Also Audible. I've been digging VDR for text, since I've got stuff in that format. I like that if you've got multiple files, you can just put them together into one big file, send it to VDR, and hit play on a Bluetooth headset, like most other things, and it will read. I haven't tried Kindle yet, but I should.
I wrote extensively about this in my book. The Kindle app is by far my favourite way of having books available. However, Vd Reader is still the way to go for epub or pdf ebooks. You can use apple Books for these also. That's my backup plan if VD Reader takes a nose dive on me. However, I'll keep using it until that happens. Winston was very good at informing us what he was updating in VD Reader and responded quickly to concerns. I haven't gotten a sense of how well these new owners of the app actually know their audience. Glad I haven't had to pay a subscription since I owned the app long before they switched to that model.
I used to use the Kindle app, but when speak screen broke sometime back I haven't used it as much. Occasionally use Speech Central for PDFs that VD sometimes scramble for some strange reason, and Apple Books is the backup plan.
Voice Dream with the DAISY books on my phone. I have the Kindle app, but not so many books in that format. I use Apple Books for epub and PDF.
I would much, much, much prefer to read books in a web browser with all the browser keyboard commands, like I do over on the OS I use on my desktop for reading DAISY books, even though I have to do a little code finagling to get them to open properly. I'm not sure I could even code finagle on iOS, and Safari seems to not like to open local HTML files.
BARD through the state library offers everything the Library of Congress has, read by real people is the finest option. They allow up to 250 book downloads in a thirty day rolling period. If I canāt find the book I want there Kindle for iOS works with Speak Screen but with synthetic voices. That works okay for older books not available through BARD. But BARD has endless oceans of literature, even bestsellers.
Wow after learning here about using the iOS Alexa app to read ebooks from my Kindle library I gave it a try and it really works well. The reading and voice are amazingly well done. Tell her to read a book from the library and she does it. It also syncs with the library book.
The main benefit of VoiceDream for any text you can get into it is that you can set its navigation to something like 15 or 30 seconds, then use the buttons on your headset, or even back on your apple watch to back up a bit when you get interrupted. NLS Bard won't do that, Kindle and apple books you have to keep the screen turned on, and heaven help you if you get interrupted. Speech Central wasn't bad, I was able to set it to back up with my headphone buttons, so it was usable. The Learning Ally app is awful, you have no headphone control to speak of and I think you even have to keep the app open. I tried the latest app from Bookshare, and It was similar to Learning ally, not useful unless you're sitting at a desk with no distractions. People who design this stuff really need to talk to the people needing accessibility and find out what they really need done. Allowing an app like Kindle, for example to work with Voiceover is fine as far as it goes, but making it self-voicing with someway to control it without having to get a phone out would be a whole lot nicer.
When Iām listening to an ebook from the Kindle library through the Alexa app with my iPad or iPhone the screen can be locked while listening.
Also when listening to BARD Mobile on the iPad or iPhone it is very easy to go backwards 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes. There was a new update for the BARD Mobile app where Siri functions have been added and one is go back 20 seconds. They also added a Jump Back shortcut. Now I donāt use a watch so donāt know if this would work for that but everything definitely works well with the iPhone and iPad.
You can also say commands like:
- Rewind or Go Back.
- Fast Forward or Go forward.
- You can add on to the above i.e. Go Back/Forward 5 minutes, 1 hour, to the beginning, to the end, etc.
- You can also add or Go to a bookmark.
- And as mentioned above, you can listen with your device locked. Even better, with bluetooth earbuds you can play/pause and Go Back/Forward with media controls.
First you need to get the Alexa app. Then you simply say, Alexa play kindle bookā¦followed by the title of the book you want in your kindle library and the book narration starts. It does remember the place in the book and even syncs with the ebook in your library.
I have Voice Dream reader too and even purchased a couple extra voices but the Alexa app narration is much more natural sounding.
Sorry to revive this old thread. It seems better than starting a new one.
I've imported an ePub into the Books app on my iPhone, and occasionally, like one page out of twenty, I've noticed that VoiceOver skips one line of text at the bottom of the page. I used my sighted spouse to verify the text is present. VoiceOver makes a sound effect when I navigate to the line, and if verbosity has actions set to speak, then I hear "actions available," but VoiceOver fails to read the actual text.
I'm going to download Voice Dream Reader, see if I can import the ePub, and give it a try.
Is there an app that will let me follow links in an ePub? The ePub I'm currently reading has links to external websites. The Books app will let me rotor to links and highlight the link, but double tap does nothing. Voice Dream Reader won't even let me rotor to links.
