IOS 17 new Books app features?

[democrite]

Anyone try it out? For the moment iOS 16 Books has a recent big with TOC entries not being selectable and not showing page numbers. Sad given circumstances, Books seems neglected compared to more used apps. Still for annotation syncing on all devices plus desktop, I don't really have any alternative.

[HLS]

iOS 17 is not out yet

[tomsem]

I do not know how to tell what version is installed on iOS, but on Ventura, the version is 5.2 (5800.2), while on Sonoma beta 2, it is Version 6.0 (5889.31).

I assume the macOS and iOS versions are more or less in sync, being some sort of Catalyst app.

I don't see any visual differences in the iOS app but in Settings, the 17 beta has a setting for Calendar access, whereas 16 does not.

[democrite]

Perhaps there won’t be many new features or if any they may not appear until a later beta.

Of the bug I mentioned, I think it’s that for EPUB 3, any EPUB that uses a NAV doc, TOC entries are not selectable and the TOC screen is broken for EPUB 3. Maybe that appeared on iOS 16 a few months ago. Maybe they won’t get around to fixing it until iOS 17, maybe it’s been fixed on beta already, yet trying a beta for the hope of some potential bug fixes may bring along other issues.

Sadly Books hasn’t been consistently more or less free of major bugs, e.g. vertical scroll mode on iPhone didn’t work too well save for I think it was iOS 14 and iOS 11 or 12, for many years.

[tomsem]

I am not having any issue with TOC navigation, at least with a spot check. Admittedly, I am not doing a lot with Books lately.

[democrite]

For me it's just with EPUB 3. All of them have been edited with Sigil. Something is strange with how it generates or edits NAV docs that Books doesn't like, compared to a few test cases of unodified publisher epubs working fine.

[tomsem]

FWIW the ePub3's I am generating just use calibre ePub->ePub3 conversion, and sometimes azw3->ePub3.

My main use case is to generate ePub for Send To Kindle. Only when those get rejected do I do editing to correct issues in the source file (using calibre ebook-edit).

[HLS]

I am installing 17.0.1 now. **edit** I see no changes whatsoever other than the fact I had to redownload all my ebooks. And now no page flips. Just schroll. Is there a way to change that. It is so annoying. **edit*** I figured it out. Change in the menus. I was hoping for a big interface change, like make it look like a real bookshelf or something. Some skins maybe.

[tomsem]

Scrolling is toggled in Themes & Settings (the 'Reading Menu' by default in lower right corner). UI seems perhaps a little different, but I don't use it often enough to identify what may have changed. And I cannot find any reporting that anything about Books has changed.

Note that some options are found in Settings app (e.g. auto-hyphenation, reading menu position, status bar display, page turn animation option).

My only reference is running on an old iPad and iPhone SE (both iOS 15) and it compares very favorably to that. Used to waste a lot of space on headings and other UI elements. Maybe it goes too far in the other direction now, but I actually like it.

I dislike skeuomorphism myself. That went away a long time ago, I never want it back.

[OtinG]

Books has always been an unwanted stepchild at Apple. Apple never seems to have given it much thought. I use it to view PDF files, mostly product manuals, but only bought one book for it way back many, many years ago. I much prefer the Amazon Kindle ecosystem and app. The same goes for Numbers and Pages, two more stepchildren. Compared to Excel and Word they are very lackluster and often difficult to use, especially on iOS and iPadOS.

I find it strange that if I find a PDF on the internet using the Safari browser and try to open it in the Books app on my iPhone or iPad I have to fish through multiple menus to figure out how to do so. It is like they purposely hide the Books app from the menu list of apps for opening the PDF. Stupid things like that make me think Apple simply doesn't really give a hoot about Books.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Books has always been an unwanted stepchild at Apple. Apple never seems to have given it much thought. I use it to view PDF files, mostly product manuals, but only bought one book for it way back many, many years ago. I much prefer the Amazon Kindle ecosystem and app. The same goes for Numbers and Pages, two more stepchildren. Compared to Excel and Word they are very lackluster and often difficult to use, especially on iOS and iPadOS.

I definitely agree with the first part. The gave us agency pricing and moved on. Nowadays I just delete the app on my phone and use Kindle. If there was an eink reader from Apple, this isn’t have been different. But Books simply cannot compete with the versatility of Kindle.

As for Pages and Numbers. I think they are fine, but they have definitely never evolved into really mature office products.

[tomsem]

I like Books, and it does a good job at what it does. There's no easier way to make an ePub or PDF appear on any of my Apple devices. It has great support for Accessibility features, unlike most reading apps. I have only read a handful of books with it, but it's good for checking how some ePub tweak has worked out.

There's no justification for purchasing books from Apple, of course, and it's actually not as easy to do it when there is no web storefront for it.

I wish that iCloud had a Books app however. And why not an Apple TV app.

[John F]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I like Books, and it does a good job at what it does. There's no easier way to make an ePub or PDF appear on any of my Apple devices. ...

For me emailing an epub and using the mail attachment to open the epub is simple.

[bellereads]

I just checked Books in ios 17 and it still doesn't give me 2 columns unless I shrink the font size down to a very small font. My eyes are old and cannot easily read that small print anymore. I used to be able to use whatever font size I wanted in Books until a change 4-5 years ago and I've been complaining ever since. This still ticks me off to no end.

Does anyone know a way around this? I have an ipad mini that I use in landscape orientation to read. One column is just too wide even with a large font. Every reading app I've tried, even the worst ones, give me 2 columns with a big font except for apple.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by bellereads

I just checked Books in ios 17 and it still doesn't give me 2 columns unless I shrink the font size down to a very small font. My eyes are old and cannot easily read that small print anymore. I used to be able to use whatever font size I wanted in Books until a change 4-5 years ago and I've been complaining ever since. This still ticks me off to no end.

Does anyone know a way around this? I have an ipad mini that I use in landscape orientation to read. One column is just too wide even with a large font. Every reading app I've tried, even the worst ones, give me 2 columns with a big font except for apple.

That’s odd. I have always been able to read in 2 column mode on my iPad. I’m on an iPad Air 3, iOS17 and just yesterday I reset the whole thing because I was having issues related to various apps and the only apps that were reinstalled were the Apple ones… ncluding a new unsullied version of Books, and it immediately gave me 2 columns in landscape mode (I don’t read in portrait mode on iPad). I don’t know how to get it separately (cannot in portrait anyway) but increasing font size is easy, you should get a top menu if you tap in the lower right area. Or maybe lower left depending on what you have in general settings.