Re: The next generation of Speech Central has been launched

[Mary Otten]

Ivan, Might it just be that the reason you had so few folks downloading stuff from bookshare is that it was so difficult? Not straightforward at all? Not at all like what we can get in Voice Dream reader or I believe also dolphin easy reader, which I don’t personally use but have looked at.  For myself, by far the greatest use I have on my phone is Bhaṭṭa. Yes, I have imported E pubs and PDF files into Voice during reader, which is where I read all that stuff. And it helps to have the share thing off of the website where you’re getting the documents from. so if Bookshare doesn’t have that, they should, and I certainly wouldn’t mind asking them to implement it. However, it is disingenuous to suppose that your figures wouldn’t be a heck of a lot different if you actually had a straightforward means of importing things . Anything that adds unnecessary complexity to the process of getting a document from where it is to where you want to read it is a significant deterrent, especially when other much more efficient alternatives are available. That’s just how it is. directly from books like Voice dream has.  Sent from my iPhone On Jan 31, 2024, at 1:36 PM, Ivan Icin <labsiiser...@gmail.com> wrote: Richard, I am not sure if you misquote me intentionally or unintentionally. Either way, the correct fact is that I have supported Bookshare for 7 years. All of the users of the app together in December 2024 downloaded 10 books from Bookshare. Yes that is less of work to download those ten book for those 10 users ( than for me to write the support for Bookshare (and I would quickly remind you on your statements on how much support is expensive for one app that you love and how they need to charge immense amount for that). I am not sure how you can blame me for Speech Central users (including if you make the subgroup of VoiceOver users only) highly prefer to use PDFs, ePubs, web and almost everything else except books from Bookshare. I did spend my effort on non-profit basis for 7 years to support those people even if their volume of usage wasn't something that justified the support. I would imagine that this deserves some words like "thank you" or something similar. What exactly did I do wrong? Further I think that at the moment if someone is to be blamed it is Bookshare as they do allow downloads from the website, but don't implement the share function in their Reader app which would make importing into any app a piece of cake. No need for any app in this world to write the support for Bookshare as every app would support Bookshare. On Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at 10:21:59 PM UTC+1 Richard Turner wrote: I just downloaded it to try and immediately found out that to install books from bookshare you have to download the DAISY file and import it because the developer decided that customers could download the ten books per month that way rather than him having to take the time to program for their interface ...  BTW, did you try the update to VDR today to see if it fixed your download issue?  Sent from my iPad On Jan 31, 2024, at 12:47 PM, Mary Otten <mott...@gmail.com> wrote:  I just saw this on Apple viz.. Has anyone actually used this app? I had it on android and frankly couldn’t figure out how to use it or what it would be good for. But I’m not God’s gift to android that’s for sure. So I want to know if there are voice dream users out there using iPhones who have use this app. I’m not interested in hearing from the developer. I already saw his propaganda. I want real world users commenting. Thanks. The next generation of Speech Central has been launched AppleVis | Empowering blind and low-vision users of Apple products ...  /  Labsii Forum iOS and iPadOS As the app was in the beta testing for more than two months some people may already know what the new version is about. But during the beta period features were not publicly announced, that has happened for the first time just few days ago on the App Store. This isn't just another update. It isn't even another big update. And it is hard to provide the comparison, but if you take any of the competing apps and their cumulative updates in the last 5 years the shear size doesn't even come close to this. The full list improvements would require more than 1000 lines of text to tell. If we talk about new features, that would be still in hundreds of lines. Even major features are well above dozen of bullet lines. So I would like to focus on just one thing that reveals all the magic behind the effort - the new Emulate book narration mode. This feature brings quite a bit of the soul to robotic voices. Check this benchmark using the Apple's Ava Premium voice on the same text in Speech Central and Voice Dream: https://youtu.be/lCbr8HqXUCc Also you can check the same for Microsoft Ema voice in Speech Central and NaturalReader: https://youtu.be/HRiDafir-NY Regarding the other features I'll just use the same list as I have used in the App Store: - Design overhaul that maximises the space for the text on iPhone and adds sidebar functionality to the iPad - Multiwindow/multidocument support on the iPad - Instant mode for quick and simple reading - Music Intermezzo - inject Apple Music into your listening - Improved accessibility - Improved sync - more comprehensive, robust and performant - Numerous new settings options - Siri voice command to start playing now works even behind the lock screen As the app is free when used with VoiceOver, the best thing is to try it yourself: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/speech-central-ai-voice-reader/id1127349155 Original Article: https://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ipados/next-generation-speech-central-has-been-launched Sent from my iPhone -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list.   If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.   Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. 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