Hi, so I have a questionāhow exactly does Voice Dream Reader work? Iāve had it on my phone once, but Iām not sure I fully understood what it was capable of. I remember seeing some voices available, and if Iām not mistaken, I think I had access to a free trial or temporary subscription at some point. But the voices I tried didnāt sound great at all, and I remember thinking, āIs this what Iām going to get if I actually pay for it?ā So I didnāt continue. I know theyāve done some updates since then, but Iām still not sureāwhere exactly are these high-quality voices people keep talking about? Back when the app was popular in the blind community, it was all anyone talked aboutāso what happened? Did I miss something? I also noticed thereās a voice pack in the App Store that costs around six dollarsāis that where the better voices are? Am I supposed to buy those separately?
Right now, when it comes to reading, I mostly use the Kindle app, though itās frustrating because the speak screen compatibility isnāt as solid as it used to be. These days, I use Alexa to read my Kindle books when I have time to sit down quietly. I donāt usually wear headphones, so Alexa works fine at home, but when Iām out and about, I donāt read as much. I like to stay in control by focusing on my surroundings, and I donāt want to pul out my phone or deal with people asking me a million questions about how Iām using it. Some folks are too nosy, and sometimes Iām at the doctorās office or waiting in line and I want to relax, not explain myself. Yes, I can use a phone. Please stop staring. I can feel your eyes on me, and it's disgusting. Iāve also tried AudibleāI got a three-month trial for seven dollars, but I ended up canceling because I donāt get how their pricing works. $15 a month for what , exactly? I donāt keep books after Iām done reading, so the idea of owning an audiobook doesnāt matter to me. If Iām paying $15 monthly, I expect to be able to listen to as many books as I want, not have to worry about credits. The credit system feels irrelevant for someone like me who doesnāt need to āownā anything. It would make more sense to let members stream any book that has an audio version. If people want to own them, sureāhave that option, but it should be separate. I don't take advantage of it, but the discounted membership on the audible plan is nice, I guess.
Alexa works fine, but it could sound much better. Amazon is a billion-dollar companyāthey could easily improve Alexaās voice quality. At the very least, they could give us more voice options or even a virtual voice feature that lets us turn Kindle books into audiobooks through Neural Speech or something similar. Iād even pay a little extra for a better-sounding voice if it made the experience smoother. Iāve tried other apps like Speech Central, but again, the voice quality isnāt as great as advertised.
The only app Iāve come across that really impressed me with voice quality is Speechifyābut itās ridiculously expensive. $140 a year is too much. I donāt know if MrBeast, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Snoop Dogg actually lent their voices to it, or if itās marketing hype, but that app feels like itās made for corporate buyers or people with deep pockets. And the part that annoys me most is theyāre pushing Speechify like itās for people with disabilitiesāespecially dyslexiaābut who can afford that? I know I canāt. Even the free trial started glitching and became unusable after a while. I stick to Kindle Unlimited because most of the books I want are already there. I donāt really use library services like Bookshare, Libby, or OverDrive. I have access to all of them, but I donāt use them because they take a while to process book requests, and honestly, Iāve found that Kindle already has most of what I need. If a book isnāt available, Iāll either wait for it to go on sale, or sometimes I reach out directly to the authorāsome will send a free copy or offer a discount if you explain your situation or leave a review. Thatās been more reliable for me than waiting on a library request. Of course, I also use Apple Books as well.
I will tell you about my experience with VDR as a new user, but you probably want a seasoned user to cover all its features and capabilities.
New user VDR experience and thoughts follow.
When i launched the app for the firs time, it took me to a screen to select a default voice, then made me sit there and wait to download the voice. Okay, fine. Presumably this voice has some value.
Next, I went into the Mail app, found the message with the ePub attachment, and shared it. VDR was one of the sharing options. I returned to VDR, and there was the ePub I just shared. That part worked great.
From the VDR library, I opened the book, which took me to a screen with an overwhelming number of enigmatic buttons and options, which I'm sure all make total sense to seasoned users. The first button I tried was the play button, which complained I didn't have a subscription. Presumably, if I had a subscription, it would've used that fancy voice that is currently chewing up about a hundred megabytes. Well, I have better things to do than futz around and try to delete a voice I'm not going to use.
Buried in the dozens of buttons and controls is a window containing the book text, and a two-finger swipe down starts continuous reading, which was what I wanted.
