In response to the travel chaos caused by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which has covered northwest Europe in a massive cloud of ash, Lonely Planet is offering 13 of its European iPhone city guides free to stranded travellers.

I just found out about this service. It’s a great way to get your voicemails while you’re on holiday, and not have to pay roaming to hear them. I remember when I was in Germany last week, I got several voicemails that I never bothered to listen to because I didn’t want to pay roaming to hear it. This is a very cool service I just started using today.

I used Rick Steves’ Guide when I backpacked Europe. It was awesome. I didn’t have to book anything or plan anything until I got there. I felt like I knew things only a local would know. And I could just skim cities before deciding if I wanted take a train over there. Great times.

Truphone recently launched Local Anywhere. I think it’s pretty cool. It allows you to make calls at local rates by purchasing their international sim card, so it’ll be very convenient for frequent travellers. Not having to manage various SIMs and unlocking and searching and topping up would be great.

I’m really excited to try this Personal Assistant app. Siri can help you find and plan things to do. You can ask Siri to find a romantic place for dinner, tell you what’s playing at a local jazz club or get tickets to a movie for Saturday night.

It’s no secret games are the most popular type of apps on iTunes, but the dynamics are changing. As someone who’s very interested in technology and mobile applications, I wanted to get more insight on the most popular apps.

Games and Entertainment apps again make up the majority. There’s not many categories that can break into the Top. Despite their popularity as shown by 148apps data, there’s no Education or Books in the Top100

My friend recommended Timeout’s iPhone app for London. The magazine is the most popular and definitive guide on what to do in London and their app comes just as highly recommended. The magazine costs £2.99 but the app is free!

So today I downloaded it and tried it out. This app is pretty amazing. I think it beats out apps by Urbanspoon and Spoonfed. You can save yourself 4 minutes of reading by just downloading it because it’s free, so no risk. Here’s the review:

The innovative and famous online travel agency, Lastminute.com has come up with a bunch of great smartphone apps. It’s called Labs, but I think they just get talented people in a room, throw some money at them, and let them explore cool ideas related to travel. Very cool. Maybe as cool as VCIC.

Nike City guide app for iPhone
Source: Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 13-Jan-10, 11:50
LONDON – Nike Sportswear has launched a free iPhone app, True City, giving access to a live community of “tastemakers” sharing what’s happening in six European cities including London and Berlin.
The cities covered by the app are London, Berlin, Milan, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris. Locals, dubbed Nike Insiders, will keep the community up to date with the latest events in their cities.
Users will be encouraged to contribute their own information and opinions to have a chance of becoming Nike Insiders …

I’ve downloaded and tried several travel guides apps for London. My favourite travel guide app for London is London City Slickers.
It’s useful because it has all the great places to see in London, including video and audio content. It’s a great way to preview a place before deciding to go there. It also has 8 video-guided walks which is integrated with Google Maps. Following its walks is a great way to go on a tour of London. This is very much a guide that leads you around to places rather …