Apple Books vs Google Books

2023. Apple Books is bringing back page turn animation on iOS



Apple is reintroducing page turn animation in the Books app with the latest iOS 16.4 beta for iPhone and iPad. When the update rolls out, users will be able to enjoy the classic page turn CURL animation, allowing them to swipe and gesture to peek at the next page or simply turn it as they would with a physical book. Currently, Apple Books only features the swipe animation, which results in an abrupt page turn that feels somewhat like swiping between slides. This is the default in iOS 16.4; however, you can manually set the page turns to one of four different options: Curl, Side, Infinite Scrolling and None. I know many users who stopped using the Apple Books app when iOS 15 removed the animations and switched to alternative apps that have always included them, such as Kindle.


2023. Apple Books launches catalog of AI-narrated audiobooks



Apple Books has introduced a collection of books narrated by artificial intelligence, a move that could signal the start of a decline for human narrators. This strategy represents an effort to disrupt the profitable and rapidly growing audiobook market. However, it also brings the likelihood of increased scrutiny regarding accusations of Apple's anti-competitive conduct. Within Apple's Books app, a search for "AI narration" unveils a selection of works featured in this initiative. These works are described as having been "narrated by a digital voice based on a human narrator." Although there could be potential backlash from professional voice actors, authors themselves are increasingly being requested to personally narrate their own books. For writers, there exists a financial incentive in terms of upfront payments and broader accessibility of their creations.


2022. Apple Books is getting a bunch of new features in iOS 16



In iOS 16, which will be released this Fall, the reading app Apple Books will introduce new features that let you tailor the reading experience to your preferences. You'll have the option to select reading themes for various settings and moods, or modify the font, spacing, text size and other preferences. The audiobook player will be revamped with updated controls and a mini player that allows you to continue listening while browsing the store. You can also purchase books directly from the player while previewing them. The updated Apple Books experience will be available for both iPad and iPhone. In iOS 15, a toolbar at the top of the app offered access to the chapter index, font settings, search tools and bookmarks, but in iOS 16, these features have been relocated to the bottom of the app.


2020. Apple Books giving away hundreds of free books



Apple Books has announced that several hundred audiobooks and ebooks are now available for free. Open the Apple Books app and scroll through the featured section to find one labeled ‘Free Books.’ This offer is available exclusively to US customers. You can explore free books, read-alongs for children, cozy mysteries and audiobooks for the entire family. Apple is also highlighting that users can choose a free novel from the company’s “First in a Series, Free” section. The app features a broad selection of titles for both adults and children, ranging from Sesame Street to HG Wells and includes well-known works like *Pride and Prejudice* in audiobook format. Depending on your location, the app also offers classic titles from authors such as Shakespeare.


2019. Apple Books adds Reading Goals



Apple will introduce reading goals in Apple Books. This feature will be accessible for audiobooks and ebooks when iOS 13 launches later this year. Apple described the system as follows: “Read a book or listen to an audiobook for five minutes while waiting in line for coffee, during your commute, or before bed to meet your Daily Reading Goal. Build streaks to celebrate your successes and share books you’ve completed with the Books Read this Year collection.” Reading Goals will be available on any iOS 13 device, such as the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac computers. It is currently unclear if badges and achievements will be awarded or if it will simply serve as a daily reading target for audiobooks and ebooks. More details will be revealed when the public beta is released next month.


2018. iBooks rebrands as Apple Books



Apple iBooks will be rebranded as Apple Books with the release of iOS 12 later this year. It will also undergo a major redesign. A new "Reading Now" feature will display the audiobook and eBook you are currently reading and provide an indication of your progress in each title. This will be shown as an open book with the book title beneath it. The current iBooks app has sections for My Books, Featured, Top Charts, Search and Purchased at the bottom. This will be updated to Reading Now, Library, Bookstore, Audiobooks and Search. This change will make it easier to access the audiobook section, which currently requires you to open the bookstore and then click on the audiobooks tab.


2018. Google Launches Talk to Books



Google has just introduced a new service called Talk to Books. It offers a completely novel approach to discovering books by focusing on individual sentences rather than authors or topics. You can make a statement or pose a question and the tool locates sentences in books that address your input, without relying on keyword matching. Essentially, you're engaging with the books, receiving responses that can help you decide if you're interested in reading them.


2016. Google Books will now make better suggestions on what to read next



Google Books seeks to provide stronger competition to Amazon’s Kindle app by enhancing its capabilities for discovering new reading material. The new feature, named “Discover,” is a fresh section within the Google Books app designed to guide users toward new content, offering both personalized recommendations and suggestions based on popular trends within the broader community. It will propose new reads based on your activity in Google Books. Additionally, it will automatically recommend books featured in articles or videos you view elsewhere in the app, such as in the newly introduced “Weekly Highlights” section.


2016. Apple iBooks adds iCloud support for PDF files and audiobooks



Apple has just introduced a brand new update for iOS. In addition to the new nighttime reading mode (which reduces the amount of blue light emitted from the screen), iBooks has quietly received several significant enhancements. One major issue with iBooks was the lack of iCloud support for EPUB/PDF files and audiobooks. This is crucial for users who have a large e-book collection on their computers and want to read on their iPhone while on the go and on their iPad at home. You only need to upload your content to a single Apple device and iCloud will notify you on your secondary device if you want to access the content. This applies to both sideloaded content and items purchased directly from iBooks.


