iPad - digital textbooks?

[mizz.lee]

Hey,

I'm considering getting an iPad (really, just trying to find a way to justify getting one, but I digress), and I am hoping it can replace all of my textbooks and carry all of my notes with me to clinical placements.

I have been hitting a bit of a roadblock finding digital versions of the textbooks that have been suggested to me so far. I know for Mac people really only buy a few then rely on PubMed, which will actually be easier to organize for the iPad as you can surf and download straight to it (I think? or do you have to download the pdfs in advance and load them on through iTunes?)

Has anybody found available digital versions of their essential first year med textbooks? I am hoping to purchase copies and download them, but I will also resort to buying the digital portion from someone who bought the print version if they wanted to make it available.

So far I have found Netter's Anatomy: http://www.netterimages.com/ It appears you can download just portions of it, or possibly the whole thing. Not sure yet.

Anybody know where I can get some digital text books? :)

[Julie]

With an ipad you can get the Kindle app (free), and therefore buy any kindle textbooks you like from amazon. You can then carry the books on your ipod touch/iphone, ipad, and desktop all at once if you'd like. It's super easy and probably the best way to read textbooks for long periods of time on an ipad.

Then there are all the apps that give you textbooks for iphone and ipod touch. You can use those on your ipad if you just blow them up like you would any iphone/ipod app on an ipad. The quality of the text won't be the best, but it'd be definitely good enough to read for shorter periods. I think some may even have ipad versions available, but really I don't know for sure, you'd have to check. Skyscape has a very big selection of such books. You can get the full Netter from them, amongst many other typical books. Unbound medicine also has some, and their apps work very nicely. There's also lexi comp that has some, but I think they're more for clerkship than the first years. For those apps, usually they only work on one device at a time - so you'd have to choose between ipad & ipodtouch/iphone & desktop.

Best of luck!

[Julie]

Hey,

you can surf and download straight to it (I think? or do you have to download the pdfs in advance and load them on through iTunes?)

My understanding is you can't save anything directly from the ipad (ie you can browse pubmed & then open pdf's, but I don't think you actually can save them from the ipad, you'd have to go through syncing iTunes. I might be wrong, but that's what I understood anyways. You could probably download a text version of the article instead of a pdf though, and copy-paste it into a pages document you create... ?

[Eric D. Holmes]

I have tried out the iPad, and even though I usually love most computer type stuff, I got bored of it in literally 10 minutes. My grandfather has one, and he tells me that its not really useful for anything. I tried reading textbooks on it but its not as good as a computer screen since the screen is so small. So, I must recommend what I ended up purchasing: the HP TM2 w/ 1.6 Ghz processor and ATI Graphics Card. Since its a convertible with the same type of screen as the iPad but larger, it can do the same type of stuff as the ipad in terms of multitouch, BUT it also has a Wacom pressure-sensitive stylus so you can do handwriting and whatnot. You can fold the screen onto the keyboard facing up so its like an iPad, allowing for standing-up handwriting, or unfold it and use it like a normal laptop. Also, since its a laptop you can run stuff like Microsoft OneNote (works AMAZING with the Stylus! can't live without both together). And lastly it also has around a 7 hour battery life (verified by my own testing). So, though the iPad is a well designed piece of hardware, I advise against it instead for a TM2. Also, in terms of textbooks, you can download them off for free websites like ebook30.com or warez-bb.org similar sites, or you can download them off the publishers website.

Also, inserting a printout of the units of the textbook into onenote and highlighting/annotating is pretty awesome. So is onenote's screenshot button that you can use to copy pieces of the textbook and paste it into your notes.

Hope this helped. :D

(Ps. For the same money as an iPad, you can get the predecessor to the HP TM2, the HP TX2, used. It has the same features as the TM2 and iPad, with the only downside being a little heavy versus the TM2 and iPad.)

[itimebomb2]

The iPad is really hard on the eyes. When I'm studying long hours and late into the night, the last thing I want to know is that all of my books are stored on a bright LCD screen thats only 10 inches diagonally across.

Imho, an iPad is very very veeerrrryy hard to justify for any practical reason. It would suck to buy a bunch of texts in digital just to realize you hate it and have to buy the paper versions too.

[itimebomb2]

From the U of T thread:

http://ocunwired.ocregister.com/2010/08/03/all-new-uci-medical-students-get-ipads/

apparently at least one group of people think I'm wrong.

