Archive for the ‘etextbooks’ tag
Apple brings etextbooks to iBooks on the iPad no comments
Apple yesterday announced a new version of iBooks that will support interactive textbooks on the iPad. Apple also released iBooks Author, a new app which simplifies the creation of textbooks and other graphic and multimedia rich ebooks for anyone using a Mac computer. The new ebook authoring app uses pre-designed page layout templates that enable authors to include multimedia and interactive elements in their creations.
Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have started making iPad versions of their high school textbooks available through the new educational section of the iBookstore.
iBooks 2 is free at iTunes and iBooks Author is free at the Mac App Store.
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Chegg launches new eTextbook Reader no comments
Chegg announced a new HTML5 based reading app for its digital textbooks today. The new eTextbook Reader is cloud-based and allows students to access their etextbooks on any connected device, including their favorite tablets.
In addition to easy navigation, enhanced highlighting, note taking and search functions, the new eTextbook Reader includes some new features:
- Instant Definitions: Select any word or short phrase and instantly see the dictionary and Wikipedia definition.
- Always-on Q&A: Search any text and select "Ask A Question" to instantly connect to Chegg’s Homework Help service. Chegg’s community of subject matter experts answer questions, often in fewer than two hours.
- Key Highlights: Turn on a view of the most important content from each eTextbook, crowd-sourced from other users’ eTextbook activities.
For more details see Chegg.com.
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CourseSmart launches etextbook Web app no comments
CourseSmarthas launched a new Web app that enables access to etextbooks and course materials on a variety of mobile devices. The Web app presents textbooks in a digital version that is faithful page by page with the print edition.
There is no downloading process to access the free Web app. On supported browsers, CourseSmart users with an active eTextbook account will automatically be prompted to sign into the Web app when they begin reading their eTextbooks. Any future enhancements for the app are automatically updated, eliminating the need to visit an app store to obtain the latest app version.
The app is supported by Amazon Silk, Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the following devices: Kindle Fire, iPad and Android™ 3.0 and higher OS tablets.
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Free ebooks for Kindle & other ereaders – 10/20/2011 no comments
A long list of new and recent freebies to choose from today:
Spy Hunt in D.C. by Max Connelly (5 stars/1 review) Spy thriller set in 1949. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
The Dead Saint (Bishop Lynn Peterson) by Marilyn Brown Oden (4 stars/27 reviews) Political thriller. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
IRREFUTABLE by Dale Roberts (4 1/2 stars/5 reviews) Mystery, Thriller. Detective must clear his own name after DNA evidence points to himself. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Wrecker by Dave Conifer (4 stars/32 reviews) Thriller.
Candied Crime (DJ´s Daim Stories) by Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen (5 stars/1 review) Flash crime fiction. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Glass House by Patrick Reinken (4 stars/3 reviews) Legal thriller. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Deadly Gamble: The First Charlie Parker Mystery (Charlie Parker Mystery Series) by Connie Shelton (3 1/2 stars/24 reviews) Murder mystery; amateur female sleuth.
Hunting Delilah by Anne Baines (no reviews) Crime fiction. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Trial by Fury (A Righteous Novella) (The Righteous) by Michael Wallace (4 stars/4 reviews) Thriller. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Dark Visions by Jonas Saul (4 1/2 stars/6 reviews) Paranormal Thriller, Mystery.
Neptune Crossing (The Chaos Chronicles) by Jeffrey A. Carver (4 stars/16 reviews) Science fiction; save the world with the help of aliens discovered on one of Neptune’s moons.
The Phoenix Conspiracy by Richard Sanders (4 stars/2 reviews) Sci-Fi; interstellar conspiracy. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Deep Black Beyond by Annie Bellet (no reviews) Sci-Fi short story collection.
Rogue Hunter: Quest of the Hunter by Kevis Hendrickson (4 stars/17 reviews) Science fiction; female interstellar bounty hunter. Other books in this series are also free.
Sunrise (Miscorrection) by B.C. Young (4 stars/2 reviews) Short Sci-Fi.
Bakkian Chronicles, Book I – The Prophecy by Jeffrey Poole (4 1/2 stars/11 reviews) Fantasy. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
The End of the World by Andrew Biss (4 stars/9 reviews) Fantasy.
The Rootless by Angelo Tsanatelis and Blackveil (5 stars/1 review) Fantasy. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Thirteen Shadows: Ghost Stories by Aaron Polson(4 1/2 stars/2 reviews) Horror short story collection. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Coombe’s Wood by Lisa C. Hinsley (4 1/2 stars/43 reviews) Horror.