2016. New iOS 9.3 feature will make reading at night easier on your eyes



Apple is planning to simplify the use of your devices at night. The upcoming iOS 9.3 update will introduce a new feature called "Night Shift" that will adjust the colors of the light emitted by your iPhone or iPad's screen, depending on the time of day. The feature utilizes your current location and the clock on your device to determine the time of sunset and will automatically "shift the colors on your display to the warmer end of the spectrum," according to Apple. This concept is quite similar to f.lux, a well-known Mac and Windows app that modifies your display’s lighting according to the time of day. As it gets darker outside, the app gradually warms up the colors to reduce eye strain.


2015. Apple iBooks improves listening audiobooks



Apple has just launched iOS 9.2 with an updated iBooks app. iBooks now features support for 3D Touch, enabling users to peek and pop into pages from the table of contents, notes and bookmarks, or search results using force press gestures. iBooks also offers support for listening to an audiobook while browsing the library, reading other books, or exploring the iBooks Store.


2015. Google Books project ruled legal by U.S. appeals court



A decade-long legal struggle appears to be nearing its conclusion. A U.S. appeals court has ruled that Google's book scanning project, Google Books, does not breach copyright law, according to Reuters. This verdict follows a lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild and some independent writers against Google in 2005, alleging that the company's project would adversely affect their income. The Authors Guild claimed lost revenue and sued Google in 2005, with a lower court in New York siding with Google in 2013. Google argued that its initiative would enhance author income by introducing potential readers to works they might not have otherwise encountered. The 2013 ruling was confirmed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on Friday, determining that Google's publication of excerpts constituted Fair Use and served the public interest.


2014. Apple acquired book discovery site BookLamp



Apple acquired book recommendation service BookLamp, often referred to as the Pandora of books. It connects readers to titles they would likely enjoy through its Book Genome technology. This platform can analyze a single book by breaking it down into thousands of individual data points, providing insights into what the book is about and whether it might be a good fit for a particular reader. Apple is expected to leverage this technology to enhance its own book store, iBooks, which offers over 2 million free and paid book titles. Since the acquisition, BookLamp.org has discontinued its service, but here's what we know about the company and its innovative technology.


2014. Apple iBooks Textbooks Now Available in 51 Countries



Apple is broadening its educational service iBooks Textbooks into additional countries as part of its ongoing effort to dominate the global education sector. iBooks Textbooks, which provides interactive digital textbooks, is now accessible in 51 countries across Asia, Latin America, Europe and beyond. New countries gaining access to the platform include Brazil, Italy, Japan, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia. iBooks Textbooks allows publishers to create interactive, digital-native texts for students that can be used with the iBooks app on any Mac or iOS device. “We’re excited to see how educators in even more countries will develop their new lesson plans with interactive textbooks, apps and rich digital content,” Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Internet Software and Services, stated.


2013. iBooks lost its bookshelf



Apple has finally refreshed its e-reader app iBooks (for iPad and iPhone) with a design inspired by iOS 7. The iBooks interface has been stripped of its physical-world metaphors like wooden textures and bookshelves. The new design is sleek, featuring minimalism without the colorful sections and adding significant depth through the use of shadows. The iBooks app allows users to download and read books. It includes the iBooks Store, where you can access the latest bestsellers or your favorite classics—anytime. Browse your collection on an elegant virtual shelf, tap a book to open it, flip through pages with a swipe or a tap and bookmark or add notes to your favorite sections.


2013. Google Books survives the copyright fight



The eight-year-long legal dispute between the Authors Guild and Google Books has finally concluded. New York Circuit Judge Denny Chin stated that the book scanning constituted fair use because it was “highly transformative” and did not harm the market for the original works. “Google Books offers considerable public benefits,” Chin wrote, describing it as “an invaluable research tool” and noting that the scanning service has increased literary access for the visually impaired and helped preserve the text of old books from physical deterioration. Chin also dismissed the notion that Google's online book database was depriving authors of revenue, observing that the company does not sell the scans or provide complete copies of books. Instead, he concluded that Google Books helps readers discover new books and results in “new revenue for authors.” The Authors Guild now has the option to appeal the decision.


2013. Apple iBooks app is now available on OS X Desktop



Apple has adapted its ebook purchasing and reading app iBooks to the latest version of OS X, Mavericks. iBooks has traditionally been the “third” ebook store following Amazon’s Kindle store and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. This update enhances the app’s visibility on the desktop and enables users to buy books on one platform and read them on mobile devices. The desktop application allows users to organize books into collections, swipe between pages and switch to “night mode” to minimize eye strain in low-light conditions. Additionally, the app supports interactive features of iBooks titles.


2012. Flipboard adds book discovery via Apple iBooks



Flipboard is the social magazine app that links to your social networks and incorporates your favorite sources to create a personalized magazine, featuring news, articles, audio and video content. And now—books. Flipboard began as an iPad app and seems to still have a closer relationship with Apple than with Google, Kindle, or Nook. The new books section functions solely as a gateway to Apple’s iBooks store, which offers 1.5 million titles. Each book in Flipboard provides a summary and a link to iBooks, allowing readers to easily purchase a must-have addition to their iBooks library. The new section was introduced with custom bookshelves for the United States, Canada, the U.K., Brazil, Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. Naturally, it seems Android Flipboard users will not have access to this new section.


2012. Apple iBooks 3.0: vertical scrolling, book updates, social reading



Today, Apple has introduced the latest version of its book reading app iBooks 3.0. It’s set to revolutionize the e-reading experience and challenge Kindle with its continuous vertical scrolling feature. At least, that’s the claim from Apple enthusiasts. Fortunately, the traditional page-turning method is still available. Other new features are considerably more practical. Firstly, it now supports receiving free updates to existing books (such as chapter additions, corrections and more). This transforms books into living documents, allowing users to keep content up-to-date. Naturally, this is mainly targeted at educational books. Additionally, iBooks users can now share their favorite excerpts and passages to their Twitter and Facebook accounts.