RedShelf 12+

That’s the positive side. Compared to other apps that I use for buying my books, such as Pearson/Revel, it performs poorly.

It would be nice if it did a better job of syncing where I left off in the app to when I access itthrough the website. Also, the robotic voice is off-putting. One thing I love about the Revel app is that it has real humans reading the chapters back to you. Since I use the app on my hours commute to school/work I’ll press play & listen to the robot. They could do a simple improvement of letting you adjust the rate of speed at which the robot reads back to you. Instead, I have to listen at their slow robotic pace.

Also, if you add that adjustment, maybe you could consider letting me pick where I want the robot to stop/start reading. Revel forces you to have to listen to them from the beginning of the chapter, and although a humans voice sounds much better than a robot, it’s not the most productive.

If I could use any other app I would. DRM means one text book I am required to use in locked into this terrible app indefinitely. The issues are compounded by the choice of the publisher to release a PDF ebook instead of any proper ebook format. As such, the rendering of the pages is static - no font or color or contrast options.

That’s the point where the deficiencies of this app become apparent. One star for RedShelf being consistent: the web browser access is just as bad as the mobile app and performs identically. Pages are slow to load and flash loading graphics at every single page turn. Despite pinch-zoom being a feature on nearly every multi-touch surface, RedShelf requires clicking single buttons for zoom in or out. The rest of the DRM friendly features (limits on copy or print) make accessing information even more challenging if the text layout is locked into a US letter shaped page - which has no scale that fits a whole page fully legible on screen.

Free ebook readers have more features than RedShelf. Other textbook distributors have apps that while just as restrictive, at least load the pages smoothly and instantly. Maybe I got the fringe case of the worst optimized book in their catalog, but that indicates a commitment to capitalism not education. Quality is judged by sampling and my sample was a complete dud.

I don’t believe I’ve ever written a review on the App Store before, but this e-textbook reader is so terrible that it invokes the saying, “there’s a first time for everything”. Like other reviewers have said, the app - even the desktop web reader - is absolutely atrocious. This is the worst e-textbook reader. RedShelf does not load pages in a timely manner, automatically logs you out after a shorter period than the other readers, is plagued with crippling DRM, and saving an offline download on the desktop version through bookmarking (as they direct) has literally - yes, literally - never worked. The worst broken mechanism, however: the search function. Most of the time it will either fail to load relevant results, load at all, or even crashes the application. I have had better luck and quicker results by going page by page to find a specific word or term, rendering one of the biggest perks of an e-textbook moot. Once again, same goes for the desktop version. Sick and tired of this e-textbook reader and genuinely know how it’s managed to finagle a 4.6 star rating. I would pay a premium to find my textbook elsewhere, be it VitalSource (which is far superior) or even Wiley Reader. To reiterate, I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever written a review on the App Store. Do better; it’s that bad.