Lonely Planet launches Audio Phrasebooks on Apple App Store

Lonely Planet has announced that its Audio Phrasebooks for iPhone and iPod touch are now available for sale on the Apple App Store, providing travellers with mobile access to its best-selling phrasebook content in 10 languages.

Published: 18 Jul 2008

Lonely Planet has announced that its Audio Phrasebooks for iPhone and iPod touch are now available for sale on the Apple App Store, providing travellers with mobile access to its best-selling phrasebook content in 10 languages.

"In combination with the Apple App Store we now have a complete ecosystem for developing and distributing a new generation of compelling travel products to our community," said Chris Boden, Lonely Planet's director of global business development. "It's obvious that travellers are increasingly using technology to enhance their journeys. No matter where you are in the world, with your iPhone or iPod touch and a little help from Lonely Planet, you'll be conversing like a local," said Boden.

Each Audio Phrasebook application includes over 600 spoken (and phonetically written) phrases.

Applications are currently available for English speakers with phrase translations in Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, Thai, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese – with the Mandarin Phrasebook offered free for a limited time to coincide with the Beijing Olympics.

Drawing heavily on the intuitive layout of Lonely Planet's print phrasebooks, the iPhone applications allow users to easily select a relevant phrase category such as Greetings or Eating Out, by simply tapping that category on the iPhone's touch screen and then flicking through corresponding phrases using the iPhone's Multi-Touch feature to find the phrase they need. A further tap shows the foreign language translation and plays the audio through the iPhone's speakers - enabling the phrasebooks to be used as both a translation and learning tool.

Lonely Planet also plans to provide more language combinations over the next few months, such as French to Mandarin.

Lonely Planet's Audio Phrasebooks are available for US$9.99 / AU$12.99 / £5.99 / €7.99 from Apple's App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/

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