Lonely Planet's released a series of Audio Phrasebooks for iPhone and iPod touch.

Each Audio Phrasebook application includes over 600 spoken (and phonetically written) phrases using native language speakers, covering everything from health (I’m allergic to antibiotics) to going out (Where can I find a pub?). Applications are currently available for English speakers with phrase translations in Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, Thai, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Drawing heavily on the layout of Lonely Planet’s print phrasebooks, the iPhone applications allow users to select a relevant phrase category such as Greetings or Eating Out, by tapping that category on the iPhone's touch screen and then flicking through corresponding phrases using the iPhone's multi-touch feature to find the phrase they need.

A further tap shows the foreign language translation and plays the audio through the iPhone’s speakers - enabling the phrasebooks to be used as both a translation and learning tool.

Lonely Planet’s Audio Phrasebooks are available for $9.99 at the iTunes App Store here.

In related news, Lonely Planet's just released versions of its Audio Phrasebooks for Java-phone users. These are also available in ten languages, but drop the number of included phrases with both text and audio translations down to 200.

In a 2008 Lonely Planet survey of over 18,000 travelers worldwide, 80 percent said they use their mobile phone ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ when travelling. And 56 percent said they took their iPod with them when on holiday.