tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38163752905717376292024-03-21T22:05:02.907-07:00PlanappleA simple tool for making travel planning easier.Mike Edmundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01577218203785404105noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-332663844304533652014-11-21T15:07:00.001-08:002014-11-21T15:07:36.763-08:00Dropping support for older browsersOn January 1, 2015, Planapple will discontinue support for Internet Explorer 8 and 9. If you're using one of these browsers with Planapple, you'll need to upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer—or switch to Firefox or Chrome.<br />
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You can find out what browser you're using, and get more info about upgrading or changing web browsers at <a href="http://whatbrowser.org/" target="_blank">whatbrowser.org</a>.<br />
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We're working on some big improvements to Planapple, to make it faster, better, and easier than ever. And those changes just won't be possible on the older versions of IE. So it's time we have to say goodbye to IE8 and IE9.<br />
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Are you running Windows XP?</h4>
If you're still using Windows XP, you probably know that Microsoft discontinued support for it earlier this year, and it's not possible for you to get IE10 or IE11. But don't worry: both Firefox and Chrome run on XP, and they work great with Planapple. Visit <a href="http://whatbrowser.org/" target="_blank">whatbrowser.org</a> for links to install them.<br />
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You'll definitely need to have all of the Microsoft XP updates installed—including Windows XP Service Pack 3.<br />
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Change can be good</h4>
We know not everyone likes change. And if you're affected by this, we apologize for the inconvenience. Planapple has actually held out longer than most: Google Apps <a href="https://support.google.com/a/answer/33864?hl=en" target="_blank">dropped support</a> for IE8 two years ago and IE9 last year. And even <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/support/supported-browsers-in-office-2013-and-office-365-proplus-HA102789344.aspx" target="_blank">Microsoft doesn't support IE8</a> with the latest versions of Office.<br />
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Here's the silver lining: if you're still running IE8 or IE9, you'll find that a lot of web sites (including Planapple) run much faster after you switch to a newer web browser.Mike Edmundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01577218203785404105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-46754123875934500712012-10-14T12:46:00.000-07:002012-10-14T19:26:51.169-07:00Planning Trips with Planapple and TripItThere are a lot of great travel sites on the web that genuinely make travel easier. One of the best, is the itinerary organizing tool <a href="http://www.tripit.com/" target="_blank">TripIt</a>. TripIt makes keeping track of flight and hotel schedules a cinch by automatically reading your confirmation emails, pulling out the relavant dates and times, and combining them into single itinerary, accessible via the web and a mobile app. Using TripIt can make planning trips with <a href="http://www.planapple.com/" target="_blank">Planapple</a> even easier.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Create Your Master Plan in Planapple, Pull in Flight Info From TripIt</span><br />
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We use Planapple during the planning stage of our trips to collect all of our ideas into one place. Stuff we want to discuss (places to stay, things to do), organize, see on a map, and mark as 'must see' or 'maybe' etc... Once we've got flights booked however, sometimes we forward those confirmation emails to TripIt to see them as a single itinerary.<br />
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Wouldn't it be nice to be able to import all of that itinerary info from TripIt into your "master" trip plan on Planapple? Well now you can.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Import Itinerary and Flight Info from TripIt</span><br />
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If you're a TripIt user, Planapple's new "Import from TripIt" feature makes getting your flight details into your Planapple trip plan easier than ever.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyvXXZijZUGEiAmqlN3QaZ64ipvteUnxfarMVoNHOHJIqzFkXQoD8giCKZlC1QnPnfl8dfhrw8yPxkBD3izXJk5GAUfq_5Uizk6sjKChTcz2A5AOpR5Xg2ozkEg5Ouo_sV11sKREXvOc/s1600/ImportFromTripItCalendar.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyvXXZijZUGEiAmqlN3QaZ64ipvteUnxfarMVoNHOHJIqzFkXQoD8giCKZlC1QnPnfl8dfhrw8yPxkBD3izXJk5GAUfq_5Uizk6sjKChTcz2A5AOpR5Xg2ozkEg5Ouo_sV11sKREXvOc/s200/ImportFromTripItCalendar.png" width="200" /></a>The first thing you need to do is to <b>make sure your trip has its <u>start</u> and <u>end</u> dates set</b>. This how Planapple knows what items from TripIt it should import. (You can set your trip dates by clicking "Edit Trip" under your trip's name on the top right of the Planapple trip page.)<br />
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Then just click the "Import itinerary from TripIt" link under the calendar widget on the right side of your trip page. This will bring up the "Import from TripIt" dialog with an input field for your TripIt "calendar feed url." <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORa1smco6mRgEQGEvyCjTVTbsXIDyYO5yh5Cq2Ct4adEpwl6Fi2MqoWf751RJiuBUmlP33UA4pvJZUHnaeydWwNa9nT5EM_z-EKmZtPIAS41NKN2adXiIm-QH4xZeKhLeSUioetKg03M/s1600/ImportFromTripItDialog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORa1smco6mRgEQGEvyCjTVTbsXIDyYO5yh5Cq2Ct4adEpwl6Fi2MqoWf751RJiuBUmlP33UA4pvJZUHnaeydWwNa9nT5EM_z-EKmZtPIAS41NKN2adXiIm-QH4xZeKhLeSUioetKg03M/s400/ImportFromTripItDialog.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Next you will go to <a href="https://www.tripit.com/account/edit/section/publishing_options" target="_blank">TripIt</a> in another browser window, find and copy your "calendar feed url" on TripIt, and paste it into the input field in this dialog. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Find Your Calendar Feed Url on TripIt</span><br />
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To find this url, log on to TripIt, click on your name in the upper right and select "settings" from the popup menu. On the <a href="https://www.tripit.com/account/edit" target="_blank">"Account Settings" page</a>, click on "Publish your TripIt data" to go to the <a href="https://www.tripit.com/account/edit/section/publishing_options" target="_blank">"Publishing your TripIt data" page</a>. Then click on the "Subscribe" link next to "Calendar Feed" to popup the calendar dialog, and then click on "Subscribe to calendar feed."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRcxZzRjn2J51mI6XRHnTrLmkgk-VvOunMBLFW11_FtZ8cBBaZYU2Xz3ZbEeRwn0QDZJOA0OBKD6I3USztF-4XsqfWC3O4o6bSu3Ds19hGCUVFTkQ7FuILZd92zjGSfTDJPTOBfx8aFtU/s1600/TripItCalendarFeed.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRcxZzRjn2J51mI6XRHnTrLmkgk-VvOunMBLFW11_FtZ8cBBaZYU2Xz3ZbEeRwn0QDZJOA0OBKD6I3USztF-4XsqfWC3O4o6bSu3Ds19hGCUVFTkQ7FuILZd92zjGSfTDJPTOBfx8aFtU/s400/TripItCalendarFeed.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Copy the url starting with "webcal://...." This is your TripIt "calendar feed url." Go back to Planapple and paste this url back into the input field on the "Import from TripIt" dialog above.<br />
