If you are frequently on the go, SplashTravel brings together 15 tools that you will appreciate before, during, and after your travels. While there are other Treo programs that can do a few of these tasks well, there are advantages to having all of these tools grouped together into a single program, where they are easily accessible and can be purchased for a single price.

Splash Travel includes the following:

1) World Map
2) Clocks
3) Alarms
4) Time Calculator
5) Date Calculator
6) Currency Converter
7) Unit Converter
8) Stopwatch
9) Timer
10) Check Split
11) Calendar
12) Expenses
13) Codes & Domains
14) Luggage
15) Clothes Sizes

Let’s take a look at each of these….

Home Page

In additional to being accessible from the Treo’s menu, all of the tools are accessible from the SplashTravel Home Page by tapping on one of the 15 icons. When you tap and hold on one of the icons it expands and the name of that tool is displayed (as demonstrated using the World Map tool in the above example). Releasing the stylus when an icon is expanded launches that tool. While some of the icons may not be intuitive to everyone, this approach allows you to quickly move your stylus around until you find the desired tool.

At the top of the window the time and date is shown for the selected city and you can quickly see the time and day in another city by selecting it from the drop-down list. You can access a city in the list more quickly by typing the first few letters of the city name and you will be taken to that position in the list.

There is also a ticker at the bottom of the screen that shows system GMT, Internet Time, Nearest Upcoming Alarm and three user-defined currency conversion rates. Each of these items can be hidden using the Ticker Settings dialog. One nice feature is that you can make the ticker move more quickly by tapping and holding the stylus on the ticker, while releasing the stylus causes it to resume the normal speed.

1 – World Map

The World Map tool displays a map of the world with an optional shadow showing where it is day and night. You can select a city from the drop-down list or tap on the map and it will select the nearest city to that location. However, if you are trying to select a specific city I found that it is much easier to do this using the drop-down list because with such a small map it can be nearly impossible to find the magic pixel that corresponds to the city you are looking for.

Latitude/Longitude information is also shown, which can be useful when trying to determine if two cities are at roughly the same latitude. You can also enter additional cities and their related information using the Edit Cities dialog accessed from the Options menu.

While the map looks nice, I would really like to be able to zoom in closer on selected areas of the map as well as be able to see country and time zone boundaries.

2 – Clocks

This tool provides exactly what I would expect, the ability to see the current time for your home city as well as the current time for four other cities at a single glance. The time displayed at the top is based on the home city have selected in the Main Menu screen. I particularly like the fact that you can quickly change between cities using a drop-down list rather than having to go through a separate dialog to select a different city. The inclusion of the date and day information also allows you to see if the city is ahead or behind the current day relative to your home city, something that can be quite useful if you make international calls during business hours on weekdays.

3 – Alarms

The Alarms tool allows you to set up to 9 separate alarms that can be individually enabled or disabled. When you tap on the Settings button for an alarm, you can specify the name of the alarm, the time, and the repeat interval.

My main complaint with the Alarm tool is that the “Select Time” dialog that pops up when you tap on the time doesn’t allow you to enter numbers using your Treo’s keyboard.

And while there is some support for the 5-way control, it is pretty much worthless because the process of navigating to and selecting the time digits and then using the up/down arrows to increment/decrement the digits is both frustrating and time consuming. This seems to be a common problem in SplashTravel wherever you have the option of setting a time value and I’m really hoping that they provide support for the keyboard as well as improved support for the 5-way control in a future release.

For the repeat interval, the choices are:

• Once

• Every Day
• Mon-Fri
• Sat/Sun
• Individual Day

While I find this approach to be fairly flexible, I prefer the approach that shows you all of the days of the week as separate buttons and allows you to enable/disable each day individually since it gives you complete control over which days the alarm will occur (necessary for people that don’t work the standard M-F workweek) and allows you to see exactly which days are enabled at a single glance.

