> It doesn’t make sense for them to leave such a basic feature behind, especially since iBooks is a front end to a revenue stream.
The basic features they butchered/implemented for the "front end to revenue stream":
- jarring animation that cannot be turned off
- scrolling is now relegated to a weird small control in settings that has no relation to the actual book you're reading
- "lock orientation" locks orientation in portrait mode
- accessing table of contents is now three taps
- accessing font settings is now three taps
- table of contents + scrolling + searchig + themes + scroll lock + bookmarks ... all of that is accessed through a tiny gray icon that is nearly indistinguishable from surrounding text. Also, this icon is unique, and has never been used anywhere in iOS or MacOS
- closing a book is now a tiny gray x that is almost indistinguishable from the text
All this passed design -> design approval -> engineering managers -> programmers -> qa -> launch check lists.
By the way, when it launched in iOS 16, the close icon and the "kitchen sink" icon would always pe present, they only fixed it a month or two later.
Yup. This is the state of a "frontend to the revenue stream". Done and approved by people who have never read a single book on iOS (and MacOS where it was also butchered), or perhaps have never read a single book in their life, period.
Edit: their animation is also "least effort" attempt: they hide page numbers when animation, then it takes up to two seconds for them to reappear.
The basic features they butchered/implemented for the "front end to revenue stream":
- jarring animation that cannot be turned off
- scrolling is now relegated to a weird small control in settings that has no relation to the actual book you're reading
- "lock orientation" locks orientation in portrait mode
- accessing table of contents is now three taps
- accessing font settings is now three taps
- table of contents + scrolling + searchig + themes + scroll lock + bookmarks ... all of that is accessed through a tiny gray icon that is nearly indistinguishable from surrounding text. Also, this icon is unique, and has never been used anywhere in iOS or MacOS
- closing a book is now a tiny gray x that is almost indistinguishable from the text
All this passed design -> design approval -> engineering managers -> programmers -> qa -> launch check lists.
By the way, when it launched in iOS 16, the close icon and the "kitchen sink" icon would always pe present, they only fixed it a month or two later.
Yup. This is the state of a "frontend to the revenue stream". Done and approved by people who have never read a single book on iOS (and MacOS where it was also butchered), or perhaps have never read a single book in their life, period.
Edit: their animation is also "least effort" attempt: they hide page numbers when animation, then it takes up to two seconds for them to reappear.