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In a few moments all of your flight information should begin showing up in your Planapple trip. There's no need to refresh the page, Planapple should import all of the TripIt items scheduled during your trip start and end dates immediately.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Once It's Setup You Can Forget About It</span><br />
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You only need to perform the steps above to import your TripIt calendar feed once. Once you have it set, Planapple will automatically check with TripIt to see if any items on your TripIt itinerary occur during any of your Planapple trips. When it finds matching items, it will will import them, and keep track of them to automatically sync any changes you make on TripIt back into your Planapple trips. You only need to do this once, and all of your future Planapple trips will automatically be synced with TripIt.<br />
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We're pretty excited about this feature, and we hope it makes Planapple even more useful to you for organizing your trip plans. As always, click on the "Feedback" tab on the right to share with us any thoughts or questions you might have. We'd love to hear what you think.<br />
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<br />Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-28001184303923766492012-07-12T12:48:00.001-07:002012-07-12T16:38:46.459-07:00Sync your Planapple trips with Google Calendar and iCalWhile it would be nice to do nothing but travel and plan trips with Planapple full time, most of us have busy lives filled with work, family, and social appointments. There are lots of great, free, calendar programs out there to help us keep track of these crazy schedules such as <a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/">Google Calendar</a> and <a href="http://www.apple.com/osx/apps/#calendar">Apple iCal</a>. Wouldn't it be great if all of your Planapple trip plans automatically appeared in your main calendar program so you could keep track of them there along with everything else?<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sync Itinerary With Calendar</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaANNerCovCp8t9X6jEFrsMO4evK6ZR7pk8MA-GWDSMsgHyXfN7zmc0Y7HIHzUSDj5ctVjHDSGpqhjUXAbdOvbb4VXWm-TJ9Cixa2A4Wg1gKOfROq-NZMw1pGM8l1hbsDht76kCU81cAM/s1600/SyncCalendar1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaANNerCovCp8t9X6jEFrsMO4evK6ZR7pk8MA-GWDSMsgHyXfN7zmc0Y7HIHzUSDj5ctVjHDSGpqhjUXAbdOvbb4VXWm-TJ9Cixa2A4Wg1gKOfROq-NZMw1pGM8l1hbsDht76kCU81cAM/s200/SyncCalendar1.png" width="200" /></a></div>
As of today, Planapple's new "Sync Itinerary" feature makes this easy. Once you've added start and end dates to your trip, click on the "Sync itinerary with Google Calendar or iCal" link under the calendar widget on the right side of the main trip page.<br />
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This will bring up a dialog with a special link that you can copy and paste into most calendar programs. This will let them import all of your scheduled Planapple trips and itineraries as a shared calendar. (For those who are curious, the link is called an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar">iCal Feed</a> which is like an RSS or news feed for your calendar).<br />
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For more instructions on how to do this with specific calendar programs click the "Need some help" link at the bottom of the dialog. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">All of your trips, destinations, and itineraries in one place</span><br />
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You only need to add this link once to your calendar program. From then on, all of your trips, destinations, and items scheduled on your trip itineraries will show up under the same shared 'Planapple' calendar in your calendar program. You can always remove Planapple from your calendar program, just like you would any shared calendar (check your program's documentation to see how).<br />
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As with many shared calendars, you won't be able to edit your Planapple itinerary from your calendar program. For the moment it's "read only." To make edits you'll have to go back to your trip on Planapple. But any edits you make on Planapple to your itinerary will automatically show up in your calendar program (after some delay depending on the program).<br />
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We hope you find this new feature handy. As always, let us know what you think with questions or comments via the "feedback" tab on the right.<br />
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<br />Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-28490981147947986692012-04-24T18:19:00.002-07:002012-06-20T16:13:03.085-07:00Planning a Trip with Pinterest and PlanappleMy wife and I enjoy using Planapple to plan trips, and have been using it for a couple of years to plan everything from weekend 'get-aways' to multi-stop adventures. It's a simple tool that lets us <b>collect cool ideas</b> from around the web, <b>talk about them</b>, <b>make plans</b>, and <b>take them with us</b> on the road.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pinterest + </span><span style="font-size: large;">Planapple = Pretty Fun </span><br />
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Recently we discovered <a href="http://pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a> and were struck not only by the breadth of beautiful imagery shared there, but also the variety of cool 'bucket lists' users were creating to catalog the interesting places they want to visit. Browsing through these boards, we thought Pinterest + Planapple would be a great combo to get ideas and inspiration for our next adventure.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_24IW5tg6pxV2TIwkAN7xsTGH8yZNY8JUVq4RUW9o-7OkxVyonR51kI-pAs_WLPU4TiP16vmcMxcqzEZuVaKeIjSxvXrYPRQf873J1Wwy57n3ctlc9eln_BFm7_UWMcUsh7C6115exs/s1600/chad_sonoma_sun.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_24IW5tg6pxV2TIwkAN7xsTGH8yZNY8JUVq4RUW9o-7OkxVyonR51kI-pAs_WLPU4TiP16vmcMxcqzEZuVaKeIjSxvXrYPRQf873J1Wwy57n3ctlc9eln_BFm7_UWMcUsh7C6115exs/s400/chad_sonoma_sun.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Country road in Sonoma County</td></tr>
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With the newest addition to our family having recently arrived, we decided to take baby steps for our next trip and visit the relatively close & familiar destination of Sonoma Wine Country in a few months time.<br />
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We've been to Sonoma many times before and love it, but are looking forward to getting a different perspective using Pinterest as a starting point for ideas.<br />
