How the iPod Touch is changing how I read (Part 2)
In the last post I talked about how I use the iPod Touch to read books. In this post I get into what inspired me to write this blog post in the first place. A few weeks ago I took the Capstone exam as the culminating test for my library science degree. The Capstone is three essays between 1500 and 2500 words that have to be written in seven days. I’m happy to say that I passed! What is interesting, though, is that I managed to use two apps on the iPod Touch to read all of the PDFs for my research on these essays and did not print out a single document. In the past I printed out documents because I could highlight them and I didn’t much like reading them on the computer screen. Now I have a device that fits in the palm of my hand which I can read anywhere, I can highlight PDFs with the Aji Annotate PDF app, and those highlights sync back up to the computer so when I need to see the document a little bigger I can use the computer screen.
The first app I got for reading PDFs was GoodReader ($0.99). I liked that it not only could read PDFs but also Microsoft Word documents, Pages documents, HTML files, and a lot more. It is also really nice because of the “reflow” feature which basically turns a PDF (it only works on PDF documents) into a very readable e-book format. Unfortunately, there was no way to highlight or annotate the documents.
Then I found AjiAnnotatePDF($4.99). This was perfect. I could highlight, underline, draw, or write notes on any PDF document. Of course, all I needed was the highlighting feature, but it’s nice to have all of the options. Unlike GoodReader, it only reads PDFs but that is fine, I now have both apps side-by-side on my iPod. I didn’t think the reading quality was as good in Aji at first, but after using it heavily during Capstone I quickly got used to it. The syncing to the computer was fantastically smooth and easy with the Aji Reader Service application you install on the Mac and what is even cooler is that after you mark up these PDFs, you can sync them back and you have your highlighted PDFs on the Mac. AjiAnnotatePDF was the app I used primarily during Capstone and I think it worked great.
I loved being able to sit in a chair with my legs propped up or lie in bed and read these documents I needed to read for school work. Being able to highlight those documents with my finger was also great even though it took a little getting used to. What I liked most about the experience, though, was not having to print out hundreds of pages of PDFs and reading them on a device in the palm of my hand.
So the iPod Touch and these amazing apps are really changing how I read. I still have a stack of “real” books that I want to read, but more and more I’m turning to reading on the device or listening to audio books. It is also helping with my studies in that I can read and highlight PDF documents with Aji Annotate or Word documents with GoodReader. I haven’t even mentioned RSS yet for blog posts and articles on the Web, but I will talk about that in another post or on my podcast, AppADay .