Issues:
One: As I mentioned in a previous comment, if there's a link in the text, there's no way to bring VO focus to it and follow the link.
Two: If you perform a two-finger swipe for continuous reading, and you reach the last page of the book, it reads that last page over and over until the heat death of the universe.
Three: If the book contains a bullet list, VoiceOver doesn't announce the bullets. This issue doesn't happen in the Books app, so it's not a VO issue, it's a VDR issue.
After reading so many gushing comments about VDR in this thread, let's just say I was underwhelmed.
If you're not already grandfathered in by having previously purchased VDR, then I'm afraid the reason you can't play the book (which means listening to the TTS coming from the app, including when the screen is locked) is that you have to pay the subscription. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
And yeah, the annoying thing with iBooks occasionally losing lines of text. Sigh. You're not alone. You might be able to spot when this happens and go back, but mostly you just have to hope it's obvious so you can then read the lines by word. This bug comes and goes and happens infrequently enough that it's not easy to report on. If only we could download our EPUB files from Apple without the DRM ā¦
VDR's primary purpose is to make on-demand audio books, essentially. It uses whatever voice you pick, you can pick the voice your screen reader uses, you don't need to use a downloaded voice, and it reads the book. However, you get things like play, rewind, fast forward, and so on, in other words, think of it like using AUdible and it will make a *lot* more sense. I have never heard a narrated audio book, for instance, mention bullets in a list. It's also why you can't click on links.
Now, it's perfectly fine to say this isn't what you want, although I'll add that it has its uses, e.g. I can use it to read books on the Apple Watch, Books doesn't exist on the watch. But IMO part of the reason you're "underwhelmed" is because you're not using it for its intended purpose. That's kind of on you, not the program.
I honestly see a lot of this in these forums and it's pretty frustrating. Some of the things people claim are bugs are really just features they want. Other things are because they're using whatever program in a way it wasn't really intended for. IMO I wish we could have more objectivity, here's what X does and doesn't do, make your own decision.
I really like the latest podcasts on Numbers, as an example, they point out that it's a spreadsheet, but there are more complicated things it won't do, so if you want that, you probably want Excel. Then they explore what Numbers *can* do.
Pretty sure I'm not using it as intended, but I'm using it in a way the app allows, and my experience was unsatisfactory, so it's wrong to say this is all my fault.
How about they design the app so that it doesn't even bother to download a voice if you don't have an active subscription? Unless there's some other way to use that downloaded voice that you all haven't shared with me.
It certainly feels like Apple are taking on VDR, if so credit to them, so long as it doesn't come with unbearable caveats. But speechifying text is an obvious and useful feature that should be possible on our Apple devices, so I'm hopeful.
I realize this might be an iOS-specific thread, and I've used Dolphin Easy Reader briefly. Their app is very good. But I just wanted to let people know if they haven't already checked this out, that the Bookshare website is getting an overhaul. This is actually going to occur in phases, but the new site is already pretty good on the Mac. Just after my recent medical procedure, I read some of a book that was required for a Bible study which I've been attending along with a neighbor. The book is available on Bookshare, and although I haven't done a lot of it lately it is fully navigable at least with speech. One more thing. Last I checked BARD Mobile does not do ebooks. I agree that it's an excellent choice, but not for ebooks.
As far as I know, Bookshare is available to U.S. students free of charge. I got the impression, though this was a while ago, that accessing the service internationally was a bit more of a hassle. They were asking for specifics like medical records and the like. That's not information I'd readily let someone have.
They ask for proof from a doctor that you're blind. They do this because they need it to be able to produce books in an accessible format. I mean, I guess technically yes, it's a medical record, since it's generated by a doctor who's seen you. But I mean, when I signed up, I didn't just tell my doctor, hey send these people my medical records to prove I'm blind. I asked them to essentially write something specifically for Bookshare to prove that I'm blind. You have to do the same thing here for the National Library Service in the US.
Oh yeah, I guess I may as well answer the actual question, ha!
I use BARD, Audible, and Books. I don't think I've installed Kindle on iOS yet, I should because I have a few books in there too. I installed it on the Mac but couldn't figure out how to sign in, so hopefully it's nicer on iOS. Oh and I've occasionally used Voice Dream as well, you can use it to read on the Apple Watch, for instance.
Kindle on Mac requires you to find the sign in edit box, make sure it's focused as it doesn't act like other ediboxes on Mac for some reason, then type in your sign in info. To properly use it you have to use your trackpad to enable continuous reading, as far as I can tell; VoiceOver doesn't automatically scroll pages if you use VoiceOver's say-all keyboard command on Mac.
