slow down the performance one iota, as playing games is a fluid and enjoyable process, and you can experience no freezing and far less lag than that often present in dual core Android devices. This certainly puts the Galaxy Ace Plus is a top category.

The music player in the Galaxy Ace Plus is typical of TouchWiz, although Samsung includes a nice feature that includes an equalizer for maximizing your enjoyment of listening to music on the phone. You can even look up songs on YouTube via Google search, which is a nice touch. Additionally, the smartphone includes an FM radio that allows you to listen to your favorite stations on the go.

Photos taken on the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 are crisp and bright, although not as nice as those on its predecessor. Regardless, the phone is capable of capturing good quality pictures. Video capture, on the other hand, is fairly disappointing due to the fact that it cannot get 720p video. At the same time, videos taken on the Galaxy Ace Plus is better than those captured on the previous version.

Web browsing on the Galaxy Ace Plus is excellent as well as simple. You can easily zoom the page by pinching, double tapping and now also by tilting with two fingers. You can even zoom in such a way so that tabs are visible!

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus is a great step up from its predecessor. First time smartphone users will get a great experience if they choose this device, and even experienced smartphone users would enjoy it.

Nicole Rodgers has been blogging in the mobile, technology, and business industries for three years. When Nicole bought her cell phone last she made sure to check an online store like amazon for the best deals. When she got her cell phone she made sure to customize her phone. She made sure to make some ringtones to use on her phone.

Everyone wants to improve their home in any way that they can, and with the technology age always advancing, it’s a smart idea to keep up with the times and bring the tech ideas into your home. Updating your technology can increase the value of your home while creating a lifestyle that’s advanced, high tech and ultra modern.

A Transparent TV

What looks like just a normal piece of glass at first galnce quickly transforms into a high definition television with a simple click of a button. The range of colors is great, and the cool thing is that even though you are seeing the picture, you’re still seeing a bit of whatever is behind the picture in “empty” spots. You can make your TV look like a window with fake blinds over it, if you want, and it actually looks like you’re looking through the TV to whatever is behind it, just like a real window.

Its look is super sleek and the tv is actually eco-friendly – Samsung’s prototype had solar panels on the sides of the television screen that ran off any ambient light in the room with no extra energy source required.

Transparent TVs use a combination of LED and TOLED display technologies to make a perfect picture possible, but be warned, these things are hard to get your hands on and can cost you a pretty penny. A small, 11″ Sony transparent TV was listed at $2,200, so you can only imagine what the larger ones will cost!

Self-Sterilizing Door Handles

Human hands can be a hotbed of germs and you just never know who is carrying what germ, what that person has touched and who else it can spread to. Eliminate the fear of germs with a self-sterilizing door handle, or go crazy and get an entire house full of them.

When the door handle isn’t being used, an ultra violet lamp inside the handle carefully sterilizes it. It’s as simple as that. You can feel comfortable in knowing that each and every time you touch your door handle, it’s completely germ-free. And if the handle is in the process of cleaning when someone goes to use it, it will switch itself off to avoid the harmful effects of UV light to a human’s skin.

Again, this technology is hard to get a hold of, and it’s still in the prototype stages for the most part. But be prepared to see them in full blast in the very near future!

IQ Alarm Clock

Have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning? Constantly hitting that awful snooze button until you’re finally late for work?

Beware, if you purchase an IQ alarm clock, you’ll never be hitting snooze again. In order to turn it off, you have to answer a series of questions and get them right, making your brain think in order to wake it up.

If you get really frustrated with the clock, you could always reach for the source of its energy – the battery compartment. Except that it won’t let you open it unless you hold a button down for 30 solid seconds first, giving you plenty of time to actually wake up before you can even turn your annoying new alarm clock off!

Glowing Bath Lights

A little more on the end of the cheaper side of technology for your home, glowing bath lights can add an awesome and relaxing ambiance to your next bubble bath.

They’re made in a variety of colors so you can go with a theme color, or choose multicolor for a really futuristic look. The lights are 100% waterproof and stick right on to the side of any normal bath tub.

A set of these little lights will still cost you a couple hundred dollars, but it’s nowhere near the cost of, say, a transparent television.

USB Doorbell

If you can choose the sound your phone makes when it rings, why can’t you customize the sound your doorbell makes when someone rings it? You can now, with a USB doorbell.

All you have to do is plug the device into the USB port of your computer, upload any audio clips you’d like from songs to movie clips to favorite quotes, then plug the USB doorbell into your existing wiring for your current doorbell, and voila! A completely customizable doorbell ring that suits your exact tastes.

At $99.99, a USB doorbell is somewhat more affordable than other technology luxuries, plus it’s a fun toy to play with and constantly change!

Microsoft Surface

This isn’t just some name for some sort of tiling or counter tops, it’s actually a Microsoft product that is a huge display in your coffee table or similar flat surface. It literally turns any surface into a giant computer.

It’s a touch screen display that can be embedded into just about anything. It’s a great way to get work done no matter where you are in your house without having to cart around a laptop or tablet device. Be ready, though – a tabletop computer display that is Microsoft Surface is in the range of about $8,000-$10,000 since the technology is still so new.

Jade Evans is a freelance writer who often contributes to gadget and technology publications. Her house is full of high-tech devices (her long distance movers always love playing with her gadgets before they pack them up!) and she hopes that more people become willing to update their homes with the awesome technology that’s on the market today.