iBooks and iTunes U apps have been updated for iOS 7

[Josieb1]

I've played around with various reading apps on both my ipad and my Nook, including Marvin, and Moon +, and can I just say not all of us want to 'customise' anything, we simply want to read, and personally I like and regularly use both Kindle and iBooks.

[Faterson]

No problem with that. I think most users might be like you, Josieb1. But it's not how I would define quality software: catering to the majority, throwing users with more specific (or higher) demands overboard. As it is, if you happen to enjoy the experience offered by iBooks and Kindle, you're lucky and everything is fine. But if you don't enjoy it, there is little hope Apple or Amazon would listen to you, trying to make you, too, a happy user of their software. Because they focus on the huge masses of users, they tend to overlook individual concerns. That's the real problem, as I see it. Their argument for accepting or rejecting a feature request is typically numbers-based: it's not about whether that particular feature would increase the quality of software, but whether sufficient amounts of users are requesting that feature. Quantity over quality. Because most users are fine with basic functionality, the typical result is bland software with limited functionality.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I've played around with various reading apps on both my ipad and my Nook, including Marvin, and Moon +, and can I just say not all of us want to 'customise' anything, we simply want to read, and personally I like and regularly use both Kindle and iBooks.

Exactly.

[tsolignani]

I find the new iBooks awful and really disappointing. I had hoped in a reading platform spread amongst my iDevices and the Mac, but I guess I am trashing it and switch to Marvin, hoping they will release for Mac as well, some day.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by tsolignani

I find the new iBooks awful and really disappointing. I had hoped in a reading platform spread amongst my iDevices and the Mac, but I guess I am trashing it and switch to Marvin, hoping they will release for Mac as well, some day.

What is it that you don't like about the new iBooks?

I haven't upgraded yet. I read some complaints on the App Store but nothing very specific, except one person who said that opening a PDF from email no longer works.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

What is it that you don't like about the new iBooks?

I haven't upgraded yet. I read some complaints on the App Store but nothing very specific, except one person who said that opening a PDF from email no longer works.

You can still open a PDF from email with iBooks.

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

What is it that you don't like about the new iBooks?

Reading and even just watching experience feels like shit, while it used to be pleasant.

What I dislike the most though is the new way sharing works. As a reader, I share many passages, I even created a Facebook group for sharing book's excerpts. Now when you share useless and annoying information are included such as chapter name, subject line (it used to be empty and it was a good place to include a comment). And you still cannot share to Facebook groups, pages, else: just the wall.

[tsolignani]

As for the kindle, if you cannot even copy small portion of text from books you own, then what is the point in switching from paper books to electronic ones? It's pure bullshit.

[Quexos]

I think you are too extreme in your opinion, condemning the entire OS and almost the entire Ipad ...
But back to Ibooks, the only positive it has in my opinion is the amazing page turns which looks TOTALLY like a real book.

Now having said that, one positive is not enough for me and the Huge wasted space in margins and top/bottom space is a total deal breaker for me because as you say, it is not configurable.

You should try Marvin, it's way better and more configurable. I use Marvin and are not even throwing a second look at Ibooks anymore.

Originally Posted by Faterson

Apple are utterly hopeless. iBooks was ugly until recently, but it has turned puke-ugly now, employing the hideous "iOS 7 look". They are really beyond repair. I also "love" the extra-huge empty margins all around the screen, totally not configurable.

iOS 7 is the fail of the decade in terms of design, and nothing epitomises its ugliness better than the new iBooks.

[Faterson]

Nope, you're reading something into what I said... I slammed iOS 7 and Apple as software designer, because I typically find Apple software to be functionally limited and ugly. Both Apple hardware and 3rd-party software like Marvin running on Apple hardware offer excellent opportunities -- the best platform in mobile space for now, I think.

[FlorenceArt]

I decided to download the upgrade on my iPad mini and decide for myself if I like the new look or not. I do. Now it's on all my iThingies, including the iPhone which is my main reading device.

As I hoped, the skeuomorphic (?) interface is gone and I don't regret it one bit, although to be honest I didn't notice it after a while. But I don't like the principle of an iPad app trying to pass for a book. I mean, if I want to read a paper book, I'll just pick up a paper book. I read ebooks precisely because they are not on paper. But I guess a lot of people were attached to that look. I suppose Apple should have kept it as an option.

[Faterson]

Yep... You know what I don't like? Enforcing one or the other option (never mind which) for everyone. To me, one of the basic principles in software design is, "One size never fits all." But Apple appears to believe differently: "One size does fit all, as long as our markering/market share are strong enough to cram it down everyone's throats." Essentially, that's a disrespectful attitude towards one's customers. It's as if Mercedes were only manufacturing vehicles of a single (or a couple at most) colour. Unfortunately, a woeful lack of customisation options, often connected with severely limited functionality, is among the hallmarks of Apple software. iBooks is just the latest example, but iOS 7 as such is another large-scale example with profound negative effects on iDevice users.

Same goes for hardware. Steve Wozniak wanted to build Apple computers that a hacker could love with built-in expansion bays, the ability to add RAM, change out processors, etc. Woz wanted them to be easily modified. Steve Jobs wanted the opposite. He wanted limited access to the hardware. Unfortunately Jobs won out. There was one great era of Macs in the 1990s when Jobs was forced out of Apple and Apple licensed the right to build Mac clones to several companies. I lived in Austin, TX at the time and we had three competing companies that were building AWESOME Mac clones that would make Woz happy. Plenty of expansion capabilities and they were selling for a lot less than the ho-hum Apple Macs. But Apple lost its way, got confused on OS, had way too many lines of computers and none were that great or sold that well, so they brought back Jobs. As soon as Jobs regained control of Apple he cancelled the clone licensing. He certainly improved Apple, but I do miss the era of the "clone wars"!

[Faterson]

Right, but I for one don't desire hardware configurability -- in fact, just the thought if it makes me shudder. I wish to buy a piece of hardware, and be done with it -- never have to waste another minute of thinking about hardware again. I need to focus on my work, not my work tools. In that sense, Apple are world champions; I've never owned more reliable pieces of machinery than all these Apple gadgets.

I wish I could say the same about Apple software, but I can't. The functionality is too limited, but it cannot be extended (other than, sometimes, by 3rd-party software). The looks are ugly, but they cannot be changed or customised. That's just sad.