Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Apps for Bystanders - Taking Notice of Books!

iBooks is the free app for downloading books to read on your ipad, iphone or ipod touch.  There are so many ways to customize the text, making it ideal for Bystanders.  The text can be made larger.  You can choose the font just right for you.  If you need to keep track of characters in a story,  highlight them by tapping on the word.  An annotation palette pops up, making it easy to choose a color for your highlighted text.  If you are studying adjectives, these can be tapped and highlighted with a different color.  Easily adjust your screen brightness to find the perfect lighting for any environment.  Find a word, character, or phrase anywhere in your book with the built-in search feature.

Enhanced books are well suited for Bystanders.  The latest iBooks version  can now automatically play audio or video included with these enhanced books.  Certain children's books from the iBookstore have the read-aloud feature.  This feature uses a real narrator to read the book to you and in some books will even highlight the words as you read along. 

You can search for "enhanced books" in the itunes store.  Try out Box Head Man to see an example of one.  It is 99 cents, but you can sample the book for free (just make sure you have automatic downloads enabled for ibooks under the app store settings).   I think any bystander would sit up and take notice.

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