“lorrain croy” lorrain croy
I love reading on the iPad, and iBooks is by far my favorite reading app. In my opinion iBooks has the smoothest user interface and offers the best reading experience. I love that it syncs with my iPhone and I love the ability to search, leave notes, define words, and highlight text. I really get a lot of reading accomplished between my iPad and my iPhone during the day as I wait in lines and other places. (The other reading apps I have downloaded and have used include: Kindle, Nook, and Google Play Books. iBooks trumps them all.) There are some features I like on the other apps and some new ones I’ve dreamed-up I’d like to see added in a future upgrade of iBooks.
Here are my 8 suggestions to improve iBooks:
1) Moveable Bookmark: The red bookmark in the top right corner is great as it always remembers where I am in a book, even when syncing with my iPhone. Sometimes, however, when I open my book I have to hunt around where I am on the page. I wish the red bookmark was moveable. I would simply drag it down to the paragraph I was reading on the righthand side.
2) Audio: How wonderful iBooks would be if it could pronounce a word or actually read the the text to you! I have my MacBooks set up for my students so that if they hit control-command-D it defines a highlighted word for them, and if they press control-command-S it will pronounce the word for them. I also purchase audio books of our class sets and make playlists on our iOS devices so frustrated readers or students with IEPs can follow along and benefit. iBooks would be greatly improved if it could read the books or pronounce the words.
3) Send Quote to Social Media: One feature on the Kindle app that I like is the ability to send a quote from the text to Twitter. I like the idea of spurning discussion by sharing small bits of text. While this isn’t an essential feature it would be a welcome addition.
4) True Page Numbers: When reading an eBook on any app the page numbers change with the size of the text and its format. If you are discussing your book others using a traditional paper book, or users on other devices, it would be helpful if everyone had the same page number; a true page number across all devices that match with the physical copy.
5) Quick Read Option on Home Screen: When I activate my iPhone or iPad the ‘slide to unlock’ screen offers me a quick option to use the camera. Wouldn’t it be great if I could also set this up so a book icon appeared? If I am reading a book I don’t want to go through several clicks to get to it. I realize some users wouldn’t want this option so it could be enabled or disabled in settings. But for us book lovers… Boom! What a welcome feature!
6) More Titles: Sometimes when I am looking for a book I am disappointed to find that it just isn’t available on iBooks. This is becoming less of a problem, but I welcome more titles. I have purchased a few Kindle versions of books that weren’t available. The reading experience was close to iBooks.
7) Add iBooks to MacBooks and iMacs: I can read and sync my iBooks on my iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch device, but not my MacBook or iMac!?! I am really hoping this changes in Mountain Lion. People need their books on their computers as well as their iOS devices. (Schools would greatly benefit from this as well.)
8) iBooks Author for iOS Devices: I know I’m a dreamer, but iMovie made it to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, so why not iBooks Author? Create books on your iPad. Yes, please!
Looking forward to reading if you like my ideas for an iBooks upgrade in the comments below, and I am sure you have some great ideas of your own. I really enjoy iBooks and I know Apple will continue to prove upon an already fantastic app.
