As unconnected guides, paper books are definitely much better: no battery needed, extremely durable, can be easily lent or borrowed, no cost to use, physically much easier to read etc. Ebooks simply cannot compete with real books when you're out and about.
The only reason you'd want this on a phone is if it somehow used the phone to its advantage. For example phones let you download data even when you're away from a bookshop, so if you unexpectedly need information the phone is better. Another is being able to automatically display information based on your current physical position using GPS.
20-08-2008 07:49 AM
snoyt
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rafe
There's so much more that could be done with the guides (e.g. price stuff you mention would be very helpful), but at least there's something. To be honest guides is a bit of misnomer at the moment - they're premium PoIs to be honest. Its not even very easy to flick through it like you would a paper book (e.g. it be good to read through all the restaurants descriptions in one go and mark which ones you like).
True, paperguides while on the move are often far more practical because of their quick access and no technology is ever needed to read it. A mobile is already taxed by switching network cells,photo's, satnav and with less readily available power-outlets why drain it even more? I'd love to get the POI's for free when I buy a paper planet guide to browse through. Or better yet, have them print QR-codes in the guide with the adres and phonenumber in it ;^)
One lonely planet for Hawaii please, Nokia edition of course.
19-08-2008 07:17 PM
clintonjeff
@ashu : I've used the Lonely Planet guidebooks while traveling around India and they're incredibly useful. They've covered almost every single town in India thats of Touristic importance. So imho this is a win-win whichever way you look at it.
19-08-2008 03:03 PM
Rafe
snoyt - I'll try do a real world use review next time I'm somewhere appropriate. And if someone else has some input please feel free to jump in here or contact me directly.
There's so much more that could be done with the guides (e.g. price stuff you mention would be very helpful), but at least there's something. To be honest guides is a bit of misnomer at the moment - they're premium PoIs to be honest. Its not even very easy to flick through it like you would a paper book (e.g. it be good to read through all the restaurants descriptions in one go and mark which ones you like).
I'd also agree the quality varies enormously even within a certain series.
19-08-2008 02:10 PM
snoyt
Lonely planet guides
I found not all paper lonely planet guides that good. Some where distinctly better than others. For Scotland I found the 'rough guide ' much better i.e (Forgot the publisher/writer). The 10 minutes try-out seems a good idea. In a paperguide is that you can see what kind of information and quality of information you get. A typical interest is POI's categorized by price ranges and quality for eating and sleeping. I am looking forward to a more in-depth review on the guides.
Get a bunch of licenses for all the guides and evaluate each with a local person? Time for a new website? All About Nokia Map Guides?
19-08-2008 01:16 PM
ashu
I am in India!!
Lonely planets will not do justice to me if I purchase it..they anyways have not covered India that much to give me enough POIs...
And no intentions to travel to europe in near future
19-08-2008 12:21 PM
Rafe
Nokia Maps get Lonely Planet content
Content from the Lonely Planet travel guide series is now available in Nokia Maps. The guides are available via the Extras section in the Options menu of Nokia Maps 2.0. The Lonely Planet guides take the form of a collection POIs (Points of Information) which are divided into several categories (Eat, General, Night, See, Shop and Sleep). Read on for more details and screenshots.
