Lynda.com has just released their much-awaited native iPhone application. Huzzah! Fresh snow outside, the sun is shining, and I now have Lynda.com (natively, with no browser finger gymnastics required) on my iPhone – it’s like Christmas morning.

Read more about it on the Lynda.com blog or just hit iTunes and grab the free app.

The age of anywhere, anytime (literally in your pocket) learning is an exciting time indeed.

My love (and tough love) for Lynda.com online training runs deep, but I’ve always longed for easier, more convenient access. Wouldn’t it be cool if, say, I were able to view Lynda.com training on my iPhone? Why, yes it would. And now, yes it is!

Lynda.com courses are now (finally!) viewable on the iPhone (via Wi-Fi or 3G), providing a new way to turn unproductive time into self-development time. Sure, it’s fun to while away the hours in the doctor’s or DMV’s waiting room playing Fieldrunners, but wouldn’t you rather be learning Photoshop CS4?

It’s disconcerting that we’re already two-plus years into the iPhone Age and this is just now happening, but I’ll take it. It would be nice to see online training stay a little (lot) more cutting edge. Sadly, we’re back to the cumbersome browser-based navigation I griped about in my original review, but it appears help is on the horizon: a native Lynda.com iPhone app due “early 2010.” I swooned! Here’s hoping “early” means, well, early and not August (software developers often appear to use a different English dictionary than I).

In related news, Lynda.com is also rolling out parallel Flash-based content, so you’ll be able to view the training material using either QuickTime or Flash on your desktop machine.

If you haven’t checked out Lynda.com, you really should. I consider their training content required curriculum for anyone in the eLearning and/or presentation design field. At $250/year for all-you-can-eat access ($375/year if you want the exercise files), it could be the best money you spend (aside from, ahem, an iPhone of course).

Thanks to my new friends at Brave New Code and their fantastic (and free!) WordPress plugin, WPtouch, eQuixotic will now look tastier than ever on your iPhone, iPod touch, or Android mobile device. Pinching and squeezing is cool and all, but sometimes mobile-specific is even better.

So what do you need to do? Why, nothing at all! Visit eQuixotic via your computer and you won’t know anything has changed. Drop by on your Apple or Android pocket device and it’s a whole new look.

And thanks to Brave New Code, setting it up was a snap. Seriously. I’m no code monkey, yet I still figured it out in minutes (thanks to their fantastic instructions). I so love polished software (and the people who make it).

Thanks guys! (Donation on the way.)

I’ve written at some length about the importance of fonts in visual design, mainly because so many eLearning developers and presentation designers fail to grasp it – to the great detriment of their products. My rule: use Comic Sans and instantly lose all credibility. But I digress…

I have no doubt that font selection has a tremendous impact on how your content (or product) is perceived by your audience. Believe it or not, the way letters look can often be just as important (if not more so) than what they say. It’s just human psychology. Good marketing folks know this. Good Web designers know this. Good print designers know this. Good eLearning and presentation designers should know this.

I recently had a debate with a good friend of mine regarding the importance of fonts. He, frankly, didn’t see the point – claiming that all fonts ultimately look the same. “Not true” I wailed, aghast at his failure to comprehend such a simple visual design concept. He actually called me a “freak” because I knew the now-famous font Obama used (with great success, obviously) in his presidential campaign (it was Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones, by the way – but of course you knew that).

Fortunately, my friend is not involved in eLearning or visual design in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, many eLearning and presentation designers share his “who cares” attitude about fonts. And that simply must change.

So, how to get started? Well, you might begin your path to font enlightenment by conscientiously looking for fonts that appeal to you – and learning what those fonts are. Some typographic designer put many long days (months, years) of sweat and tears into those letters you’re looking at. It’s true!

Back in June I mentioned the WhatTheFont?! website, where you can identify (and buy) fonts that catch your fancy. I use this site frequently.

And now MyFonts has increased my love for them by releasing the free WhatTheFont font identification app for the iPhone.

The cool thing about WhatTheFont is you can take a photo of text you like, say a sign on a storefront or the cover of a restaurant menu, and WhatTheFont will try to identify it right on your iPhone. Brilliant!

Get font savvy. Please. And if you own an iPhone, give WhatTheFont a look.

Cisco just released the WebEx Meeting Center for the iPhone, and it looks impressive. Very impressive. Sadly, my organization is locked into a WebEx competitor’s product so I don’t have extensive experience with the tool, but I have used WebEx to participate in vendors’ webinars.

Have a look at Cisco’s video demo here, and then get the app for your iPhone (for free) in iTunes.

The iPhone is quickly becoming the ultimate do-it-all pocketable wonder device – including eLearning and virtual collaboration.

But not including, um, copy and paste. (Come on already Apple, this is just getting embarrassing.)

T’would be mighty fine indeed to participate in a webinar while sitting at the airport without having to fire up the laptop. I can’t wait to try it.