An Unwanted Hunger by Ciana Stone (3 stars/36 reviews) Vampires. Also free at Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
Drippy the Peg Legged Rainbow, A Story for Demented Children by John H. Carroll (4 stars/1 review) Fantasy. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Down A Lost Road by J. Leigh Bralick (4 1/2 stars/3 reviews) Fantasy. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
The Golden Acorn (The Adventures of Jack Brenin) by Catherine Cooper (4 stars/43 reviews) YA fantasy.
City of the Falling Sky (The Seckry Sequence Book 1) by Joseph Evans (5 stars/5 reviews) YA science fiction. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
My Lunatic Life by Sharon Sala (4 stars/7 reviews) YA paranormal fiction.
Promise (Soul Savers) by Kristie Cook (4 1/2 stars/12 reviews) Romantic fantasy.
Code Blue by Richard Mabry (3 1/2 stars/68 reviews) Medical romantic mystery from a faith-based publisher. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Clockwork Chloe by Ian Thomas Healy (5 stars/1 review) Steampunk; Historical western romance. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Change of Heart by Fran Shaff (4 1/2 stars/2 reviews) Historical romance; 1850s Nebraska. Also free at Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
When Love’s at Work (Book one of the Embracing Love Trilogy) by Merri Hiatt (3 stars/1 review) Contemporary romance. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Sweet Baklava by Debby Mayne (3 1/2 stars/41 reviews) Contemporary romance from a faith-based publisher. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Kisses for Lula by Samantha Mackintosh (no ratings) Teen fiction.
The Lost Princess in Winter’s Grip (Tell Me A Story Bedtime Stories for Kids) by Josh Kilen (5 stars/1 review) Children’s fiction.
Sixty-7 (Family Secrets) by Aynoit Ashor (3 1/2 stars/10 reviews) Short Contemporary Fiction.
Troublesome Creek by Janice Daugharty (no reviews) Contemporary fiction; Southern small town; humor. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Diary of a Discontent by Alexander Lurikov (no ratings) Short contemporary fiction. Also free at Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
Jungle Kill by Jim Eldridge (no ratings) Action & Adventure; Special Forces rescue captive from West African bandits.
Moments in Time (Chronicles of Eternity) by J.A. Gordon (5 stars/1 review) Historical fiction set in ancient Rome.
The Price of Numbers by Thomas K. Carpenter (no ratings) Historical fiction. Also free at Barnes & Noble.
Finding the Top Stocks: Strategies for Success Top Stocks 2012 by Martin Roth (no ratings) Investing.
Overcoming Redundancy by Gordon Adams (no ratings) Self-Help; Career.
Growing a better future: Food Justice in a resource-constrained world (expanded edition English) by Robert Bailey, Duncan Green, Naomi Hossain and Kate Kilpatrick (5 stars/1 review) Nonfiction.
Kaplan New GRE: An Introduction to the GRE Revised General Test (no ratings) Test Guide. Also free at Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
CK-12 Trigonometry by CK-12 Foundation (4 stars/6 reviews) High school level textbook. This is one of several free textbooks from CK-12.
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Kobo is having a contest to promote its new Vox tablet. Every ebook purchased at Kobo until Oct 31, 2011 counts as an entry. Kobo will be awarding 10 Vox tablets. See Kobofor details.
CourseSmarthas a coupon code — BUY2SAVE10 — that will give a 10% discount on purchases of two or more etextbooks through Oct 22, 2011. CourseSmart also now offers free trials of its digital textbooks.
The Kindle Deal for today is Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski (4 1/2 stars/33 reviews). The price has been reduced to $1.99 for today.
The first of three explosive pulp thrillers arriving back-to-back from cult crime fiction sensation and Marvel Comics scribe Duane Swierczynski.
Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner’s entire family, fears one thing above all else: that he’ll suffer the same fate.
Languishing in self-imposed exile, Hardie has become a glorified house sitter. His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men who specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it’s the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world: The Accident People.
The Moto Xoom 32GB Honeycomb tablet is one of Amazon’s Gold Box Deals and is priced at $339.99 today.
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CourseSmart partners with 9 additional publishers no comments
CourseSmart today announced that it has formed partnerships with nine additional publishers: Oxford University Press (USA); Oxford University Press, Canada; W.W. Norton; American Technical Publishers (ATP); BarCharts; ASM Press; Paradigm Publishing; Vista Higher Learning; and University Readers.
With the new publishers on board, CourseSmart now offers more than 20,000 etextbooks from 31 publishers, representing 90 percent of all core higher education textbooks used in today’s curriculums.
