Not to be outdone in the iPhone apps department, Yahoo! is getting onboard with a few additional apps of their own.  Yahoo!’s recently launched Sketch-A-Search and Yahoo! Search App take Google’s Mobile App to the next level.

The Sketch-A-Search allows users to quickly find restaurants (other categories to launch on an ongoing basis) simply by drawing a circle around the general area on a map.  This comes in handy when you have neither the zip code nor the name of the area where you’re searching.  Once an area of the map is identified, a list of restaurants appears on the screen; by clicking on a restaurant one can read reviews, see pictures, prices and can even narrow down by type of cuisine, ambience and/or rating.  It’s fun to play with too.

The Yahoo! Search App offers “a fast and beautiful experience that integrates voice search, embedded maps, and information from Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, and other sources that appears directly in the results.”

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Wallpaper* City Guides for the iPhone or iPod Touch puts the best the world has to offer, no matter if you are staying for 48 hours or five days, visiting for business or a vacation.  Phaidon has done the hard work for you, from finding the best restaurants, bars and hotels (including which rooms to request) to the most extraordinary stores and sites, and the most enticing architecture and design

If you are planning on being one of the millions of travelers this week, then first off Triumph360 wishes you the best of luck.  Secondly, if you have a smart phone, then you will want to take a minute and read this post on how to access free wi-fi this holiday season.

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Ever find yourself struggling to find the perfect hotspot in your city on a Friday night? Or perhaps you’ve taken a last minute trip to Montreal without really being too sure what you’re going to do once you get there. Of course iPhones generally solve such problems, but too often I’ve found myself waiting for the browser to load with 5 or so very impatient and slightly agitated friends standing around, waiting to hear what the next move is.

Keeping this in mind I’m sure, the folks at Lastminute.com have just launched a new iPhone app TopSee (unfortunately only available in London but coming soon to the US!).

The GPS-based guide, designed for city-dwellers and tourists alike, is written by established bloggers featuring their choices of things to see, eat, do and buy near your location. Though there have been rumblings of including user-generated content at some point, as of right now the closest consumers can currently come to participating is by sharing the app on Twitter and Facebook.

The app layout features a photo touch interface with full content including articles, maps, distance from your location, and phone number amongst others. Perfect for those true travelers who are never quite sure where they’re going.

BBC’s latest nature documentary entitled Life is hands down the greatest footage ever captured.  Simply UNREAL!  10 episodes will begin airing between now and Christmas.

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On Tuesday, September 22, residents of Sydney awoke to a scene straight out of Total Recall.  Sydney had been blanketed by an apocalyptic glowing red dust storm. Red from iron-oxide: rust.   Gizmodo, noted that air pollution, particle concentration reached a thickness of about 15,000 micrograms per cubic meter—a normal day here has about 10-20.

This phenomenon caused a surge in multimedia traffic of up to 50 per cent as mobile users snapped photos on their phones and forwarded them to friends.   Flickr exploded as well, with photos of the city uploaded to the site more than tripled Day-over-Day, with a search for “Sydney” returning 4658 photos taken between 6-8:30am.  More images can be seen via the following Flickr page.

After soaking up an English soccer triumph over Croatia at Wembley Stadium (for videos of this check out my twitter page) on Wednesday night, I jumped over to Amsterdam to meet up with an old friend of mine.  As this was my first venture into the hedonistic culture that attracts and engulfs droves of curious travelers to the Red Light District, I was not too sure what to expect. Would there be total chaos and flocks of disoriented foreigners clogging the streets or would there be a level of sophistication to their indulgences? From my experience, there seemed to be a little bit of each. While the streets were alive with the smell of sin and inebriated souls, it didn’t feel like it was out of control. In fact, there was a level of congeniality I hadn’t anticipated. One working girl was even kind enough to open her door and give us directions when we were a bit lost, which I thought was very courteous of her. We ended up getting outside the District to go to a local club, Paradiso, for the better part of the night, which was just like any university dance party back home. Although, I found it a bit concerning when a Kid Cudi remix made the crowd go silent while the Black Eyed Peas had the girls hot and bothered.

Overall, the 24 hours I spent in Amsterdam were much enjoyed. The canals make for a good looking city and there was lots to keep us busy. If we had more time I am sure we would have been able to check out some of the museums here as there is some interesting stuff. In my opinion,  Amsterdam could be enjoyed in a weekend but I don’t think you’d need any more time than that. The scene is what it is, nothing more and nothing less.  Now I am off to Paris for the weekend so I will post on that later. I already know its gonna be ridiculous.

With only a few hours remaining, we are getting in our last licks and visiting our fav haunts of our trip. This place has the best burgers going. What goes perfect with that burger – a Longboard beer – the local brew.

It has been a good vaca, but I’m ready to return. Kids are ready as well. There was plenty of “reflection” on this trip regarding T360 and I feel ready to jump back in head first. Major decisions await and the next evolution of the company is upon us. Strategy, Media and Creative are busy and new opportunities are showing up every day. The final push to ensure 2009 goes down in the books as a successful year happens now. But first a stop on “The Big Island” to make our connection.

Expect big things …

Flying high today taking a heli tour of the islands.  I’m a little unsure about this adventure as this bird looks a little old.  One of the other passengers greeted the pilot with the question “how many times have you crashed”?  What a moron!  But, I was happy to hear the answer – “Never”.

Our pilot was cool and collected.  Did you ever experience turbulence in a helicopter?  I did and all I can say is that it’s much different than feeling turbulence in an airplane.  It was all worth it though as the views were spectacular.  Check the image below:

So here it is.  Totally lame and I’m sure these home vids of me and my kids are actually deterring repeat visitation of this blog. My thinking – If we can post a vid of a magic cucumber:  Sara’s Secret, posts showing my kids kinda even out the insanity. ANYWAY here it is … proceed with caution!!