Annotating Documents iTouch/iPhone – U.S. Historical Documents Application

Anyone that has read my blog for any amount of time knows that I am a big fan of digital books… but I am also a big fan of annotation and marking up documents and text. I especially love things that combine the two into one! That is the case with a recently released application called “U.S. Historical Documents.” (iTunes link, Website). (Cost is .99 cents). 

I have been a user of their Scriptures App for a while and am glad to see them branching out their AWESOME highlighting system to allow the ability to annotate other documents!  Here is a description from their site:

“U.S. Historical Documents contains over 100 of the most influential documents in U.S. history and they will be stored directly on your iPhone/iTouch. Quickly and easily find any text from any document with the fastest and most powerful search engine available on the iPhone. Watch the documents scroll automatically for you in both portrait and landscape mode. Create notes for each paragraph which can be displayed inline. You can even assign bookmarks to any paragraph in any document for future reference. Highlight important words or phrases using the best highlighting system available.”

INCLUDED DOCUMENTS:

  • Magna Carta
  • Christopher Columbus Letter
  • Virginia Charters
  • Mayflower Compact
  • First Thanksgiving Proclamation
  • Stamp Act
  • Declaration of Arms
  • Declaration of Independence
  • Fugitive Slave Law
  • US Constitution
  • Star Spangled Banner
  • CSA Constitution
  • Gettysburg Address
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • World War II Documents
  • I Have A Dream
  • All Inaugural Address of All Presidents
  • State of the Union Addresses
  • 9/11 Documents
  • And many more…

MAIN APPLICATION FEATURES:

  • Auto-scrolling (both timed and tilt) - Helps me read books faster!
  • Adjustable fonts, size, colors, margins, spacing, and alignment (you can even adjust the font size by using a pinching gesture while reading!)
  • Highlighting – 12 background colors, 12 foreground colors, bold, italic, and underline  - Helps me really interact with the text!!
  • Night (low light mode) – Black background with white text
  • Application tips
  • Bookmarks and bookmark folders
  • Last location in each document is remembered
  • When re-launched, you’re returned to the exact location you were last at while reading
  • Search by words or phrases with instant search results
  • Powerful advanced search options
  • Create notes for each paragraph which can be displayed inline

This really is a GREAT app… I highly recommend it and look forward to some more releases!  As you think about eBooks and education you can really begin to see the potential for eBooks replacing traditional books. 

I’ve said it before… and I’m sure I’ll say it again.  When you can use technology to do something better than real life… that is when you really have succeeded!! This is a perfect example of that!

By Jeff | Posted on: December 17, 2008 at 9:00 am | Tagged , , , , |

iPod Touch: Better (and more colorful) Than a TI-83?

TI calculators are so last year. Especially with the popular (and free) Graphing Calculator application being distributed in the App Store by Gabor Nagy. This app is, basically, a colorful TI calculator right on the iPod. Although it may not offer every functionality of a TI, the Graphic Calculator app allows for the most popular tasks, such as graphing up to five functions (all viewable on the same graph), tracing and plotting points, and a root finder. And to top it off, the graphs are colorful, and you can use the pinch-gesture to zoom and scroll the graph, much like when browsing the internet in Safari. You can even take a screenshot of the graph and email it to yourself. As of the most recent update, the following mathematical expressions are supported by Graphing Calculator:

Supported Expressions: log, log10, ln, exp, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, sinh, cosh, tanh, degrees to radians, radians to degrees, absolute value, square root.

There is no doubt that with innovative apps such as the Graphing Calculator being released, it won’t be long before not-so-new devices such as the TI calculators become outdated. As far as I know, we need more apps like this to give us an excuse to play with our iPods in class.

By Jeff | Posted on: November 13, 2008 at 10:15 am | Tagged , , , |

Free iTouch for Students that buy Mac’s

Apple just released their 2008 promo… any students that buy a Mac will get a free iTouch… how awesome is that! :)

I got an iTouch a while ago and I have to say… THEY ARE AWESOME. As close to small computers as I have ever seen! I can see these becoming a LOT more prevalent… especially on campus’ with WiFi everywhere (like UNC)! Awesome!

By Jeff | Posted on: June 3, 2008 at 9:13 am | Comments (1)