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This article will walk you though how we planned our trip using Pinterest and Planapple. Turns out, it actually worked pretty well. Find out more after the jump.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Getting Started: Create A New Trip on Planapple </span><br />
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To get started we created a new trip on Planapple and set the trip destination to "Sonoma County". For kicks we set our dates for a weekend in June, but we might change them later.<br />
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Once on the Planapple trip welcome screen, we went to the "See & Do" tab of the Idea Finder, clicked on Pinterest, and then clicked on the "<a href="http://pinterest.com/search/?q=Sonoma%20County">Browse remarkable places on Pinterest</a>" link above the search box.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Browse Pinterest Boards for Cool Ideas</span><br />
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This opened a new tab on Pinterest with a <a href="http://pinterest.com/search/?q=Sonoma+County">whole page</a> full of pins from Sonoma County and some really beautiful photos from the area.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNUnQg5WbPqkp7-EwTd_bTS_f1X4tr8fkOf_n4Riziq3kKDhjquqzqIMpQwp3c_WZtYfVfbSqJV7u3l_A2txLV8GbWEV9RY8Eh42XpCJLAOzwre2j5cicJ5SK-dE4xTRZ16phsKNYlucM/s1600/chad_sonoma_vinyard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNUnQg5WbPqkp7-EwTd_bTS_f1X4tr8fkOf_n4Riziq3kKDhjquqzqIMpQwp3c_WZtYfVfbSqJV7u3l_A2txLV8GbWEV9RY8Eh42XpCJLAOzwre2j5cicJ5SK-dE4xTRZ16phsKNYlucM/s320/chad_sonoma_vinyard.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Nevina's Vinyard" in Sonoma County</td></tr>
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Rugged shots of the Sonoma County coast, lush landscapes of rolling hills and vineyards, appetizing stills of wine & cheese: just browsing the Pinterest search results really can be a feast for the eyes!<br />
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Clicking into a few of these we started to discover peoples' pin boards about their favorite places in Sonoma. Many featured <a href="http://pinterest.com/awguide/california-sonoma/">wineries </a>but some emphasized more of the local <a href="http://pinterest.com/sharayray/sonoma-county/">flavor</a> such as <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/21814379415211656/">cupcakes</a> and <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/21814379415185792/">cottage cheese</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Save Pins You Like To Planapple</span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinSwzaR3Uwvj51EqD4ock0n2k8A5hMroe9msYUw4BsRkYwXI8uG2yAduup8OV6DDYbSsTMy3zSGtGOw_SdXf-RPZ_z1INcka7pcI6v-4_RTxFFxfmKhe0dUSFcZbUDriT295-vIK7okBs/s1600/pinterest_bookmarklet.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinSwzaR3Uwvj51EqD4ock0n2k8A5hMroe9msYUw4BsRkYwXI8uG2yAduup8OV6DDYbSsTMy3zSGtGOw_SdXf-RPZ_z1INcka7pcI6v-4_RTxFFxfmKhe0dUSFcZbUDriT295-vIK7okBs/s320/pinterest_bookmarklet.png" width="320" /></a>The cupcakes in particular caught my wife's eye, so we had to add the 'Sift Cupcakes & Desert Bar' pin to our Planapple trip. We have the Planapple "Save to My Trip" button installed in our browser (which works like just the "Pin It" button for Pinterest), so adding this webpage from Pinterest to our trip on Planapple was a snap.<br />
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We just clicked "Save to My Trip" button, set the category to "Dining" in the blue Planapple dialog, clicked "Save," and were done. Actually we added a comment too - "yummy cupcakes," in case it wasn't obvious later what "Sifts" was in our trip.<br />
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I have a soft spot for cheese, and the cottage cheese pin from Cow Girl Creamery, reminded me that they're in located in Sonoma and do tours. Cool! A quick Google search got me the <a href="http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com/tours.asp">info I needed</a>, which I then immediately saved to our Planapple trip. Pinterest wasn't the direct source for this trip idea, but it definitely provided the inspiration.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Organize Your Ideas In Planapple</span><br />
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Collecting ideas for our trip from Pinterest into Planapple was actually really fun. Over the course of an evening we found a dozen+ different places that looked interesting; some off the beaten path and many that we hadn't visited before. But this inaugural family adventure will probably be only a weekend in length, so there's no way we were going to visit all of this stuff.<br />
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Back in Planapple the first thing my wife wanted to do was to go through what we found and separate the good stuff from the chaff. In list view of the "Notebook" she hovered her mouse over each item and clicked on the voting icons in the popup to mark items "Thumbs Up", "Thumbs Down" or "Neutral". Then by clicking the "Votes" view link at the top of the list she was able to see the items grouped by vote and drag them from one section to another when she changed her mind.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">See Everything on a Map</span><br />
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The first thing I wanted to do was see all these ideas on a map. When you save pages from TripAdvisor or Yelp into Planapple, they often automatically get added to the map (because the pages have addresses). But with items saved from Pinterest this is not always the case.<br />
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Fortunately, it's not hard add items to the map in Planapple. Basically you click on the item's name in the list to go to its "Details" view. Then in the blue pod on the right you click "Edit Location" and try typing or editing the name of the item.<br />
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Nine times out of ten the auto-suggest menu under the name will find a matching place with that name in the area, and if you select it, will fill in the rest of the address (and phone and contact) info for you in the fields below.<br />
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If this doesn't work, you can always look up the address the old fashioned way on Google, and copy and paste it into the address field. Either way your item will end up positioned on your trip map.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Find More Info and Start Making Decisions</span><br />
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Once the item has its address filled out, Planapple will look it up and (if it finds anything interesting) provide additional links under the "Bookmarks" section on the item details view to help you learn more about the place. We find Yelp reviews helpful, so reading up on a few of these links helped us change our mind on several places and narrow down our "A" list of things to visit.<br />
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Decisions starting to come together, we quickly went through the "Thumbs Down" section of our list and clicked "Remove" on the popup to send those items to the trash (called "Removed Items" in Planapple). You can always get them back later if you want them, but we don't like leaving them around to clutter up our trip.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tying It All Together</span><br />
