Zinio, a software and services company, has teamed up with McGraw-Hill to offer a trial of digital textbooks. Read below. But can the text be send securely to an iPod? That's the killer ap.

A student-friendly, interactive, lower-cost option to the traditional textbook is a reality as a result of a new alliance between McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a leading provider of electronic and print learning materials, and Zinio, the leader in digital publishing services. Through the alliance, 150 of McGraw-Hill's most renowned college titles are now available as electronic books, offering the highest quality reading experience -- at about half the cost of a print textbook.

I learned first hand the challenges of using your cell phone as a content foraging device.

In NY, I tried the mobile Web on my phone to find the location of a play that was in the vicinity of the restaurant at which we had lunch. OK, I think we all know the little screen stinks as an interface, but the inability to intuitively search is awful. And it’s amazing the number of sites that are not formatted properly for easy viewing on this peephole-sized interface. Ugh. And how many times can you get the error message “unable to connect” before you look for a nearby copy of the print Yellow Pages ®.

I tried again yesterday to find out the flight status of my daughter’s delayed trip from California. I had the big 5-Bar salute on my phone (top connectivity). I tried to type in the URL of her airline, but I kept getting the error message that no such URL existed. Yikes.

The cell might be OK for headlines, blasts and news alerts. As a foraging device for serious content (at least in the U.S.), I need to see some improvements in interface, reception and navigability before I try again.

Will I look at video on a cell phone? Are you kidding me?

According to the LA Times, Fox Interactive Media is looking at rich media search engine, Blinkx. As someone who has known Blinkx and its executive team for close to a year, the deal makes sense to me.