Walking into the unknown and exploring new sites. Locations and territories might be fun for travelers but sitting at the airports and waiting for delayed flight is not. It is boring to say the least. One wishes to spend all quality time doing something useful and fruitful instead of wasting time in waiting. Which is why tech-savvy travelers are taking advantage of handheld computing as more sophisticated smartphone software are showing up every day. And which is why more than 900 applications for travelers alone have come up in the market.

Simple iPhone applications are easy to use. Phone's embedded GPS chip tailors information to a traveler's current location, such as spotting nearby Starbucks, Wi-Fi hot spot, police radar, restaurants and taxi companies. It is in this milieu that FlightTrack is getting much attention. FlightTrack, as the name suggest, provides real-time flight status with scheduled departure and landing times, as well as actual takeoff and projected landing.

FlightTrack is a GPS utility designed exclusively for MacOS X. It can be used to download tracks and waypoints from a GPS and display them in 3D. Its main functions are: Downloading tracks and waypoints from GPS: Garmin (not USB), Magellan, MLR SP 24XC, Brauniger IQ Compeo, Flytec 5030 or PalmOS device with special software, 3D Viewing over the terrain and satellite or map data, Support for opening and writing GPX and IGC documents.

Users can save their flight schedules and check for cancellations and delays when encountering bad weather. They also can search for flights by airline, flight number or date. Its live flight maps show weather radar, provide information on aircraft type, speed and altitude. What is more, with FlightTrack users can access to Zagat's ratings and reviews for more than 40,000 restaurants, hotels, nightspots and shops in more than 100 countries.

Look, FlightTrack is on my wish list; honest.

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