I have just finished reading the January 2018 issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine on the new Netbook platform. The experience on the iPhone was more pleasant than that of the IEEE Spectrum app (PDF). Here are my suggestions for further improvements. Please forward my comments to IEEE's development team.
Font size is too big and margins are too big, so very frequent scrolling is necessary. Please consider making it possible to customize the font size.
Text fading at the bottom looks fancy, but is annoying for reading as it further limits the real estate of the readable area.
Menubar at the top appears and disappears depending on the cursor position. This is disturbing compared to a static menu. It reminds me of the annoying <BLINK> tag in early HTML webpages. Please consider consolidating these momentary icons into a single static icon "..." which can be selected without disrupting the reading process.
Thank you very much for your attention.
To whom it may concern
The availability of digital IEEE magazines in the IEEE app (iOS) is a great step forward indeed! I checked the Spectrum magazine on my iPhone Plus, and the experience is better than that of the web version. Here are some comments.
The left-arrow and the right-arrow at the bottom-right of the screen do not function at all. Once these arrows are enabled, the annoying double-arrows that momentarily show up while scrolling up should be gone.
Touching the very top of the screen on the time display should scroll the text all the way to the top.
Text fading at the bottom looks fancy, but is annoying for reading as it further limits the real estate of the readable area.
Please consider making it possible to customize the font size.
"Magazines are available for reading only if you are online" is a concern for airline passengers.
Thank you very much for your attention.
To whom it may concern
It is still January 2019, but the February 2019 issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine is already out, available on Nxtbook Media's website. However, it is not yet available on the IEEE app on the iPhone (iOS). I trust that the timing of new releases will be synchronised, and that IEEE Institute will also be accessible from the IEEE app.
About 3 years ago, I switched from reading the Ottawa Citizen newspaper to listening to it with the Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature, which gives me great productivity because I can listen to the newspaper while I am cooking, driving, etc.
I have experimented with iOS's native TTS on the website as well as on the PDF file stored on the Books app with "Select All" followed by "Speak", but the results are very poor. Therefore, please add "Listen" to the IEEE app which already has (Table of Contents, Search, Print, Share).
Also, please consider enabling off-line access, i.e., temporary downloading until "Delete" to save memory storage space, so that I can read a particular issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine while I am on board a flight, etc.
Thank you very much for your attention.
To whom it may concern
I received a plasticised IEEE membership card via snail mail. If the IEEE app could display IEEE membership information à la Costco app which displays dynamically-generated QR Code, then the IEEE Member-Get-A-Member (MGM) programme could be integrated via NFC and/or QR Code. The Certificate of IEEE Membership in PDF file is not suitable for mobile devices.
Such an opt-in move presents not only progress for future but also mailing cost reduction opportunity for IEEE, just like the IEEE election process.
Thank you very much for your attention.
To whom it may concern
I hereby endorse full incorporation of "The Institute" into the web version of "IEEE Spectrum > Current Issue", accessible via both MacBook (macOS) and iPhone (iOS).
However, the IEEE app (iOS) still has separate Magazines "Spectrum" and "The Institute" in "READ ONLINE" and "DOWNLOAD".
Thank you very much for your attention.
To whom it may concern
I was previously selecting text, then "Speech > Start Speaking" (macOS) or "Speak" (iOS), but Text-to-Speech (TTS) of PDF was very awkward and erratic, to say the least.
Finally, I have found a way to effectively use the TTS feature that I had first requested to IEEE in 2019. In the web version of "IEEE Spectrum > Current Issue", do the following to read the entire webpage.
macOS: Option-Esc
iOS: Swipe down with two fingers from the top of the
screen to hear the content of the screen.
Please remove "Keep Reading" because it is redundant and requires an extra click/tap. Also, please use a font for the first character of the article because TTS does not recognise an image. Moreover, clear-cut article-by-article webpage rather than continuous non-stop eternity...
