Profile: Travel Journal

New service creates travel journal by tracking cell phone

July 30, 2008 3:30 PM PDT

Online travel communications retailer Telestial has just launched Travel Journal, an online service that automatically creates an online trip journal based on the location of the user's phone. Using a special SIM card that triangulates the user's location using cell phone towers, Travel Journal automatically updates in more than 100 countries.

Travel Journal plots the traveler's location on a Google map

Trip data is displayed on a Google map and a journal is created with images of locations visited by the traveler, local weather, and a record of recent communications. Users can manually update their journal by sending text messages or photos to the Travel Journal site.

As the journal is created, family and friends can view and make comments about journal posts online. Privacy settings ("private," "family and friends" and "public") give travelers control over who can access their journal. Viewers of the journal can also see if the journaling phone is on, send text messages, and recharge minutes using a credit card.

This service could be especially fun for people planning road trips or international travel. If the system works as advertised, it will allow users to enjoy their travel, instead on focusing on chronicling it.

Travel Journal is free and is included with the purchase of all Telestial international phone packages or SIM cards.