There really are iPhone Apps for everything.
CourseSmart, a provider of e-textbooks, just announced plans to create an iPhone App that would allow students to read their downloaded books via iPhone, a la the Kindle. The publisher plans to release 7,000 titles, available with a subscription to the site, as well as an iTunes account.
Current reviews of the application have been mostly positive, save for a few minor issues. Of course, for traditionalists, the inability to highlight and take notes can be jarring; however, for iPhone addicts, the ease of streamlining their books into their phone is invaluable.
Apps for the iPhone already offer several books and short stories, and the expansion into textbooks makes them even more competitive. In light of the Kindle's recent criticism, and the growing competition in e-readers, the iPhone's new app could give them even more of an edge, and a Wired commentator gives them even greater odds.
“Kindle is nice,” he says, “but it makes a ton of sense to put books on a platform (iPhone) already in the hands of millions of people... Then just out the only thing Kindle has going for it is battery life.”
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