iBook vs Kindle App on iPad

Turning the page in an ebook reader is one way to test the realism and attention to detail the makers exacted to simulate real-world book reading. Kindle does a nice job of simulating page turns. You can just tap, which does a quick flip to the next page. You can do a slow swipe right-to-left, which is a more “physical” turn of the page. You can do small quick right-left or left-right swipes for a fast forward or bacward page turn. And you can do what I’d call a “page twiddle,” where you slide up and down to actually bend the curled page. In the Kindle app this all feels pretty realistic, similar to flipping the pages of a real book.

Apple’s iBook reader does all this equally well, but then takes it further. You can really play with a page; sliding your finger up or down can curl the corners of the page, up or down, with a lot of physics going on there. But wait, there’s more… In the iBook app, you can curl a page back and see a vague imprint of the text, in reverse, showing THROUGH the page! That is the attention to detail that makes me simply LOVE Apple products.

Tags: Apple, ebook reader, iBook Store, iPad, Kindle, page, touch