As for Bookshare, fair point. I don't have a personal doctor, plus in the Bahamas it seems you have to pay for the service.
Unless you get it with educational stuff in the US, otherwise, you pay. You don't really need a personal doctor, you just need to get to an eye doctor, just about any place that does eye exams for glasses could do it, and have them verify that you're blind. But I mean, I get it yeah. It is a chunk of money, although I think they have a sliding scale for some other countries. But in the US it's $80 a year, so while it's not crazy expensive, it's not really cheap either.
Hi,
When I read non-fiction books, I like to go line by line to better process and understand the information. This used to work well with Kindle, but with the recent changes to how Kindle reads text, it now reads by paragraph instead.
Does anyone have any ideas or tips for reading non-fiction more effectively on the iPhone?
Thanks in advance!
Whatās up with the Alexa voice, seriously? Sometimes when Iām reading with it, the tone completely shiftsāitāll be smooth and calm one second, then out of nowhere it drops into this deeper, kind of bratty-sounding voice. I donāt really know how to describe it, but if youāve used Alexa to read books, youāll probably get what I mean. Itās like the rhythm will be flowing, and then suddenly the vocal inflection changes, like itās trying to add drama to something that isnāt even dramatic. Sometimes it makes sense, like during intense scenes, but other times it just pops up randomly and throws me for a loop. Not in a āoh my gosh Iām gonna stop readingā kind of way, but more like āwaitā¦ did she raise her voice at me?ā kind of curious. Is this Amazonās way of testing out more expressive reading styles? Like are they playing around with vocal inflections on purpose? Iām not mad at itājust asking. It kind of caught me off guard the first few times. I know Alexa isnāt a full-on AI narrator or anything, but itās trying something.
Also, side noteāare we able to use the Siri voices to read kindle books? Not VoiceOver, like Samantha default, but the actual Siri voices. Because Iāve tried before and I donāt think it worked, but Iām not sure if thatās changed or if I was doing it wrong. Iād love to know if thatās even an option now.
And yeah, I get that Alexa isnāt perfect, and Iām not expecting her to win an audiobook award or anything, but Amazon is a multi-million dollar company, right? Youād think we could at least get one voice thatās built specifically for readingāor better yet, give us a few to choose from. I wouldnāt mind paying for an Amazon virtual voice package if the qualityās there. I mean, if Iām going to have someone in my ear for six hours reading about space princesses and beetle-powered hoverboards, Iād like a little variety. I heard thereās supposed to be some kind of Alexa plus upgrade coming soon? Iām curious if that includes a voice update. Either way, just wanted to ask if anyone else noticed the tone changes mid-readingāitās not a big deal, but it stood out to me.
I started to use Speech Central on my Android phone. When switching backe to the iPhone I just used it again. While there are a couple of hick ups, it generally works as one would expect.
I also tried the eleven labs reader but those AI-voices are not really for me. Sure, they sound pretty good but when they fail, they fail pretty spectacular.
Voice Dream Reader did not really work for me. It seemed cluttered when I tried it a couple of years ago. And after they went for the subscription model without providing anything to make that seem like a good deal, I just didn't care to try again.
I actually am looking forward to the orbit player. I like the Google TTS Voices. For some reason they help me getting into the books. But I also just read books in epub format without DRM and I kind of hate having to use the app Localsend to get my books onto my phone instead of just transfering via USB.
As for Kindle: I guess that works fine. But I will not give Amazon more of my money.
Voiceover sometimes skips a line at the bottom of the page in Books for me as well. I don't know why it does that, but I can address it by changing the font size, then turning off and restarting Voiceover.
Comments
NLS BARD, Voice Dream Reader.
Also Audible. I've been digging VDR for text, since I've got stuff in that format. I like that if you've got multiple files, you can just put them together into one big file, send it to VDR, and hit play on a Bluetooth headset, like most other things, and it will read. I haven't tried Kindle yet, but I should.
Apple Books and Kindle
I use Apple Books and Amazons Kindle-App on my iPhone in connection with a Braille display.
Kindle and VD Reader
I wrote extensively about this in my book. The Kindle app is by far my favourite way of having books available. However, Vd Reader is still the way to go for epub or pdf ebooks. You can use apple Books for these also. That's my backup plan if VD Reader takes a nose dive on me. However, I'll keep using it until that happens. Winston was very good at informing us what he was updating in VD Reader and responded quickly to concerns. I haven't gotten a sense of how well these new owners of the app actually know their audience. Glad I haven't had to pay a subscription since I owned the app long before they switched to that model.
