Library App

I like to read books, even more now that I've got an iPad. But of course I would enjoy it just as much on any other tablet or ebook-reader... But I like the convenience of combining several books, papers and notebooks all in my iPad without any additional weight.

I've got a new app for borrowing German books online, called Skoobe. I think I read about it online, before I tried it out. I pay 9.99€ a month and can read as many books as I want. I can keep up to 5 books in my list which are available offline as well (offline available for 30 days). This special offer (Skoobe Premium Starter) is limited. When you get it, these special features are guaranteed for another year after they'll change their pricing model.

After some time, there won't be any 30-days offline reading for the basic offer, only 24 hours. And only three books can be borrowed at the same time. I saved 4 books right now but I only read one book at a time. For me, the feature is only useful for vacation when I have time to read and no wifi nearby.


For 14.99€, the Skoobe Plus, there will be 30-days offline reading available. And for the Skoobe Premium for 19.99€ there will be the possibility of borrowing 15 books at the same time to read offline.

It works on iPhone, iPad and Android products.

So far, I've only seen German books but maybe they'll have other languages one day. That would be awesome :-)

Since I can terminate the contract monthly, I feel it's a good offer... As long as I have time to read books, this is a great app.

iPad Pens

My favorite item of this year is my gorgeous little iPad (3). I take it everywhere...

The calendar is so much bigger than on my cell phone. It can grasp so much more information. I can read ebooks and papers for my classes, make notes in my pdfs either by typing or handwriting. I do my photo editing on it, as you might have seen :) When I first heard about tablet PCs, I thought I would never need them... but now I can hardly imagine my life without one. I even take notes for my classes or meetings with my advisors. For that handwriting part I bought 10 pens from China. They can be used for capacitive screens. Since resistive screens are operated by pressure, they don't really need pens, anything pointy will do.

Anyway... I bought 10 pens because they were so cheap on ebay (<< click >>), only 2.80 € (3.45$), especially compared to the ridiculous price of 40€ which I found via a short google search. I think that was for the original Stylus Pens but it's not that expensive anymore - I even saw some on Tchibo recently (<< click >>) but still 12.95 € for only one pen... I gave three pens to my friends (2 gold and one blue pen). The rest is somewhere in my purses and on my desk. Since I ordered these pens from Hong Kong, it takes about a month until they got here. German customs are very strict but for such low price items, you don't have to worry about paying for customs.

I think, they are really great. They allow me to have more control over my writing compared to just using my finger. I even sign pdfs with them :) it's so convenient and sooo so much better than printing.