Lonely Planet's travel guides for Italy, Spain, France, Great Britain and Ireland – the five European countries most visited by Americans in the summer – will be sold as e-books through Apple's iBook stores. Although designed specifically for the iPad, they will be accessible on iPhones with 4.0 system software.
Like the company's Discover series of printed books, these will feature custom itineraries, maps and travel tips; as e-books, users will be able to bookmark pages, take notes, and search for points of interest by keyword. Guides for Japan, Thailand and Australia will follow.
(Reuters) | Cost: US$14.99 | Requires: iPad or iPhone 4.0 | For further info...

AnyBizSoft PDF Converter for Mac is an integrated 6-in-1 solution for converting PDF files into six common document formats: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB, HTML and Text. With it, Mac users can extract data, or edit PDF contents in Word, rearrange information or calculate data in a PDF table in Excel, create interactive PowerPoint presentations from PDF materials, convert PDF documents into e-books to read on the Apple iPad or other portable readers, repurpose PDF content for publishing online.
(PR Newswire) | Cost: US$69.95 (20% discount for STOPPRESS readers)| Requires: Mac OS X (Windows v. also available)| For further info click here, and see also our full product review

July 27, 2010, Update: From July 26 to August 8, 2010, anyone visiting the AnyBizSoft Facebook page can get a free licence of their AnyBizSoft PDF to Word for Mac, worth $39.95.

myManuals 3.3 from MOApps simplifies the creation of instruction manuals, in HTML, PDF, XML, .doc, RTF or webarchive formats. Features include one-click creation of tables of contents, easy annotations to illustrations, search features, text styles, custom meta tags, custom HTML, autosave, templates, and more.
(Macintouch) | Cost: US$24.95 | Requires: MacOS X 10.5+ | For further info...

An email making the rounds on the Net entitled "CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS" is a hoax, according to snopes.com: Johns Hopkins did not publish the information, which often is an email attachment, nor does it endorse its contents. The email also contains an incorrect spelling of our institution as "John" Hopkins; whereas, the correct spelling is "Johns" Hopkins. For more information about cancer, please read the information the Johns Hopkins web site or visit the National Cancer Institute's web site at.”
(Circulating email) | For further info...

Want ideas where to travel next? VisualDNA for Travel analyzes your true inclinations by asking you a series of questions – such as "What's your kind of hotel?", "What's your kind of food?", Who are you travelling with?" etc. – where you answer by clicking on the photo of the travel destination appeals to you most from.
(Montreal Gazette) | Cost: | For further info...

RepairPal Auto Repair Expert is a free iPhone app that will give you an accurate estimate of how much a car repair job should cost, for comparison with what you're actually quoted at the dealership or at an independent shop. With internet access, it will even give you a list of nearby repair shops complete with address, contact details and service ratings. Designed as an iPhone equivalent of the free online service at RepairPal.com, accuracy is reportedly quite good, although users should note that it is US-oriented, so repair shop listings are US only, figures are in US dollars, and costs may be different in Canada, UK, and elsewhere. But still worth it as a ballpark figure.
(CanWest News Service) | Cost: Free | Requires: iPhone, iPod Touch | For further info...

Macworld provides basic tips on practising safe computing. Although oriented for Mac OS X, many of the tips are applicable for PC users as well, as they cover issues such as choosing a good password; securing your home network; what to do when you're on a public network; strategies for minimising the risk of infection by trojan horses or spyware when online; backup strategies; and using single-site browsers (SSBs).
(Macworld) | Requires: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux\Unix | For further info...

In a bid to give a definitive answer as to the scientific advice as to what is the best physical exercise for health, New Scientist gives Nine Facts About Fitness, based on a distillation of the decades of scientific studies. Questions answered include: What counts as exercise?; How much exercise and how often?; How do you know if you're getting fit?; Is pumping iron good for you?: Can jogging kill you?; and Do you need to 'push fluids'?
(New Scientist) | For further info...

IXL.com offers math practice for grade levels K-6. First-time visitors can practice any of our more than 1,000 math skills for free, but paid membership also offers detailed individual student assessment (incl. in relation to state standards in the US), progress tracking, goal-setting and awards for students as they master skills.
(ROMS) | Cost: USD $9.95/month, or $79 per annum | Requires: Internet connection | For further info...

When you no longer want a particular application or any of its preference files and other ancillary files, AppZapper will delete them all for you. CleanApp does the same, but AppZapper also offers you a convenient place to store all the purchase information for each app (date of purchase, the company's website, the licensee's name, and registration key). It also offers a "Hit List", where you can scan your list of applications and delete the ones you don't want.
(Ars Technica) | Cost: US$12.95 | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ (10.6+ for v.2.x) | For further info...

Sceptics about electric cars cite many arguments why they are impractical or not a good idea. Plug in America examines twelve of them, and shows why they are untrue. These include: "EVs don’t have enough range"; "They are good for short city trips only; "They only replace the tailpipe with a smokestack"; "The charging infrastructure must be built before people will adopt them; "The grid will crash if millions of plug-ins charge at once"; and "There isn’t enough lithium in the world to make all the new batteries."
(Care2.com) | For further info...