Lumia and the business traveler

Your Lumia is a critical tool when it comes to traveling.

It is your office on the go with the phenomenal support of Office 365. And don’t forget the built in Skype support, which saves you money each time you need to make international calls or confirm your hotel bookings.

You clearly don’t need a personal assistant to sort your travel plans when you have these apps on your Lumia. No, we haven’t forgotten how Cortana will sort your overall life.

Tripit 

This smart app does what it says — trip it! Just forward your flight bookings, hotel reservations and taxi confirmations, and let it organize your travel itinerary neatly in a single place.

Now you don’t need to keep looking for different tickets anymore or browse through e-mails. Not only that, Tripit seamlessly syncs your travel dates with your calendar.

The app is free to use, but you need to pay a subscription to use the website and to receive flight status alerts, delays, and alternative flight options etc., on your mobile.

GateGuru

If waiting at checkpoints and maneuvering your way through the different terminals is your constant worry while flying, then help is at hand. Not only does the GateGuru app integrate with your Tripit account, it also tells you the time for the connecting flight, and from which terminal.

By summarizing your flight itinerary, GateGuru tells you the estimated time of take-off, what gate you are departing from, whether the flight is on time, and where you can grab your next meal on a stopover.

Did you ever imagine you could bookmark your favorite airport facilities or eateries before? Browse through the reviews of fellow passengers and keep adding the miles you have flown.

Bing Translator

Do you wish to demystify the name of and ingredients in an exotic dish before you place an order? With Bing translator, you can be a language connoisseur in the real sense.

Type in text, speak, or point your camera to the foreign word, and have it translated instantly. Amazing isn’t it?

Keep pointing at the text and thanks to the ingenuity of the app, get live results. You can also download the offline support depending on the languages you require. With support in more than 40 languages, say “Bonjour!” to your pocket personal interpreter.

Yelp

Tired of reading recommendations? What are you waiting for? Just Yelp! This repository of user-submitted reviews and photos help you quickly select a place for a quick bite.

For readers outside of the U.S. and U.K., we suggest AroundMe. It quickly identifies your position using GPS and searches for the nearest movie theaters, restaurants and bars. It’ll also locate your closest ATM, bank, hospital, hotel and supermarket, among points of interest.

Expensify

Let’s face it, not everyone can excel at number crunching. If you struggle with calculations then this app is for you.

True to its name, Expensify’s simple and predictive user interface lets you file your bills and expenses magically. Just snap a photo of your bill or invoice and the app will input the figures for you – a neat way to keep all your business-related invoices and reimbursements in one place so you can submit them later.

In addition, all the receipts that you click get stored on your account on the Expensify website.  We recommend it for entrepreneurs with multiple clients or for those of you who dabble in freelancing.

Looking for some hardware? Check out this must-have accessory to get business done when you’re on the go.

Inner Fence Credit Card Terminal for Windows Phone 8 

You are one step away from turning your Lumia into a credit card terminal.

Call this a fast and easy way for credit card processing. Perfect for the budding entrepreneur, it lets you accept client payments when you’re on-the-go.

With the related app, it will accept customer signatures and will email receipts, turning Lumia into a powerful sales tool.

Connecting it via the headphone port of your Lumia is simple and it is well versed in location-based sales tax, maps, signatures, and tipping. All your transaction data is fully encrypted for added security. A bargain, don’t you think?

Which apps do you use on a business trip?