Mobile Apps
Reading Beverly’s post about downloading onto her itouch got me interested in trying Overdrive one more time. Given that I don’t have a e-reader (I haven’t given in yet) my experience with Overdrive has been limited to trying to download audio books and then upload them onto an ipod – an exceedingly frustrating exercise that led me to give up in total exasperation! I have, however, been noticing the advertisement for mobile apps on the TPL homepage, encouraged by Beverly’s enthusiasm, I thought I’d give it another go.
I grabbed my iphone (3G) clicked on the app store icon and quickly and successfully downloaded the free Overdrive app – so far so good. I then search for the Toronto Public Library and pull up all 99 branches, but choosing any one gets you into the TPL website, a few more clicks and I’m onto Overdrive and searching for audio books. Note the handy box that restricts your search to what is currently available for borrowing. A few more clicks and I have successfully downloaded an audio book that plays on my phone. Unfortunately,as part of the process one must register for an Adobe account, a little frustrating but doable.
Total approximate time 10 minutes – what a tremendous difference from my previous attempts to download audio books.
There is an an excellent short You Tube video by Orange County Library that very clearly explains the process.
Fueled by my success, I decide to try the Naxos Music Library mobile app. Downloading the NML app is also free and easy. This time I’m directed to use my computer to register for a Student/Member playlist account. Once I do this I am then able to use the NML app on my phone to search the Naxos Music Library and play (stream) my music selections. In this case though, I am not downloading but accessing the Naxos Music Library directly which means my data plan will get charged if I’m not using a free Wifi connection.
Similarily there is also a You Tube video that clearly explains the whole process, it is linked to the page on the TPL website that advertises the mobile apps (good to point out to customers).
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