Still buried in guidebook work for 5 titles covering various bits of the UK and Italy. However, a couple of features have appeared online in the last month.

A Guide to Italian Street Names for Frommers.com:

Popes and lovers, assassins and pacifists, artists, scholars, inventors, and industrialists: There are no set criteria to qualify for an Italian street named in your honor — though saints, like important dates in the country’s short history, are pretty much a shoo-in. Among literally thousands (including several named Via John F. Kennedy and Via “Abramo” Lincoln), here are just a handful of monikers to get you started.

Read the rest at Frommers.com

And, for the Sunday Telegraph, an answer to a reader’s question: Can I really use Groupon or similar group-buying websites to find travel bargains? The answer, of course, is yes you can.

More soon.

With my head firmly buried in four separate major guidebook projects (including a completely revamped edition of Tuscany & Umbria With Your Family due out in April), as well as commissioning some great new additions to the Instant Cities series of iPhone apps, this Autumn has been a little light on the journalism front. In addition to a feature on essential technologies to take travelling, for Singapore Airlines’ inflight magazine SilverKris (not online), I wrote about Finding the best late holiday deals for the UK’s Sunday Telegraph. The piece covered private sales and auctions, smartphone and iPad apps, deals newsletters, luxury hotel discounters, Twitter, Facebook, cashback sites, forums and voucher websites. Anyway, read it all at telegraph.co.uk.

More coming soon…

Following soon after the release of my Instant Florence app last month, Instant Turin for the iPhone was released into the App Store on the first of this month. It’s my second contribution to the Instant Cities series of travel apps produced by smart start-up Never Odd Or Even (of Ask the Hoff fame).

Once again, we’re hoping that a combination of photo-driven menus, original content, and a keen price (£1.79/$2.99) will be a winner. We certainly think the app is pitched just right for anyone spending a weekend in the capital of Piedmont. Turin is a great (and much under-rated) city, and I hope my love for the place comes across in the app.

If you want to buy Instant Turin, this link opens iTunes and takes you straight to it. If you would like to review the app for your website or publication, then drop me a line and I’ll arrange a review copy for you.

If you’ve used the app and have any comments, then please leave them below. We’re always trying to make better stuff, and feedback really helps.

The first of three iPhone apps I’ve authored has just been approved by Apple. Instant Florence, co-created with the exceedingly smart folk at Never Odd Or Even, went on sale a few days ago.

Anyone familiar with travel apps on the iPhone knows that there are a daunting number of competitors for our new app, and writing for a startup means there’s almost no cash for marketing. Happily, most of what’s out there uses unoriginal text scraped from Wikitravel and given a shiny custom coat. Ours is original content researched and written from scratch (and also has a shiny coat). Some have been created from the bones of books. Ours has only ever been an app; it’s a square peg designed for a square hole. We think that tailoring the content to its function gives us an advantage in a crowded market. If you’re looking for a photo- and menu-driven guide to the city of the Renaissance, we think Instant Florence is the best product in the App Store. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you have any questions or comments about the app, do get in touch. If you want to buy Instant Florence, this link opens your iTunes account. And watch this space. There’s more coming soon.

Below are two screenshots from the app. Feel free to use them.

Imagine how much better your guidebook would be if it knew exactly where you were as you read it, what time of day it was and your interests. Welcome to the world of the app.

An “app” (short for application) is basically a program designed to perform a task. You use them already: your word-processor is an app, so is your internet browser. Now the smartphone – mobile phones that do a whole lot more than make calls – has put the app into your pocket.

For travellers the app is big news.

Read the rest at Telegraph.co.uk.