VD Reader mostly
I used to use the Kindle app, but when speak screen broke sometime back I haven't used it as much. Occasionally use Speech Central for PDFs that VD sometimes scramble for some strange reason, and Apple Books is the backup plan.
Voice Dream
Voice Dream with the DAISY books on my phone. I have the Kindle app, but not so many books in that format. I use Apple Books for epub and PDF.
I would much, much, much prefer to read books in a web browser with all the browser keyboard commands, like I do over on the OS I use on my desktop for reading DAISY books, even though I have to do a little code finagling to get them to open properly. I'm not sure I could even code finagle on iOS, and Safari seems to not like to open local HTML files.
BARD Mobile
BARD through the state library offers everything the Library of Congress has, read by real people is the finest option. They allow up to 250 book downloads in a thirty day rolling period. If I canāt find the book I want there Kindle for iOS works with Speak Screen but with synthetic voices. That works okay for older books not available through BARD. But BARD has endless oceans of literature, even bestsellers.
Alexa app
Wow after learning here about using the iOS Alexa app to read ebooks from my Kindle library I gave it a try and it really works well. The reading and voice are amazingly well done. Tell her to read a book from the library and she does it. It also syncs with the library book.
Reading.
I'm really liking the Audible app. And when reading NLS books, I read them on my Victor Stream.
I've tried others, but for me VoiceDream beats them all.
The main benefit of VoiceDream for any text you can get into it is that you can set its navigation to something like 15 or 30 seconds, then use the buttons on your headset, or even back on your apple watch to back up a bit when you get interrupted. NLS Bard won't do that, Kindle and apple books you have to keep the screen turned on, and heaven help you if you get interrupted. Speech Central wasn't bad, I was able to set it to back up with my headphone buttons, so it was usable. The Learning Ally app is awful, you have no headphone control to speak of and I think you even have to keep the app open. I tried the latest app from Bookshare, and It was similar to Learning ally, not useful unless you're sitting at a desk with no distractions. People who design this stuff really need to talk to the people needing accessibility and find out what they really need done. Allowing an app like Kindle, for example to work with Voiceover is fine as far as it goes, but making it self-voicing with someway to control it without having to get a phone out would be a whole lot nicer.
When Iām listening to anā¦
When Iām listening to an ebook from the Kindle library through the Alexa app with my iPad or iPhone the screen can be locked while listening.
Also when listening to BARD Mobile on the iPad or iPhone it is very easy to go backwards 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes. There was a new update for the BARD Mobile app where Siri functions have been added and one is go back 20 seconds. They also added a Jump Back shortcut. Now I donāt use a watch so donāt know if this would work for that but everything definitely works well with the iPhone and iPad.
Re: Alexa app
You can also say commands like:
- Rewind or Go Back.
- Fast Forward or Go forward.
- You can add on to the above i.e. Go Back/Forward 5 minutes, 1 hour, to the beginning, to the end, etc.
- You can also add or Go to a bookmark.
- And as mentioned above, you can listen with your device locked. Even better, with bluetooth earbuds you can play/pause and Go Back/Forward with media controls.
Alexa = Win. š
Using Alexa to read Kindle books
How is it done? I've had Alexa for ages and never knew about this.
Alexa narrating Kindle ebooks
First you need to get the Alexa app. Then you simply say, Alexa play kindle bookā¦followed by the title of the book you want in your kindle library and the book narration starts. It does remember the place in the book and even syncs with the ebook in your library.
I have Voice Dream reader too and even purchased a couple extra voices but the Alexa app narration is much more natural sounding.
Books app missing text
Sorry to revive this old thread. It seems better than starting a new one.
I've imported an ePub into the Books app on my iPhone, and occasionally, like one page out of twenty, I've noticed that VoiceOver skips one line of text at the bottom of the page. I used my sighted spouse to verify the text is present. VoiceOver makes a sound effect when I navigate to the line, and if verbosity has actions set to speak, then I hear "actions available," but VoiceOver fails to read the actual text.
I'm going to download Voice Dream Reader, see if I can import the ePub, and give it a try.
Following links
Is there an app that will let me follow links in an ePub? The ePub I'm currently reading has links to external websites. The Books app will let me rotor to links and highlight the link, but double tap does nothing. Voice Dream Reader won't even let me rotor to links.
