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.

The tech support does a fantastic job at helping resolve issues the application creates. The primary problem is that after an update or looking at one of my books on a web browser, this app will pop up an alert saying that the publisher only lets you view the material only on one device. Okay, got it. But, even if I delete the offline data, sign out from this app, and delete the app from my device - the next time I download Red Shelf, login, and try to download the books again … that stupid publisher warning will pop up and prevent me from downloading the book(s). To that extent, I would advise anyone using this app to view your books from a web browser (Chrome or Firefox. Safari on iPad works, but on Mac, any highlight shows up as black stripes in the background.).

The extra star is for the tech support. Overall the app is a bust and is more frustrating than useful.