Vindigo is a great application for mobile people --those who travel often and those looking for adventure at home. Vindigo provides guides to various cities on handheld computers. It offers information about restaurants, shopping, and nightlife. Best of all, it's updated frequently and the updates are synchronized with your handheld during HotSync.

Since it seems that pretty much everywhere I turn there is an article mentioning Vindigo, many of them lauding its virtues, I figure it's time I take a good hard look. After all, what better match for a portable device than software that tells you about the city you are traveling to or how to get to that restaurant you have been hearing so much about?

There are other guides available for handheld computers such as CitySync and the Weissmann City Guides, but these hover around $20 each, giving Vindigo a distinct head start over its competitors. Of course, many handheld applications are free (which is often indicative of their true value) and simply don't hold up. I was particularly interested to see if Vindigo would make the cut, since the premise seems so useful.

Getting Vindigo up and running on my device was pretty straightforward (although I did experience one hiccup which I will describe in a bit) and well documented on the Vindigo website (http://www.vindigo.com). Because the application synchronizes with Vindigo's servers each time you HotSync, installation requires a few additional steps than regular programs, such as setting up an account and so on (anyone who uses AvantGo will be familiar with this process). Following the step-by-step instructions, including selecting the city guide or guides you want, takes about 10 minutes barring any problems.

Unfortunately for me, I did not get through the process unscathed. It turns out that as Vindigo uses similar synching technology as AvantGo, the two programs can sometimes conflict (users of the early versions of ePocrates know this problem well). This apparently happens if older versions of AvantGo are in use and supposedly is not a problem if the current versions of both software are installed. In any case, the folks at Vindigo had the good sense to post a clear link on their site with the fix to this problem, making the whole thing no more than a 10 minute detour.

Vindigo currently supports about 20 cities, covering most major US centers as well as London. I toyed with a few different cities that I know reasonably well, but focused most on the New York guide.

Vindigo has information available for the following cities:

• Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Denver, CO
• Ft. Worth, TX
• Houston, TX
• Las Vegas, NV
• London, UK
• Los Angeles, CA
• Miami, FL
• New York, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Twin Cities, MN
• Washington DC

My first stop using the software was the restaurant guide as I figured that would be the piece I would use the most. During setup, I had set my device to use the Zagat's guide as the familiar red book has been my old standby for a number of years now. I also had the option to choose NYToday (produced by the New York Times) as the source, which I thought was a particularly nice touch since local publications often are a little quicker to identify the up and comers. After using them both though, I found the Zagat's version to be more complete so chose to stick with it.

The navigation structure was pretty well laid out, giving me the option to select by category (in this case by type of food) and then sort a number of different ways including distance from my location, rating, name, etc. The detail page had all the necessary information such as address and phone number as well as pages containing the review and directions from the location I specified as my start point. The only thing I found a little difficult to deal with was the column width that the categories were listed in. It was far too narrow to see the full text, cutting off after about 6 or 7 characters. Since the remainder of the screen contained only the logo for the information source and wasn't used for anything, this seemed like a waste of space.

One component of the Vindigo guides is shopping (in actuality there is also a bar guide but I haven't had any chance to use this yet). Now for me this was a little less handy since I don't really spend a whole lot in stores, and even when I do, more often than not it is a few regular stops near my home. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try while wandering around downtown Manhattan to try and find a nearby Barnes & Noble (which worked pretty much perfectly). The guide also has a number of shops that I am pretty sure only exist in New York City (like Century 21) so there is not an overwhelming focus on big chain stores.

Aside from restaurants, my favorite part of Vindigo was the complete movie guide. With listings by theater or by movie it makes finding a nearby showing of just the picture you want to see no more difficult that a few taps. And because Vindigo updates itself when you synchronize your device, the information is always current (assuming you HotSync with some regularity). I must admit that I have become pretty reliant on Moviefone the past few years because it is so easy to find out movie times. But let me say, this is even easier. Add in the reviews from Time Out New York and the whole package is pretty darn impressive.

In all cases, once you enter your location and select a destination, Vindigo gives you detailed walking directions on how to get from point A to B. I stress that these are walking directions and not driving directions. On a few occasions, were I trying to follow these in a car or a taxi, they would have taken me the wrong way on a one-way street or ignored much more efficient routes favoring major thoroughfares. In my opinion this is a bit of a limitation since it forces you to improvise on occasion to work around unexpected obstacles. However, even with this shortcoming the directions do get you in the right general vicinity where common sense can direct the final few steps.

Vindigo supports itself by providing targeted ads in the content it displays on the screen. I was a little curious as to how this would look and how I would react to it since advertising really hasn't made its way onto handheld devices the way that it has on desktop-based browsers. Surprisingly, not only did I not find the ads to be that intrusive, in some cases I actually found them quite useful. The way ads are served is based on your designated location, so if you input your location and start looking for restaurants, the ads displayed would be for restaurants in your general vicinity.

Point-to-Point Directions

On to the things I think could have been done better (since it is much easier to criticize than create). First off is a glaring hole that I think would have been a wonderful feature and can't for the life of me figure out why is not there. Since the application has the capability to let me tell it where I am, and the power to give me directions from that point to hundreds of others in the city, why won't it just let me enter a destination as well? For example, if I just finished a tour of the New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street and Broad Street and I want to get to the Russian Tea Room, no problem. But if instead I have a meeting at 57th Street and 6th Avenue and I need directions I am pretty much screwed (unless of course I happen to know that the Russian Tea Room is close by and just get directions there instead). How much better a traveling tool Vindigo could be if this were available?

Landmarks

Speaking of the New York Stock Exchange, another nice feature would have been a list of landmarks. The obvious benefit of this is for travelers to a city that might want to do a little sight seeing. Even more useful I think though is the importance landmarks play in providing points of reference. For example, I might not remember the name of a store or a restaurant that want to get to, but I am pretty likely to remember that it is right near the Empire State Building. In its current form, this flexibility is simply not present in Vindigo although it does seem that it would be an easy addition.

Throughout my experience with Vindigo I kept trying to decide whether the application was ideal for travelers that are new to a city or for locals. Even now I am still not sure who would benefit most as different parts of the program would appeal to each group (such as the movie guides for locals or the shopping guide for tourists). In some ways this is to its benefit as almost any PDA user would get some benefit out of this software. On the other hand, in trying to appeal to the broadest group possible the program has had to settle for doing a lot of things well but none of them really great.

Suffice it to say, this one's a keeper. While there are things that I definitely think can be improved upon (Vindigo recently announced a few enhancements that I did not have time to test that might address some of my complaints), this is a well-designed and very useful application. Add in the fact that it doesn't cost a dime and there is a clear value proposition that is pretty hard to ignore.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.