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At this point we still have plenty more to do as we contact places to stay, compare rates, book rooms, and schedule things on our itinerary. But given the length of this article, it's probably best to save that for a "Part 2, The Sequel" article (coming soon).<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN9g6MP5vuc-8RD44_Ijen1nUb53uKpGGF-0LX5cDMqN44KK-xQbJky8lkZQY5RLuaFFupQ45f8uc6o3wd60jVCqDn9mAkfSKiopXvmBl2egl-b8fv13uBfHCgQayyalA3vImd52p_iD8/s1600/chad_sonoma_fog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN9g6MP5vuc-8RD44_Ijen1nUb53uKpGGF-0LX5cDMqN44KK-xQbJky8lkZQY5RLuaFFupQ45f8uc6o3wd60jVCqDn9mAkfSKiopXvmBl2egl-b8fv13uBfHCgQayyalA3vImd52p_iD8/s400/chad_sonoma_fog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morning fog in Sonoma County</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
All in all, though, the experience of planning a trip with Pinterest and Planapple has been pretty fun. Pinterest is really great for generating ideas and inspiration. And visually, is just a pleasure to browse.<br />
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Saving the ideas we liked to Planapple allowed us to better organize and sort the ideas, figure out where everything was on a map, and start making decisions. I have a feeling the scheduling, emailing, and booking is going to be easier with Planapple as well.<br />
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But when we return from our trip, we'll probably want to share our favorites and recommendations back onto Pintersest so that others can find and browse them there. Together, these seem like two pretty handy sites for planning a trip.<br />
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Have ideas, questions, thoughts or feedback? We'd love to hear from you - just click the feedback tab on the right!Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-30416151211411428962012-01-27T12:19:00.000-08:002015-05-25T07:20:05.783-07:00How to Plan a Trip With Planapple<p>A lot of new people have been visiting Planapple recently, and some have asked what the best way is to get started. Here's a simple guide to get you going and show you how Planapple makes planning a trip easier.</p>
<h3>What is Planapple?</h3>
<p>At its heart, Planapple is a research and planning tool for the web. It gives you a single place to save your research, talk about it with tripmates, and take it with you on your smart phone.</p>
<p>Planning a trip on Planapple often looks like this:</p>
<p>You:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Surf</b> the web to find interesting ideas on sites you like.</li>
<li><b>Save</b> those pages to your trip on Planapple with the bookmarking tool.</li>
<li><b>Talk</b> about stuff with tripmates back on Planapple via comments in the discussion section (ie "What do you think of these 3 hotels?").</li>
<li><b>Organize</b> things into lists, make decisions, and perhaps build an itinerary.</li>
<li><b>Go</b> on your trip and access the stuff you saved on Planapple from the mobile app.</li>
</ul>
<p>Let's get started.</p>
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<h3>First, setup your trip</h3>
<p>You've probably already created your first trip, but if not, you can do so by clicking the "New Trip" link at the top of the screen. Now's not a bad time to add some basic information to your trip such as your travel dates and a destination (don't worry you can always change these later).</p>
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<p>Click on the "EDIT TRIP" link under your trip title to open the "Edit Trip Details" dialog. Here you can re-name your trip, set a destination (so you can see it on the map), set your travel dates, and even invite tripmates.</p>
<p>Going on a big trip with multiple destinations? No problem, just click on the "Trip Sections" tab to add a section for each location you plan to visit. Don't forget set the destination for each section so you can see them on the map!</p>
<h3>Then, save some stuff to your trip</h3>
<p>The easiest way to add stuff to Planapple when you're researching your trip is to use the Planapple bookmarking tool. If you haven't installed this yet, click on the "Grab our Bookmarking Tool" button in the upper right and follow the instructions to add it to your browser.</p>
<p>Now you need to find some stuff on the web to save to your trip. Already have favorite sites you like use for travel research? Great! Planapple should work well with those sites! But if you're having trouble getting started, there are lots of suggested searches listed in the "Idea Finder."</p>
<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh78loPGbubXInG6Xu_N6DXJYnBSjy9knJ0-x_3hvbX5uWtlOQm6SUR6ruYLlUt8yZmbMGSfY3EZIIKKH8WhHpcJsUcNqwDZzk0NVJakrWrtVNrTbCs8aWAKHhEpf99zoUBGXbSM1lwTvE/s1600/idea_finder_ss_for_blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh78loPGbubXInG6Xu_N6DXJYnBSjy9knJ0-x_3hvbX5uWtlOQm6SUR6ruYLlUt8yZmbMGSfY3EZIIKKH8WhHpcJsUcNqwDZzk0NVJakrWrtVNrTbCs8aWAKHhEpf99zoUBGXbSM1lwTvE/s320/idea_finder_ss_for_blog.jpg" height="183" width="320" /></a>Click on the "Idea Finder" tab on the left, and you'll see several search categories listed as buttons across the top. If you're looking for hotels, click "Stay" to find places to stay.</p> <p>The "Stay" panel defaults to search TripAdvisor for the dates and destination of your trip. Feel free to edit these details for this search (and change your search provider), they won't modify your trip settings.</p>
<p>Now click on the "All Hotels" link under the TripAdvisor logo. This should open a new tab in your browser with a search for hotels on TripAdvisor (with the dates and destination already set). Choose a hotel from the list and click into its details screen on TripAdivsor's site.</p>
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<p>Now save that page to your trip on Planapple by clicking on the "Save to Planapple" button on the bookmarks toolbar on your browser (you installed it, right?). This should open the Planapple bookmarking tool in the upper right of your browser, and show you the information Planapple will save from this page. </p>
<p>You can edit the name of the page you're saving, toggle through images to use as a thumbnail, select a category ("Lodging"), add a comment, and even change the trip you're saving to (using the menu in the lower left).</p>
<p>If you click on the "+" button in the "Details" field, you can see if Planapple has gathered any information about this place automatically such as address, phone number, or cost. Click on any of these details fields to edit them your self.</p>
<p>Finally, click the "Save" button in the lower right to add this page to your trip on Planapple.</p>
<h3>How about adding a comment?</h3>
<p>Now go back to Planapple in your browser (it should still be open in the previous tab). Click on the "Discussion" tab, and you should see a message that you added a new item to your trip. Click on the item's title and you should be taken to the item's "Details" page where you can see more information about the item.</p>
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<p>Under the item's title is a link to open the page you just saved in a new browser tab. In the blue pod on the right, there's more practical information such as category, address, phone number, and even rating (click "EDIT DETAILS" to change these).</p>
