Posterous Posterous is a simple multimedia blogging tool. Though there are iPhone and Android apps, you can do everything you need via email. Just write your post, attach your media and send. It’ll be uploaded to your own custom URL. Don’t worry about connectivity if you’re in a remote desert, or a foreign country. Just find a place to poach WiFi and let your phone upload them all at once. Posterous will update a bevy of other social outlets automagically, so you can notify your mom, your significant other, your boss and your Jr. High science teacher all at once. WordPress Wordpress is one of the most popular blogging platforms in the world, though it does a lot more. The WordPress applications for iPhone and Android let you post text, video and photos from anywhere. You can create the content and post it later, so you can snap a photo and get on to the next museum in a hurry. You can also get an address to post via email. Evernote If you’re looking for a more private alternative to a travel blog, Evernote is a good way to go. It’s a personal note taking system that mirrors across multiple devices and the web. You can create content when you’re offline and it’ll update when you get connected. You can then access the content from the web or your computer and take the time to craft the content into a more thoughtful blog post, or make the notebook for your trip public and sharable. It’s a great way to archive your content and get it beyond the confines of your smartphone. Twitter Sometimes it’s best to be brief. Twitter is great for that. If you are on a trip where you’ll have good connectivity, you could use any number of twitter apps to create a travel log. Most apps connect with third party services that let you upload photos and video. When mixed with your tweets and organized with a unique hashtag (eg. #Mike’sTrip) you can quickly create a simple, easy to consume travelogue. Foursquare If you just want to share where you are and quick snipits of what you’re doing, Foursquare works well. With Foursquare you also get the added benefit of businesses who reward customers for checking in and the potential to connect with friends who happen to be there too. Though you won’t find much foursquare action in Morocco… Gowalla Gowalla is similar to foursquare but more aligned to trips and travel documentation. Gowalla has Trips that are organized by location to help users enjoy their time in town. It’s kind of like having a tour guide on your phone. Again, this is best for domestic trips to big cities, not a rustic tour through the deep south. On The Road Saved the best for last here. There is one app that does it all. On The Road is a great tool for finding things to do and cataloging your progress when traveling. You use the app to create notes, checkins, and photos, then the app uploads them to a unique page at ontheroad.com where your friends and family can view and share your content. I haven’t spent much time with this app, and the Android seems to be a bit different from the iPhone version, but this seems like the best concept for using a mobile device to document travel without getting bogged down in the process.
The app encapsulates the whole travel process really well from discovery of activities and places (iPhone only), to creating content, to sharing that content after the fact and storing the memories to remember them later. The online Trip Book page shows a google map with route and placemarkers, a clickable master timeline, and the photos, and notes from the trip. Here’s a great example of a Trip Book page of an overland tour from the UK to Cape Town South Africa.
