This is an update on the series of reports I compiled on using the Wileyfox
Swift as a Media Player suitable for a deaf blind person.
In relation to reading Apps - I have tried various eBook and Audio Book apps
over the last couple of weeks but have found myself coming back repeatedly to
the Android Version of Voicedream Reader. There are some issues in using this
app, some of them may be potentially quite serious for some people, but for me
nevertheless using this app has provided the easiest and most positive
experience for a number of reasons. I will outline the problems I have with
other apps I have tried below.
The biggest plus for me personally in using the Swift as a Media Player is that
for eBook reading it provides the possibility of consistent use of the
Eloquence TTS for eBook reading. Clearly Eloquence is not the most human
sounding TTS but it consistently provides, for me at least the clearest and
most comfortable listening experience for reading books at accelerated speecch
rates. This is probably a reflection of the fact that I have used Eloquence for
years for this purpose.
Typically for leisurely reading I will use Eloquence at 200 words per minute,
rising to perhaps 250 words per minute for text which I am doing shorter more
intense study of. This is my personal preference, I am sure others can listen
more rapidly to other TTS but I find it more diffricult. I guess Alex and
Daniel are the best other options for me. Despite my use of these voices on
Apple products for me no other TTS engines provide the ease of listening and
comprehension at these rates that Eloquence can provide.
A big part of the appeal of the Swift for me personally then is its utilisation
of Eloquence. Voicedream Reader supports Eloquence well on Android, and I have
used Voicedream with Eloqunce every day for about 10 days now and have been
getting through about a book a day at these accelerated rates. Listening at 200
words a minute is obviously 12,000 words an hour. This means you could probably
read an essay in 10 minutes and a Dissertation in an hour.
Essentially I found that the best combination is to use Google TTS as the
Talkback voice and use Eloquence for my default EBook reading voice. For
reasons I am not entirely clear about, if you use Eloquence as your Talkback
voices as well as your TTS playing voice then eBook readers will not work with
the screen locked and will simply stop reading. A similar thing happens if you
try to use Google TTS as both the Talkback voice and TTS reading voice. This
problem is avoided if you reserve Eloquence simply as the TTS voice within
reading apps.
This does mean that when using the Kindle app the books will read with Google
TTS by default, however, it is possible to change the system TTS on the fly by
bringing up the Talkback Global Context menu and this is the method I use for
switching to Eloquence if I am to settle down for long periods of reading on
Kindle.
A rated alternative to Voicedream Reader on Android is 3MP Reader. This is a
highly accessible eBook reading app specifically designed for visually impaired
readers. The app seems easy and straightforward to use but I personally could
not use this app with Eloquence. I have not succeeded in completing the
reading of any books with this app.
For some strange reason the Eloquence TTS behaves differently withing 3Mp
Reader and suddenly announces inappropriately high levels of verbose
punctuation. In particula words like can't and couldn't are pronounced can ' t
and couldn ' t.
This may be a minor bug for some but I found it intolerable and just started
getting annoyed as the books were read.
I experimented with changing the TTS settings from Most to some at system
level and also looked at app TTS options but could find no way of amending
this annoying punctuation verbosity. At one time I had the same book loaded in
Voicedream and 3MP reader and the identical Eloquence voice was behaving
completely differently.
I have kept 3Mp reader in case I want to use another TTS engine, where hoefully
these difficulties wil not arise. As I say the app seems excellent apart from
this weird Eloquence Punctuation problem.
Voicedream Reader also had the capability to play Audio Books and I have, to a
lesser extent used this function. Inclusive Android recommend Listen Audio Book
Reader as a accessible alternative.
again though I personally found a fatal flaw in what would otherwise be an
excellent app and this has prevented me using it.
The problem revolves around access to storage. A big plus with the Swift is the
ability to cheaply insert a mico SD Card to boost storage capacity. I had a 64
GB card inserted by Computer room Services.
On Listen Audio Book Player you are invited to locate a folder in which Audio
Books reside. The problem was that despite my tapping around until I was
frustrated and probably blue in the face, I could not find any way of accessing
the SD Card File System withing the app. I had no problem locating books on
internal storage but this is tiny compared to the space I have on the SD card.
I may have a technical skill deficiency but trying as hard as I could I was
unable to locate any of my SD Card storage area.
In the end I realised that every time I wanted to import a An Audio Book I
would have to copy across the book from the SD card into internal storage. I
could not be bothered to do this.
The Listen Audio Book app also claimed to be able to "hide" Audio Books from
Music Playing apps. However it signally failed to do this on the books I loaded
into internal memory, all of which showed up in the Gonemad Music app as well.
In contrast, using Total Commander File Explorer app, it is simplicity itself
to open Zip file containing Audio Books straight into Voicedream Reader. For
this reason Voicedream has remained my Audio Book reading app of choice in this
area also. I have continued to use the Audible app with no issues as well.
Finally for this update I think that a earpones/headphones with a pause remote
control is essential for easy pausing of the book you are listening to with
the Swift. Oddly i discovered the earphones which came with my iPhone worked
perfectly for me on the Swift for this purpose. I said this was strange because
on the iPhone, I had to abandon using these earphones and swop them for a
cheaper gumy model as the volume output was so low, even on maximum volume. For
some reason on the Swift though the earhones responded completely differntly
and provided perfectly adequate volume levels with the bonus of a remote pause
function.
Of course these are simply my experiences and others may not have encountered
any of the problems with 3Mp Reader and Eloquence or importing books into
Listen Audio Book player. I can only report what I find .
In general though the Swift has become in short order one of my indispensable
reading devices, providing a smooth and efficient reading of Eloquence output .
David Griffith
Book foldewr but
A cautionary note needs to be added about voicedream on Android. Oddly support
for in app purchased voices seems very flaky and I have found attempts to speed
up the default speech rates for voices like Peter and Karen has resulted in
these voices refusing to work. This is annoying but not a game stopper for me
because of the excellent Eloquence support.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
