Redesigned from the ground up, the improved Kortext eBook and study app for Mac is now the first of its kind to support Adobe Digital Rights Management (DRM), and gives students access to more books and new offline functionality for a first-class learning experience.
With the Apple Mac proving to be the device of choice among students around the world, the new Kortext Mac app is set to provide a richer experience for all users of the Kortext Arcturus smart study platform.
As the first app of its kind on the App Store to support Adobe DRM, which many publishers apply to their eBooks to protect against piracy, Mac users can now access more published content through the app than ever before whilst also enjoying new enhancements like offline reading, rich text notes and dark mode.
Study anytime, anywhere, on and offline
Students using the Kortext Mac app can now study anywhere with the app’s offline reader, enabling students to download their eTextbooks and other digital learning content to their device to view without an internet connection. Any study activity, such as highlighting or notetaking, undertaken whilst using the offline reader will automatically sync the next time the student logs into their account online – no matter which device the student uses to access the Kortext Arcturus platform (Mac, iOs, Android, Windows or browser).
With Jisc, the UK’s digital body for education and research, recently revealing that digital and data poverty is still a widespread issue in Higher Education, with 51% reporting Wi-Fi/broadband problems, this offline functionality could prove crucial for many students.
A richer reading experience
All of Kortext’s native apps, including the Mac app, now include a rich text editor, improving accessibility and giving students more options when taking notes and making annotations, including:
- Customisation of font size
- Formatting options such as bold, underline, italics and strikethrough
- Bullet points and numbered lists
- Adding website hyperlinks
- Adding links to images and videos to embed into notes.
Any notes made using the rich text editor will automatically sync across other Kortext apps.
Reducing the strain
Together with the many accessibility features available on the Kortext Mac app, students can benefit from the addition of dark mode for a better viewing experience in low-light settings, reduced eye strain and less energy consumption.
These developments come as Kortext continues to invest in its platform, releasing a host of updates for the new academic year set to further enhance the student experience as university gets back into full swing.
Andrew Bates, Head of Product at Kortext, commented:
Like our university partners, we’re passionate about the student experience and consider it part of our mission to provide students with the tools to make studying easier, more enjoyable and to help them achieve those higher grades. The Kortext Arcturus platform is currently helping students at over 2,300 universities worldwide to access content and study anytime, anywhere, in a way that suits them – and a high percentage are using Apple Mac devices.
Our users are key to our development journey and these additions to the Kortext Mac app are the result of listening to their needs. Of course, the enhancements don’t stop there – this is just one aspect of our ongoing commitment to provide an accessible, innovative, engaging and content-rich smart study platform valued by students.
To try the new Mac app for yourself, visit the app store to download the app using your Mac device and log into or sign up for your Kortext account. For more information on Kortext’s latest product release, including our fresh user interface and brand-new enhanced reading features, please visit our dedicated Kortext Arcturus product site.