Reviving the thread
Hi, so I have a questionāhow exactly does Voice Dream Reader work? Iāve had it on my phone once, but Iām not sure I fully understood what it was capable of. I remember seeing some voices available, and if Iām not mistaken, I think I had access to a free trial or temporary subscription at some point. But the voices I tried didnāt sound great at all, and I remember thinking, āIs this what Iām going to get if I actually pay for it?ā So I didnāt continue. I know theyāve done some updates since then, but Iām still not sureāwhere exactly are these high-quality voices people keep talking about? Back when the app was popular in the blind community, it was all anyone talked aboutāso what happened? Did I miss something? I also noticed thereās a voice pack in the App Store that costs around six dollarsāis that where the better voices are? Am I supposed to buy those separately?
Right now, when it comes to reading, I mostly use the Kindle app, though itās frustrating because the speak screen compatibility isnāt as solid as it used to be. These days, I use Alexa to read my Kindle books when I have time to sit down quietly. I donāt usually wear headphones, so Alexa works fine at home, but when Iām out and about, I donāt read as much. I like to stay in control by focusing on my surroundings, and I donāt want to pul out my phone or deal with people asking me a million questions about how Iām using it. Some folks are too nosy, and sometimes Iām at the doctorās office or waiting in line and I want to relax, not explain myself. Yes, I can use a phone. Please stop staring. I can feel your eyes on me, and it's disgusting. Iāve also tried AudibleāI got a three-month trial for seven dollars, but I ended up canceling because I donāt get how their pricing works. $15 a month for what , exactly? I donāt keep books after Iām done reading, so the idea of owning an audiobook doesnāt matter to me. If Iām paying $15 monthly, I expect to be able to listen to as many books as I want, not have to worry about credits. The credit system feels irrelevant for someone like me who doesnāt need to āownā anything. It would make more sense to let members stream any book that has an audio version. If people want to own them, sureāhave that option, but it should be separate. I don't take advantage of it, but the discounted membership on the audible plan is nice, I guess.
Alexa works fine, but it could sound much better. Amazon is a billion-dollar companyāthey could easily improve Alexaās voice quality. At the very least, they could give us more voice options or even a virtual voice feature that lets us turn Kindle books into audiobooks through Neural Speech or something similar. Iād even pay a little extra for a better-sounding voice if it made the experience smoother. Iāve tried other apps like Speech Central, but again, the voice quality isnāt as great as advertised.
The only app Iāve come across that really impressed me with voice quality is Speechifyābut itās ridiculously expensive. $140 a year is too much. I donāt know if MrBeast, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Snoop Dogg actually lent their voices to it, or if itās marketing hype, but that app feels like itās made for corporate buyers or people with deep pockets. And the part that annoys me most is theyāre pushing Speechify like itās for people with disabilitiesāespecially dyslexiaābut who can afford that? I know I canāt. Even the free trial started glitching and became unusable after a while. I stick to Kindle Unlimited because most of the books I want are already there. I donāt really use library services like Bookshare, Libby, or OverDrive. I have access to all of them, but I donāt use them because they take a while to process book requests, and honestly, Iāve found that Kindle already has most of what I need. If a book isnāt available, Iāll either wait for it to go on sale, or sometimes I reach out directly to the authorāsome will send a free copy or offer a discount if you explain your situation or leave a review. Thatās been more reliable for me than waiting on a library request. Of course, I also use Apple Books as well.
Voice Dream Reader - my experience
I will tell you about my experience with VDR as a new user, but you probably want a seasoned user to cover all its features and capabilities.
New user VDR experience and thoughts follow.
When i launched the app for the firs time, it took me to a screen to select a default voice, then made me sit there and wait to download the voice. Okay, fine. Presumably this voice has some value.
Next, I went into the Mail app, found the message with the ePub attachment, and shared it. VDR was one of the sharing options. I returned to VDR, and there was the ePub I just shared. That part worked great.
From the VDR library, I opened the book, which took me to a screen with an overwhelming number of enigmatic buttons and options, which I'm sure all make total sense to seasoned users. The first button I tried was the play button, which complained I didn't have a subscription. Presumably, if I had a subscription, it would've used that fancy voice that is currently chewing up about a hundred megabytes. Well, I have better things to do than futz around and try to delete a voice I'm not going to use.
Buried in the dozens of buttons and controls is a window containing the book text, and a two-finger swipe down starts continuous reading, which was what I wanted.
Issues:
One: As I mentioned in a previous comment, if there's a link in the text, there's no way to bring VO focus to it and follow the link.
