iBooks App Expected to Feature 'Today' Section on iOS 12

[MacRumors]

Apple's revamped iBooks app on iOS 12 will likely feature a "Today" tab that promotes books, authors, and related content on a daily basis.

That's according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara, which reports that Apple appears to be headhunting employees from publications to build out an editorial team that would curate the content to appear in the Today tab of iBooks. Apple has posted a series of iBooks editor job listings on LinkedIn in recent months.

The rumor makes sense given Apple plans to redesign the iBooks app with a similar layout as the App Store on iOS 11, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The new App Store features a Today section of its own that highlights apps, games, developers, sales, and other app-related content on a daily basis.

iBooks currently has five tabs: My Books, Featured, Top Charts, Search, and Purchased. Once the app is redesigned, it's reasonable to assume the tabs could become something like Today, Reading, Books, Audio, and Search.

Apple renamed the iBooks app to Books in the first iOS 11.3 beta, but the name was reverted to iBooks in the fourth beta and remains that way. Perhaps we'll see the simpler Books name return when iOS 12 is released. The software update should be previewed and enter beta testing at WWDC 2018 in early June.

Article Link: iBooks App Expected to Feature 'Today' Section on iOS 12

 

[akodakmoment]

What a joke that to add a section to an app, you have to release an entire OS update.

 

[Superhappytree]

Will they also make it as awful as the App Store?

 

[silvetti]

Probably will be US only at launch with more countries to follow (with no update for the next 3 years).

 

[Wurm5150]

Will they also make it as awful as the App Store?

It will look like the App Store but your thoughts on the App Store isn’t what everyone revolve around.

 

[now i see it]

I thought the whole purpose of iBooks was to send pdfs to prison.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

They need to bring back skeuomorphism to iBooks. That's all they need to do.

 

[Steve J0bs]

I would love if they sold books that came with an audiobook copy. Or some subscription model like audible.

 

[nt5672]

I don't want Apple's view of what I should read. How about making the search actually work. How about providing better search for PDFs that are on the web. How about better search for PDFs in Gutenberg. There are so many ways to improve iBooks that adding advertising is not it.

 

[jclardy]

I really hope this isn't a feature they actually talk about on stage at WWDC.

 

[Porco]

I’m so sick of recommendations and suggestions and constant ad-based nagware in every category of everything. I try to limit it as much as possible, and Apple is far from the worst offender, but it’s a trend that I wish would cease.

 

[dwig]

... How about making the search actually work. How about providing better search for PDFs that are on the web. How about better search for PDFs in Gutenberg. ...

1: PDF is a document format and not an ebook format. There are far better PDF viewers than iBooks.
2: "Gutenberg", that is "Project Gutenberg", does not distribute PDFs so searching for "PDFs in Gutenberg" is pointless.
3: iBooks is all about making money for Apple. They are never going to put any real support for acquiring books from any source other than from Apple.

 

[honglong1976]

Apple's revamped iBooks app on iOS 12 will likely feature a "Today" tab that promotes books, authors, and related content on a daily basis.

That's according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara, which reports that Apple appears to be headhunting employees from publications to build out an editorial team that would curate the content to appear in the Today tab of iBooks. Apple has posted a series of iBooks editor job listings on LinkedIn in recent months.

The rumor makes sense given Apple plans to redesign the iBooks app with a similar layout as the App Store on iOS 11, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The new App Store features a Today section of its own that highlights apps, games, developers, sales, and other app-related content on a daily basis.

iBooks currently has five tabs: My Books, Featured, Top Charts, Search, and Purchased. Once the app is redesigned, it's reasonable to assume the tabs could become something like Today, Reading, Books, Audio, and Search.

Apple renamed the iBooks app to Books in the first iOS 11.3 beta, but the name was reverted to iBooks in the fourth beta and remains that way. Perhaps we'll see the simpler Books name return when iOS 12 is released. The software update should be previewed and enter beta testing at WWDC 2018 in early June.

Article Link: iBooks App Expected to Feature 'Today' Section on iOS 12

Books in iOS10! Brilliant
iOS10 - awful! removed features, buggy, crashes, closes book while reading then reopens the book, read up to page 200, next day back to page 1. It's awful!
[doublepost=1521731701][/doublepost]

It will look like the App Store but your thoughts on the App Store isn’t what everyone revolve around.

App store sucks!

Showing top 10 apps in a vertical list! Perfect

Now, it's just awful. Bad design. Google play store is better in that respect!

 

[srminton]

Sounds good to me. I like the iBook apps, and of course they have the advantage that buying a book is much easier than having to go via Safari to buy from Amazon. But I wish they would make sync more reliable. When I'm reading a book in the Kindle app, it always accurately syncs my reading position between devices with 100% accuracy. iBooks is better than it used to be, when it would regularly bump me back to page 1 upon opening the book on another device (and lose my reading position on the first device, which was maddening), but it's still glitchy and sometimes fails to sync. Syncing in general has improved a lot compared to a year ago - same thing for podcast playback position - but it's not yet at the 99.999% reliability which Amazon seems to have.

