Quote:
Originally Posted by Cootey
I generally don’t enjoy two-page spreads on my iPad either, but it occurs to me that the Apple Vision Pro would be the perfect test case for such a format. After all, it could reproduce a 3D book in front of you with page curvature that would simulate the real thing better than anything an iPad could do.
If the CPU could handle it, you could even flip through pages and scan the content quickly the way we do with real books that ebooks have never quite matched.
It’s been a month or so since you set things up. How’s it going?
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I have been busy with other things, and have not been spending a lot of time with the AVP, or even reading as much as I normally would.
At least until someone develops a reading app with a 3D book mode, and I have a chance to try it, it strikes me as unappealing, even as a novelty.
I really do not miss being able to 'flip through pages' as with physical books. Many reading apps do have ways of doing this, even on eReaders. Kindle for example lets you drag scroller and shows page previews as you pause. It's pretty fast on Kindle devices, and instantaneous with the Kindle apps.
I do plan to do more reading with AVP in the future. Out of the box, it provides a more distraction free reading and customizable reading environment that you can enjoy anywhere. There is a little friction to get it into reading mode, but I've been leaving it in standby mode (plugged into power) and there's a 3rd party utility that lets you re-launch a given set of apps when AVP starts up (surely that will be built in at some point, like it is on macOS?).
But I would like to see a reading app that let you dictate notes as you are reading (visually select a word and begin speaking), have that transcribed in background and have the transcription attached at that location, and ideally have both voice recording and transcription sync to the reading app running on other platforms.
It's too hard to type with the virtual keyboard, and while you can have a Magic Keyboard paired, it should not be required. Voice is a more natural way to enter text, and even if you could type, typing shifts your attention way from reading much more than speaking does. I'm looking for a more seamless reading experience that can also capture running commentary in a natural way.
Of course you could also do this for computer and tablet reading apps, but the motivation to do so is stronger in a virtual environment where voice input is a better fit.
Another thing: I want a reading app that lets you have more than one book open and in its own window (I suppose tabbed windows could be an option in addition to that). This should be a baseline feature whenever the platform supports multiple document apps.
For some reason nobody has done one even for iPadOS, which has long supported multiple document apps. Apple Books does, but only on macOS. You have to use two apps, or read in a browser that supports MDI, like Safari.
Of course, I think it unlikely anyone will develop visionOS specific features for reading apps any time soon. But one can dream.