Product Reviews

This stylebook encapsulates a huge amount of guidance on spellings, capitalisation and punctuation to ensure you write to the AP's recommendations. That includes nitty-gritty details such as how certain company and product names should appear in headlines and at the start of sentences. This is the 2009 edition, but don't worry about buying it so late in the year, as the 2010 update will be free.

You'll grasp the interface in an instant. There's an alphabetical index and a fast-reacting

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search bar to jump to entries, which beats flicking through a paper edition. An online Stylebook subscription may be more suitable if you write on a Mac that's permanently online, although this app is always with you.

Some entries are disappointingly brief: the one for Apple mentions the location of its headquarters but nothing about its founders or its products. That's understandable in a printed edition, but the app takes up only a few megabytes. It's also lacking as a research tool, as entries aren't hyperlinked to one another. The iPhone entry mentions Apple, but you have to browse to it by hand to check if it contains other relevant styles and facts.

It's flexible in other ways, though. For instance, you can attach notes to entries and add your own to tailor the guide to your publication's needs, but you'll have to copy and paste those customisations into an email to share with your team.

For more iPhone app review like this, check out Know Your Mobile.