What's a Vook? Let's Find Out!

Way too heavy!

A couple of days ago, I was discussing the increase of e-book sales over traditional books with @michaelpinto and @vooktv on Twitter. The conversation started over this Tweet:

{ publishing } Harper Collins says: We're selling more e-books than hardcover http://ow.ly/2vP2U via @vooktv

While I do love traditional hardcover books, in the spirit of embracing the new and allowing room for all viewpoints, I am reviewing the design of Vook's iPad and iPhone reader app (can also be used on a traditional PC browser).

This app from Vook is unusual in that it's a reader that incorporates video as well as the traditional "pages". It's easy to use and customizable. There are three layout options, I initially enjoyed the split option (video & reader) but ended up using the traditional two page reader option. Of course this will probably be the normal choice once the video has been viewed unless the material is instructional. The video ran very smoothly which is a must. Another nice touch is the serif and sans serif font options as well as the font size for accessibility. At some point they may want to ad an audio book option for the visually challenged to go along with the video as is.

I do believe that the Bookmark function can be a bit more intuitive. Perhaps highlighting the text, then clicking a Bookmark button to save it would be more logical than having to type in the sentence that you leave off on. The existing bookmark settings tab allows you to save several bookmarks or delete them. This is just fine as it is. The overall design is minimalist sleek. I can see a "hide" option for the title and footer bars.

I would recommend this to anyone who already has an iPad or an iPhone. As with most apps, there are always upgrades on the way and which will, I'm sure at some point they may address the suggestions that I've mentioned. I can see this being a huge success with cookbooks, text books and instructional manuals.

This app makes me so tempted to get an iPad. While I can't take it to the beach like a paperback, I can see how it would be useful to carry around twenty books, without carrying around twenty books! So, check it out!