Frommer's Introduces Travel Guide iPhone Apps

How much did Frommers pay for you to post that? ;)

How much did Frommers pay for you to post that? ;)

seemed moderately interesting. :)

arn

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...."

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:
[LIST=1]
[*]Accuracy
[*]Use of location based features
[*]Stabiltiy
[*]Resource usage (Flash)
[*]The usage of various services (Location, Net connections and the like)
[*]Graphics Quality (image sizes, zoom ability)
[*]Responsiveness
[/LIST]

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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