Gadget guy Phil Baker tested out several online services geared toward business travelers and frequent fliers, to figure out whether their technology claims can help ease the hassles of travel. Some passed the test with flying colors, and one passed the test, but with (no pun intended) some reservations.

Whether you need help with organization, flight tracking, or just want a simple way to keep in touch when traveling, we’ve got some great suggestions on ways to make all of that easier.

So check out what our travel gadget guy has found for you …

ORGANIZE YOUR TRAVELS WITH TRIPIT

I’m leaving on a business trip and taking with me a neatly printed list of all of the trip details, including flight itinerary, rental car and hotel information, directions to my hotel, and phone numbers for everything. I also have the list on my computer and iPhone with links to even more details.

More from Phil Baker in our Travel Gadgets & Gear section.

Did my travel agent or travel department prepare this? Not a chance; I make my own reservations. Credit goes to a new software service called TripIt (www.tripit.com).

TripIt offers a new way to help you manage all of your travel. It’s particularly suited for the business traveler who is traveling several times a month and needs a way to keep the details of each trip organized and easily accessible. TripIt comes in two versions, a basic and a Pro. I tried out the Pro version.

While TripIt builds and organizes your itinerary before departing, it does even more during your trip. It sends you useful information when you need it, such as reminding you to check in online or notifying you of a flight delay.

Once you sign up, you simply forward the confirmation emails that you receive from your airline, hotel, car-rental company, and other providers at any time prior to the trip to plans@tripit.com. TripIt associates your email address with your account and creates a trip record. It’s able to interpret the content of each of the emails, parse each one and figure out all the details of your trip, including flight numbers, dates and times, and locations to create your itinerary.

It organizes all these details in a list that you can print and access online. You can forward the confirmations for different trips in any order and it will associate them with the correct one. It also automatically adds additional items to the list that can be quite helpful.

As an example, I recently took a trip to New York City using JetBlue and stayed at the Hotel Gansevoort in Manhattan. After making reservations with the airline and hotel, several days apart, I simply forwarded their confirmation emails to TripIt upon receipt. TripIt created a “New York City” trip, listing my activities in chronological order.

The first item in the list was my JetBlue flight details from San Diego to JFK, including the airline’s phone number, aircraft type, terminal details, miles and duration.

Next was the hotel information including rate, location, check in and out times, confirmation number, and room details. TripIt added several additional items to the list including a map of the area around the hotel and another map with directions from JFK Airport to the hotel. The list also included the directions back to the airport and the return flight information.

Avoid delays in the first place with America’s Best Alternate Airports.

I received an email 24 hours prior to departure reminding me that I was able to check in online, and another four hours prior with gate information and noting that my flight was on time. About an hour before flight time I received an alert of a gate change.

Should they occur, they would also send alerts of last minute changes, delays or cancellations. On multi-segment flights you would receive a notice about connecting between flights. (Messages can be sent by email, SMS or both).

You are also able to export your trip information from TripIt onto your calendar and share your travel information with others. If there’s mutual agreement, you can share with other users of the service automatically whenever you or they travel. All of your trips are maintained in your account until you delete them, so you’re able to get details and summaries of your past travels.
TripIt Pro costs $99 per year. The more basic version that omits the alerts and some other features.

While TripIt can’t take all the hassles out of travel, particularly the surprise airline fees, and the security and flight delays, it’s welcome help for frequent travelers, who certainly could use some relief these days.

SIMPLIFY PHONE USE WITH GOOGLE VOICE

Google has just made a long-awaited announcement that it will be opening up its Google Voice (google.com/voice) service to new customers.

What’s Google Voice? It’s a telephone service that provides a number of features to simplify your phone use. It started out as GrandCentral and was acquired by Google two years ago and redesigned over the intervening time.

The most significant feature provides you with a free local phone number that becomes your one and only number that you give out to others. When that number is called it rings your various phones—home, cell and office—all at once. When you pick up on one of the lines, the others stop ringing.

This offers a variety of benefits. Your friends and associates can reach you by dialing the one number rather than having to guess whether you are at home, in the office or out of town.

No more need to hand out numbers and information about where you will be and when. And no further need to check various voicemail accounts. It’s a huge convenience for both you and the caller and you can choose which phones will ring at any time.

Go online to the Google Voice Web site, sign in, add a new number or select which phones to ring or not. If you get a new phone number, there’s no need to notify anyone. Just add the new number to the list of phones that you want to ring.