[Julie]

The iPad is really hard on the eyes. When I'm studying long hours and late into the night, the last thing I want to know is that all of my books are stored on a bright LCD screen thats only 10 inches diagonally across.

Imho, an iPad is very very veeerrrryy hard to justify for any practical reason. It would suck to buy a bunch of texts in digital just to realize you hate it and have to buy the paper versions too.

I don't think I would have bought an iPad myself for practical reasons, but my husband got one for work and I don't find it to be hard on the eyes at all. I've read entire novels in a very short time on the kindle app, and I found it to be much better than expected, and more convenient than paper novels. With the kindle app, you can use brown&sepia as a background (I find that easier on the eyes) and adjust the brightness really easily. So I don't know how much I would have liked it to replace all of my textbooks, but I don't find it to be a totally bad idea either. The main problem with it I guess is the price, but I don't find it to be useless at all, I can see how it could work out.

[Wayward son]

I don't find it to be hard on the eyes at all. I've read entire novels in a very short time on the kindle app, and I found it to be much better than expected, and more convenient than paper novels. With the kindle app, you can use brown&sepia as a background (I find that easier on the eyes) and adjust the brightness really easily.

I agree I have read several books on the ipad using the kindle app. Up to 6 hours at a time without eye strain - and I am someone who hates reading books and articles on a computer screen. I have also read through almost an entire pdf physiology textbook using iannotate - highlighted the crap out it. Found no disadvantage to using that digital version over a physical version. I spent all of about 7 seconds adjusting the kindle, iannotate and goodreader apps to get the brightness that I like.

Some people love the ipad, some hate it. Some think that it is useful, some think that it is useless. And of course some people form an opinion, good or bad, about it without having tried it. To each their own.

[Wayward son]

easier to organize for the iPad as you can surf and download straight to it (I think? or do you have to download the pdfs in advance and load them on through iTunes?)

I have downloaded several pdf articles directly to the ipad. I think that it depends on the size.

[Ikky43]

I thought of the same idea a couple of weeks ago! And I've been obsessing over the iPAd lol. I've already downloaded a few textbooks for it!

[startrekker]

Even those that were in .CHM you can convert those using a converter. I threw the PDFs on there and the browsing is quite awesome actually.


I've been looking for a program that will convert CHM to pdf - which one are you using ?

[mizz.lee]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think i'm going to get one, both for it's 'life-enhancing' features and the fact that it will make my textbooks so cheap! I'm going to try to buy them online, I'm pro- artists and authors being paid for their work, but it's good to know that the hard-to find ones might be already available in pdf on bittorrent.

[Ikky43]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think i'm going to get one, both for it's 'life-enhancing' features and the fact that it will make my textbooks so cheap! I'm going to try to buy them online, I'm pro- artists and authors being paid for their work, but it's good to know that the hard-to find ones might be already available in pdf on bittorrent.

Lmao. Read the description of that torrent. It's hilarious and so true.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4140501/Organic_Chemistry_(7th_Edition)

[itimebomb2]

wait... blackberry is coming out with their own pad...

Mizz, i guess ill have to see how yours works at school before making a decision myself!

http://blackpadberry.com/

[mizz.lee]

I downloaded a Netter's anatomy book, but it's in the .pdb format. As far as I can tell, that's not the format books come in. Has anyone seen this before?

[koensmeets1]

This is really a nice post, that you have updated us with all of nice information that can be very useful for future aspect.

[Lactic Folly]

I downloaded a Netter's anatomy book, but it's in the .pdb format. As far as I can tell, that's not the format books come in. Has anyone seen this before?
.pdb files are often read PDA devices such as Palm, with software such as iSilo.

[boréale]

CourseSmart has most all textbooks in an electronic pdf version. It is usually cheaper than the paper version.

[MarathonRunner]

I have absolutely no problems reading books on my iPad. I hate reading stuff on a computer screen - so much so that I print things out to read instead of reading them on the computer (killing trees in the process), but I have absolutely no problems reading novels on my iPad. I've gone through 5 novels already, and with all the options available to adjust the colours, brightness, font, etc., I find it incredibly easy on the eyes. For me, reading on the iPad is just as easy as reading a "regular" book, and far superior than trying to read on a normal computer screen or laptop.

The main reason I bought an iPad is that my husband and I both read a LOT of books, and even though we make use of the public library as much as possible, we still buy a lot of books and we are quickly running out of room for them! We donate all the books that we aren't likely to re-read, but even so, there are an awful lot of books that we re-read over and over again. The iPad is much more convenient in terms of storage space for all those books.