Calibre

So, aside from all the hoopla over iPhone 4, there is actually something else to report. Thank you to Rachel D. for discovering an article on the web about 10 cool ways to make your iPad more productive. All the apps in there were things we have already mentioned in this blog except one. The application is called Calibre, it is a free download for Mac, Windows and Linux. 

It is designed to convert e-book file types from one kind to another, including PDF files. I downloaded it and tried it out today. It's a little quirky (would recommend you watch the video tutorial) but once up and running, is a very handy tool.

I uploaded some PDF files, as well as some news feeds (built into the application, such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, and much much more). I converted these to iBooks format, then did a sync with the iPad. 

Voila! All of these files converted neatly into iBooks and were instantly available in my iBooks library. And if you saw Apple's announcement today, the new iBooks app will allow us to annotate, highlight, etc. and see our collections of notes and highlights. In combination with Calibre, we have just opened up a whole new potential library for students to be able to access, annotate, highlight etc.

Calibre is free, and can be dowloaded at http://calibre-ebook.com/

The article Rachel mentioned can be seen at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37429940/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets

- john