Not on the same page

Index, feed.

Google Play Books:

Explanation

Spoiler alert: this is less weird once explained.

This happens because, in Google’s implementation of an e-book reader, screen pagefuls and page numbers are not made to match. For example, a 230-page book will have page numbers going from 1 to 230, no matter the font size set by the user or the display size.

Therefore, if one switches to a device with a different mapping of page numbers to screenfuls and back, the above dialog may be displayed. This is because, presumably, the app internally keeps track of “last page read” as a screen location, and, in the case above, both readers’ (different) screen locations map to the same page number.

Further research

Google’s e-book implementation differs from Apple’s in that the latter always displays page numbers that map 1:1 with screen numbers. Because of that, when the user changes font sizes, the book’s page count changes.

I wonder what Apple’s take on conflict resolution looks like. Is it a dialog expressed in terms of page numbers from the current device? Something else? Could I get the dialog to display something stupid-looking, as above, by carefully adjusting font sizes on two separate devices?

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David Haguenauer <www@kurokatta.org>
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