461 days

Suzanne Choney

BlackBerry Travel app packs it all in one suitcase

The venerable BlackBerry is struggling to stay relevant as the iPhone and Android phones continue to increase their domination of the smart phone world, and a new travel app for BlackBerry users may give Research In Motion's devices more appeal.

The free BlackBerry Travel app lets you do all your travel planning, including flight info, hotel bookings and transportation, as well as "tap into your social networks" while you're on the go, all from the app, according to RIM. (Note: BlackBerry Travel is in beta, and the "b" in beta also can stand for "buggy," so don't be surprised if there are some issues. Also, the app works only on BlackBerrys that use BlackBerry Operating System 5.0 and higher.)

A travel app makes perfect sense for RIM; BlackBerrys have long been the choice of many business execs. According to RIM, the new app has these features:

• Itinerary Management: "View, create, and edit current and future itinerary items including flight, hotel, car rental, meetings, public transportation."
• Automatic Trip Catch: "Never manually enter an itinerary ... BlackBerry Travel automatically acknowledges e-mail itineraries sent to your BlackBerry e-mail address and populates the details into the BlackBerry travel app."
• Social Sharing: "Easily view, search and connect with LinkedIn contacts traveling to the same location."
• Notifications & Alerts: "Receive push-based notifications and alerts for itinerary updates, flight reminders/alerts and connections information."
• Flight Schedules: "Find flight schedules by city, airport and date."
• Hotel Search & Book: "Search and book hotels, and rank results based on location, price and quality."
• Local Search: "Search for local dining, shopping, nightlife and more, with access to maps, reviews and click-to-call via a Yelp-powered local search tool."
• Tools: "Easily access world clocks, currency converters, weather, flight status updates and maps."

While there are other travel apps out there — TripIt is among the more well-known — RIM appears to have beaten Apple on this front, notes Tnooz, a travel tech news site, which says the "the BlackBerry Travel app is believed to be the first travel app branded by a smart phone manufacturer."

Apple introduced its iTravel app last year, but it's still being buffed up and added to.

BlackBerry Travel is available from BlackBerry's App World, online, or via the phone for users in North America, the United Kingdom and Spain. Why Spain? Why, that's where the Mobile World Congress — the equivalent of the world's largest cell phone tradeshow — is taking place this week, in Barcelona.

More wireless news from msnbc.com:

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• Windows Phone 7 may be contender in 2011
• Report: Smaller, cheaper iPhone in the works
• Express yourself with Androidify