<p>To record your thoughts about this place, click in the comment field under "Discussion" and add a comment. Now click back to the conversation feed for the entire trip by clicking on the "Discussion" tab on the left. Your comment should now show up at the top of the feed.</p>
<p>Other tripmates would most likely see your comment right here at the top of the converaation feed and reply to it there. This is a great way to get people's opinions about various places to stay and things to do.</p>
<h3>Invite a friend</h3>
<p>Planapple really comes in handy when you're traveling with other people. Whether it's a spouse, significant other, group of friends, or even multiple families, Planapple gives you a single place to pool all of your research, organize it into lists, and discuss it to make decisions. No more huge email threads with buried links and comments!</p>
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<p>To invite people to your trip, click on the "INVITE TRIPMATES" link in the upper right to open the "Share" dialog. Enter the emails of the people you'd like to invite and edit the message below to personalize it. Then click the send button at the bottom of the dialog to send the invites.</p>
<p>On the "Discussion" tab you can see a message update that you sent the invites. When your tripmates signup and join the trip, you will also be notified there. (And you can see the status of your invites by clicking "EDIT TRIP" and looking in the "Who's going" tab of the "Edit Trip Details" dialog.)</p>
<h3>Schedule items on the Itinerary</h3>
<p>Now let's say that you and your tripmates have added things to your trip, talked about stuff, and made some decisions. You'd like schedule items on the itinerary, so you can keep track what you'd like to do on different days for your trip. (Yes, some people like to schedule stuff when they travel - if this is news to you, and you're not one of those people, you can skip to the next section).</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSBkaNDKBHnWnIdu2Epcg-Gua2utE80FBh23F5SK48PPlhMbVjnkiAFsrzmlsG5GfP5U64-es7mv6IPI2xoiRiaLY07MksokQ17fU8eucBvtU7d4-8r2zcROk64Viz00kWz_y1ScZMdE/s1600/itinerary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSBkaNDKBHnWnIdu2Epcg-Gua2utE80FBh23F5SK48PPlhMbVjnkiAFsrzmlsG5GfP5U64-es7mv6IPI2xoiRiaLY07MksokQ17fU8eucBvtU7d4-8r2zcROk64Viz00kWz_y1ScZMdE/s320/itinerary.jpg" height="175" width="320" /></a></div>
<p>Adding items to the itinerary is easy. Simply drag an item out of the list in the middle column to the calendar on the right (drop it on the day you want). Now click on the "Itinerary" tab on the left. You should see a short list of scheduled items grouped by day (maybe only one item because that's all you've scheduled so far).</p>
<p>If you click on "All Days" at the top right of the list, you can change the view to show all the days in your trip, even the empty ones. Here you can drag an item to a new day to change when it's scheduled. For even more detailed scheduling open the "Add Item to Itinerary" dialog by clicking into an item's details screen, clicking "EDIT DETAILS" in its details pod on the right, and then clicking "EDIT" next to its date.</p>
<h3>Bonus! Forward emails to your trip</h3>
<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wDPgOlfOFP1Lyvf2eoS15Lrs4I1gi_hFh4zXq9MjfMKZVWxchBkIbs6RIaNz3MA1Wf8V6Ef_8TQDX37axZ5YOleNCSI_QObeK01nRmZjStfF0cImPr5yds1JJcIgmnfQ-NUEIWZB0xo/s1600/confirm_email.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wDPgOlfOFP1Lyvf2eoS15Lrs4I1gi_hFh4zXq9MjfMKZVWxchBkIbs6RIaNz3MA1Wf8V6Ef_8TQDX37axZ5YOleNCSI_QObeK01nRmZjStfF0cImPr5yds1JJcIgmnfQ-NUEIWZB0xo/s320/confirm_email.jpg" height="308" width="320" /></a>Here's a quick bonus feature that might come in handy. When you book your flight or accommodations, you often get confirmations via email. Those emails usually have important information like dates, times, and confirmation numbers. And inevitably those emails are hard to keep track of among all the other emails you have in your email account.</p>
<p>Planapple lets you forward those emails to your trip so you can view their contents right next to all the web research you've collected. Just forward your confirmation emails to save@planapple.com from the email address you used to signup with Planapple. (Make sure that you 'confirmed' your email address after you signed up - go to "Email Addresses" under the "Account Settings" menu to resend a confirmation if you didn't.)</p>
<h3>That's it, good luck!</h3>
<p>I hope this guide has given you a good overview to get you started planning a trip with Planapple. There are many more features available to make your planning process easier, too many to cover all of them here. Keep reading the <a href="http://blog.planapple.com/">Planapple product blog</a> for more tips and tricks and to find out what's new.</p>
<p>Thanks again and good luck with your travels!</p>Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-38599890954908112432012-01-03T15:21:00.000-08:002012-06-20T16:14:14.798-07:00Yeah, but what does everyone else have to say?So you're planning a last-minute weekend getaway, and you've both decided Saturday night should be a splurgy, super-special, won't-soon-be-forgotten kind of dinner. You've got it narrowed down to three possible restaurants you found on Yelp, and bookmarked all of them into your Planapple trip.<br />
<br />
So how to decide? Wouldn't it be nice if you could check the reviews on other sites like TripAdvisor and Yahoo Local, look at a copy of each restaurant's menu, or check on OpenTable to see if there are even reservations still available? "Easy enough," you say, "I know how to use the web."<br />
<br />
And you could do that. But at Planapple we <i>hate</i> having to repeatedly retype things like the name of each restaurant. And we hate getting to a site and finding out it doesn't actually have any information on the restaurant. So instead, we're going to make Planapple do the work for you.<br />
<br />
We've added <b>magic links </b>on each item's details page. In the bookmarks section, we'll show you all the links we could find for that place at other web sites, automatically...<br />
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... some you know, and some you may not have heard of before. But all there, ready for the clicking, without any extra effort on your part. Ta-da!<br />
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Oh, and while we're working magic, we've also started automatically filling in missing contact info (phone number, official web site, contact email) for places you bookmark.<br />
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This new feature is experimental, and we expect it to get better over time. Right now, it works best if you originally bookmarked a place from Yelp, TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet or CitySearch. It's primarily for commercial establishments like hotels, restaurants, and other businesses -- although it also knows some parks and museums. And coverage is generally better for places in the U.S. and Europe than elsewhere right now. If the additional links don't show up for an item, it either means we couldn't recognize the place you've bookmarked (try setting its address if there isn't one there) or that we couldn't find any other links for it.<br />