 

[mikesch]

What a joke that to add a section to an app, you have to release an entire OS update.

Well, doing something like that is not as simple as you might think. Many stock iOS apps don't just consist of a single app bundle. Instead, some app features are put into frameworks, which are deeply integrated into the system and relied on by other apps and APIs. That's why Apple has to to make changes to their apps available via an entire OS update. There are many under-the-hood changes that need to be done to ensure that other apps and services will still be able to use these frameworks without compromise.

They need to bring back skeuomorphism to iBooks. That's all they need to do.

Actually, there is some hope. The Books app in early iOS 11.3 betas used to contain a lot of unused assets for the upcoming redesign. Among those assets, some textures for books and comics can be found, as well as a snapshot image depicting a book with a skeuomorphic design.

 

[harriska2]

It would be nice if I could extract my books out of ibooks that I personally put in there.

 

[19callum93]

Will they also make it as awful as the App Store?

Since iOS 11 I do not use the App Store at all! I really miss the old App Store

 

[BornAgainMac]

It would be nice if I could extract my books out of ibooks that I personally put in there.

Try Drag and Drop...

 

[LeonHyperShop]

I don't understand. Will iOS11.3 have any improvements to the iBooks?

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Actually, there is some hope. The Books app in early iOS 11.3 betas used to contain a lot of unused assets for the upcoming redesign. Among those assets, some textures for books and comics can be found, as well as a snapshot image depicting a book with a skeuomorphic design.

Don't you dare get my hopes up, lol.

I'm not asking for iOS6 again, I just want the iBooks app to feel like I'm looking at a book again. Those little flourishes were what actually made me get my OG iPad.

 

[nt5672]

1: PDF is a document format and not an ebook format. There are far better PDF viewers than iBooks.
2: "Gutenberg", that is "Project Gutenberg", does not distribute PDFs so searching for "PDFs in Gutenberg" is pointless.
3: iBooks is all about making money for Apple. They are never going to put any real support for acquiring books from any source other than from Apple.

Which is why Apple is missing the boat. iTunes became successful because it allowed one to manage their music, now its just an Apple Music front end and only barely worth having. The same fate will happen to iBooks.

Now if Apple wanted to lead here, they would figure out away so that when you purchase the rights to a book, no matter who it was purchased from, you would own the right to view that book in any format. Until the format wars are over and I don't have to get locked into a format from a single provider, electronic books are not my interest.

 

[Superhappytree]

Actually, there is some hope. The Books app in early iOS 11.3 betas used to contain a lot of unused assets for the upcoming redesign. Among those assets, some textures for books and comics can be found, as well as a snapshot image depicting a book with a skeuomorphic design.

Do you have that snapshot image of the skeumorphic design you can share?

 

[mikesch]

Don't you dare get my hopes up, lol.

I'm not asking for iOS6 again, I just want the iBooks app to feel like I'm looking at a book again. Those little flourishes were what actually made me get my OG iPad.

Do you have a that snapshot image of the skeumorphic design you can share?

Those are some of the new assets that could be found in the early iOS 11.3 beta IPSWs (before Apple reverted the iBooks/Books app to its pre-iOS 11.3 state in beta 4). The book design is reminiscent of iOS 6, but much flatter with very little texturing. Apart from that, the design language is very similar to the Music, Podcasts, App Store and TV apps, with things like 3D Touch action menus coming to the Books app. Some icons are used for a new "Want to Read" feature (which could probably be something like a wish list). There are also some "Add to Library" icons, that, along with the new welcome screens, could possibly mean that there will be an Apple Books subscription service. And the Love/Dislike controls from Apple Music were also present, hinting at some kind of recommendation feature.

 

[007p]

iPad mini update confirmed.

Jk...

 

[Superhappytree]

Those are some of the new assets that could be found in the early iOS 11.3 beta IPSWs (before Apple reverted the iBooks/Books app to its pre-iOS 11.3 state in beta 4). The book design is reminiscent of iOS 6, but much flatter with very little texturing. Apart from that, the design language is very similar to the Music, Podcasts, App Store and TV apps, with things like 3D Touch action menus coming to the Books app. Some icons are used for a new "Want to Read" feature (which could probably be something like a wish list). There are also some "Add to Library" icons, that, along with the new welcome screens, could possibly mean that there will be an Apple Books subscription service. And the Love/Dislike controls from Apple Music were also present, hinting at some kind of recommendation feature.

Interesting! Thanks for sharing the images and the insightful info! I sure hope that iBooks has some texture added to it like in those screenshots because that looks so crisp and clean and a lot better than the completely flat approach they have now. Apple needs some texture badly so I hope they can apply it to the rest of their OS too, which makes me wonder if this is a sign that they will indeed actually be going ahead with a redesign in iOS 12 as hinted in the WWDC artwork? I certainly hope so!