When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life — said a fellow who clearly hadn’t spent the entire day road-testing the latest travel apps for the capital on his iPhone.

For the uninitiated, “apps” are applications for Apple’s iPhone (although other phone companies, including BlackBerry and Nokia, are now getting in on the act).

Apps range from the useful (recipe cards, mortgage calculators) via the educational (works by Shakespeare, photography guides) to the downright pointless. Do you really need an app that turns your phone into a virtual pint of beer?

One of the fastest growth areas is in travel. From phrasebooks to guidebooks, museum-finders to cab-finders, the options are limitless — and most cost only 59p. But are they any good? And could they ever replace the traditional guidebook?

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• Alternative city guidebooks and websites

• End of the guidebook?

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Related Links

• Guidebooks: RIP

• W H Smith axes dozens of travel publishers in new exclusive deal

My task was to road-test the iPhone-as-travel-guide around London. So I downloaded a selection of apps and got ready for a day’s sightseeing.

Even before I set off, I had used two of them. I checked the state of the Underground on London Tube Deluxe (59p), an excellent device that combines a Tube map with live status updates on all lines. The Jubilee line was running with no delays, which made a change. I’d be getting on at Willesden Green and heading for Bond Street, so I checked with Tube Exits (59p) to learn where I should board to be next to the exit when I arrived. Middle of carriage four, apparently. Useful. Especially if you’re lazy.

More apps were called into play as soon as I got out at Bond Street, as a middle-aged Spanish couple accosted me, map in hand. “Wax me, sir?” they asked. “Que?” I replied. “Wax me, sir,” they said, jabbing the map. “Ah, si,”

I said. “Westminster.”

I didn’t fancy their chances on the Tube, so I opened up London Bus (59p) to see if a double-decker might take them there. There’s a map with all the routes marked, but it can be tricky to follow, so I used the route guide, typing in Bond Street, then Westminster. We were in luck: the 159 goes from round the corner, and will take 18 minutes, apparently.

After a lot of hand signals and pointing (me), and many graciases (them), off they went, and I turned to one of the London guides I had downloaded earlier. Proguides — London (59p) boasts: “Instantly immerse yourself in London culture.” Instead, I was instantly annoyed by Proguides. It didn’t work. It had a picture of Tower Bridge and categories such as Districts, Get Around, See and Do, but I tapped away at the screen and... nothing. Rubbish.

I had no time to muck around, so I moved on to iLondon (59p).

This is based on lists of the top 10 places of interest in various categories — such as Italian restaurants, bars, fashion boutiques and five-star hotels. You tap on a Tube map to bring up a list of attractions nearby. At least, that’s the idea, but I couldn’t get that bit to work, either.

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