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The original iBooks was okay, but pretty disgusting looking (Thanks Forstall for the vomit inducing design) and I find it works pretty much as expected. Themes, fonts are all really easy to find (bottom right for me) and there are so many more settings to tweak the way I like it. The only thing I miss is the page turning style.

I liked that design. But the Podcast app was drop dead gorgeous, especially the animated tape. Going minimal painted them into a corner.


ibooks.jpg
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Which ones?
New York Times for one, wall street journal, The Guardian (U.K.) for another two. basically the money wasn’t that good and Apple didn’t let newspapers have access to subscriber information by the sounds of it.

A lot of work would have had to go into converting content from page ready to Apple News ready. It’s already hard enough for when page ready copy has to be converted for web and these publications have iOS apps where users can log in after paying directly to the publisher. They get to keep more of the money.

The profit margin for apple must again not be big enough for the price being asked so they are letting it slide. Much like Books.

What would worry me is podcasts - it’s a high profile feature that clearly apple has a historic lead in (probably by accident) but the way they are treating it makes it look desperately underfunded when Spotify or other platforms like Amazon are monetising them so effectively.
 
Tens of millions of us will be out of work if AI is every allowed to get a foot in the door.

Tens of millions of people lost their job's when company owners started to replace humans with robotic machines. Take Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon, he almost jumps with glee when he talks about his warehouses being nearly fully automated. Never a thought of the thousands of human employees he fired.

There will be a societal shift when AI becomes the norm because company bosses will fire humans and replace them with AI. Where are people going to get jobs from? They need a job to help pay the rent/mortgage, food, clothing. Are governments around the world going to give it all out freely when AI takes everyone's job away and there is very very few jobs left for the ten's of millions of humans that will be unemployed.

I bet tech CEO's do not give it a thought at the human suffering they will cause when they introduce AI into their companies. Who need's thousands of human employees to write the latest version of windows os or mac os when you can just get one AI bot to do it for them (eventually).

Whilst for many areas in life AI is still in it's infancy, there are already AI bots creating art work, making music, writing books, narrating video's, writing jokes, writing movies scripts, designing buildings, detecting medical problems and the list goes on.

Just think of the money Tim Cook could save if one AI bot could code the next version of Mac OS or iOS. Do you honestly think he is going to give a &&&& about the coders that would lose their jobs. Hell no. Why because as CEO his duty is to the shareholders, not the company employees.

AI will not be your friend that's for sure.
For every job lost to emergent technologies (think automobiles replacing horse drawn carriages, and the loss of jobs in the buggy whip business), new jobs are created. The same paradigm has always proven true since the start of the industrial revolution. There are not tens of millions of people out of work in this country. Employers are desperate for qualified workers. If your buggy whip job folds, learn a new skill and get a job. The constant whining from people who refuse to adapt annoys the heck out of me!
 
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If Apple concentrated a very small team on Books only (maybe this exists) and just refine the hell out of it, it could be an even more amazing experience than it already is. There is plenty of room to innovate there in my opinion - if Apple can get a large enough return on it. To all those affected I hope that they find positions internally quickly.
 
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I liked that design. But the Podcast app was drop dead gorgeous, especially the animated tape. Going minimal painted them into a corner.


View attachment 2410136View attachment 2410137

I hated that version of the podcast app so much that I quit using it altogether when that design was released. I guess it's because I have a reel-to-reel system (and hundreds of one-off recordings), and I know how big of a PIA is to run and maintain.

Plus is just looks like crap; as does the wooden bookshelf.
 
Or it’s established 'well enough' and they don’t need the moderation because of tech/AI advances.

The original iBooks was okay, but pretty disgusting looking (Thanks Forstall for the vomit inducing design) and I find it works pretty much as expected. Themes, fonts are all really easy to find (bottom right for me) and there are so many more settings to tweak the way I like it. The only thing I miss is the page turning style.
when was the last time you opened iBooks? the page turning style is back since a couple years ago. Besides, I liked more the Forstall's style.
 
People have trouble getting through books I think because social media has killed our attention spans.

But I think AI will help people get through books soon, so I think people will read more. Imagine being able to ask Apple Intelligence "Sum up this page for me" and ChatGPT breaks down the page to help get you on track. You can already screenshot the page and manually upload it to ChatGPT to do this, but once it's easier and catches on I think more people will be doing it.
 
Why isn't Books included in Apple One Premiere? We should get some free books to read and listen to.
 