One Alarm feature I really like is the ability to control the auto-repeat, snooze and time-out settings for each alarm. This is perfect for weekday alarms that need to repeat frequently and have short snooze times so you aren’t late for a morning meeting as well as weekend alarms that can have longer snooze intervals. I’d really like to see this kind of flexibility in all programs that have alarms.

Finally, there is the alarm sound itself. You can choose between Wave or MIDI sound files that are located in internal memory or on your SD card. However, I found the interface for browsing in the SD card clunky because you had to type in the path and then press the “Find” button and the press a “Load” button. To be honest, I just stuck with the built-in MIDI sounds that were already on my Trēo and never got around to using MIDI or Wave sounds that were copied to my SD card, but this seems to be an area that could use some improvement.

I also had a problem with the “Settings” button to the right of the text that says “Sounds & Alerts settings”. I tapped on this button several times and nothing happened. I’m not sure if this is a bug or if I was doing something wrong, but if this button won’t do anything unless something else is setup, then it should disabled until that thing is setup. However, at this point this button is still a mystery to me.

4 – Time Calculator

The Time Calculator feature is useful if you are setting up a meeting or call with one or more people in different countries and you need to figure out what time the meeting will be in each of those countries. You simply pick the reference city at the top of the screen, set the target meeting time and then you can see what time it will be in each of the selected cities.

One thing I wondered about was why they didn’t just combine this functionality into the Clocks tool since they look nearly identical and could have just added the ability to change between the current time and some other time.

Overall I think this is a nice tool, but since this is a Time Calculator there are a few additional features I would like to see added in the future:

1) I’d like to be able to see how many hours each city is ahead or behind the reference city (similar to the +/- GMT numbers you sometimes see, but based on the home city).
2) I’d like to have buttons to increase/decrease the hour value for the reference city with a single tap. As it works now, clicking on the reference time brings up a Select Time dialog that requires multiple taps to change the time and amazingly, this dialog does not accept input from the keyboard so you must use the inefficient up/down arrows to change the hour or minute values. I’d actually consider this second part to be a bug more than a new feature.
3) I’d also like to have a button to sort the cities by time zone so it is easy to see which is earliest and which is latest.

5 – Date Calculator

The Date Calculator allows you to calculate date information in a few different ways
1) You can enter two different dates and see now many days are between those two dates
2) You can enter the first date and the number of days that should be added to that date in order to calculate the second date
3) You can also perform the above calculations using Weeks or Months in addition to Days.

These calculations will also display the number of workdays (weekdays?) between the two dates.

The two date fields allow you to use the up/down arrows to increment/decrement the day for the field, and tapping on the date value brings up a standard date picker dialog. For the Difference field, you can either type a value into this field using the Trēo’s keyboard, or you can use the number pad at the bottom of the screen to enter the number (but for some reason you can’t use the decimal key to enter partial months or weeks). Also, when you switch between days, weeks, and months the values are rounded down so 1 month = 4 weeks = 30 days, but 6 days = 0 weeks and 3 weeks = 0 months.

I’m not sure how useful this tool is for traveling unless you are planning a trip of a specified duration and need to figure out your return date. I’d probably use this tool more often for determining milestone dates for project schedules when I know the start date and duration of tasks.

6 – Currency Converter

The Currency Converter tool allows you to convert values between 4 different currencies. Just enter or modify the value next to one of the currency labels and the rest of the currency values will be updated to reflect the converted values. There is a white button on an orange background that copies the current values to the column on the right so you can do another set of calculations, and the little coin buttons with the green arrow on the far right will export the value over to the Expenses application (described in more detail in section 12). This is a nice touch that shows at least some level of integration between the different applications.

Another nice feature is that if you just want to get a quick update on the conversion values for 1 unit of a currency to the other currencies, the box at the bottom right of the screen allows you to do this at a glance.

The biggest shortcoming I see with the Currency Converter is that the conversion rates cannot be automatically updated using your Trēo’s wireless connection and must be manually updated if you want them to be accurate.

And for those time when I’m traveling internationally and need to get some local currency (usually at the airport in order to pay for a cab), another feature I would like to see is the ability to set both a one-time conversion rate (since different exchange booths charge different rates) as well as the commission rate so I can figure how much of a penalty I am paying for leaving things to the last minute.

