IN SHORT: You know those audio guides you can get when you visit some tourist destinations these days, explaining what everything is and how it works? Well this is like one of those, only it covers everything on the planet. Of course, the downside is you’ll need an Internet connection and you won’t get the info for every little scribble, but at a one off price and with such a thorough directory, we can’t moan really…
THE LOWDOWN: This is, essentially, a guidebook that speaks to you. Using the Wikipedia entries on sites from all over the world (this can, occasionally, be a downfall – overkill on detail on some of the larger locations, for example), but in many ways its as good as having a professional stood next to you and filling you in on the details. More than a quarter of a million global locations are covered, with maps, a clever location mode that allows you to find out what’s nearby (and how nearby, in mile or kilometres) and even an auto play mode that has your iPod taking over the tour guide role in its own right as you walk through any major city. The spots covered are expansive – where we are, for example, anything from the history of the local park to a full on recital on the city hall can be accessed and listened to, with plenty of information even the lonely planet doesn’t cover. We’ve even spotted a few new things we weren’t aware of before. There’s also constantly updated feature content (away from the Wikipedia stuff), though a lot of the more enticing content doesn’t make it onto the lite version, making the full version comfortably worth a mere five dollars.
PRICE: $4.99 for the full version, though there is also a free ‘lite’ version. It’s probably worth sampling the lite one first just to see if you find it useful…
LINKS: Click here for the full version, and here for the lite version.
