IOS

Yesterday I wrote about my treadmill. I love it, with one exception it does not have a book holder. It has a tiny ledge that fits an iPad or eReader. Here is my dilemma: I am old school. I still check out books at my local library. I have investigated and most of the books that are on my list are not available on the eReader app available from my library. So I started the exploration of other paid eReader apps. Here is what I found:

Amazon: You have to own a Kindle ($59 and up), then you can pay $9.99 a month for their Kindle Unlimited Library, but most of the titles that I am looking for you must have an Amazon Prime account ($99 a year). However, you can only check out one book a month with Amazon Prime. If I am already paying $9.99 a month, and their better selection is with the Amazon Prime eBooks, then how is this a good deal at all? Here is a good recap of what they offer.

Oyster: I signed up for a free trial (caveat: their website says the free trial is 14 days, once I signed up the site emailed me and said my trial was only 2 days). It is $9.95 a month, but most of the titles I want to read are not available in their app.

OverDrive: Part of the Oregon Digital Library Consortium, it is free to me, but again the selection is slim to the list of books I want to read.

3M Cloud: Part of the Multnomah County Library, it is free to me, and the selection does not have the list of books I want to read.

I struggle with my dilemma. If I can go to the library and check out a book for free, why is it so hard to find a good selection of free eBooks? I have a hunch if I want to keep reading while I run, I will have to either have Chris rig some sort of book attachment, utilize at least 5 different eBook apps in order to find the book I want to read, or start to pay $$$ for each of the books I want to read. If I can find almost any song I want on Spotify for $10 a month, why is it so hard to do the same for eBooks?

What do you do? Do you have any ideas for me? My goal is to continue to read my average of 10 books a month, cheaply and easily, and potentially now on my iPad. Help!

How many times are you out with a friend and they say I am covering this, and you say I will pay next time. When the next time comes you realize you do not have your credit card and about enough cash for a small coffee. Your friend covers to pay for your dinner, but you are adamant that you are paying her back. Now you can, right away! No need to send her a check in the mail, wait until you see her next, or send her a check through your checking account.

You can now use the Bump to Pay app on your phone (iOS devices). The app uses PayPal for the transaction, so you need to have a PayPal account set up that will take money out of your checking account. You can then select the amount you want to share with a friend and Bump your phones to make the money transfer.

As long as it is truly secure, then it is definitely an app individuals will use. Hopefully they will expand to other smart phones. For now, anyone with an iPhone has no excuse for not covering their own tab.

Has anyone tried it? I always like to hear what others think before I use apps that require connecting to my credit card or checking account, but it does sound convenient. What else will they think of?! What apps have you thought of that do not yet exist?