WWDC

[pwalker8]

Apple announced a refresh of the iBooks app and renaming it to Apple Books. Not much in the way of details. I guess we will just have to see over the next couple of months.

No mention of a update of the iBooks app on MacOS. I still keep hoping that Apple will sync up how they handle ebooks and audiobooks across MacOS and iOS. I guess I'll have another try at the football.

No mention at all about new hardware this year. Frankly, with the exception of the updated Apple Books app, I thought it was a bit of a yawner, but then again most of the updates weren't really directed at me and the way I use Apple products.

[Dylrob]

I'm amazed they're giving it any attention. I doubt the iBooks store has ever been much of a money maker for them.

‘Love the new shortcuts app!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

I'm amazed they're giving it any attention. I doubt the iBooks store has ever been much of a money maker for them.

‘Love the new shortcuts app!

Apple hired Kashif Zafar away from Audible earlier in the year to lead the ebook effort. The most recent break out that I've seen shows Apple with 9% of the US market while Amazon has 83% and B&N has 4%. As far as why, it's simply one of the many service offerings that Apple has. Plus, I suspect they think that Amazon doesn't have nearly the influence with the Government and are thus there is less likelihood that Apple will run into legal issues.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

No mention at all about new hardware this year.

I dont know why they ever started talking hardware a few years back, it wasnt always the case because it was aimed at developers, not consumers. Seems they are just doing what they used to.

Expect hardware announcements later in the year.

iBooks may be updated but if we don't get more control over how its presented (eg margins) then I still won't be using it.

I still haven't updated to High Sierra, and have no plans to, which is fine, because my laptop cant have Mojave anyway. Not that into it after what I saw presented. Its nice, but doesnt add anything to how I use my stuff.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I dont know why they ever started talking hardware a few years back, it wasnt always the case because it was aimed at developers, not consumers. Seems they are just doing what they used to.

Expect hardware announcements later in the year.

iBooks may be updated but if we don't get more control over how its presented (eg margins) then I still won't be using it.

I still haven't updated to High Sierra, and have no plans to, which is fine, because my laptop cant have Mojave anyway. Not that into it after what I saw presented. Its nice, but doesnt add anything to how I use my stuff.

WWDC has long since grown beyond just a developer conference. Apple uses it to build up hype. Keep the fan base excited for what’s to come.

That said, it does probably make more sense to split up the software and hardware announcements. They get more press that way.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

WWDC has long since grown beyond just a developer conference. Apple uses it to build up hype. Keep the fan base excited for what’s to come.

That said, it does probably make more sense to split up the software and hardware announcements. They get more press that way.

WWDC really is the premier Apple event. I would argue that it gets more coverage than the September iPhone event, if only because they give the press a lot of meat with regards to changes and new apps. Not everyone wants to buy new hardware, but the vast majority of Apple users upgrade when the new operating system comes out.

Haven't really had much chance to play with the iOS beta. Unfortunately, my mac laptop that I kept around for betas died the final death after one of my cats gacked on the keyboard, so I'll just have to wait on Mojave. With the iPad pro and keyboard case, it's pretty hard to justify a new laptop these days. I use an iMac at home.

[pwalker8]

I played around with books a bit today. One of the interesting things is that it automatically groups series together and shows you the books you don't have with a link to buy. Of course, right now, I only have ebooks that I bought from Apple on the iPad, which is only a handful. I need to experiment to see how it handles ebooks from somewhere else. It also doesn't seem to group audiobooks as series.

[nimapourkarimi]

I couldn't find any screenshots of Apple Books library view, can you post one? Thanks.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by nimapourkarimi

I couldn't find any screenshots of Apple Books library view, can you post one? Thanks.

I don't think I can until the beta becomes public.

The thing to keep in mind is that with betas features can be fluid.

[OtinG]

Personally, I hope Apple will concentrate most of their development effort this year to squashing bugs. There are a lot of bugs in iOS and Mac OS X. The Dark screen mode in Mac OS X looks like it can be useful. Other than that, most of what they announced was of little interest to me. But then I'm an old Baby Boomer from Job's generation and not a Millennial, and I'm pretty sure they are trying hardest to appeal to the Millennials these days.

I did think that some of the new stuff was a bit late to the party though. I've been wanting a better image information system like Windows has had for over a decade. Apple is supposed to be for artsie types, yet they are way behind in presenting easy to find and useful EXIF informations via the Finder. I hope the new update will be more useful than what they demonstrated. The current Get Info function and box is pretty useless and lame.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I don't think I can until the beta becomes public.

The thing to keep in mind is that with betas features can be fluid.

About a month and a couple of new beta releases later, I've formed some opinions on the books app. First, it's very much oriented towards the iTunes store and books you purchase there. Can't really blame Apple for that, but I think that it's useful to keep this in mind when you set your expectations. For the most part, the neat little bells and whistles don't seem to work with the 3rd party books.

Two interesting new features that I like are the series info and the Want to Read on the main screen. Series is nice, it lists the books in the series, shows the next book in the series and has a button to buy. Of course, it only works for books you bought from the iTunes store. That hints to me that they are working to beef up the book selections.

Want to Read simply allows you to tag a book as Want to Read, so it shows up in that list. Marvin kind of has that feature (reading list) and it matches the way that I organize my books. Pretty nice.

I really like the updates to the store. It's similar to the store for apps. music and movies. The downside is that the current DRM removal doesn't work on High Sierra. It's pretty unlikely that I'm going to buy any ebook, music or movies where I can't remove the DRM so I can format shift it, especially if I can buy it elsewhere (i.e. Amazon) and remove the DRM.

The biggest question I have is have they finally moved the audiobooks to books on the Mac. If I can organize my audiobooks categories on my mac and have those changes sync with my iPhone and iPad, then I'm going to be a happy camper. That will solve most of my audiobook complaints.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by nimapourkarimi

I couldn't find any screenshots of Apple Books library view, can you post one? Thanks.

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/06...ooks-ios-12-2/

[Dylrob]

Nifty.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Nifty.

I couldn't care less about the iBooks/Apple Books stuff as I rarely use Apples books or tunes apps. The stores have always been terrible, and probably still are.

But this scanning feature is useful. There have been 3rd party apps for years that allowed for using an iPhone to scan documents, but integration into the iOS and Mac OS X was not there of course. I could have used this three years ago when I bought my house. I did use third party apps, but this would have been much easier and quicker than scanning documents with iPhone then emailing the documents to my MBP. Macs have had a useful signature feature for years that allows you to sign your name on a piece of paper, hold it close to your Mac's camera and photograph it, then it turns that image into a signature which you can affix to documents digitally. That feature saved me a lot of time when I was buying my house, not to mention saving snail mail time since digital documents don't need to be hand delivered.