[Sad News] The day the iPad mini 4 was banished from "BOOK☆WALKER." A story about how e-books are ultimately just an "environment."
That day arrived suddenly.
I tapped the "BOOK☆WALKER" app as usual to read manga on my beloved iPad mini 4. A pop-up appeared on the screen.
"Please update to the latest version."
Yeah, yeah, the usual update. Thinking that, I pressed the "Update" button and was taken to the App Store.
However, I froze there. No matter where I looked on the screen, the "Update" button that should have been there was nowhere to be found.
There wasn't even a helpful error message saying, "This device is not supported." The update button had simply vanished.
…Ah, so it finally happened.
The final OS version for the iPad mini 4 is iOS 15.8. In contrast, the latest BOOK☆WALKER app requires iOS 16.0 or higher.
Without being told the reason, quietly and physically, that was the moment the "door to my bookshelf" was blocked on my iPad.
"I didn't quit," I was "cut off"
To be honest, I was a little shocked. I had just written in a previous article that I divide my reading habits by using "Kindle for novels and BOOK☆WALKER for manga."
I had no intention of quitting BOOK☆WALKER. I still have the right to read my books, and the iPad device itself is still working perfectly fine.
But the service provider didn't allow it.
Some might say I should just read on a PC browser. But what I wanted was "the time to lie in bed and read manga on my iPad," not to sit in front of a monitor and click a mouse.
I have the books. I have the device. But I can't open the app.
I thought I understood in my head that "e-books are not assets, but merely usage rights," but when I am physically "cut off (forced out)" like this, I understand the meaning painfully well.
The resignation of "Ah, again"
However, strangely, I wasn't angry. Before anger, what surfaced was a quiet resignation of "Ah, I knew it."
Actually, I have had a similar experience with BOOK☆WALKER before. One day, the "Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature" was suddenly removed from the app. (*Currently, it is possible to use the OS standard feature, but it disappeared as a standalone app function.)
I thought then, too: "This service makes decisions to cut off minority features for the sake of operational costs and efficiency."
So, in this instance, cutting off old devices is likely logical from their perspective. Reducing support costs and optimizing for the latest environment. Perhaps that kind of "culling" is necessary for domestic e-book stores to survive.
But as a user, I think this: "When will the next thing be cut, and what will it be?"
I cannot entrust my life to a place where that anxiety lingers.
Kindle's "Gritty Versatility"
What comes to mind as a contrast here is, of course, Kindle.
I'm not saying Kindle is perfect. Sometimes the app runs slowly, and sometimes the UI is difficult to use. But with Kindle, I feel a sense of persistence, as if to say, "No matter how old the leaky boat is, I'll let you on board for now."*.
Whether it's an old Android or an outdated iPhone, they try to maintain a "readable state" somehow. You could even call it a philosophy of "not reducing the number of people who can read.""not reducing the number of people who can read."—wait, that was the previous node. Let me rephrase: It could be called a philosophy of "not reducing the number of people who can read."
On the other hand, I feel a culture in Japanese e-book stores of "If you can't keep up, you get left behind.".
It's not about whether that's good or bad; it's just that for my current life—where my health fluctuates and I don't have the energy to frequently replace my devices—Kindle's philosophy suits me better. That's all there is to it.
Conclusion: This is "Self-Defense"
I have read many manga on BookWalker until now, and I am grateful for that. But this incident has made things clear.
From now on, I will likely increase my reliance on Kindle, even for manga.
It's not because I like Kindle. It's because I want to minimize the risk of "having my bookshelf locked one day without warning."
I'm tired of having expectations and being betrayed. What I choose is not a "high-function bookshelf." It is a bookshelf that says, "Come on in" no matter when I go, or how tattered the clothes (device) I'm wearing are.
I think this isn't about being picky, but rather a form of "self-defense" to protect my fragile heart.
[Related Article]
▼ Even with 10,313 books, if they no longer fit your life, you become "estranged"
いいなと思ったら応援しよう！
よろしければサポートをお願い致します。
サポートして頂いたお金は本の購入に使わせて頂きます。
サポートして頂けると「お前はこの世に居て良いんだよ」と勝手に解釈してメチャクチャテンションが上がります。