Reading apps that support split screen and slide-out

[tomsem]

So far, the list is short, but it only takes 2 to tango:

1) iBooks
2) Bookshout

Bookshout includes Spritz reading mode, BTW. I'm surprised it is taking so long for others to show up, particularly Kindle.

And in terms of note-taking, Evernote still isn't there (but they recently laid off 11% of their workforce). All of the Microsoft Office apps support it.

Some use cases:

- reading in one pane and taking notes in the other
- reading in original language and in a translation
- comparing formatting
- reading one book with left brain and another with right brain

[kyteflyer]

I do wish some of the others *would* step up. I must admit I havent checked most of my apps because 90% of my reading is on my 5S.

[edit] Quick check (mass d/l of readers I have tried and rejected, or use on my iphone) reveals that most, if not all, support slide out. But, I'm not sure how useful that really is. iBooks is still the only one supporting split screen

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by tomsem

- reading one book with left brain and another with right brain

Hadn't thought of that

I'd like to add reading the same book at two different places (like text and end notes), although I would rather do this within the same app.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Hadn't thought of that

I'd like to add reading the same book at two different places (like text and end notes), although I would rather do this within the same app.

Agreed, it seems like such an obvious and useful thing. But iOS won't run two instances of an app, and I've not seen any apps that can have two documents windowed.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I do wish some of the others *would* step up. I must admit I havent checked most of my apps because 90% of my reading is on my 5S.

[edit] Quick check (mass d/l of readers I have tried and rejected, or use on my iphone) reveals that most, if not all, support slide out. But, I'm not sure how useful that really is. iBooks is still the only one supporting split screen

Which reading apps are you seeing slide out with? I thought I had all of them, but only Bookshout and iBooks so far are in slide out list. forScore (a PDF viewer specialized for music scores) also, and supports split screen.

I think it is odd that you cannot configure which side slide out occurs, and I'd like to be able to swap left and right apps in both slide out and split screen mode. Probably have to wait for iOS 10.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Which reading apps are you seeing slide out with? I thought I had all of them, but only Bookshout and iBooks so far are in slide out list. forScore (a PDF viewer specialized for music scores) also, and supports split screen.

I think it is odd that you cannot configure which side slide out occurs, and I'd like to be able to swap left and right apps in both slide out and split screen mode. Probably have to wait for iOS 10.

The ones you see in the list are those which support split screen. When I said they support slide out, I meant that when you open, for example, Shubook 2M, you can slide out the list, and open one of the listed apps. The readers I checked cannot be slid out. but they can have something else slide out on top of them.

I only use slideout for messages or email, if something needs a quick response. Otherwise I cant see the point of it.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Agreed, it seems like such an obvious and useful thing. But iOS won't run two instances of an app, and I've not seen any apps that can have two documents windowed.

The Faithlife Corporation produces Bible study apps which can pull up two documents at the same time. These can be two separate documents or two copies of the same one.

The company sells Bibles and other Christian ebooks for their platform. They are locked to the platform, tend to be more expensive then non-locked ebooks and will have every bibical references linked to the Bible (translation chosen by the user).

There's also a whole slew of study aids built into the apps for serious study and the books can be streamed as well as downloaded for offline study.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

The ones you see in the list are those which support split screen. When I said they support slide out, I meant that when you open, for example, Shubook 2M, you can slide out the list, and open one of the listed apps. The readers I checked cannot be slid out. but they can have something else slide out on top of them.

I only use slideout for messages or email, if something needs a quick response. Otherwise I cant see the point of it.

Right, but any app can have something slide over it, at which point it goes into background operation. Slide Over works on any iOS 9 iPad. But any app that slides out will also function in split screen with another app that slides out (but only on on iPad Air 2, new iPad Mini, iPad Pro) and both stay active. This is what I'm waiting for.

The Kindle app just updated but still no support for iOS 9 features.

Amazon Video doesn't yet support PIP.

[kyteflyer]

Sadly, it looks like Marvin has not yet been updated for iOS9, nothing slides out on top of that, nor can it be on a split screen.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Sadly, it looks like Marvin has not yet been updated for iOS9, nothing slides out on top of that, nor can it be on a split screen.

What device are you using? You need an iPad for any of this to work:

https://developer.apple.com/library/...Pad/index.html

I can Slide Over apps on top of Marvin just fine on my IPad Air 2.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by tomsem

What device are you using? You need an iPad for any of this to work:

https://developer.apple.com/library/...Pad/index.html

I can Slide Over apps on top of Marvin just fine on my IPad Air 2.

I have the same. Air 2, and I cannot get anything to slide out over the top of it. Portrait or landscape? I'm always landscape and 2 columns.

[edit] oh never mind, I managed to do it this morning. The little arrow that indicates theres something there for sliding ... i must have been missing, or too slow in sliding, thus only getting next page instead.

[tomsem]

Mantano Reader updated with 'Support for iOS9' but this does not include Slide Over/Split Screen.

[kyteflyer]

I think half the time when they say that, they just mean "it will work with iOS9 and shouldnt crash"

I am loving split screen! I have a prolific message partner and its very useful to be able to answer his messages without needing to close the app I am in. I dont mind that its backgrounded in cases where slide is used, but having the split is just magic. Love it.

Looking forward (with a great deal of trepidation) to seeing what the pricing is going to be on iPad Pro.

[tomsem]

Nook app just updated.

It supports slide over and split screen, in a manner of speaking, but there are a number of problems: tap zones are a mess, it doesn't know how to go from split to full screen, from full screen to split screen, margins are kind of random, header/footer options don't always display properly, and that is just for starters. Workaround is to go back to Library and re-open the book each time you change aspect.

Slide over mode is completely broken: text spills off the right side and I cannot get it to reflow so I can actually read it.

It is very much as if the developer toggled a couple of project settings and pushed it to Appstore without any testing. Of course, it seems Apple didn't bother to check anything either.

But I suppose they can claim some sort of partial credit for beating the Kindle, Kobo, Play Books apps to this feature.

[tomsem]

Queue (Safari Books Online) now supports Slide Out/Split screen.

Feedly and Chrome do as well.

Speaking of browsers, these do enable reading with read.amazon.com and play.google.com/books. It's not without compromises but opens up possibilities for side-by-side use cases. Ironically I cannot get play.google.books to work with Chrome, And many web sites (including play.google.com/books) respond to the narrower viewport by shrinking and making text too small to read (instead of switching to 'mobile friendly'). read.amazon.com wants 2/3 of the landscape screen width, and if it does not get that, it just truncates, making it worthless.

Overall this Split View thing seems a little half-baked. In Portrait, it seems it would be more useful to stack the views rather than splitting vertically as in Landscape. And app developers (and to some extent web designers) need to consider how they can make their apps more usable in this context. It's more than just throwing a couple of build switches.