[vidarh]

> Bubblin is all about gorgeous e-books that are possible simply because of the web.

They're possible because of the web, but they're also unnecessary because of the web. To me, the reader presents as unnecessary annoying constraints that I'll tolerate if I'm e.g. reading PDFs that were actually formatted for a specific paper size (tolerate, not like), but which seems just silly when reading content that was clearly meant to be shown on screen.

Also: hate,hate,hate page-flip animations - either they slow down the page transition, or they're there to obscure a too-slow page transition; either way they get in the way of the experience very quickly.

Overall, on my desktop, it wastes too much screen space to margins and too large text (and another pet peeve: breaking text zoom is a big no-no; to zoom out it eventually work after zooming multiple levels, but of course then don't re-flow, but zooming in is basically broken). On my phone (which is my primary device for reading books) the experience feels excruciatingly slow thanks to the page flips.

It baffles me how many e-book readers are around, and how few even get close to getting even the fundamental stuff right. If you want to innovate in the e-book space: Make a reader that's faster and smoother than the Kindle app for the basics first, and then add features without at any point sacrificing things like zoom, fast page-flips, adjustable contrast and text-reflow.

[monsterix]

> Make a reader that's faster and smoother than the Kindle app...

Except that Kindle isn't any of those. Neither fast, nor smooth. But that's a kool-aid you've been drinking for too long. And even believe that books should not come on the web and have their own native experience.

> Also: hate,hate,hate page-flip animations - either they slow down the page transition, or they're there to obscure a too-slow page transition; either way they get in the way of the experience very quickly

It's all hatred and propaganda my friend.

Page-flips are an important experience of books, even iBooks has it! And I like it that way. I just checked on this one that transitions are close to 60fps. Agree with you on zoom-in part though, but then I'm reading it on my iPad so I don't need zooming so much.

> They're possible because of the web, but they're also unnecessary because of the web.

I'm afraid that is not your decision to make. It is absolutely necessary and does good for the children to move beyond stuck up books that are locked in time and technology of 15 years ago.

I wonder what do you have to say about that?

[vidarh]

> Except that Kindle isn't any of those. Neither fast, nor smooth

Maybe that's true on iOS. On my phone (Android), it's the only reader I've found that I consider tolerable for most uses. It's not by any means perfect, but of the dozens of alternatives I've tested, it's the one that annoys me the least.

> Page-flips are an important experience of books, even iBooks has it! And I like it that way.

You may think so, I don't, and I won't ever agree with you on that. For my part I simply don't use readers that force it on me. Either they have the option to disable it, or I won't use it.

> I'm afraid that is not your decision to make.

It's an opinion, not a decision.

> It is absolutely necessary and does good for the children to move beyond stuck up books that are locked in time and technology of 15 years ago.

I agree, which I why I find it annoying to deal with readers that insist on trying to mimic even older technology in all kinds of ways that introduce artificial restrictions on a medium that does not need them.

Case in point: It's simply not possible to offer proper zoom support without text-reflow, at which point the page-layout oriented UI falls apart.

[EliRivers]

Page-flips are an important experience of books, even

They are - the physical, tactile experience of it is a helpful part of the reading experience. It's not the visual image of a page being turned that's useful; it's the actual physical interaction of reader and book.

Non-physical books that simulate the 3D visual and physical experience with a hideous 2D visual only experience are hideous and intrusive and make the overall reading experience worse. Non-physical books shouldn't try to pretend they are what they're trying to replace; they end up just reminding the reader of what they're not, instead of impressing the reader with what they are. It's like advertising by drawing attention to features a product doesn't have.

Given that this product is meant to be taking advantage of all the things a physical book cannot, to clumsily ape physical books in this way is just silly.

[panglott]

I can't select/highlight text because it triggers the page-flip animation? Your analog metaphor is ruining my digital experience. It's putting flash before substance.