Rome: The Ancient City is available in the App Store now for just $9.99.

In addition to adding yet another city to our iPhone catalog, this is the first city to be released with version 1.1 of our player software. The rest of our published iPhone catalog has also been upgraded and submitted to Apple and is pending approval. Version 1.1 has several improvements:

• Addition of a volume slider especially for iPod touch users. Since most our staff are iPhone users, we overlooked the fact that the iPod touch has no volume controls other than what the app puts on the screen. (Sorry!) This oversight has been corrected.
• Zooming support. The map can now be zoomed in and out either by pinching or double tap/two finger double tap, just like the built in maps.
• Better resume support. Several bugs were fixed so that the app now does a far better job of remembering where tracks were if playback is paused for any reason.

Now that 1.1 is out the door, we are beginning to plan for the next release. We would love to hear any feedback or suggestions that people might have.

I’m happy to announce that our Paris: Montmartre tour is now available on the App Store. Just like the London tour, the map is included in the app so that you don’t need to print a map or even have a network connection to walk this walk.

We are hard at work preparing even more walks for the iPhone, so stay tuned for the next release!

The walki-talki.com self guided mp3 audio walking tour of London is now available as an iPhone app

I’m happy to report that our London tour is now available as an iPhone app. The app version of the tour features a dynamic map, so no more printing maps! In fact, locals just might ask you, the tourist, for directions.

We designed the app with a self contained map. Therefore no network connection is needed while you are walking, so there won’t be any unpleasant surprises when you come home and get your phone bill.

London is available now in the App Store. Our other destinations will be available in the App Store soon. We are very excited about the possibilities that the iPhone opens for our tours. Stay tuned for more updates …

For those who are not particularly fond of the iPod’s operating system and who are rather technically inclined, there is now a solution. Get the software (linked above) and install your favorite flavor of Linux on the iPod.

“Why?” you may ask? There is no other motivation for the geek other than the fact that a challenge is there, but just as the geek curiosity to use the iPod to record internet broadcasts turned into the podcasting craze, this obsession with the iPod’s operating system may eventually lead to entirely new uses for the iPod. Should that happen, we here at walki-talki.com will be sure to be at the forefront.

Another fabulous and free program that can be used to manage your iTunes library and to synchronize your music with a large variety of music players and mobile phones is Floola. Floola is difficult to describe, but it promises to be the ultimate piece of software to read, to process, to manage and to synchronize your iTunes playlist with your iPod, certain mobile phones and mp3 players. Best of all, Floola is available for all platforms: Linux, Windows, and OS X.

So, bear in mind that you need not get trapped into the iTunes/iPod juggernaut. It’s not total freedom, but a definite break from the mainstream.

Incidentally, in the other review, The Telegraph mentioned walki-talki.com as one of the best overall tours. So, if you’ve been looking for that perfect travel companion for your iPod or iPhone, look no further.

We told you earlier about subway maps for your iPod. It is not surprising at all that a similar service is now available for the iPhone. Why should this iPhone service be better than the iPod service? The iPhone offers more visualization features than the iPod. (Although the new iPod Touch matches many of the iPhone’s features.) Along with the bigger screen, the new visualization features of the iPhone and iPod Touch make it possible for you to use the device to follow the pdf map for each tour, as well as examine the additional media that we supply with each track.

This is awfully convenient from walki-talki.com’s point of view, of course, because the iPhone and the iPod Touch can each serve as a single comprehensive solution for deploying our walking tours. You can play our tours, view the pdf map, and decide which subway route to take to your next stop.

In my own travels as of late, I have noticed that fewer and fewer hotels store a copy of the Bible in the desk drawer. This development never bothered me, but there were at times a sense of unease. Nothing bad ever happened, of course, but it felt as if I was being cared for perhaps a bit less than in times past. If you have ever had this feeling, or if you ever feel it is necessary to have a copy of the Bible with you on your travels, follow the link above to take a copy of the King James Bible with you on your iPod along with our mp3 walking tours of Europe.

For a slightly higher price, you can order the Old Testament, too.

None of this should be construed as endorsements of any kind. Rather, these are merely links to satisfy any curiosities you may have had.

Payam

Before you poo-poo this notion, bear in mind that just last week, Apple, Inc., (Yes, their official new name) started selling DRM-free music. Of course, Apple is very clever about it. They are using it as a marketing ploy to charge an extra 30 cents per song–the “theft premium”, if you will. That’s probably what they mean by iTunes Plus. (In the interest of full disclosure: I am an Apple stockholder.) So, this is a very real trend, and we are pleased to be at its frontier.

And, unlike Apple, we do not embed any personal information into the audio files that we deliver to you.

So, if you want DRM-free media to become the norm, put your money where your mouth is. Buy your walking tours from walki-talki.com, and buy your music from DRM-free outlets like www.audiolunchbox.com, ww.pastemusic.com, www.bleep.com, and www.betterpropaganda.com among many, many other outlets of DRM-free music. Of course, it’s now fair to count the iTunes Music Store as one of these outlets.
You will be shocked to learn how little it costs to start a revolution. To be precise, it costs roughly $0.99 a track. Substantially less at walki-talki.com.
Payam

Then, the question that may come up is this one: can I use my generic mp3 player with iTunes? The answer is “yes”! Enter iTunes Agent. This is but one of the many wonderful free, open source software titles we will mention in this blog. iTunes Agent is a completely free program that synchronizes your iTunes library with any mp3 player. As you can see in the graphic, you can synchronize your iTunes library with mobile phones, too.

So, if you like the simplicity of iTunes, but you are not impressed by the hype around the iPod, get iTunes Agent, and take your music with you. Better yet, take our self-guided mp3 audio walking tours of your favorite European cities with you.

iTunes agent is for Windows only, so we Apple users will have to wait.

Payam