Hello Mike, Have you looked into using the Voice Dream Reader app? This app does not have the same level of navigation options that the Read2Go app has, so you'll probably still want to do most of your Bookshare reading with Read2Go. However, Voice Dream Reader has some features that I believe you would want: first, it allows you to read Bookshare books with German voices, while Read2Go only supports reading in English with the Heather voice. Voice Dream Reader comes with the Heather voice, but people who want to read in other languages can purchase any of the Infovox/iVox voices that are available on the Mac, plus the Acapela Group's Mandarin Chinese and Japanese voices, for $1.99 each via in-app purchase. You can also buy the Paul, Kate, or Julie U.S. English NeoSpeech voices, or the Bridget British English NeoSpeech voice for $2.99 each. Secondly, if you have Daisy books, or other documents or DRM-free eBooks, that are not from Bookshare, it's much easier to get them into the app via alternatives such as Dropbox, in addition to iTunes file sharing. Voice Dream supports direct downloads of Bookshare books into the app, but it also lets you transfer documents and non-DRM eBooks into the app through many other methods, including the option to "Open in" the Voice Dream Reader app from web links, etc. Third, this app can be used to read many types of document and eBook formats, and will remember the position, voice settings for language and speaking rate, and bookmarks set for each of the files. So you can use this to read TXT, RTF, Word or Pages documents, PDF, ePub books (without DRM), etc. You can find out how far into a book you are, and navigate to a location by per cent, as well as by using bookmarks. Also, you can organize your files within your own folders within the app, and you can have Voice Dream Reader's TTS continue to read the files while your device is locked. Double clicking the home button from the lock screen gives you access to the player controls to play/pause, or to access the next or previous track.
I really like Voice Dream Reader for reading various sorts of text files in multiple languages with the Acapela Group and NeoSpeech voices. The developer is very responsive, and is continuously adding features in response to user requests and feedback. For example, a pronunciation editor is in the works. There are even more features for low-vision and print-disabled users in terms of available font sizes, highlighting, color themes. Because this is text-to-speech, it doesn't have the same level of navigation options that you can get with Read2Go and with iBooks. And this is also true currently for attached Braille devices. But if you want to listen to a wide range of text formats in multiple languages with high-quality voices, even with the screen locked, and have your place and voice settings remembered, Voice Dream Reader is a great option. It's integrated with Instapaper, which is another app that I use. The list price for the Voice Dream Reader app is $9.99, but there's a free, lite version of the app that you can download to test the app. Also, the developer, Winston Chen, logs into the AppleVis site, so you have the option of posting questions either in their forums or in the comments for the app entry. Here's the App Store URL: • Voice Dream Reader - Text to Speech ($9.99) by Winston Chen https://itunes.apple.com/app/voice-dream-reader-text-to/id496177674 • Voice Dream Reader Lite - Text to Speech (free) by Voice Dream LLC https://itunes.apple.com/app/voice-dream-reader-lite-text/id563971853?mt=8 Take a look at the app entry and the podcast at the AppleVis.com site: • The App description entry URL is: http://www.applevis.com/apps/ios/education/voice-dream-reader-text-speech • The AppleVis podcast entry is: http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/walk-through-voice-dream-text-speech HTH. Cheers, Esther On 9 Apr 2013, at 00:45, Mike Busboom wrote: > Hello Donna, > > Although I use Braille sometimes, I frequently use speech by itself. That is > why I am looking for a way to read continuously, using the iPhone voice, > without having to constantly manually advance through a book's pages. > > Take care, and thanks for your input, > > Mike > > On 9,Apr,2013, at 12:18 AM, Donna Goodin wrote: > >> Hi Mike, >> >> You can also switch it to Read By Page under settings. If you have a >> braille display this works well, because you can just use the page forward >> command. >> Best, >> Donna Apr 8, 2013, at 12:20 PM, Mike Busboom wrote: >> >>> Hello. >>> >>> I read a lot of material using the Read2Go App from Bookshare on my iPhone >>> 4S. Although I like the app a lot, I find myself annoyed by something that >>> may be a bug, or just a problem with my technique. >>> >>> I prefer listening to Bookshare content using the VoiceOver voice, not the >>> TTS that comes with the Read2Go app. There are two reasons for this. >>> Firstly, I just like the VO voice better. Secondly, I frequently need to >>> stop speech in order to determine how a word in the text is spelled or to >>> look it up in the dictionary. >>> >>> While I am able to read a page from start to finish, I have never been able >>> to make Read2Go automatically advance to the next page in a text and >>> continue reading. What I do now is manually advance to the next page and >>> then do a two-finger swipe down to listen to the content. Having to >>> manually go to the next page gets pretty tedious pretty quickly. Is there >>> any way to get Read2Go to read more than one page at a time when the >>> Read2Go TTS is turned off? >>> >>> Thanks for any and all feedback. >>> >>> Mike >>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
