Third edition of Personal Power: Getting The Most from iOS as a Totally Blind User

I'm happy to release the third edition of:
Personal Power: Getting The Most from iOS as a Totally Blind User
This book, freely available to all, was written to help totally blind people use iPhones competently and make the most of their capabilities in all possible aspects of life. From choosing and setting up your iPhone to using its capabilities and accessible apps, this book is my attempt to make it easier for blind newcomers to enjoy the benefits of this technology which has so deeply enriched my life.
To be clear, this book isn't a manual. There are plenty of step by step instructions. However, this book is more akin to a traveller's guidebook. At just over three hundred and fifty thousand words, the scope is very wide. It is as much about the journey I've been on and how iPhones have changed my life. If you're in a rush, there are certainly sections of this book which would be helpful. However, I've written this for people who are willing to take their time and learn about possibilities and experiences they might not have considered. Manuals tell you how to do things quickly and efficiently. In this book, I unapologetically take time to go beyond this and give people a wider sense of the online world they enter. I point people to accessible apps, explain the economics behind what you find and experience, outline the benefits and dangers of social media, and much more. If you're willing to take the time, you'll come away with a more wholistic sense of what's possible, why an iPhone can have the impact that it does despite being unable to see the touchscreen, and where you want to put your efforts.
This book is made available in numerous formats. The files are stored in a shared Google Drive folder. Anyone may download these files. You don't require a Google account or the Google Drive app. If you want the book in more than one format, you may find it more convenient to follow the link to the folder. From there, you can download copies of any of the files. Those who simply want one format can make use of the links provided below:
Link to folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1GAc2-HM1drA0GEj4fEBgQxIh4bHSKC
Link to EPUB FORMAT EBOOK:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mpPvk8vhTSO6l8yiRoNLa2won6L1IiTR/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to Eleven Labs narrated zipped mp3 book:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hPlRpDwhjWMzRMVZwtEpq6dHnPIm4S37/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to Microsoft Word ebook:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HWyNE2NnUwO3Wx-QqOFx1hUsYhyRoSr-/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=112141561636462941710&rtpof=true&sd=true
Link to PDF ebook:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JM1BMUD9A6sGB5CBaoiWicju8MFd2hge/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to Richtext ebook:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZhkyXL97zybtCi-F-i7Y_E8AH_NKAm_t/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to zipped HTML ebook:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AOoBl6SdtrwKzxYyzsI_fQMkjliImWYC/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to plain text Markdown ebook:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qYtzJzr8xV6egcXFGyXvYZjHbAZHAx0R/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to A Touchscreen Unseen Connecting The Dots 2020 mp3 Lecture:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ww8HmITcPeJmxZrFbaOF5AmcjW-J4ZMc/view?usp=drivesdk
the following instructions will hopefully be of help to people who want to download one or more versions of this book:
To download a copy of the book on and iPhone while using VoiceOver:
If you don't have and don't want the Google Drive app:
go to the link of the file you want. Once on the link, tap three times quickly with one finger.
On the context menu which should appear, flick right until you come to an option called "download linked file". Tap twice with one finger on this option.
The file should download into the Downloads folder on your Cloud drive presuming default settings haven't been changed on your iPhone.
Go into your Files app and into the Downloads folder. Find the file there.
Tap three times with one finger on the file and flick right through the context menu of options. Your choices will depend on which apps you have installed to deal with files of the format you have chosen. Choosing the "Share" option will reveal yet more choices which may include suitable apps.
If you have the Google drive app:
double tap on the link to the file you desire. You will be taken to that file's entry page.
You may find a warning that the file type is unsupported. Simply double tap on that for the warning to go away.
Flick right across the options until you come to one called "More options".
Double tap on "More options" and then flick right until you come to the option to "download" the file. Double tap on this.
The file should be downloaded into the Downloads folder on your iCloud drive. Alternatively, you may be presented with a dialogue letting you choose where to save the file or possibly which app to open the file in. Pick the option which suits your needs.
There are many apps which you can use to read the book. This includes the Apple Books app, called Books, which is included in iOs. Once the Epub version of the guide is downloaded, you can go to it in the Files app and then flick down with one finger until you reach the "Share" option. Double tap on this and flick right through the options until you come to the app you want the file to be imported into. Double tap on the name of the app and the file should then e available inside the app as well as on your iCloud drive.
The Epub format has a couple of advantages and I recommend it for most users. It is very small coming in at less than a megabyte in size. It provides the greatest level of navigation having an interactive table of contents which includes subheadings. This makes it easier to navigate to specific parts of the book. Also, because it is an ebook, it can be searched. There are many apps which support Epub books including Voice Dream Reader, Dolphin Easy Reader, the Books and Kindle apps, and many others.
For people who might struggle with electronic documents, I'm delighted to say that a narrated version of this book is available in a zipped mp3 format. Thanks to the quick action and generosity of Harrison Tu and the Eleven Labs company, you can enjoy hearing the book read by a high quality and very natural sounding male American voice. Harrison picked a speed which should be easy for people to understand. Most apps and devices capable of playing the book will offer a way to increase the speed to what you prefer without sacrificing any clarity. I'm thrilled that this is available on the day of publication. To process the book which took years for me to write into well-narrated audio took around two hours for the artificial intelligence at Eleven Labs. We truly live in an age of wonders.
The size of the zip file containing this version of the book is around 1.6 gigabytes. There are over 300 files of varying lengths, so I recommend that people use an app designed to play such audiobooks in their zip files rather than uncompressing the files into a folder. The Bookplayer app, developed by Gianni Carlo, is simple to use and offered freely in the app store. Once the book is imported into the app, you can flick left and right through the files and double tap on the one you want to play. While the file plays, controls to adjust speed, pause, skip to next and previous file, etc, will be available. Simply dismiss the player to pick another file from the larger collection. Similar apps should be available for most computers. This audiobook should also work on various accessible book readers capable of handling audiobooks.
I have also made the book available in five other formats based on requests made by readers of prior editions. These include a plain text Markdown file, a Richtext file, a Microsoft Word document, a zipped HTML version, and a PDF version. Hopefully, the table of contents function will work correctly in these versions. It won't be interactive in the more stripped down text versions, but may still yield correct page numbers. I welcome any effort from people wanting to produce other formats of this book and will gladly make electronic offerings available in my Google Drive folder so all may benefit from such work. Producing this book in any sort of hard copy formats, such as Braille or Daisy CD, is quite beyond my means. However, I have no objection of an organization for the blind chooses to do this.