US, Canadian students pack textbooks through their iPhones

SAN FRANCISCO—US and Canadian college students can now pack textbooks into their pockets instead of spine-bending backpacks, courtesy of an iPhone application released by CourseSmart.

The northern California supplier of electronic textbooks on Tuesday released free software that makes digitized forms of college textbooks available on Apple's ubiquitous iPhone or iPod Touch devices.

"We've seen significant demand from student customers for the ability to get required textbook content in electronic form on an iPhone or iPod Touch," said CourseSmart executive vice president Frank Lyman.

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Predictive texting takes its toll on a child’s brain

Predictive texting encourages children to behave impulsively without thinking things through, say the researchers. It changes the way children's brains work and makes them more likely to make mistakes generally, a study has found.

Scientists say the system, which involves pressing one key per letter before the phone works out what word the user wants to type, trains young people to be fast but inaccurate. They claim this makes them prone to impulsive and thoughtless behaviour in everyday life.

Modern mobile phones come with a built-in dictionary which enables them to predict what word a user wants from only a few key presses.

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