Thoughts on Push Pop Press's Our Choice book app

[tipp]

I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts about Al Gore's Our Choice app from Push Pop Press. It's getting glowing reviews everywhere, and while the UI is very nice and what it does is done well, there are some pretty glaring flaws that really hurt it.

No selectable text, no search, no changing font size, no bookmarks, no notes/annotations, no page numbers, and enormous download size that is completely out of the user's control once you open the app. Be prepared for the original 60MB app to increase with around 1GB worth of downloads, chapter by chapter, with no ability to stop it. If you have less than 1GB, it will gobble up free space until none is left and then you can't even read the remaining chapters until you make more space by deleting other apps/videos/music.

I really want these guys to succeed, because even in this state, it's better than Adobe's publishing tool, but if this is it and no changes are planned I hope this is not the future of digital books.

 

[Simzart]

I really like the interaction between UI and its contents.

But I agree with you that it lacks the advantages of digital publishing such as

No selectable text, no search, no changing font size, no bookmarks, no notes/annotations, no page numbers

I felt it's just a series of large scanned images with the addition of cool UIs.

 

[Ashka]

Although the 1GB+ total download was worrying as I have a 4GB Monthly Cap the book itself is good.
The voice overs, world maps and general interactive options are all very well done but I'd really like an option to change the point size of the text.
Overall well worth buying & downloading.

 

[bobob]

Our Choice got a glowing review from the NY Times.

"This is one of the most elegant, fluid, immersive apps you’ve ever seen. It’s a showpiece for the new world of touch-screen gadgets."

 

[ninerfan]

It's all about the message, folks! Just an incredible bonus that it is presented in such an immersive app.