O'Reilly 4+

First off, I love the content of this app and appreciate the developers who have made it a reality so I hope the poor rating and following statements only encourage the platforms growth.

My biggest complaint is how painful the transition process is between devices. I would love to pick up where I left off on my iPad when I switch to my MacBook and, then later, back again. I'm thankful that the history seems to sync up (most of the time) but in the scenario provided I generally have to go searching through the book to find where I was on the other device. The irony is the highlighting seems to persist so clearly the location could likely as well.

Also, (another major pain point) I like to have a few books I'm consistently working through but often open up a number of other books for reference throughout the day. This result in an absolute disaster in my history. It would be nice to pin a few books to the top of the history view or very least filtering and sorting capabilities so these books don't get lost in the clutter. Obviously deleting the others is an option but then you lose visibility to the fact that you've referencd the book before so it's only a half-baked remedy to an unsolved problem.

I really hope O’Reilly is around for a really long time. This portal is an absolute must if you want to grow in your career and advance your skills. They have ALL the technology (and others) books you’ll ever need and want! When I need a paper copy I check it out at O’Reilly first to decide if I want it. Most of my books though are digital copies there and I read them on my IPad. They have sandboxes for learning environments, live conference access, certification training books and courses; live and on demand, and more. The app is solid rarely have any issues. I started with a paid work subscription from work 11 years ago; as soon as it expired I got my own out of pocket and have had it ever since. It’s one of the best investments I have made for my continuing education; try it and I’m sure you’ll think so too. Thank you O’Reilly team!!

I don’t recommend using the app at all. In the old days the app was like an extension to the website where you could easily pick up where you left off. Now all you get are “Trending”, “Upcoming Conferences”, “Recommended For You” and “Recently Added”. No history of what you had been reading or watching on the web. There’s a tab for your playlists, but that’s a poor substitute for a history* view since that means users that often search for several distinct technologies must now save every single result to a playlist.

If you’re fortunate enough to only work in one domain and it uses a trendy technology, the app might be okay. But for anyone that used to use O’Reilly Media as a technical reference library - I’d say save yourself the time and hassle and skip this app.

* - The history feature is also broken in the web interface anyway, so I’m not really sure their learning platform as whole is worth the price anymore. It’s been broken for months now and I think that’s kind of a telling sign. Here you have a media company whose primary focus is publishing technical literature with an emphasis on software development. In that domain is website and app building - and these are the products they release. An app that basically tells you nothing more than Google and a website that only half works. Perhaps the developers should read some of the books contained in the learning platform...