Two: If you perform a two-finger swipe for continuous reading, and you reach the last page of the book, it reads that last page over and over until the heat death of the universe.
Three: If the book contains a bullet list, VoiceOver doesn't announce the bullets. This issue doesn't happen in the Books app, so it's not a VO issue, it's a VDR issue.
After reading so many gushing comments about VDR in this thread, let's just say I was underwhelmed.
Wants Sub
If you're not already grandfathered in by having previously purchased VDR, then I'm afraid the reason you can't play the book (which means listening to the TTS coming from the app, including when the screen is locked) is that you have to pay the subscription. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
And yeah, the annoying thing with iBooks occasionally losing lines of text. Sigh. You're not alone. You might be able to spot when this happens and go back, but mostly you just have to hope it's obvious so you can then read the lines by word. This bug comes and goes and happens infrequently enough that it's not easy to report on. If only we could download our EPUB files from Apple without the DRM ā¦
You're not using VDR properly.
VDR's primary purpose is to make on-demand audio books, essentially. It uses whatever voice you pick, you can pick the voice your screen reader uses, you don't need to use a downloaded voice, and it reads the book. However, you get things like play, rewind, fast forward, and so on, in other words, think of it like using AUdible and it will make a *lot* more sense. I have never heard a narrated audio book, for instance, mention bullets in a list. It's also why you can't click on links.
Now, it's perfectly fine to say this isn't what you want, although I'll add that it has its uses, e.g. I can use it to read books on the Apple Watch, Books doesn't exist on the watch. But IMO part of the reason you're "underwhelmed" is because you're not using it for its intended purpose. That's kind of on you, not the program.
I honestly see a lot of this in these forums and it's pretty frustrating. Some of the things people claim are bugs are really just features they want. Other things are because they're using whatever program in a way it wasn't really intended for. IMO I wish we could have more objectivity, here's what X does and doesn't do, make your own decision.
I really like the latest podcasts on Numbers, as an example, they point out that it's a spreadsheet, but there are more complicated things it won't do, so if you want that, you probably want Excel. Then they explore what Numbers *can* do.
I'm sure I'm not
Pretty sure I'm not using it as intended, but I'm using it in a way the app allows, and my experience was unsatisfactory, so it's wrong to say this is all my fault.
How about they design the app so that it doesn't even bother to download a voice if you don't have an active subscription? Unless there's some other way to use that downloaded voice that you all haven't shared with me.
Accessibility Reader to the Rescue?
It certainly feels like Apple are taking on VDR, if so credit to them, so long as it doesn't come with unbearable caveats. But speechifying text is an obvious and useful feature that should be possible on our Apple devices, so I'm hopeful.
links in voice dream
You actually can follow links in voice dream, at least the last time I used it which admittedly was a while ago.
When y're reading a book, go into visual settings and switch it to rich text rather than plain text. That should give you clickable links.
I'm mostly a Speach central user these days which doesn't do this I don't think, for what it's worth.
Let's Not Forget Bookshare
I realize this might be an iOS-specific thread, and I've used Dolphin Easy Reader briefly. Their app is very good. But I just wanted to let people know if they haven't already checked this out, that the Bookshare website is getting an overhaul. This is actually going to occur in phases, but the new site is already pretty good on the Mac. Just after my recent medical procedure, I read some of a book that was required for a Bible study which I've been attending along with a neighbor. The book is available on Bookshare, and although I haven't done a lot of it lately it is fully navigable at least with speech. One more thing. Last I checked BARD Mobile does not do ebooks. I agree that it's an excellent choice, but not for ebooks.
Kindle
Hi,
I use the Kindle app on my iPhone and iPad, and the EasyReader app when I had Bookshare.
Bookshare not available everywhere
They don't ask for medical records.
They ask for proof from a doctor that you're blind. They do this because they need it to be able to produce books in an accessible format. I mean, I guess technically yes, it's a medical record, since it's generated by a doctor who's seen you. But I mean, when I signed up, I didn't just tell my doctor, hey send these people my medical records to prove I'm blind. I asked them to essentially write something specifically for Bookshare to prove that I'm blind. You have to do the same thing here for the National Library Service in the US.
Oh yeah, I guess I may as well answer the actual question, ha!
I use BARD, Audible, and Books. I don't think I've installed Kindle on iOS yet, I should because I have a few books in there too. I installed it on the Mac but couldn't figure out how to sign in, so hopefully it's nicer on iOS. Oh and I've occasionally used Voice Dream as well, you can use it to read on the Apple Watch, for instance.
