Description:
While there are fine freeware products that present maps and similar information, sometimes it's just worth investing the cash in a product as fantastic as Lonely Planet's CitySync. So well designed and so encompassing, and yet bite-size, CitySync provides information in categories such as shopping, nightlife, safety, and sleeping in exactly the manner most likely to please travelers most. Integrated maps, keywords to learn more specifics, up-to-date phone numbers, and other vital information from a trusted source make this a key purchase for tech-savvy travelers. The product was painless to install, but it's worth describing some of the technical aspects of loading the program to a Palm. Like the Palm platform, CitySync is Mac and Windows compatible, so owners of either platform can be served. We tested the product on a 2 MB Handspring Visor and had more than enough room to store the information CitySync provided. After installing the product on our hard drive, we were able to seamlessly upload the specific cities we chose. One caveat: although many cities are provided, purchasing the software allows only four cities to be installed. Due to the limited window space, the interface is necessarily complicated. The main screen is icon based, though, and easy to understand. Once you select a hotel or location for more information, things get more confusing. There are a series of drop-down menus that guide you through the vast number of choices. Having spent an hour or two playing with the program, we determined that underlying architecture of the program is sound. It's easy to understand that one series of drop-downs is, for example, a list of neighborhoods within a section of Paris. Where CitySync is truly exemplary, though, is in two areas: maps and reviews. These two key elements are also linked, which is an impressive and much-needed functionality. (The makers also include a notepad function where you, the user, can make additional comments as if writing in the margins of a Lonely Planet guidebook.) The maps are clear and well marked, and the content of the reviews is wildly well written. For example, match these introductory sentences to the city they describe: - "On a cold, brutally windy day, when the temperature is subzero and strong gusts keep you from walking down the street, you may find yourself wondering who the hell decided to build a city and settle here?"
- "[This is a city] that demands the suspension of disbelief--the moment you start to take it seriously you miss the point."
- "[City dwellers] may talk fast and walk fast and pay $10 for a sandwich, but this megacity sometimes demands that you assault it with a game plan."
- "First-time visitors often arrive with all sorts of expectations: of grand vistas, of highbrow intellectuals pontificating in streetside cafes, of romance, of naughty nightclub revues."
By avoiding blandness and giving the reader a true sense of the city, the Lonely Planet authors both inform and inspire. (The answers, by the way, are the four cities we picked: Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, and Paris.) A fantastic use of the Palm platform, Lonely Planet CitySync should be the standard for Palm products set on delivering readable and engaging content. --Jennifer Buckendorff
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