7 – Unit Converter

The Unit Convert tool divides measurements into the 7 categories shown in this picture.

Just pick the category, enter the value you want to convert from, select the units you are converting from and select the units you want to convert to. The converted number is then displayed.

Supported conversion types include the following:

Areas: square m, square cm, square km, square in, square yd, acre, square mile, square ft, tsubo
Distances: mile, km, n mile
Lengths: cm, m, yd, ft, in
Temperatures: C, F, K
Speeds: mph, km/h, kn
Volumes: cc, ml, liter, pint UK, pint US, gal UK, gal US, oz UK, oz US
Weights: gr, kg, lb, oz, stone

While I’ve seen more comprehensive unit conversion programs, the units supported in SplashTravel will probably cover the majority of situations you encounter in your travels.

8 – Stopwatch

The Stopwatch tool is just your basic stopwatch that records total time as well as split times. While the display only shows five split times, you can record more splits and they will be accessible by scrolling. This should be sufficient for any stopwatch needs you have while traveling, but might be lacking if you need to simultaneously record multiple events or save the results of one event while recording another.

9 – Timer

The Timer tool is another basic tool that only supports a single timer. The setup button brings up the dreaded Timer Settings dialog, which just like the other places where you need to set a time value, doesn’t support the keyboard or 5-way control.

You can also configure the sound that is played when the timer runs out, but the dialog that appears is really the same dialog used to setup the sounds for the Alarms tool. It even has an Alarm tab, and when you tap on it you are told that the tab is only for the Alarm Settings. I find this type of lazy programming particularly annoying because if the programmer had the time to add a message indicating that the tab cannot be used for the Timer, then they should have just hidden the tab in the first place or created another dialog.

On the positive side, you can specify the auto-repeat interval as well as a time-out interval. Conversely, the tab where you pick the tone/sound suffers from the same issues mentioned above for the Alarms.

10 – Check Split

The Check Split tool is one of the tools you will find useful whether or not you are traveling. Assuming you normally use the same Tax and Tip values, you just need to enter the pre-tax amount of the bill and the number of people that will be splitting the bill and it will give you the amount that each person needs to pay. You can also specify whether the tip should be calculated on the pre-tax or post-tax amount.

I was glad to see there were up/down arrows next to the Tax, Tip and People values. The arrows adjust the Tip amount by .5 increments and if you tap on the value you can only pick a Tip value from a pop-up list that ranges from 0.0 to 30.0 in 0.5 increments. The arrows for the Tax amount adjust in 0.01 increments, but when you tap on the value the pop-up list provides choices from 0.00 to 20.00 in 0.5 increments. And not surprisingly, the arrows for People adjust the number up/down in increments of 1 (I guess you can bring partial people to dinner, but they usually don’t eat anything and shouldn’t pay for dinner). The drop-down list ranges from 1 to 20, so if you have more than 20 people you’ll need to do some extra math. The number pad at the bottom of the screen can only be used for entering the pre-tax amount.

Enhancements I would like to see a future release include the ability to specify whether the dollar value for the bill is pre-tax or post-tax for those situations where you have only the grand total. And while the pop-up lists for Tax, Tip and People make it easy to pick from the most common values, I’d also like to have the ability to use the number pad (or keyboard) to enter any value in these fields.

11 – Calendar

The Calendar tool is fairly basic and its main advantage over the Trēo’s Calendar program is that it is available from within SplashTravel. There are a couple of features it adds beyond the built-in Calendar program. These include the ability to see which day of the year a particular day is as well as which week of the year a particular week is.

