Lonely Planet for the iPad

I have been a big fan of the Lonely Planet books ever since I went to Australia with one back in 1987. The books go into lots of detail about where you are going and what to see. One of the greatest things about Lonely Planet books is that they let you know what to expect for price, accommodation, and siteseeing.

Lonely Planet Discover

Like other books available through Apple’s iBooks, Lonely Planet’s Discover series lets you search for specific content within the book or via Google and Wikipedia, zoom in or out on maps and photos, and bookmark and make notes on pages.

All the expert opinion and top recommendations you expect from Lonely Planet are still there, but we’ve created the perfect  interactive product for travel – navigate easily from reviews to specific points of interest displayed on a map.  Bookmark the places you don’t want to miss, take notes along the way, use Google or Wikipedia to search for even more information, email or share suggestions with friends, and click on hyperlinks to get straight to a hotel, restaurant or attraction’s website.

Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences

In contrast to Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences app, the Discover series doesn’t incorporate video. But it does include more than 3,000 hyperlinks to hotel, restaurant or attraction websites, plus detailed maps with imbedded points of interest.

Electronic versions of Books

Electronic reading devices like the iPad and Kindle – which last week introduced a basic, wireless-only version for $139, after cutting the price of its regular e-reader from $259 to $189 – are changing the face of the publishing industry, notes Reuters. Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company, estimated last year that 10 million e-readers will be sold in the United States by the end of 2010.

So what do you think? Is an iPad a good travel device? I think it would be a bit flimsy but nonetheless I think that the Lonely Planet books are great so maybe it would work.