Test Prep Goes Mobile and Social

Thanks to Watermelon Express, an innovative technology design company, people studying for the SAT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and the GMAT will now be able to stop carrying those expensive, humongous test prep books around. The Chicago-based company, founded by Ujjwal Gupta and Ashish Rangnekar, has developed test prep applications for the iPhone, the iPad and the computer. They cost considerably less than the hard copies and include social networking features to encourage students to create study groups that meet in local coffee shops and libraries. Watch Ashish Ragnekar in this Chicago Tonight segment explain his products.

Mary B., Reader’s Services

Overdrive and the ipad…Yes, you can download epub books!

There has been a lot of discussion about using My Media Mall (Overdrive) on the ipad.  We can use  Bluefire Reader but books must be first downloaded to the computer then transferred to the ipad.  Bluefire does a great job of explaining this process, but it’s really not ideal.

So, we heard some rumors about the Overdrive iphone app working on the ipad.  I have to say that it works!  You can download books directly onto your ipad from your library’s Overdrive Collection.  The most confusing part is that even though you need the App to make this work, during the process you will be bouncing in and out of your internet browser as well.  I have taken some screenshots from the ipad, and have posted the instructions below.  You will need a 3G connection or Wifi to do this.

Another Nail in the Coffin of the Magazine Industry

In what is becoming more and more the norm, US News & World Report has become the latest magazine to abandon the print landscape to focus solely on digital media. Although it will continue to print a limited number of copies to be available at newsstands, the publisher is going to stop sending its print edition to subscribers effective January 2011 and become an online only source of news. After publishing weekly for over 60 Years, US News & World Report saw the writing on the wall when in June 2008 it became a biweekly and 6 months later became a monthly magazine. The popular guides to colleges, graduate schools, doctors, hospitals, and personal finance will continue, for now, to be offered in print versions.

Rika G.

Bluefire Reader is good news for iPod/iPad owners

At the eBook Boot Camp seminar I attended today at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, there was some buzz about a new free app for iPod and iPad owners who wish to download free ebooks from their public libraries. It’s called Bluefire, and was just released this last week. There a lot of chit chat on the web about it, but I found this article a good place to start reading about this exciting new app.

Barbara L.