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[For the technically-curious among you, the powerful magic comes from a company called <a href="http://www.factual.com/" target="_blank">Factual</a>.]<br />
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Let us know what you think, or if you find any problems with the links and contact info we're adding. Happy planning!<br />
<br />Mike Edmundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01577218203785404105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-87387900571040245212012-01-03T14:36:00.000-08:002012-06-20T16:14:36.405-07:00Find more travel ideas, more easilyIf you're using our bookmarking tool, you know how Planapple makes it easy to keep track of all the travel ideas you find around the web. But did you know Planapple can help you explore the web for new ideas, too?<br />
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At the top of every category page (like Lodging or Dining), you'll find suggested searches:<br />
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Many of these are sites our users have found helpful for planning their own trips. You can either type in your own search term in the box (e.g., "beachfront condo") or just click one of the links below it.<br />
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And Planapple doesn't just link to these sites, it actually <b>fills in their search forms for you </b>with your destination and travel dates whenever possible. So if you're looking for (say) hotels or airline tickets, you don't have to keep re-typing your trip details at all those other sites.<br />
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Today, we added several new search sites we think you'll find helpful. Some of our favorites:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>HomeAway</b> - a vacation rentals site like VRBO (it's actually owned by the same company). We think it's a little cleaner and easier to get around than VRBO. There's some overlap between the sites, but a lot of rentals are on only one or the other, so be sure to check both -- Planapple makes it easy. (Look for the link in your trip's Lodging category.)</li>
<li><b>eGullet</b> - foodie discussion boards, run by the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. One of our customers pointed us to this site, and swears by it for finding unique and undiscovered restaurants. Planapple will help you search eGullet's "regional cuisine" discussions in your destination. (Look for the link in your trip's Dining category.)</li>
<li><b>Expedia <i>Attractions</i></b> - sure, you already know Expedia as a place to get plane tickets, but you might not realize they also have deals on all kinds of activities at your destination. Check them for sightseeing tours, multi-museum discount passes, show and event tickets, and more -- all automatically filtered by when you'll be there. Yeah, some of them are definitely "touristy", but you might be surprised by the variety of what's there. And if you <i>are</i> going to do the touristy things, there are often discounts only available before you travel. (Look for the link in your trip's Attractions category. And you'll still find Expedia flights listed under Transportation, plus we've also added Expedia car rentals there for your convenience.)</li>
<li><b>HotelsCombined</b> - a nifty "meta-search" site for hotels, which means that it searches other hotel and travel sites for you and shows you the combined results from all of them. Hotel rate can be even more confusing than airfares, so this is a great way to check the options all at once. (Look for the link in your trip's Lodging category.)</li>
</ul>
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These new searches join some of our earlier favorite finds like <b>Foodspotting</b> (discover restaurants by looking at pictures of their food!), <b>Hipmunk</b> (compare air tickets by cost and "pain"), and <b>Weather Underground</b> (check out historical weather conditions on your planned travel dates), plus standards like <b>Yelp</b> and <b>TripAdvisor</b>.</div>
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Got a site you think we should add? We're always trying to make Planapple more helpful for planning your travels, so let us know using the feedback link on the right.</div>
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<br /></div>Mike Edmundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01577218203785404105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-60362716276516821442011-12-05T17:15:00.001-08:002019-08-28T18:21:36.689-07:00Planapple goes mobile for iPhone, Android and BB6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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That's right, we're thrilled to finally take the cover off of our new Planapple mobile app, which will let you take all of your plans and research with you on the road. The app runs in a standard web-browser (using HTML5 - if you're into that sort of thing) but lets access all of your information offline or in 'airplane-mode' if you don't want incur any roaming charges when traveling overseas. No app-store download, installation or purchase is required.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Get your trip on your phone</span><br />
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Here's how it works:<br />
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<li>On your phone, go to www.planapple.com/m/ (notice the extra "/m/" on the end). </li>
<li>After Planapple finishes loading, tap "Sign In" and then log into Planapple as usual.</li>
<li> In a moment, your current trip information will appear. (Tap "My Trips" at the bottom to choose from your other trips.)</li>
</ol>
Currently the app will run well on iPhones (use Safari to be able to create a homescreen shortcut), Android phones and V6 BlackBerries.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Browse all your stuff, get maps/directions, and make calls</span><br />
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This first version of the mobile app is really focused on letting you access your info in your trip. Start on the 'Current Trip' tab where you can see icons for all of the category lists in your trip. If you scroll down, you'll see a button to take you to your itinerary.<br />
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Tap on any of the category icons on the main screen to view a list of items in that category. There, you can sort items by name, date, and votes. Tapping on the action button in the upper right here will give you the option to get directions for items in the list from Google Maps.<br />
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Tap on an item to drill into its details where you can see its address, phone number, bookmarks, and votes, as well as any comments about that item from the trip discussion.<br />
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If you tap on the address link, your phone will open Google Maps with this address selected. From there you can get directions from your current location just like you would when normally using Google Maps. Similarly, tapping on the phone number will offer to place a phone call to that number.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bookmark the app, or save to your homescreen to run offline </span><br />
