What's the best way to use your iPad instead of textbooks?

You can download iBooks and see if they are available there. If not, you can go to the textbook publisher's site and see if you can get it from there.

Contact your department and see what information they have on the availability of eBook versions of textbooks.

If you're going to do a lot of heavy reading, you probably don't want to use the iPad. The screen glare will cause eye strain. My suggestion is that you look into the Kindle.

Or, if you're like me and you want to do a lot of heavy reading, use the iPad because the low contrast on a Kindle is extremely fatiguing. 😉

Seriously, though "screen glare will cause eye strain" is often taken as an article of faith, there's not a lot of good scientific evidence for it. "Eye strain" can be caused by concentrating on any close work for long periods of time. Looking up and focusing on something distant periodically is very helpful. Older CRT screens that flicker also can be aggravting. I'm not denying that some people find reading backlit screens uncomfortable. However, it's not dangerous. And, then, there are other people who find the higher contrast a backlit screen affords to be much less wearying over long periods of time.

What Meg St. Clair said. Let yourself be the judge as to whether the iPad is straining your eyes or not. The only time this would be a problem is with a screen on max brightness in the dark, in which case you could simply adjust the brightness.

stevejobsfan0124 wrote:

The only time this would be a problem is with a screen on max brightness in the dark, in which case you could simply adjust the brightness.

It is a very real problem for some people all of the time. My point was that it's not a problem for everyone.

The iPad is great for textbooks. I am a college student and use mine for all of my books. It is a cheap way to read on a great definition screen. I have three different apps that my books are separated into. The first one is Kno. This app is very new and not all of the books that you want will be on there. The second is called Course Smart. This app is nice but you have to purchase books online I believe and they will be transferred to your account. The third is a Pearson Books app. This is a publishing company who decided to make an app and the interface is really nice. Hope this helps.

-no such thing as eye strain. kindles are worthless

Eye strain is usually caused by too much contrast....reading your ipad in the dark for example.

There is nothing wrong with reading the iPad in the dark and that is a misrepresentation of the causes of eyestrain. I read with mine in the dark more often than with light.

In the dark, it's fine but I get headaches from the glare in medium light and, of course, the iPad is useless in bright sun. The Kindle is just the opposite. Useless in the dark - just like real paper - but great at the beach.

You don't live near a beach, do you?

ABunt wrote:

I just really hate carrying around 20 lbs. of paper...

Who suggested that alternative?

ABunt wrote:

20 lbs. of paper is the textbooks.

Who recommended that?