iPhone ‘App’ Of The Week : Lonely Planet iPhone City Guide
Web: www.stevenfrischling.com — E-Mail: fish@flyingwithfish.com
2/07/2009 – iPhone ‘App’ Of The Week : Lonely Planet iPhone City Guide
Like millions of travellers around the world I am a fan of Lonely Planet’s guides. Lonely Planet’s pocket sized ‘Encounters’ books can often be found in my bag when travel to certain cities and new cities, in fact I have previously written about these guides here, 29/02/08 – Pocket City Guides – Lonely Planet, Your Guide To The World.
What does Lonely Planet’s Encounter’s guides have to do with this week’s iPhone App Of The Week? Well…pretty much everything as I have started to explore Lonely Planet’s iPhone City Guides and loving them!
The first iPhone City Guide I downloaded from Lonely Planet was for a city I know well, San Francisco. By downloading a guide to a city I was familiar with I was able to flip through the information using my own wealth of knowledge to check out the content. I was expecting a completely watered down version of the Lonely Planet books I have come to travel with and trust. Must to my surprise (and delight) the iPhone App version of the City Guides are complete, not watered down, versions of the books!
Lonely Planet was forward thinking in the creation of the iPhone City Guides by making them freestanding and not dependent on access to the internet or a GSM phone network. This foresight allows travellers to use the guides on the go without inuring international roaming fees, as well as the use the guides on the subway, on a plane or pretty much anywhere else they’d like.
While the iPhone City Guides are freestanding, users can enable the GSM network to utilize the interactive maps. Interactive maps allow your iPhone to pinpoint a current location and have the iPhone City Guide display attractions in the immediate vicinity around the users.
I could go into all the features, chapters, section, breakout section and functions of the Lonely Planet iPhone City Guide, but I’d rather not spend 6 hours writing a 20 page review…so I’ll just say this…Lonely Planet’s iPhone City Guide offers everything any travellers would need in the cities currently supported by the iPhone City Guides.
Currently iPhone City Guides are available for
Amsterdam
Bangkok
Barcelona
Berlin
Cape Town
Dubai
Dublin
London
Madrid
Miami
Melbourne
Mexico City
Moscow
New York
Paris
Prague
Rome
San Francisco
Seoul
Singapore
Tokyo
While the price tag of US$18.99 is more than most iPhone Apps, it is important to remember that the Lonely Planet iPhone City Guide’s are complete books, with many paperback Lonely Planet City guides offering more than 400 pages of information (the Encounters guides are closer to 250 pages) .
If you’re headed to San Francisco…the Lonely Plane iPhone City Guide is currently on sale for US$1.19 (I wish it was on sale when I bought it!).
As a long time user of Lonely Planet’s paperback guides I am absolutely thrilled to now have the ability to download entire City Guides into my iPhone, allowing me quick access to information while saving space in my bag on the road.
Below are 18 screen shots of Lonely Planet’s iPhone City Guide for San Francisco on my iPhone (I knocked it down to 18 screen shots from my original 92 screen shots…which still didn’t show everything this fantastic App offers).
Oh yea…and if you Google “Lonely Planet iPhone App” the top ranked link goes back to my August 2008 write up on Lonely Planet’s Mandarin Audio Talking Phrase Book
Happy Flying!
