Review: WorldMate 2004
Score:
90%
Version Reviewed: 2004
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Right, you're down the pub and one of your friend starts boasting. “This time tomorrow we'll be on the beach in the sun with cheap beer and food”. You enquire further and find that he's off on his annual holidays to the Costa De Lotta. You pull out your P900, stare at it for a while and, smiling, wish him a very happy holiday.
Of course what you were doing was checking up a few details using WorldMate 2004 from MobiMate. This is a very handy collection of small utilities designed for people on the move. These used to consist of World Clocks, Weather Forecasts, World Map, Currency Converter and General Converter. However the new 2004 version adds Packing List, International Dialling Prefixes and Clothing Sizes. Phew that's quite some list! I'll just give a brief description of each application otherwise you'll probably fall asleep.
WORLD CLOCKS
Well I think the screenshot is quite explanatory. You can select up to 5 different world locations and have the time displayed. The list of available locations is very large and you are bound to find one close to your destination. This is very useful as it reminds you not to ring up your mother at 4am even tough it's lunchtime where you are.
WEATHER FORECAST
Weather forecasts are accessible via the World Clocks - if the time pane shows a sunshine and clouds symbol, then a weather forecast is available for that location. Tapping on this icon will bring up a five day forecast. You need to have Internet access enabled to download the latest forecast database which is simply done by pressing the update button. This updates all the forecasts in its database, not just the location you are looking at and it's surprisingly quick using GPRS. The only problem is that forecasts are only for a limited number of locations (67 US cities and 190 world cities). For example, Bristol, where I live, is not one of them. There will apparently be a World Mate Pro which increases the number of forecast locations to around 38,000, but it will be significantly more expensive than the standard version and it's unlikely that you would want to upgrade just for this.
WORLD MAP
This shows a map of the world with a real time moving shadow to show which parts are in daylight (or not). You can either select a location by searching by country and city or just tapping on the map. The location you have selected is shown by a flashing cross. In reality this is more of a fun application than of any real serious use although it can be useful for tracking down where some of those exotic destinations are. Its usabililty could be enhanced by showing the Sunrise and Sunset times for the selected city, something which I often want to know when abroad. This has been suggested to MobiMate and they may include it in a future version.
CURRENCY CONVERTER
This is a very useful part of the package. Like the weather forecast you can simply download the latest conversion rates from the web and all currencies are updated at the same time. You can manually enter the conversion rate if you are in a country where you don't have Internet access. You can select 3 currencies - I normally have Sterling, the country I am going to and the US Dollar. You can enter an amount in any of the boxes and it automatically puts the converted figures into the others. Every currency I can think of is included and it works very well.
GENERAL CONVERSIONS
This is a very handy general conversion tool for converting weights, distances, temperatures, etc. It's very comprehensive and does its job well. This is something I use often in day to day use, not just for travel.
PACKING LIST
Right we're onto the new features of the 2004 version. The packing list is just what its says, it allows you to generate a list of items to pack for your trip. I did not think it would be something I would use when I read about it but after having a play think it could be very useful.
You have a master list called All Items which comes pre-filled with almost everything you could think of that you might need or want to do for a trip. The list is huge but can be broken down by category e.g. Clothing, Hygiene, Home Check-list, etc. Don't worry, this can be edited to add your own items or remove ones you will never use. I, for example, removed Women's Tampons, along with others. You can then select which ones you want for a specific trip. There is a 'My List' tab which only shows the items you have selected from the main list. Again, these can be checked as you make sure you have packed or dealt with them. The only thing I would like to see added to this would be the ability to have more than one list of selected items. This would enable you to create a standard list for a business trip and another for a holiday or whatever other sort of trip you wanted. Hopefully this will be included in a future release.
INTERNATIONAL DIALLING PREFIXES AND CLOTHING SIZES
I'll deal with the last two items together as they just do what they say on the tin. The international dialling prefixes is a complete list of all worldwide dialling codes. You can search for specific countries by name. The clothing sizes contains lists showing how clothing sizes vary in different countries e.g. Shirts or Dresses. Both these utilities are useful on the odd occasions when you need them.
SUMMARY
In conclusion, WorldMate is a collection of very useful utilities, none of which on their own are spectacular, but together make a very powerful tool for people who travel. I also find several of its tools useful in day to day use. All in all, it gets a score of 90 - a rare Mega App!
Oh and how did my friends get on on their trip? Well not quite as well as they hoped. What I'd found out by checking World Mate was that the forecast for their resort was for a week of wind and rain and the pound had just crashed against the Costa De Lotta Bucks.
Reviewed by Andy Langdon at