CourseSmart brings college textbooks to iPhones
College textbooks are way too expensive, way too heavy, and way too tree-consuming. Electronic textbooks, on the other hand, cost less, weigh nothing, and leave forests alone.
You'd think Amazon's Kindle would be the logical place for e-textbooks to make their mobile-device debut, but CourseSmart's new eTextbooks app brings them to the iPhone and iPod Touch instead.
Specifically, eTextbooks is a companion tool for CourseSmart's textbook subscription service, which makes over 7,000 titles available for download or online viewing.
The app itself is free, but it displays only those books you've "subscribed to" (i.e., rented), and only when you have an active Internet connection. What's more, this version doesn't let you add or edit notes, but that's on the coming-soon list.
You can, however, view notes you've added via your PC. The app also supports keyword searches and lets you skim books by finger-flipping through thumbnails of each page.
Long bouts of reading might prove cumbersome, as the app doesn't reflow text to fit the screen the way, say, the Kindle app does. Each page is more or less a static image, much like a PDF. You can zoom in, scroll around, rotate into landscape mode, and so on. If only Apple offered a tablet-sized iPod Touch!
OK, college students, what do you think? Is this the best thing since bar night, or is the iPhone/Touch screen too small to make e-textbooks practical? Speak your mind in the comments!
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog.
As they are, the Kindles and iPod readers are novelties. But there actually could be practical uses for them as "school books" for kids of all ages - not just college kids. It's worth exploring, if those who make the readers could get the textbook publishers on board with the idea. If you were a kid, which would you prefer - 55lbs of books each day, or a 1lb reader loaded with ALL your books?
I think one day when e-readers are more affordable that schools will have them and the student will go to the library and they will load the books you need for your classes onto one thing. That way, less trees being cut down and less time for teachers of erasing everything the student has written into the book, not to mention less time at a chiropractor for fixing your back after carrying all those books. Also, less expensive.
Given how big (and stealable) some textbooks are, this could be really useful on a number of fronts- though I am curious how large and/or complex tables/graphics will render on the small screen.
::shiny toy center of brain activates::
Time to play...
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by sehgalamit
October 6, 2009 1:37 AM PDT
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