University life sees textbooks stored on iPads

Any student in this day and age will tell you that carrying around tomes of textbooks can be quite the literal pain in the back – after all, they rarely promote good posture with all of that weight, making you feel as though you were carrying the whole weight of the world on your shoulders. Well, the publishing arm of the University of Cambridge is currently in talks with an education software producer that might just see the conversion of a trio of its medical textbooks into iOS apps for use on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices – if all goes well, that is. That ought to give you a stronger case to purchase an iPad if you haven’t done so already, sneaking in a game of Angry Birds in between lectures to boot.

GetYa Learn On(GYLO) will be tasked with handling the conversion for Cambridge University Press, where the project will comprise of three of Cambridge’s key texts on radiology, neuropharmacology, and anesthesia.

We can expect to see this collaboration see a release in the iTunes Store next month, where the first app will be a portable version of the radiology text Final FRCR Long Cases. Just like a standard textbook, this app will let you personalize it by adding notes, highlights, and bookmarks. Searching is also made a snap thanks to a search tool while hyperlinks make it even faster for you to get to the topic of your choice. Will it result in better grades? Perhaps, but there is nothing quite like falling in love with a dog-eared, well worn book.

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: ebooks