If you travel… ever… you need TripIt. TripIt is amazing. It’s a free app for your iPhone that keeps all of the information for your upcoming travel itineraries organized and easily accessible from your iPhone. The description says it all:

Use your iPhone to access your TripIt itineraries whether you’re online, offline or in airplane mode.

TripIt is the best way to organize and share your travel plans. Forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com, and TripIt automatically creates a master itinerary for your trip, with detailed information about flights, hotels, rental cars and much more. It also includes maps, driving directions and local weather.

I use TripIt all the time. And it’s so easy. Here’s an example of how sweet it is. I booked a flight in June for a 10 day trip and forwarded the itinerary to plans@tripit.com. Immediately the trip showed up on my phone and on the website. Great, right? Well, I actually didn’t book our rental car at the time. We weren’t sure of the details on that yet so we decided to wait. Well, a couple weeks later, we reserved the rental car. I again forwarded the itinerary to the email address. This time I was worried. I thought that I’d have to do some fancy finagling to join the two trips together so I wouldn’t be going back and forth between one trip and the other to keep track of my stuff. To my surprise however, TripIt automatically noticed the car rental was for the same dates and same airport codes as my previous trip and then joined them together. Sweet!

So now, every time I travel, I have my flights, car rental, and hotel information in one place. I also get driving directions and flight status with just a tap on the phone. Pretty much everything you need to get from point A to point B is right there in your hands without digging through emails and printing out a bunch of stuff.

Go ahead and download the free TripIt app and sign up for an account online. You’ll be glad you did when you take your next trip.

Rumors have been going around about Hulu coming to the iPhone and I couldn’t be happier. If it’s possible to get similar quality videos to stream to my iPhone as they do on Hulu.com, then I’m all in. Supposedly Hulu is planning for it to work over WiFi and 3G. Streaming full length Family Guy, Daily Show, and Heroes over 3G? Hell yeah!

Of course there’s the issue of whether or not Apple will approve the app just like their hesitation to approve the Sling Player app but Silicon Alley Insider (the source for this story) has thoughts on that:

Why would Apple and AT&T approve this app, which will use up a lot of bandwidth and compete with Apple’s iTunes video store? Because it will help sell iPhones, iPod touches, and AT&T subscriptions. And that’s the whole point of the App Store. (And if we were Hulu, we’d offer Apple and/or AT&T an ad revenue-sharing deal, too.)

Let’s hope this app gets streamlined through Apple so we can all enjoy the free, limited commercial, beautiful quality, online TV and movie content of Hulu on our iPhones.

Just when my gadget life was all coming together.

First, I got my Dish HD Absolute package installed about 1 month before they discontinued selling it. So I now get all the HD channels including locals and DVR for $40 a month. Hell yeah! Then I jumped on my wife’s iPhone plan, which is mostly company paid, and converted it to a family plan. Hello shiny new iPhone 3G, goodbye old crappy phone from 2006. Then Dish shows up at CES with a Sling-Loaded DVR. Sling-Loaded meaning that not only can you record, pause, and rewind live TV but now you can also stream that TV to pretty much any internet connected device in the world. How sweet is that? The reason I said pretty much any device is because there is not a SlingPlayer app for the iPhone… at least not yet.

Well, all that changed late last month when Sling submitted their SlingPlayer Mobile app to Apple. You see? You see? Everything is coming together! Or it was until I read this:

Electronista cites “a source close to Apple’s approval processes,” who claims Apple is giving SlingPlayer the red light because AT&T fears it will strain bandwidth on its network.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo! Damn you AT&T. Damn you Apple for submitting to AT&T. Damn you Sling for being so cool that I would get this upset over an app.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining:

However, Wired.com thinks SlingPlayer will appear in the App Store for a few reasons. First, Sling is a very high-profile, popular service whose plans for an iPhone app have been well-documented; a flat rejection would cause an uproar. Second, Sling tells Wired.com it has a good, communicative relationship with Apple, and we trust Apple will not break that relationship. Third, Apple already announced it’s optimizing live streaming in the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS — a Major League Baseball app using this improved streaming support is already in the works, although it remains unconfirmed whether this will only work with Wi-Fi.

Well now I don’t know what to think. Will it happen? Won’t it happen? Who knows. I just hope the gadget gods give Sling the push they need to get the SlingPlayer Mobile app approved.

That’s right – the latest and greatest iPhone app, known as iNap@Work simulates the sounds of office productivity so you can catch some sleep. With sliders to adjust the frequency of events like typing, mouse-clicks, and even sneezing, your coworkers will think you’re the busiest cube in the block.

Don’t forget to adjust your productivity level. If the office slacker sounds like he’s churning out TPS reports at incredible speed, your boss is sure to notice.

Source : CNet

It’s time to break through the clutter and get down to business. This weekly post is going to list not the top 10, or the top 5, but the top 3 of anything gadget related. Why the top 3? Because anything more would be watered down.

So without further ado, here are the top 3 Apps released for the iPhone this week.

3. DIRECTV

With the free DIRECTV app you can connect to your home DVR and set it to record something now or in the future. With just a few taps you can search the program guide for movies and shows that are coming up then set any DVR in your home to record it. You can also set it to record Pay Per View content so you can watch it when you get home. Very cool stuff.

2. MLB.com At Bat 2009

MLB.com At Bat Lite is great. With it you can get pitch by pitch coverage of live games and keep up on box scores. You can get play-by-play and video highlights shortly after a play is complete. Upgrade to MLB.com At Bat 2009 and you will get all that plus live Gameday Audio broadcasts for every regular season and postseason game. You can even choose between listening to the home team’s broadcast or the away team’s broadcast. $9.99 is a small price to pay for a season’s worth of MLB audio at your fingertips.

1. Skype

Skype has finally landed on the iPhone. This app gives you the ability to call any of your Skype contacts for free. Anytime you’re connected via WiFi you have the ability to bring up Skype, search and call your contacts, and most importantly, save your precious minutes. If you’re not connected to WiFi, you can still bring up your contact list and instant message anyone else who is online. So make sure you download the free Skype app for your iPhone; because there is nothing better than calling your friends and family for free.