Roger Fingas
Apple's newly released iOS 8.4 beta relocates audiobooks out of the Music app into iBooks, and it adds a separate launcher for them in CarPlay, AppleInsider has discovered.
With the first beta of iOS 8.4, CarPlay users will see a new "Audiobooks" app sporting the iBooks icon. The change to CarPlay was tipped by reader Jason.
Within the iBooks app itself on an iPhone or iPad, audiobooks occupy their own unique collection, accessible from the pull-down menu at the top of the screen. Notably listeners can open a selectable tracklist for each book, and fast-forward or fast-rewind through a title by tapping and dragging the cover art.
Apple has drastically revised the Music app in iOS 8.4. Apart from breaking off audiobooks, it adds things like a persistent MiniPlayer, a Recently Added section, global search, and various graphical changes such as new icons and bigger album and artist images.
It's not certain when the finished version of iOS 8.4 will be released. The firmware is just in its first beta, and so far available only to developers. It's unlikely to be ready in time for the launch of the Apple Watch on April 24, but will presumably be done before WWDC in June.
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15 Comments
Funny this was just mentioned by a person here.
This is fantastic! I always pledged for this. Much more sensible, and a first sign that iTunes will become a little less blown up in one of the next versions – probably tied to 10.11.
Cannot wait for the day iTune App goes 'web only'... are mostly web only for what it should be.. a Music App.. break out all the other stuff like App Store and iOS Sync to a separate app (for windows) and go HTML5 for iTunes.. Just build in Sync for OS X.. Would be the best for everyone IMO..
Hopefully we get a total rewrite, like Photos and iPhoto. Strip it down to the basics. Make music on a Mac fun again!
Sad, yet another of Apple's two unloved and uncared for foster children is being forced into a new household. This is starting to look like child abuse. Before it was podcasts, given an app of their own to get the bugs out of the music app. Now it's audiobooks, which are being moved in with print books. I'm not sure I see the logic there. These are two different media only sharing the word "books" in common and suggesting that the combination will end up bloated and clumsy. Amazon seems quite happy to keep their Kindle and Audible apps separate. It matters little to me. I now use Downcast for my podcasts and love its time saving, playback improving features. I can kludge non-DRMed audiobooks into it, but I'm hoping audiobook listening will become a standard feature. Until then, I'm using other third-party audiobook apps. What Apple does matters less and less.