Frommer's Introduces Travel Guide iPhone Apps

How much did Frommers pay for you to post that?

Sounds good, though the reviews for the NYC one aren't that great (I know app store reviews aren't reliable, though).

It says it includes maps. Does anyone know if that also means subway or other transporation maps? If so, that would make these a pretty good value with all the other stuff they do.

I'd have to say that's a pretty good value to a traveler/tourist.

"Here's a fun fact...."

Interesting How about a review?

This is a nice start, that is larger publishers taking an interesting in delivering their IP at a reasonable cost. Hopefully they will get editions out that support Las Vegas, ThaiLand, Hawaii and the places people really want to go. Instead they lead off with some of the biggest slums the world have ever seen. Way to go Frommer's!

Now that I got that off my chest how about a review? Seriously there is a huge lack of good review sites on the internet targeted at IPhone apps. You could get some respect if handled properly.

As to what to review:

1. Accuracy
2. Use of location based features
3. Stabiltiy
4. Resource usage (Flash)
5. The usage of various services (Location, Net connections and the like)
6. Graphics Quality (image sizes, zoom ability)
7. Responsiveness

Ideally what you need is a standardized approach to evaluating iPhone Apps.

In any event it is an alternative to posting public threads which by the way are still needed. It is sort of like watching one of the popular movie review shows, the opinions expressed there are only part of the equation when it comes to determing if the show is worth your hard earned dollar.

Just a thought.

Dave

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I use the yelp app for traveling. While it doesn't have a lot of touristy stuff you can always find good food and bars easily. Though I will say that yelp is only in major US cities so far.

Rojo said:

It says it includes maps. Does anyone know if that also means subway or other transporation maps? If so, that would make these a pretty good value with all the other stuff they do.

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One would hope it can tag a Google map or something, but the paper Frommers' guides just have a couple of minimal maps showing where a few key destinations are. I got the Chicago guide as a present before I moved here, earlier this year, and I did use it quite a lot in the beginning, but that was not a particularly redeeming quality. It did cover our ail system, but not in any great detail.

To be honest, the Frommer guide was great for having at home and studying daily to find places to go and things to do, but at least for the Chicago one, the selection in it was fairly limited. They had decent restaurant blurbs but didn't cover that many restaurants. So I'm not sure it'd be all that great to have on my iPhone (if/when the Chicago one comes out).

Now that I've been here a while, it would probably be infinitely more valuable to have something like Zagat's that reviews more restaurants and nightclubs but has less detail in other aspects.

hhlee said:

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I use the yelp app for traveling. While it doesn't have a lot of touristy stuff you can always find good food and bars easily. Though I will say that yelp is only in major US cities so far.

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Not necessarily just major US cities... many smaller ones, too.

scotty96LSC said:

"Here's a fun fact...."

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"....YOU MADE OUT WITH YOUR SISTER!"

I'm curious how much information/detail is included in these iPhone Frommer's Guides?

Their books contain a lot of info - Is everything in the book version included, or just a subset of the content?

m-dogg said:

I'm curious how much information/detail is included in these iPhone Frommer's Guides?

Their books contain a lot of info - Is everything in the book version included, or just a subset of the content?

Click to expand...

That was my first thought. Oddly I didn't use a guide like this on my current trip but I knew I'd be all over the place. I had a plan, but it was a plan that was made to be broken.

I would pay $10 to NOT carry a book around if the guide was just as informative (or close).

I've just bought the London guide and am downloading it now. It's far more useful to me than a book because it will go with me wherever I go and give me something to read on the Tube. Looking at the screenshots, it looks quite in-depth, but will hopefully give me some more info and tell me about the quirky sights and places to eat that the city I live in has to offer. Plus, I'm a sucker for travel guides so it should be a pleasant read anyway.

I'll post back with a review once I've had some time with it.

piecinitup said:

"....YOU MADE OUT WITH YOUR SISTER!"

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CLASSIC!!!!!!

johnnyjibbs said:

I've just bought the London guide and am downloading it now. It's far more useful to me than a book because it will go with me wherever I go and give me something to read on the Tube. Looking at the screenshots, it looks quite in-depth, but will hopefully give me some more info and tell me about the quirky sights and places to eat that the city I live in has to offer. Plus, I'm a sucker for travel guides so it should be a pleasant read anyway.

I'll post back with a review once I've had some time with it.

Click to expand...

Can you comment on the London guide specifically the maps? I am going to Europe next month, and it would be nice to be able to have the London and Paris maps on my phone. Using the built-in GPS would be too expensive, because of the AT&T roaming charges when downloading the Google maps.