This is a post that I wrote for Simple Mobile Review but figured that I should post it here as well since it is a BlackBerry software review.
So, Rod has been trying to get me to take a look at WorldMate Live for BlackBerry for a good month or so and I’ve been putting it off, hoping that he’d forget that he asked me to review it. Long story short, I installed WorldMate a few years ago, and, while the application was kind of cool, it was just too much work entering in your travel itinerary via the WorldMate website when compared to just printing your intinerary out carrying it with you. Rod, however, is a persistent joker, and he finally made be promise to give the latest version of WorldMate the once over, and, I have to admit, I’m kind of glad that I did.
Forward your travel confirmation emails to WorldMate
I could make this an exceptionally long post telling you about every cool feature jam packed in to WorldMate, but, quite honestly, there is one feature that, by itself, makes WorldMate worth downloading if you are a business traveler… You can forward your itinerary and other travel related confirmation emails to WorldMate and it imports them into your account automatically. I can’t begin to tell you how awesome of a feature this is.
It doesn’t matter if your personal assistant, secretary, travel agent, or whomever books your travel or if you book it yourself. All you have to do is forward your confirmations to WorldMate and everything is entered into your account in sequence. Once your itinerary is entered in all those other cool WorldMate features like Flight Alerts, Status Lookup, Flight Schedules, Travel Director, etc, etc, etc… (the list of WorldMate features is long) come into play.
I’ll be the first one to tell you that if you don’t travel regularly, WorldMate may be a bit of overkill. If, however, you are a road warrior, download it. The basic application is free so you’ve got nothing to lose if you give it a go. The Gold Membership offers a 30-day free trial, so, if you want to try WorldMate out in all it’s glory, you still have nothing to lose.
WordMate Live is a good BlackBerry app and now has a permanent home on my device. You can pick it up via the RIMarkable Store via the link below.
Download WorldMate Live for BlackBerry
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don’t travel much for work, but this sounds like a good app to send to my friends who do.
Or maybe even worth the download for myself- I always hate fumbling with entering flight details and such into my BB so I won’t have to keep looking back at my tickets for flight numbers and such.
This is yet another un-review. WorldMate is a buggy piece of software. It was horrible on Windows Mobile, but is not quite solid even on its first destination, BlackBerry. What’s especially odious is that there is very little documentation and no online user community that I could see. If you want information of any kind beyond the most basic FAQs and a silly slideshow or two, you have to pay for a subscription. Information is deliberately withheld, in other words. Also, there is advertising, and WM gets a cut if you book suggested hotels through the applications. This means that the application is NOT really “free.”
Oh, and one still can’t edit a trip on the BB, but only on the Web.
Travel software really sucks in general, but I have developed quite a dislike for WorldMate. I skipped alternatives because they lacked much international coverage, but I will stop by and see if this coverage is added by now.