David lives in San Francisco and is an editor at Gelf Magazine. He also freelances for several magazines including Wired and Business 2.0. He's always on the lookout for new ideas about how to make life at work more efficient, more productive, and more fun. Please feel free to send...
Planning to meet up with friends and colleagues after work? Instead of relying on old standbys, branch out using MappyHour to find the best bars with the cheapest food and drink specials on a given day (via ). It's a crowdsourced site, which means that there's a lot of local knowledge...
Last week, the New York Times Tech guru David Pogue explained the genius behind T-Mobile's new HotSpot@Home plan, in which, for $10 extra a month, you can make phone calls over a Wi-Fi network for free, without using any of your minutes.The marketing phrase HotSpot@Home is technically correct, as T-Mobile...
It's hard enough determining how much to tip cab drivers, waitresses, porters, etc. in the States; it's even more confusing when you travel.Get Rich Slowly has a handy guide for folks who are staying within the US. (And in the comments, Metafilter's Matt Haughey issues the friendly reminder that big...
Boingo—the hot spot aggregator that sells you wireless service in airports and hotels around the globe—announced a new plan yesterday. For just under $40 a month, they're selling unlimited access to their hot spots around the world. While that's not exactly cheap, it comes as welcome news to frequent business...
While many of us use Skype recreationally to chat with fellow Skypers around the globe, you can also pay a little bit of money to turn your Skype account into a cheap phone line while you're travelling on business or on a working vacation. For about $4 a month, you...
Hopstop—a site that helps you map your travel plans in major cities in the US—isn't perfect. As many readers of TechCrunch point out, it doesn't always point you to the most efficient routes, and it sometimes overestimates the time it will take you to get places. But it's still the...
Being able to connect on the fly is incredibly important. Whether you're taking a work trip, a working vacation, or just want to get out of the office for the day, you're always ready to go if you can set up your laptop and get an internet connection. (Though you'll...
Traveling internationally often means looking like a giant dork. If you want to keep your passport safe, you usually end up wearing some sort of "hidden" pouch that both causes bulges in your waistline and means you have to root around in your crotch...
Even if your parking bill is on the companys dime, you still dont want to spend precious pre-flight time trolling long-term lots looking for a space. So head over to airportparkingreservations.com to reserve an off-airport space (with anywhere from $10 to $15 down) at almost every major US airport beforehand....
When you travel abroad, your cellphone rarely works. When it does, you get socked with roaming rates up to several dollars a minute. A simple fix would be to simply switch out your SIM card for a local one. Of course, with US carriers...
One of the coolest things about the new features that Google recently released is something called "My Maps." It lets you create your own maps—including landmarks, routes, etc.— and share them with whomever you want. Just sign up for a Gmail account which should have anyway and go...
Ive long since stopped using 411 as a resource when Im on the go. Its pretty expensive, and Googles free text message service is almost as fast and doesnt require me to wait on the line. (I just SMS my request to 466453.) Recently, Google integrated this service...
I recently bought an iPowerPro adapter to charge my laptop on a long plane ride to Asia. I even checked with seatguru.com to make sure my seat had access to the juice, but when I got on the plane, an outlet was nowhere to be found. I was stuck rereading...
Staying in foreign countries on business—even in upmarket hotels—often means dealing with radically different ideas about customer service. One thing that Ive noticed recently is that in many places in Europe and Asia, hotels require you to put your plastic electronic key into a slot in the room in order...
For years, my best attempt to organize my airline miles came in the form of a laminated card I kept in my wallet that contained all of my frequent flier numbers. Id pull it out whenever I was buying tickets, but never had any real idea of the following things:...
Commuting or traveling on public transportation is a good way to catch up on work—or sleep. But the latter is often hard to come by, even if youve got your noise blockers in place. Thats because there is rarely a comfortable way to catch some shut eye on the subway...
Economy class seating on airplanes is bad enough; the last thing you want is to be shuttled into a particularly terrible seat that doesnt recline, has no tray table, or just plain stinks. Heres how one disgruntled customer described his seat next to the lavatory on one plane...
It really sucks when you park in a multi-level lot and then end up wandering up and down the rows because youve forgotten where youve left your car. Its even worse when youre traveling and are unfamiliar with the lot to begin with. (Once, I even forgot what...
Noise canceling headphones use cool technology to fight back against the constant problem of background noise, whether its a co-worker who constantly clears her throat or the drone of a jet engine when youre traveling. But the best ones (like the Bose QuietComfort2) are bulky and expensive. You...
Recently, I set up a wireless hotspot from my house that will let me have free internet access in a lot of the places I travel. Thats because the company that makes the wireless mini-router Im using has created a global community of hotspot-providers who give wireless access...
