RIM has updated their BlackBerry Travel application in the Beta Zone with a few new features for frequent globe-trotters. With BlackBerry Travel 1.1, you can now remotely book car rentals at a number of popular agencies like Budget, Avis, and Hertz. Those bookings will use local currencies, so you don’t have to bust out any online conversion tools to figure out how much it’ll cost you. You can also flip through a world clock to figure out what time it is wherever you’ve landed, as well as the time back home for when you want to call.
BlackBerry Travel already handles mobile hotel booking, but is primarily used for managing your travel itinerary. You can set up the app so that it detects when you get flight confirmation e-mails, which is then synced up with your native BlackBerry calendar, and then in turn sent out to any synchronization services (like Exchange or Google) that you have set up.
Although the app was originally made in partnership with WorldMate, I definitely see some elements from Viigo, a general-purpose RSS app RIM acquired a few years ago, which also had some travel services baked in. RIM and Worldmate have been pretty cozy through this whole partnership, and given RIM’s ongoing string of acquisitions, I wouldn’t be surprised if they snapped up WorldMate at some point in the near future, even amid layoffs.
Anyone in U.S., Canada, U.K. and Spain can check out the new beta for BlackBerry Travel in the Beta Zone
[via IBB]