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To run the app offline, go to the 'Settings' tab and press the 'Save for Offline Use' button. This will take you to a page which you can save in your web browser's bookmarks, or save out to your phone's home screen.<br />
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Then, when you launch the app from either of those two places, it will work well when your phone is offline or running in airplane mode. (When running offline, if a dialog pops up telling you that the app needs to be online to access the internet, just ignore it -- it doesn't.)<br />
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Currently you can't add comments or vote when you're running offline, nor access the content of saved web pages. Also, when you're overseas and want to avoid roaming changes, remember to turn cellular data off in your phone's settings. Then if you connect to the internet via Wi-Fi you're good to go with free data (and Planapple will connect to the network just fine).<br />
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We hope you enjoy the new Planapple mobile app! We're pretty excited about it and are looking forward to adding features over the coming months based on your feedback. So let us know what you think via the Feedback tab on the main Planapple web site (or this blog).Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-18312711523404222492011-11-18T15:32:00.000-08:002012-06-20T16:15:23.551-07:00Use Planapple with Facebook, Twitter, and GoogleThis week we turned on integration with Facebook, Twitter, and Google. There are two immediate benefits:<br />
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1. If you're using our new "<a href="http://blog.planapple.com/2011/10/share-tips-with-friends-using-public.html">public favorites</a>" feature that Pete wrote about recently, you'll find Facebook Like and Send buttons on your public favorites pages. You can use the Send button to easily send your favorite travel ideas to your friends on Facebook, and of course they can Like what they see. Plus, we've hooked up Facebook comments for discussing your favorite places with your friends.<br />
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2. When you invite family and friends to help you plan a trip, they can use their existing Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts (Gmail or Google Apps) to start using Planapple instantly -- without having to register for a new Planapple account or verify their email addresses.<br />
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We added these same three buttons to our sign-in page, too. If you'd like to convert your Planapple account so that you can sign into it using Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google, just go to the Planapple <a href="http://www.planapple.com/account/linked/">Linked Accounts</a> settings and follow the instructions there.<br />
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We'll be adding additional Twitter, Google, and Facebook features in the future. Let us know how you'd like to connect Planapple with other services you use -- just click the Feedback link on the right.<br />
<br />Mike Edmundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01577218203785404105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-41586863818673320072011-10-27T11:53:00.000-07:002012-06-20T16:15:43.619-07:00Share tips with friends using Public FavoritesWhen you return from an awesome trip, friends, family and co-workers often want to hear all about it. Where did you stay? What did you do? Many times, they are thinking about planning their own trip to the same place and would love to know what you'd recommend.<br />
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Mentioning a few highlights in conversation leaves out a lot of details, and writing an email can be a pain. But if you're using Planapple, sharing your favorites from a recent trip just got a whole lot easier with our new Public Favorites feature.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Getting started</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></b></span><br />
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To get started, go to a recent trip and click on the "Publish to My Favorites" button in the popup next to an entry:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zsnlrFntStgcOkFmjPo788AQ0NK3JgGc-tP5lvZkLIbFhoUyIc-ppyYeSgsMwLjDoQhWN6vbwDYK-2GjK3cxDwxxtkVdsDwEJFt4j_NQDaLCfoiCm298isXMcGR5UqQAaIdbaGc5tRk/s1600/publish_to_favorites_example.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zsnlrFntStgcOkFmjPo788AQ0NK3JgGc-tP5lvZkLIbFhoUyIc-ppyYeSgsMwLjDoQhWN6vbwDYK-2GjK3cxDwxxtkVdsDwEJFt4j_NQDaLCfoiCm298isXMcGR5UqQAaIdbaGc5tRk/s1600/publish_to_favorites_example.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click the Publish To My Favorites button to add an entry to your Public Favorites Page.</td></tr>
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This will add that entry to your Public Favorites page so you can then easily share it with friends.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">View your favorites</span> </b></span><br />
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To view your public favorites, click on the "My Public Favorites" link at the top of the page. All of your favorites are organized by destination, and each destination has its own page listing all of the entries that you've published.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Click on an entry to drill in and view more information about that place. There you can add your own notes and edit its details (but the changes you make won't be reflected back in your original trip).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sharing with friends</b></span></div>
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Once you've got some favorites published, it's easy to share them with friends. Just copy the URL from your browser's location bar and paste it into an email.<br />
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When your friends get the link they can browse all of your favorites with no signup required. They can even start planning their own trip on Planapple by clicking on the "Add to My Favorites" button under any entry!<br />
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We hope you find this new feature handy next time someone asks you about a trip. As always please feel free to share your thoughts with us via the "Feedback" tab on the right. We'd love to know what you think of the new feature and how we can improve it.<br />
<br />Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-258756262400888892011-10-16T11:45:00.000-07:002012-06-20T16:16:01.776-07:00Easier, cleaner entry detailsWe've noticed (OK, several of you have pointed out) that our "entry details page" could be somewhat annoying. Sure, there were places to enter just about anything you wanted to keep track of for an entry: its address, phone number, contact email, cost, etc. But a lot of the time all that detail just doesn't matter. And worse, showing all those (often unused) pieces of info meant you constantly had to scroll down to get to the good stuff -- the link to the entry's web site, comments from your tripmates, etc.<br />
