Tag: Textbooks »

It's back to school time, so Textbooks are on every student's mind. Textbook Me looks like a winner in finding the best prices.

TextbookMe is pretty straightforward to use, allowing you to search for textbooks manually by entering the title, author, or ISBN, or scan a book’s barcode using the iPhone’s camera. That last method can be a wallet-saver as you shop in your college’s bookstore if you find a cheaper price online and can wait for the textbook to get shipped to you.

Search results include offerings from a variety of stores including Amazon, Half, Barnes & Noble, eCampus, and many more. Each listing will indicate if the textbook available is used or new and its price, and offer a link to let you go right to that online store to buy it via Safari.

There was a vast profusion of cool stuff happening across the 148Apps network this week, but the top of the top was the culmination of our 2011 Best App Ever awards. Head honcho Jeff Scott writes, "It was an amazing year. With over 1.5 million votes cast (over three times the number cast last year) and a record number of nominations, we now have the winners of the 2011 Best App Ever Awards. Thanks to all that voted, nominated, and made these fantastic apps!"

Read the full list of winners, and our own Carter Dotson's take on them, on 148Apps.com.

Kid-friendly GiggleApps featured a review of Fun Clock-Learn to Tell Time. Reviewer Amy Solomon writes, "Few apps actually tackle explaining the true concept of telling time they way this app does. After watching the included video in Fun Clock – Learn to Tell Time, children will be will well on their way to understanding how to read a analogue clock. As a parent, I don’t think I could have explained this better myself, also wishing that this video had been around when I was a child."

Take the time to read the full review on GiggleApps.

Finally, over at Android Rundown, Carter Dotson took a closer look at Apple's recent iBooks education initiative and evaluated it for what it could mean for the Android platform. Dotson writes, "It may not have been the sexiest announcement, but Android supporters – manufacturers and users alike – should not underestimate Apple’s education gambit. Their big push into education with iBooks 2 being optimized for textbooks (both the reading and selling thereof) and iTunes U offering deeper integration with college courses could be the necessary roots they have to lay down for long-term success at the expense of Android."

Read the full commentary on Android Rundown.

And that's the week that was. Don't forget to read a full list of Best App Ever winners at www.bestappever.com, and keep following us on Twitter and Facebook for all the contests, news and reviews you can eat. I'll be playing Jetpack Joyride non-stop until next week, but I'll see you back here then.

Kno for iPad comes to Facebook, giving away over $1,000,000 in free textbooks for use in its app and on Facebook itself. Two new features, Quiz Me and Journal, have just been added to the iPad app as well.

Kno for Facebook is an HTML 5 Facebook app that will let users with a Kno account to read their purchased textbooks right in their Facebook account environment. Never again will the poor college student miss a Farmville request! Kno is giving away their $1,000,000 via a Facebook Spin The Wheel game, where players can win up to $50 in credits to spend at Kno.com.

The iPad app gets two new features today: Journal and Quiz Me. The Journal feature is an activity stream that collects all the highlights, text notes, audio notes, textbook images or photos taken with the iPad 2 camera. Hopefully these private notes, ostensibly for studying for exams, will become shareable with other students.

The Quiz Me feature allows students to create a quiz out of any labeled image in a textbook, blanking out the labels and assisting students with their studying.

College students know that the student life is financially draining. Being at the beginning of perhaps a lucrative career choice doesn't lead to too many monetary options when it comes down to it. Unless there are scholarships, student loans, or parents willing to help out, rising tuition and textbook costs continue to drain the resources of all but a few wealthy individuals. Plus, paper textbooks are really heavy.

Kno for iPad aims to change the textbook portion of the equation. Released quietly in June, Kno is a textbook app that charges 30% - 50% off the cover price of over 100,00 textbooks for higher education students.

The app itself allows users to organize textbooks and other PDF files into courses, navigate pages and chapters via search and thumbnail, and add notes and highlights to the text itself. Facebook and Twitter are directly integrated, natch, and is out now for a total price of FREE.

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Sure, Apple is dead to Jason Calacanis but we think the old rainbow fruit might still have a little life left in her -- therefore, here's the latest iPhone app store news.

[caption id="attachment_15656" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Duke Nukem 3D"]

[/caption]Duke Nukem 3D is awesome and disappointing. Today, Richard takes a look at Duke Nukem 3D. He's a lot more generous with the app than I think I would have been. Such is the way with reviews. While it's amazingly cool to see Duke on the iPhone screen, that excitement was greatly diminished once I started to play it. The controls are just awful. To me they just show a complete lack of understanding of the platform. Something you'd expect to see of an amateur developer but not from a developer with this much experience. They must have just had to rush it out for some reason. Also, seems as though they aren't limiting the speed properly. On a 3GS, the movements are extremely fast. Oh well, it's still cool to see. Let's hope the controls get fixed up soon. For nostalgia's sake I'd love to actually be able to play it rather than just show it off.

[caption id="attachment_15674" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Galcon Looking Great!"]

[/caption]Galcon 1 year anniversary brings a facelift. We've heard from Galcon creator Phil Hessey that he has submitted an update that gives it "shiny real-game feel instead of a made in some guy's basement feel." While we think the original looks fantastic, take a look at this sample image to see what awesomeness is to come. The update marks the 1 year anniversary of Galcon being in the app store.

If you're not familiar with Galcon, it's a great single / multiplayer real time strategy game. It's a fantastic game if you like a little strategy with your arcade, check it out. The update has been submitted and is a free upgrade to anyone who has bought the app. It should be available soon.

SlingPlayer Mobile 1.1 to work over 3G -- outside the US. So if AT&T has no say in what apps get approved, why is AT&T the only carrier who's customers will not be seeing an update to Slingplayer to allow streaming of content over 3G? Viewing content over 3G is just one of the features planned in this rumored release recently submitted to Apple. Other purported features in this update include 16:9 viewing and an updated user interface for Dish Network users. Via TUAW.

eTextbooks may finally be here. CourseSmart have released an iPhone application that interfaces with their online textbook rental service. According to their site the usual rental is for 180 days and is about 50% the normal cost of the book. The downside is of course that there is no trade in value. So in the end it's about the same as buying and then selling a textbook yet considerably more convenient. The app is free and requires an account from their site to use.

USAA bank brings virtual check deposits to the iPhone. USAA have updated their mobile banking app and included a new feature they call [email protected] The feature allows their customers with iPhones to take a picture of the front and back of a check to deposit it. Once that's done and it's verified at the bank, the check will appear in your account just like you deposited it at an ATM. It's a pretty big advancement and one that's sure to see some scrutiny from security experts. But, it's a step in the right direction.