Boundless Textbooks (free, $19.99 for in-app upgrade) is an app designed to help college students save money on textbooks and study on the go. Boundless covers more than 20 subjects, including biology, business, chemistry, physics, and sociology. Introductory textbooks are free, while full-course books are $19.99 each. Boundless is something I could have used in college when I spent hundreds of dollars on books every year.
The book I checked out was a psychology textbook, Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind. I always find it a little difficult to read things on my iPhone because of the small screen, but the words were easy to see and nicely formatted.
There are also flashcards and quizzes to help the subject sink in. In the flashcards, if you can't remember the answer, there is a direct link to take you back to the page in the book where the topic was discussed.
You can use Boundless instead of or in addition to a student's assigned books. If I were still in college, I would probably use Boundless in addition to my assigned hard-copy books, which kind of defeats the app's purpose of saving money. However, some students may prefer and even excel in reading and studying their textbooks exclusively on their iPhone or iPod.
My son still has four more years until he goes to college, but I already know that if it comes down to a hard copy book or his computer and iPhone, the digital devices win every time. In the next four years, text books may even die out, and students will only use their iPads, iPods, and iphones to study.
Students, which do you prefer, hard copy or digital? Let us know in the comments below.