Apple Books 12+

Recent iterations of this app have been a letdown. There’s a lot Apple could do to improve things, but for now, it makes for a frustrating reading experience. Design wise, there’s the outer margins, which are often too wide to comfortable scan lines of text, especially on an iPhone mini. Highlighting text is a gamble – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it works but only by half. The themes UI feels like it was an afterthought, clunky and confusing. The menu itself is hidden away behind a non-standard, counterintuitive interface that’s uncharacteristic of Apple’s usual approach to design. And the theme options are overkill. Most of us simply want light or dark modes and the ability to adjust type properties, not a collection of rigid styles. Plus, you can’t even adjust the font size within these themes. There’s a lot Apple could do to improve this app, but for now, it’s a frustrating reading experience.

Not only has the type sizes been limited, which is a real pain for those with any visual impairment (and the reason I started using the app and iBooks many years ago), but the functionality has been messed with so much that it is really difficult to use. No longer able to easily look up definitions of words, I find it easier to open safari and google the word. Also the menu at the bottom will not always open, no matter how many times I tap it. Very frustrating. Now when I’m reading a book, if I’m in landscape mode, sometimes a new chapter opens when I page forward, even though there are still pages left in the old chapter. The only way I can rectify this is to turn the iPad to portrait mode and then back to landscape mode. Also sometimes when I turn the page and it is a new chapter< I just have blank pages, the only way to rectify this is to close the app and reopen it. Not good enough Apple. Do something about these faults as I cannot afford to rebut all my books on Kindle, nor should I have to. You have made it so these books cannot be read on other tablets so you should ensure that your app works properly and also be more usable by the visually impaired by allowing larger font sizes to be used.

Wouldn't people be happy to blow up your beloved books app with the new app? Congratulations on blowing it up. The newest update is frustatingly hard to navigate. You should stop destroying apps. The original books app was comfortable, and I like the UI but the new UI—whatever, I do not! Do you see a lot of complaints? They all hate the new UI! Just change it back and people would like it! The close button and options button is annoyingly hard to make it appear again, the page turning animation is good and now replaced with a trash animation that makes no sense to change to, the button at the bottom is terrible, change it to various button that appear by default. If you leave the new UI, people will be angry!!! So just change!!! I hate the new UI!!! It's so uncomfortable, is ridiculous, and easy to get irritate!!! Congratulations on wasting your time doing a pointless thing only to increase the amount of critical reviews! I hate the new update! The UI is just confusing to use and already lots of people are hating it! Change it back and you'll get more 5 star ratings!!! Just do it!!!