Learning with life pleasures

Life has many pleasures. The sound of music, the roar of the mighty ocean and the smell of rain at the end of a hot day. For me, two of the greatest pleasures in life are travelling the world, and a glass of good wine. I have had the privilege of travelling extensively, and with that having to learn the pitfalls of finding yourself in a beautiful country, with no means of communication.

Had I perhaps put my travelling off for a decade I wouldn’t have come across most of the issues I had. For me the promise of a trip abroad meant weeks with my head in a translation book, so that when walking down the Champs Elysees I wouldn’t need to cross my legs and hop to express my need for a bathroom, or play an awkward game of charades with my taxi driver in Prague to find the elusive hotel.

SpeechTrans Inc has come up with a way to overcome this travelling dilemma with SpeechTrans Pro Voice Translator. You can now record up to 55 seconds of speech and have it replayed in the language you chose. This almost “too good to be true” app is available from App World for R29.50.

The other “fun” part of travelling is navigating the mazes that some architect with an evil sense of humour calls an International Airport. I have walked Frankfurt Airport aimlessly for hours with no avail, while I suspect the security guards had a good giggle at my expense, and I have broken the land speed record across Gatwick because my “delayed flight” was not delayed but a mistake made by my “super helpful” travel agent. These flat spin moments are a thing of the past, as developers Mobiata LLC bring you FlightTrack. This awesome app seems to be even more on the ball than the airlines. This tool won’t book flights for you, but it pretty much does everything else. You can see when your plane lands, length of flight, gate to board at, delays and even alternative flights should BA decide to strike…again. FlightTrack is worth every cent of the R29.50 that it goes for in the App World.

Travelling can now be enjoyed for the experience that it is, and not become a mounting headache along the way.

When it comes to the wine however, I am not as clued up and I am over thankful to Flo2Flo Mobile Media AI Systems who bring us the app “Wine Helper Guide”. This app helps you chose the right wine for any occasion, and makes any meal an unforgettable experience. The app doesn’t stop there, it offers the ability to learn all about your favourite wines (and discover more) with tips, quizzes, lessons and more. Everything is at your fingertips with this complete knowledge interface. Also available from the App World for R12.00

I believe that any experience you learn from is a good one, so I would be very unhappy if I wasn’t able to learn something from my favourite drink. Wine Language Pocket Guide and Quiz is brought to you by SageMilk LLC. SageMilk develops mobile learning system apps to help you learn important facts and figures at a pace that fits your lifestyle. This impressive app will help you to speak like a wine connoisseur. You can learn 200 phrases, terms, & definitions used by Wine Connoisseurs and those in the know. (App World R6.00)

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener