That Which Was Not Possible, Now Is
One of the reasons I love my 9.7" iPad Pro is because it can do things better than either my iPhone 7 Plus or my MacBook Pro. One of those “things” debuted with the original iPad but can be further improved. That would be reading books.
I know that reading books on a Kindle is a little more comfortable and easier to do outside on the patio. But I tend to like having one main device that does practically everything, so I use my iPad to read books. I find even the 7 Plus screen too small to want to read for a long time. As for reading on a laptop, do I even need to answer that question?
But there is one thing about reading books on an iPad that I’m surprised isn’t possible yet, and I don’t understand why. Why can’t I be in two sections of a book simultaneously?
You know how when you’re reading a book, you wish you could flip back to an earlier section because you may not remember exactly who a certain character is? If you do, you might lose your current place. Some apps will keep record of your furthest reading place but not all of them do. Besides, sometimes it is nice to see two separate parts of the book before you simultaneously. Like in church when your pastor has his main passage for the day but is bouncing around the Bible asking you to turn to other passages. It would be nice to keep the main passage on the left and use the right to look up others.
I’m afraid our apps have been limited because we don’t use physical books that way. It’s great to mimic real world functionality in the digital world, however where possible, developers should use the advantages of digital to go beyond the normal paradigm.
Of all Apple’s devices, the iPad strikes the best balance of mobility and power for me. A big, beautiful iPad screen has enough real estate to allow us to split the screen view and see different sections of a book simultaneously. Chalk this up as another item that should be possible on an iPad, but currently isn’t.
Unlike some of the other iPad restrictions though, I don’t think this is a shortcoming of iOS itself. I suppose the blame lies with app developers. The main ones being Apple and Amazon.
The only thing standing in the way of book reading becoming more powerful on the iPad is a shortage of imagination and resources.
But there is one thing about reading books on an iPad that I’m surprised isn’t possible yet, and I don’t understand why. Why can’t I be in two sections of a book simultaneously?
You know how when you’re reading a book, you wish you could flip back to an earlier section because you may not remember exactly who a certain character is? If you do, you might lose your current place. Some apps will keep record of your furthest reading place but not all of them do. Besides, sometimes it is nice to see two separate parts of the book before you simultaneously. Like in church when your pastor has his main passage for the day but is bouncing around the Bible asking you to turn to other passages. It would be nice to keep the main passage on the left and use the right to look up others.
I’m afraid our apps have been limited because we don’t use physical books that way. It’s great to mimic real world functionality in the digital world, however where possible, developers should use the advantages of digital to go beyond the normal paradigm.
Of all Apple’s devices, the iPad strikes the best balance of mobility and power for me. A big, beautiful iPad screen has enough real estate to allow us to split the screen view and see different sections of a book simultaneously. Chalk this up as another item that should be possible on an iPad, but currently isn’t.
Unlike some of the other iPad restrictions though, I don’t think this is a shortcoming of iOS itself. I suppose the blame lies with app developers. The main ones being Apple and Amazon.
The only thing standing in the way of book reading becoming more powerful on the iPad is a shortage of imagination and resources.
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