Links in VDR
Thanks Yvonnezed. Good to know.
Kindle, on Mac and iOS
Kindle on Mac requires you to find the sign in edit box, make sure it's focused as it doesn't act like other ediboxes on Mac for some reason, then type in your sign in info. To properly use it you have to use your trackpad to enable continuous reading, as far as I can tell; VoiceOver doesn't automatically scroll pages if you use VoiceOver's say-all keyboard command on Mac.
As for Bookshare, fair point. I don't have a personal doctor, plus in the Bahamas it seems you have to pay for the service.
You have to pay for Bookshare everywhere.
Unless you get it with educational stuff in the US, otherwise, you pay. You don't really need a personal doctor, you just need to get to an eye doctor, just about any place that does eye exams for glasses could do it, and have them verify that you're blind. But I mean, I get it yeah. It is a chunk of money, although I think they have a sliding scale for some other countries. But in the US it's $80 a year, so while it's not crazy expensive, it's not really cheap either.
Suggestions for reading non-fiction books
Hi,
When I read non-fiction books, I like to go line by line to better process and understand the information. This used to work well with Kindle, but with the recent changes to how Kindle reads text, it now reads by paragraph instead.
Does anyone have any ideas or tips for reading non-fiction more effectively on the iPhone?
Thanks in advance!
The Alexa voice
Whatās up with the Alexa voice, seriously? Sometimes when Iām reading with it, the tone completely shiftsāitāll be smooth and calm one second, then out of nowhere it drops into this deeper, kind of bratty-sounding voice. I donāt really know how to describe it, but if youāve used Alexa to read books, youāll probably get what I mean. Itās like the rhythm will be flowing, and then suddenly the vocal inflection changes, like itās trying to add drama to something that isnāt even dramatic. Sometimes it makes sense, like during intense scenes, but other times it just pops up randomly and throws me for a loop. Not in a āoh my gosh Iām gonna stop readingā kind of way, but more like āwaitā¦ did she raise her voice at me?ā kind of curious. Is this Amazonās way of testing out more expressive reading styles? Like are they playing around with vocal inflections on purpose? Iām not mad at itājust asking. It kind of caught me off guard the first few times. I know Alexa isnāt a full-on AI narrator or anything, but itās trying something.
Also, side noteāare we able to use the Siri voices to read kindle books? Not VoiceOver, like Samantha default, but the actual Siri voices. Because Iāve tried before and I donāt think it worked, but Iām not sure if thatās changed or if I was doing it wrong. Iād love to know if thatās even an option now.
And yeah, I get that Alexa isnāt perfect, and Iām not expecting her to win an audiobook award or anything, but Amazon is a multi-million dollar company, right? Youād think we could at least get one voice thatās built specifically for readingāor better yet, give us a few to choose from. I wouldnāt mind paying for an Amazon virtual voice package if the qualityās there. I mean, if Iām going to have someone in my ear for six hours reading about space princesses and beetle-powered hoverboards, Iād like a little variety. I heard thereās supposed to be some kind of Alexa plus upgrade coming soon? Iām curious if that includes a voice update. Either way, just wanted to ask if anyone else noticed the tone changes mid-readingāitās not a big deal, but it stood out to me.
It's a failed attempt at expression/inflection
Subject says it all. It's a failed attempt at providing more expressive inflection during reading. My best advice to you, just ignore it.
Edit, I have no idea what happened with my dictation, but I fixed a bunch of typos. š
Speech Central
Hi,
I started to use Speech Central on my Android phone. When switching backe to the iPhone I just used it again. While there are a couple of hick ups, it generally works as one would expect.
I also tried the eleven labs reader but those AI-voices are not really for me. Sure, they sound pretty good but when they fail, they fail pretty spectacular.
Voice Dream Reader did not really work for me. It seemed cluttered when I tried it a couple of years ago. And after they went for the subscription model without providing anything to make that seem like a good deal, I just didn't care to try again.
I actually am looking forward to the orbit player. I like the Google TTS Voices. For some reason they help me getting into the books. But I also just read books in epub format without DRM and I kind of hate having to use the app Localsend to get my books onto my phone instead of just transfering via USB.
As for Kindle: I guess that works fine. But I will not give Amazon more of my money.
For PaulMartz re: VoiceOver skipping bottom text in Books
Voiceover sometimes skips a line at the bottom of the page in Books for me as well. I don't know why it does that, but I can address it by changing the font size, then turning off and restarting Voiceover.