Fri, Aug 22, 2008 11:23 EDT

Free WorldMate Live Travel App for BlackBerry Gets New Hotel Booking Feature

Topic: Applications

Current Rating: Comments: 0

If you're a BlackBerry toting business traveler you're very likely familiar with the free WorldMate Live travel companion for Research In Motion (RIM) smartphones. Even if you've never heard of WorldMate Live, but travel frequently and carry a BlackBerry or other smartphone, you'll want to listen up: Earlier this week the company added new, free hotel booking functionality to the application, making an already full-featured BlackBerry download all the more valuable to road warriors.

There are currently two versions of WorldMate Live for BlackBerry: the free version, which offers an itinerary tracking service, weather information, currency converter, world clocks and maps, and more; and the Gold, or premium edition, which gives users everything in the free version, plus flight status and schedule indicators and an in depth travel directory. The Gold service costs $99.99 for a year-long subscription.

As of this week, WorldMate Live for BlackBerry also provides users with free hotel recommendations based on the hotels' proximity to the various stops on travelers' itineraries. (Itinerary information can be entered in manually via PC or synced with Outlook calendars. Users can also choose to send reservation confirmation e-mails to export@wmlive.com to have the information automatically entered into their itineraries.) And WorldMate Live customers can opt to view the recommended hotel locations on maps along with all the stops on their itineraries, so they can make their own informed decisions on where to stay.

At CIO.com, we're big fans of WorldMate Live for BlackBerry and have mentioned it frequently—we even filmed a quick video tutorial on how to use the application and reviewed the Windows Mobile version. (The company plans to bring the new hotel booking functionality to Windows Mobile devices "in the near future.")

And we're not the only WorldMate Live fans. In fact, Jeff McDowell, RIM VP of global alliances, and David Heit, RIM's director of software product management, both named WorldMate Live as one of their favorite BlackBerry applications when we asked them last May at RIM's Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) 2008.

For more details on WorldMate Live for BlackBerry read our brief review and then check out the video below to see the program in action.

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About this Blog

Al Sacco writes about (and drools over) anything and everything mobile or wireless as it applies to the global workforce--with a focus on BlackBerry smartphones.

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