Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/03/reading-doesnt-have-to-be-a.html
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“Magically” transforms it huh?
What school are we talking here? Evocation? Enchantment? Abjuration? Conjuration?
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This actually looks like an interesting, credible product that will let you scan a book with your cell phone and read it to you, among other things.
The terrible BoingBoing Shop ad copy, though, makes it seem like another fly by night subscription, complete with fake “discounted” pricing. The shop would do better on this one if it eschewed the hyperbolic claims.
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Just think of all those chumps who’ve been trying to do this with code!
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Divination, of course.
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It’s excellent! Once I got used to all the Gujurati and Hindi and Punjabi accents, it worked like a snap. Well, sometimes the screams in the background can be distracting, but still, well worth the $40 bux.
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Wasn’t there a kafuffle about this some time ago, where publishing houses claimed it infringed on their right to sell audiobooks (despite it being a blessing for books that had never been done as audiobooks)?
Nice app, that costs $140/year to use.
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Hasn’t the iPhone been able to do this pretty much from the beginning? It’s why the device was so popular with sight impaired users, the phone could read any text out loud for them.
If reading is a chore to you, you need to read more, not less, to practice. (And/or get checked for dyslexia; a lot of people who have it, don’t know about it!)
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Perhaps if was written lysdexia…?
Lysdexia lures, KO?
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It is woo.
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Yes: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2017/02/how-to-iphone-to-read-on-screen-text-out-loud.html
However there is specialised apps that can make this a better experience for users without sight impairments, e.g. Voice Dream reader
What bothers me with both options is the lack of a fucken pause after a full stop. Words fail me when I try to describe how much that annoys me. Maybe for that reason I don’t use the app as much as I thought I would.
Voice Dream Reader is a one-time purchase of $17 for iOs and Android. For the price, you get one “premium voice”, and on iOS there’s a couple of build-in voices. FWIW I find the premium voices not too amazing.
Especially because reading is so much faster, and you can skim a page. On the downside, as a practice reader if someone posts a video explainer, one gets annoyed that so little information is conveyed for the time invested.
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Shit, I’ve been doing this since I used “speak all” on a System 8 Mac on a text file of the lyrics to Loser by Beck.
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