Currency

With over a dozen currency converter utilities on the iPhone platform, several of which are free, there’s really no point in paying money to get this most basic of travel functions on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Currency here is one of the most established titles, contains currency information for almost 100 different countries and is automatically updated every time you start the application. Never mind the unobtrusive advertising banner, just think of this as a polished utility that’s 100% free!

Possibly the most striking aspect of Currency is its interface. Whereas most such utilities would initially present a 1:n ‘exchange rate’ and then only offer an actual money calculator as an afterthought, here the calculator is the main attraction. Need to know how much 8,000 Japanese Yen is in British Pounds? Tap on the Yen line, enter “8000″ then on ‘Done’. You’ll now see the equivalent in pounds, as well as those in your other favourite currencies. And if you want the old fashioned 1:n system, just tap a line and enter just the number “1″ to see the information you want.

Once you get your head around working with real sums rather than scaling up from 1:n rates, Currency is a dream to use. Impressively, every currency you’ve ever heard of is supported (as are quite a lot that you’ll never have seen) and it’s a doddle to add specific currencies to your favourites list, for display on the opening screen. The Apple interface guidelines are followed, more or less to the letter, and I especially liked the display of each country/currency’s flag, for an extra visual clue.

By default, Currency goes online when you start it up, to grab the latest rates, but it’s also clever enough to use the last known rates, should you be out of data/signal coverage. This is now a thoroughly polished little application that deserves to be on the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch of everyone who ever travels abroad.