"Our new publishing relationships will enable us to continue expanding our footprint and further solidify our position as the world’s largest provider of digital course materials. The additional titles and content to our higher education catalog will allow more students and faculty to enjoy the benefits of our digital course materials, including anytime, anywhere access, cost savings and efficiencies, device agnostic applications and other digital benefits inherent in our offerings," said Sean Devine, chief executive officer at CourseSmart. "We will continue to engage with other higher education-focused publishing houses to ensure we meet the growing demand for eTextbooks and other digital course materials."
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Kno adds 3D and multimedia to etextbook app no comments
Kno has added 3D and multimedia to its Textbooks for iPad app. According to Kno the 3D feature “makes it easier for students to grasp difficult concepts by
instantly turning 2D figures into interactive 3D models that jump off the page.”
Initially the 3D feature (which is still a beta version) will be in chemistry textbooks. The 3D views should help students to better understand complex and abstract figures by allowing them to rotate and zoom 360-degree views of objects.
The Smart Links feature, which is also in beta, enables links in Kno’s digital textbooks to free educational videos and other material from Khan Academy, websites and links to related material in other digital textbooks.
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Amazon launches Kindle textbook rental with flexible rental periods no comments
Amazon today announced the launch of Kindle Textbook Rental. The program allows students to pay only for the exact time the digital textbook is needed by choosing a rental length of between 30 and 360 days. According to Amazon a 30 day rental can save up to 80 percent off the list price of the print version. If more time is needed when the initial rental period is over, the rental can be extended multiple times by as little as one day.
Another feature is that all notes and highlights are saved in the cloud after the rental expires. The etextbooks can be read on a Kindle ereader or on one of the free Kindle reading apps.
For more details see the Kindle Textbook Rental store.
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Kno releases Textbooks for iPad no comments
You may recall Kno, the startup that planned to launch the large and expensive single and dual-screened tablets for use with digital textbooks.
When this proved to not be viable, Kno decided instead to concentrate on developing its digital textbook reading software for use on other platforms. A couple of months ago Intel Capital invested $20 million dollars in Kno.
Kno today announced the launch of Textbooks for iPad, a digital textbook app. At launch there are over 70,000 titles that are priced 30-50 percent off list price. The app will also handle PDF files.
Some of the features of the app include:
- Page numbers that match those of the physical textbook.
- Highlighting and annotations; Sticky notes.
- Preview an entire chapter and jump to any page.
- Organize your textbooks & PDF documents by class and term.
- Social learning features: Ask questions or share comments with friends.
- Display works in both portrait and landscape mode; Pinch to zoom enabled; Double tap illustrations to enlarge.
- 15-day money back guarantee on textbooks.
Textbooks can be purchased from within the app, but are a bit cheaper if you instead use the iPad’s browser to go to Kno.com and do your shopping there. In addition to selling digital textbooks Kno has an etextbook rental program.
Kno is running a promotion, the Early Bird Program, that will refund the purchase price of one of your text books at the end of the promotion. Participation involves sharing your thoughts on the new Kno app in product feedback sessions. To join this program like Kno on its Facebook page and then fill out the form.
The Textbooks for iPad app is free at the App Store.
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CourseSmart launches etextbook app for Android no comments
CourseSmart has announced the release of CourseSmart for Android 1.0, a mobile app that gives students access to their etextbooks from CourseSmart on their Android-powered smartphones, netbooks and tablets.
Some of the features the new app provides:
- Search for a topic within a single book or across an entire eTextbook stack and access the table of contents;
- Zoom in on text and graphs;
- Scroll through or jump to individual pages;
- Read eTextbooks in landscape or portrait mode;
- View, add and edit text notes.
- Enjoy anytime, anywhere access to 90 percent of all core higher education textbooks in use today; and
- Shop for additional books at up to 60 percent off using a specialized AOS version of CourseSmart’s website
The app is available at the Android Market or at CourseSmart.
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VitalSource Launches Bookshelf App for iPad & iPhone 1 comment
Leading etextbook provider VitalSource has announced a free app that lets students and faculty access their full etextbook content as well as notes and annotations from their iDevices.
The VitalSource Bookshelf app is now available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Notes and highlights made on other Bookshelf platforms are synced with the new iOS app.
Using the new VitalSource Bookshelf® iOS app, the full e-textbook, student notes and highlights are downloaded to the device, making it unnecessary to be connected to the Internet to access the full content. VitalSource Bookshelf is the only digital textbook platform providing synchronization across download, online and mobile delivery methods.
The VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook app supports the full VitalSource library of titles, including popular higher education textbooks, study guides and classics on Apple’s popular iPad™, iPhone®, and iPod Touch® and other mobile devices.
VitalSource currently offers over 60,000 titles from top textbook publishers. The Bookshelf app is free at iTunes.
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