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We recently rolled out a new design for the entry details page that we hope makes this much easier. Now all those details are kept in a details pod at the top right, and we hide the ones you aren't using. Just expand the details pod ("Edit Details") to see and edit everything.<br />
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We've also moved the link to the entry's web site up to the top, just under the title, where many of you told us you were expecting to find it. And we've added an overview of votes and comments up near the title, too.<br />
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The new entry details page and the expanded details pod</div>
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While we were at it, we made it easier to do some things directly from the list of entries, without having to go into the details page. Now you can schedule an entry and delete (archive) it from a little info balloon that appears whenever you mouse over an entry.<br />
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(Bonus tip: you can also drag and drop entries from the list to the calendar on the right, or to one of the categories or the archive on the left.)<br />
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We hope these changes make it easier to work with your trip in Planapple. Let us know what you think, and please keep passing along your suggestions, comments, and complaints -- they're how we make sure Planapple is useful for you. We're listening in the <a href="http://planapple.uservoice.com/forums/51711-ideas-suggestions">Planapple Feedback Forum</a>. Don't be shy!<br />
<br />Mike Edmundshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01577218203785404105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-86796367832338438572011-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:002012-06-20T16:16:16.142-07:00Add notes and paste web stuff into your tripWhen first getting started on Planapple, we mainly used it to keep track of our travel related bookmarks from the web. With the Planapple bookmarking tool, we saved <a href="http://www.winecountryinns.com/">B&B web sites</a>, reviews from <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g1109451-Sonoma_County_California-Vacations.html">Trip Advisor</a> or <a href="http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=inns&ns=1&find_loc=sonoma+county">Yelp</a>, <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/travel/29hours.html">NY Times articles,</a> or even flight searches and online itineraries.<br />
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As time went on we realized that we also needed to add simple notes or lists of things to remember ("don't forget to buy a gift for Mom's birthday"). Other times we wanted to copy and paste just a snippet of text from a web page or an email (often directions or check-in information).<br />
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Today, we've added a new feature to Planapple that lets you add free-form notes to your trip. They show up just like entries you added by bookmarking or emailing save@planapple.com, and you can stick these notes in categories, add comments to discuss with other travelers, even drop them in your itinerary. You can also use simple text formatting like bullet points, numbered lists, or bold and italic for emphasis. And if you copy and paste something from a web page (such as a table of flight information), much of the formatting should be preserved.<br />
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At the bottom of any list of entries, click "Add Entry" to try it out and let us know what you think!<br />
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<br /></div>Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3816375290571737629.post-49225672948542553912011-10-11T14:09:00.000-07:002011-11-17T09:49:44.430-08:00Hello World!Hey there and welcome to the inaugural entry of the Planapple company blog! Over the last several months we've been hard at work designing and building a better tool to help ourselves (and people like us) organize travel plans. After a few round-trips to the drawing board, we think we've got something that's actually pretty handy, and are excited to start sharing it with other folks on the web.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">Planapple: What is it?</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.planapple.com/">Planapple</a> helps you organize all your travel stuff in one place, talk about it with family and friends, and take it with you on the road.<br />
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If you're like us, planning for a trip often involves a bit of web research, a lot of emails, a few dates on the calendar, and a lot of ideas that might be interesting to check out once you're there. Keeping track of all of this stuff can be a pain. In the past everything was spread across email threads, browser bookmarks, calendars, notebooks and even voice mail. For larger trips we might actually print everything out on paper and assemble it into a 'travel binder' that we could take with us on the road.<br />
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Planapple provides a single place on the web to store all of this stuff, organize it (as much as you want), and discuss it with other travelers on your trip. Think of it like a virtual bulletin board/notebook for your trip. You can forward in emails to it, save bookmarks to it, and copy and paste text and notes from any web page, all while posting updates, questions and comments to everyone you're traveling with.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">Stay Tuned, There's More To Come!</span><br />
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While we think the version of Planapple available now is pretty useful, we're just getting started. We've got a slew of ideas and features in the hopper that we're excited to roll out over the course of the year. Stayed tuned and check back to this <a href="http://blog.planapple.com/">blog</a> often to see what's new, as well as to find tips and tricks for using the product.<br />
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And, most importantly, we'd love to hear your feedback and ideas about how make Planapple a better helper for simplifying your travel planning process. As two guys with a couple of computers, we're only half the team required to build a great product that solves a real problem. The other half is you the customer - so let us know what you need! Please feel free to click on the "Feedback" tab on the right to <a href="http://planapple.uservoice.com/forums/51711-ideas-suggestions">share your thoughts</a> with us or <a href="http://planapple.uservoice.com/knowledgebase">get help</a> with any questions or concerns.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thanks!</span></span><br />
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Thanks again for trying Planapple, and we wish you many happy trips in the future!<br />
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The Planapple Team (Pete & Mike)Pete Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01911797587299738502noreply@blogger.com