Happy Boredom

I just activated 3G internet service on my AT&T cell phone (Samsung SYNC A707) with pleasing results. Here are a few fine websites that have special mobile-versions of their website.

Summary (continue below for descriptions)

• SF Bay Area BART
• SkyScanner
• United Airlines UA2Go
• Northwest Airlines
• Travelocity
• Usablenet Mobile Portal

• Kayak Mobile

SF Bay Area BART
http://www.bart.gov/wireless

When I’ve just landed at SFO, I check the BART website to see when the next BART train out of the SFO airport terminal is. This way I know if I have to run like hell or if I can take my time. Priceless. Notable: the BART is convenient to the International Terminal near Check-in area 1.

SkyScanner
http://mobile.skyscanner.net/en/gbp/main/flights-from/us/cheap-flights.ashx

This is a UK or at least European based website that gives actual flight price information — albeit in GBP (Great Britain pounds). So take 2x of whatever price they give you.

United Airlines UA2Go
http://ua.flightlookup.com

United Airlines flight status for arrivals and departures. This handy little website saved me from rotting for 2 hours in the Portland Airport when I found out my flight was delayed. That extra 2 hours gave me time to do a little shopping and have a pre-flight snack. Yay!

Northwest Airlines
http://mobile.nwa.com/mt/www.nwa.com

Northwest Airlines almost a full translation of the entire NWA website into a mobile incarnation. Awesome. You can actually check prices dollars AND award mile prices. NWA is soon to be merged with Delta. I wonder how that will affect their website.

Travelocity
http://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/http://www.travelocity.com/

Itinerary for your travel arranged via Travelocity. Also able to search flight schedules (but no prices) and check flight departure/arrival information for most airlines. Useful but not awesome.

Usablenet Mobile Portal
http://usablenet.mobi/mt/portal/index.html

Usablenet created several of the mobile experiences I listed above. Most of the sites that Usablenet gets credit for are high quality mobile internet experiences. These guys should be considered the benchmark for good mobile web. Yes there are better experiences out there but the basic interaction pattern they use is effective and not so different from websites. The usablenet portal has links to most of its portfolio of clients. This includes info for airlines, transit (rail, bus, etc), certain major hotel chains, and car rentals among other things.

Kayak Mobile
http://www.kayak.com/moby

Kayak has an promising beta version of a mobile site in the works. They have action-based terms like “eat”, “sleep”, “fly”, “think”, and weather. Flight search and hotel search do not work. Weather and Eat will bring back results. From an HCI perspective their task-based navigation is compelling. I look forward to the day when this website is fully functional.

I finally did it. After 2 days 47 minutes of playing I have reached the Prestige 1 level. Now let’s see how long it takes to reach Prestige 2. According to my co-worker I’m on track with his progress. By his experience, Prestige 2 should take about half as long (1 day) to complete now that I am familiar with the game strategy. It also helps to know that Headquarters mode earns like 2x points per game over regular old single player Free-for-all.

If you’re looking for CoD 4 prestige badges, I downloaded a pack from a artistpavel.

My Indian buddy has been raving about Manjula’s Kitchen: Indian Vegetarian Recipes. Manjula’s kitchen is an instructional website for preparing authentic Indian vegetarian cuisine. Manula has many detailed videos on how to prepare classic Indian recipes for the home — Indian comfort food.

Compared to other websites he says that Manjula’s videos are better produced and her experience in the kitchen make her presentation more credible than some young upstart trying to be the next Food Network star.

I personally am eager to try the paneer cheese and aloo gobi recipes. Those are some of my personal vegetarian favorites. I wish she would show how to make Lamb Tikka Masala at home but I guess there is not a vegetarian equivalent of that.