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Apple's Getting Back Into the E-Books Fight Against Amazon (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the second-time's-the-charm dept.

Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg: Apple is ready to take on Amazon.com in the digital book market again, years after regulators forced the iPhone maker to back down from an earlier effort to challenge the e-commerce giant's lead. Apple is working on a redesigned version of its iBooks e-book reading application for iPhones and iPads and has hired an executive from Amazon to help. The new app, due to be released in coming months, will include a simpler interface that better highlights books currently being read and a redesigned digital book store that looks more like the new App Store launched last year, according to people familiar with its development. The revamped app in testing includes a new section called Reading Now and a dedicated tab for audio books, the people said. Apple released an early version of its iOS 11.3 mobile operating system update to developers on Wednesday, providing a hint that the new e-books app is on the way. The app is now simply called "Books," rather than "iBooks," according to the update.

6 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Nooo! by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    The app is now simply called "Books," rather than "iBooks," according to the update.

    Nooooo, is this finally the end of "i"Everything?

    I'm still in mourning over the end of iCarly!

    1. Re:Nooo! by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      It's even worse than that as it's being applied to the books themselves. Asimov's classic is just going to be called Robot in Apple's store.

  2. Reading in LCDs confortable? by iampiti · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Though I work with computers I don't use them to read books. I have an epaper reader for that. What's your experience for reading for long times on LCDs?
    I was under the impression that it wasn't very good for your eyes. I even read some people developed eyesight problems because of that

    1. Re:Reading in LCDs confortable? by ThomasBHardy · · Score: 2

      I've used an iPad as my primary reader since they first came out. Never had any issues with it. I just set the brightness in the reader controls so it's not a spotlight in my face.

      My wife uses an iPad mini as her primary cause it'll fit in her purse.

      Between us we read as many as 10 books a week, particularly in the winter when it's cold outside and a nice fireplace inside.

      Recently I moved up to the iPad Pro, largest size due to a vision defect and it's a great reader for those of us who need more page space for vision issues and there's no corresponding kindle for that size.

      --
      Warning: Teh poster of this messaeg is lysdexic
    2. Re:Reading in LCDs confortable? by chispito · · Score: 2

      Though I work with computers I don't use them to read books. I have an epaper reader for that. What's your experience for reading for long times on LCDs? I was under the impression that it wasn't very good for your eyes. I even read some people developed eyesight problems because of that

      I don't think they're actually going after the novel reading market. They probably are looking to capitalize on people who buy books and don't read them cover to cover. Like coffee table books, possibly text or reference books, and the like.

      E-Ink makes a hug difference, IMO, when you're just plowing through text. I think most people who try both types of screens very quickly see the difference. Plus, and this is not Apple's or Amazon's or anybody's fault by mine, I get more reading done when I'm not reading on a device that has Youtube, Slashdot, etc.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  3. Because you're reading it wrong by Solandri · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Really. Most people set their monitor and tablet too bright. For comfortable reading, the brightness of the backlight should match the ambient lighting. That is, if your display is showing pure white and you hold a white sheet of paper next to it, the display should only be slightly brighter than the paper. White paper reflects about 65% of the light which hits it, and the white of your screen shouldn't be much brighter than that.

    Most people set their screens much brighter than that. This results in eyestrain as your pupils have to adjust in size every time they look at and away from the screen. A good example are those LED billboards you see along the highway. When they're set too bright, it hurts your eyes to look at them at night. But when their brightness is set to match the ambient lighting, you can't tell if it's a LED billboard or a traditional paper billboard. Set the backlight of your LCD or OLED tablet to about match the brightness of a piece of paper, and there's no difference between reading from the tablet, an ePaper reader, or a printed page. (ePaper actually has a lower reflectance than white paper, about 50%, which is why the ones with a dim backlight are more comfortable for reading.