iBooks App Expected to Feature 'Today' Section on iOS 12

Thursday March 22, 2018 6:34 AM PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's revamped iBooks app on iOS 12 will likely feature a "Today" tab that promotes books, authors, and related content on a daily basis.


That's according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara, which reports that Apple appears to be headhunting employees from publications to build out an editorial team that would curate the content to appear in the Today tab of iBooks. Apple has posted a series of iBooks editor job listings on LinkedIn in recent months.

The rumor makes sense given Apple plans to redesign the iBooks app with a similar layout as the App Store on iOS 11, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The new App Store features a Today section of its own that highlights apps, games, developers, sales, and other app-related content on a daily basis.

iBooks currently has five tabs: My Books, Featured, Top Charts, Search, and Purchased. Once the app is redesigned, it's reasonable to assume the tabs could become something like Today, Reading, Books, Audio, and Search.

Apple renamed the iBooks app to Books in the first iOS 11.3 beta, but the name was reverted to iBooks in the fourth beta and remains that way. Perhaps we'll see the simpler Books name return when iOS 12 is released. The software update should be previewed and enter beta testing at WWDC 2018 in early June.

Tags: iBooks, macotakara.jp
33 comments


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nt5672
26 weeks ago
I don't want Apple's view of what I should read. How about making the search actually work. How about providing better search for PDFs that are on the web. How about better search for PDFs in Gutenberg. There are so many ways to improve iBooks that adding advertising is not it.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Superhappytree
26 weeks ago
Will they also make it as awful as the App Store?
Rating: 5 Votes
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silvetti
26 weeks ago
Probably will be US only at launch with more countries to follow (with no update for the next 3 years).
Rating: 4 Votes
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mikesch
26 weeks ago

Don't you dare get my hopes up, lol.

I'm not asking for iOS6 again, I just want the iBooks app to feel like I'm looking at a book again. Those little flourishes were what actually made me get my OG iPad.


Do you have a that snapshot image of the skeumorphic design you can share?



Those are some of the new assets that could be found in the early iOS 11.3 beta IPSWs (before Apple reverted the iBooks/Books app to its pre-iOS 11.3 state in beta 4). The book design is reminiscent of iOS 6, but much flatter with very little texturing. Apart from that, the design language is very similar to the Music, Podcasts, App Store and TV apps, with things like 3D Touch action menus coming to the Books app. Some icons are used for a new "Want to Read" feature (which could probably be something like a wish list). There are also some "Add to Library" icons, that, along with the new welcome screens, could possibly mean that there will be an Apple Books subscription service. And the Love/Dislike controls from Apple Music were also present, hinting at some kind of recommendation feature.
Rating: 4 Votes
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akodakmoment
26 weeks ago
What a joke that to add a section to an app, you have to release an entire OS update.
Rating: 3 Votes
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harriska2
26 weeks ago

My wish list for iBooks has only one thing on it. I want it to have Kindle's flexibility when it comes to going back over your annotations. iBooks jumbles together all your "Highlight" and "Note" annotations, under one column: "Notes." But for study purposes, this makes review a joke. I'd like a filter to turn off the highlights and just have the notes.

Now, I love iBooks. But without that important change, it is hard to use it for academic purposes.

Which is why I use PDF Expert for academic/PDF books and papers.
Rating: 2 Votes
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dwig
26 weeks ago

... How about making the search actually work. How about providing better search for PDFs that are on the web. How about better search for PDFs in Gutenberg. ...

1: PDF is a document format and not an ebook format. There are far better PDF viewers than iBooks.
2: "Gutenberg", that is "Project Gutenberg", does not distribute PDFs so searching for "PDFs in Gutenberg" is pointless.
3: iBooks is all about making money for Apple. They are never going to put any real support for acquiring books from any source other than from Apple.
Rating: 2 Votes
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mikesch
26 weeks ago

What a joke that to add a section to an app, you have to release an entire OS update.


Well, doing something like that is not as simple as you might think. Many stock iOS apps don't just consist of a single app bundle. Instead, some app features are put into frameworks, which are deeply integrated into the system and relied on by other apps and APIs. That's why Apple has to to make changes to their apps available via an entire OS update. There are many under-the-hood changes that need to be done to ensure that other apps and services will still be able to use these frameworks without compromise.

They need to bring back skeuomorphism to iBooks. That's all they need to do.


Actually, there is some hope. The Books app in early iOS 11.3 betas used to contain a lot of unused assets for the upcoming redesign. Among those assets, some textures for books and comics can be found, as well as a snapshot image depicting a book with a skeuomorphic design.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Porco
26 weeks ago
I’m so sick of recommendations and suggestions and constant ad-based nagware in every category of everything. I try to limit it as much as possible, and Apple is far from the worst offender, but it’s a trend that I wish would cease.
Rating: 2 Votes
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IGI2
26 weeks ago

Probably will be US only at launch with more countries to follow (with no update for the next 3 years).

Give it 5 or 15 years.

You can ask me in 5 years time whether the App Store editorial got to Poland.
Rating: 2 Votes
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