I’m really not sure I see the need to have this as a separate tool and it would probably be better if this functionality was just added to the Date Calculator tool

12 – Expenses

If you don’t already have SplashMoney (available from SplashData by itself or bundled with SplashWallet), the Expenses tool is a good way to keep track of your reimbursable expenses while traveling. Even if you have SplashMoney, you may want to use the Expenses tools for travel-related expenses because it not only allows you to specify a category, description and amount for the expense, but you can also specify the currency used for the purchase. This allows you to convert the amount to your local currency at a later time, or you can do the conversion on the spot using the Currency Conversion tool and then add it to your list of Expenses using the button available in the Currency Conversion tool

You can also filter the list by Category if you want to just see Personal or Business expenses (or other category types you add), and you can convert the total amount to any currency you wish using the drop-down list. If your list of expenses were entered using different currencies, they will be converted when calculating the total amount.

13 – Codes & Domains

The Codes & Domains tool is a great reference that is divided into two sections. The first tab is a list of calling codes for various countries around the world. This is key information when you are trying to call another country and you only have the local part of the number. Also shown is the domain extension for each country (in case you are in the Ukraine and didn’t remember that their local web addresses end in .ua)

The second tab is focused on the United States and contains the area code for hundreds of U.S. cities (I’m not sure how many because there wasn’t an easy way to count them). You an also add new cities or countries to either of the lists).

14 – Luggage

The Luggage tool allows you to quickly put together a packing list for your tip. You can assign items to different categories and then quickly browse through those categories to build your packing list for an upcoming trip. The interface starts with two lists, items in your current list on top and then items in your full list on the bottom. You add items from the full list to your current list by checking them off, and then once you’ve actually packed these items for your trip you check them off from your current list. You can expand either list so it takes up the whole screen or switch back to the split-screen view which is most useful when building a new list for your current trip. You can also filter the list to show just checked items, just unchecked items, or both.

Overall, I’d say this is a pretty useful list-tracking program, but since you are limited to only one list it is best suited for the intended purpose of creating a packing list for your trip.

Since my packing list will be different for a same day trip vs. an overnight trip vs. an international trip, one feature I would like to see added in a future release is the ability to save several pre-defined packing lists so I don’t have to re-create the different lists each time. Then when I’m going out of the country I can select my “International Travel” packing list which will always include my passport as one of the items I need to bring.

If you already have SplashShopper then you may want use it instead of the Luggage tool because it provides more features as well as letting you enter all of your information on computer and then sync it with your Trēo (as well as synchronizing data entered on the Trēo back to your computer). But if you don’t have SplashShopper, then the Luggage tool should meet all of your travel-related packing list needs.

15 – Clothes Sizes

The final tool, Clothes Sizes, is useful if you like to shop while traveling the word or have to do some emergency shopping (such as when you spill coffee on your only white shirt) in a country that uses different numbers for clothes sizes. It has clothes sizes for USA, Europe, UK and Japan for all types of clothing for men, women and children (useful if you are looking to buy some gifts to those awaiting your return). This is definitely a useful tool if you are in a rush and need to buy something but don’t have time to try it on before buying. It can also come in handy if you want to order clothes from another country over the phone or Internet and aren’t sure which of their sizes is right for you.

Conclusion

I only travel a handful of times a year and maybe only internationally once a year, so I don’t benefit from all of the tools in SplashTravel as much as frequent travelers might. But when I do travel, especially internationally, having tools readily accessible such as the Unit Converter, Currency Converter, Alarms, Clocks, Luggage, Codes & Domains and Clothes Sizes can be invaluable.

Pros

• A wide variety of travel-related tools gathered together in a single application

• Great the for the frequent traveler that needs to improvise while on the go
• Reasonably priced compared to buying separate utilities for similar functionality

Cons

• Dialog for setting time values doesn’t support entering numbers from the Trēo’s keyboard and has worthless support for 5-way control

• Currency conversion information is not automatically updated using the Trēo’s online capability.
• Unlike the other SplashData applications that offer similar functionality (such as SplashMoney and SplashShopper), the lists and expenses you enter into SplashTravel do not get synchronized to the desktop
• While nearly all of the tools are fairly useful, few are “best of breed” in their respective areas

Tested using Treo 700p

Related Links

Get SplashTravel

Other programs from SplashData

Filed under: Software reviews