The lack of competitive drive regarding Apple Books is really unfortunate because they aren't that far away from being the best app. I have used Kindle, Kobo, and Apple Books, so here's the breakdown:

Kindle Pros: Cheaper books on average, has good eReaders, Send-to-Kindle is great, Whispersync is great, best font, reading metrics.
Kindle Cons: Send-to-Kindle has a size limit so no Whispersync for those items, barely customizable

Kobo Pros: Highly customizable, good eReaders, supports tons of formats and fonts, reading metrics.
Kobo Cons: Zero non-paid syncing. Supports DropBox and Google Drive, but have to pay to sync your content.

Apple Pros: Syncs great with iCloud exceeding Whispersync, reliable app
Apple Cons: No customizable fonts, no metrics, highest priced books

What Apple needs to do is add customizable fonts, reading metrics, 3rd party audiobook syncing, and a kindle unlimited style sub and then it will be the absolute best app there is out there. After that work on pricing.

This is unfortunate since I don't think it will happen (I mean it took 6 years from the iOS 12 re-imagining to add MARGIN CONTROL???) and since Apple Books is one of my most used apps it's sad to hear they are losing team support.
 
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For every job lost to emergent technologies (think automobiles replacing horse drawn carriages, and the loss of jobs in the buggy whip business), new jobs are created. The same paradigm has always proven true since the start of the industrial revolution. There are not tens of millions of people out of work in this country. Employers are desperate for qualified workers. If your buggy whip job folds, learn a new skill and get a job. The constant whining from people who refuse to adapt annoys the heck out of me!
Your example is not valid because those involved in the buggy cart business would have been able to move over to it's replacement (automobiles). Now just where exactly are people going to go when AI takes over their job? There is nothing physical with AI because it's all digital code. Re-skill you say? and who is going to pay for re-skilling ten's of thousands of workers who will have lost their job to AI. Robots have taken over manufacturing, AI will have taken over move human involved labour. Where will the jobs come from? Not everyone want's to work in the retail sector or is that the price people are going to have to pay for losing their jobs to AI, being forced to do a job they do not like because that is the only job available. Companies worldwide have already scaled back their training programs because it has become to costly. It paints a bleak picture of what is to become when AI becomes the def-facto choice between human or computer.
 
People have trouble getting through books I think because social media has killed our attention spans.

But I think AI will help people get through books soon, so I think people will read more. Imagine being able to ask Apple Intelligence "Sum up this page for me" and ChatGPT breaks down the page to help get you on track. You can already screenshot the page and manually upload it to ChatGPT to do this, but once it's easier and catches on I think more people will be doing it.

That's not reading. I don't want chatGPT to summarize a novel/whatever for me, I want to read it how the author wrote it. For technical documents, sure, but for pleasure reading? Absolutely not!

I personally have no problem just unplugging and reading. I have to read a lot for work (hospital pharmacy), but were not allowed to use AI whatsoever, for patient security and safety reasons. The company has all of them IP-blocked.
 
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Why are peons always the first to go when their master has always been the problem?

So many people came and gone, Eddie Cue is still there and Apple service business has massive holes and not adequately capitalize on their customer base.

Eddie needs to go.
 
Same here. I used to use Kindle some years ago, but decided to buy the same book for both Kindle and Apple Books, and after trying both apps on my iPhone, iPad Pro, and iMac, decided I liked Apple Books better and now only use that.
I agree. Also the Mac has an app (not a website) that works offline. Some will recommend other book apps that lack a Mac app and I kindly will say no thank you,
 
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That's not reading. I don't want chatGPT to summarize a novel/whatever for me, I want to read it how the author wrote it. For technical documents, sure, but for pleasure reading? Absolutely not!

I personally have no problem just unplugging and reading. I have to read a lot for work (hospital pharmacy), but were not allowed to use AI whatsoever, for patient security and safety reasons. The company has all of them IP-blocked.
I wont touch any AI with my books.
 
I do as well. Love my iPad Mini 6 for reading books.

I haven't been able to make the transition from e-ink to regular screens. I've tried, and after a week or so just go back to e-ink.

I might try again once the next mini is released. I have no use for an iPad otherwise, though.
 
People have trouble getting through books I think because social media has killed our attention spans.

But I think AI will help people get through books soon, so I think people will read more. Imagine being able to ask Apple Intelligence "Sum up this page for me" and ChatGPT breaks down the page to help get you on track. You can already screenshot the page and manually upload it to ChatGPT to do this, but once it's easier and catches on I think more people will be doing it.
Don't think that is really reading.
 
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