When you receive a call you can choose whether to answer it, direct it to email or even record it, depending on which key you hit (in the case of recording, a message is played saying the call is being recorded to keep it all legal).

Once you’re on a call you can transfer it to another of your phones. That allows you to move a call from your office to your cell phone if you want to leave the office and continue talking. A major new feature is that when a voicemail is left, it’s converted from voice to text and immediately sent to you as an email message. The accuracy of the conversion varies, but it’s usually good enough to get the gist of the message. You can also click on a link in the email to play back the message or to return the call.

Get the Gadget Guru’s Take on Gifts, Gadgets and iPhone Apps for Traveling Dads & Grads.

Google Voice also lets you initiate calls from your computer. Click on the number, either in the email message or from your Google contacts, and designate which of your phones you’d like to use. A few seconds later, that phone rings and connects you to your call. Calls are free within the lower 48 states and a few cents per minute elsewhere. The calls use VOIP and are generally clear and connect quickly.

When you go onto the Google Voice Web site you’ll see an inbox, much like Google Mail, listing your incoming calls with the text message and audio file. This list is archived until you delete them.

You can designate certain callers, phone numbers and categories not to ring your phone. You can also assign a variety of actions such as having specific callers be sent directly to voicemail or be blocked. With the former the caller hears a ring and is asked to leave a voicemail without your phone ever ringing. With the latter you can designate that the messages be sent to the spam folder.

Even better, for those annoying sales calls, put them on your blocked list and they’ll get a message saying that the number they have called is no longer in service. This can be done with, say, all 800 and 866 calls.

Learn more about VOIP with Everything You Need to Know About International Phone Calls.

I’ve been using the service, initially as GrandCentral for nearly three years, and I love it. Google has made a number of improvements and introduced new features, but the general concept remains the same: one number for people to reach you.

What are the downsides? It requires you to change your number, notify others, and then put your faith in Google that the number will always work reliably. Google has no call-in support if you do run into a problem. On a couple of occasions it’s gone out of service, albeit for less than an hour. It also can confuse those you call, as their caller ID will register your phone’s direct number rather than your universal number and you may miss text messages.

Also be warned that using Google Voice does reduce your privacy. The calls and messages are archived and can be subpoenaed.

And did I mention? It’s totally free!

TWO HELPFUL NEW IPHONE APPS

HotelPal - A new Apple App, HotelPal, now brings hotel booking to your iPhone. This new, free application enables travelers to search, browse and book from millions of hotel rooms while on the go. Hotels are searchable by city, zip or current GPS location, and will be expanded within days to search by map location and city areas. Upcoming versions will include expanded international support, improved search functionality, and more. Each hotel listing contains photos, amenities, descriptions and rates. Built-in Google Maps helps you pinpoint locations.

I’ve been trying out a pre-release version and have found that HotelPal makes it easy and enjoyable to find the right hotel in the right location at the right price. I’ve found the rates to be similar to online rates found on most of the major travel sites. It’s the app I would have expected to see from the big travel sites such as Expedia and Orbitz. HotelPal uses Travelocity for their booking partner.

HotelPal comes from Mobiata, the same company that developed FlightTrack and FlightTrack Pro, two of the best selling travel apps on the iPhone store.

Get more Great Games and Travel Apps for the iPhone. Or check out Convenient Apps for Your Blackberry or iPhone When You Travel.

Hear Planet – This new travel app for the iPhone provides location-specific information, using both text and audio for about 250,000 locations. It brings up a list of topics wherever you are, such as city information, attractions and landmarks, and provides basic facts about each.

The audio is streamed real-time from the company’s server using information from a variety of sources. It’s designed to work over the slowest data connection. I tried it in Del Mar and it gave me some interesting tidbits about the Del Mar Race Track and former famous residents Jimmy Durante and Lucille Ball. $4.99 from the iTunes store.

By Phil Baker. You can read Phil’s blog at blog.philipgbaker.com, and check out his new book, From Concept to Consumer: How to Turn Ideas into Money.

Check out more travel gadget articles:

• Travel Assistance On Your Smartphone
• Travel Gadget Spotlight: Packing More In Your Carry-On
• Battle of the Gadgets: the Smartphone Wars
• Travel Gadgets and Gizmos: The Winners and Losers for 2009
• Gadgets for Business Travelers on the Go