vBooks PDF Voice Reader is an iOS app that will read PDF files aloud. Original formatting is retained, and text is highlighted by an ‘interactive cursor’ as it is read. The cursor looks a little like a magnifying lens as it tracks words being spoken. The cursor may be dragged back to re-read something. Or, it can be moved ahead if you wish to skip ahead.

The cursor enlarges with the text, when zooming in by pinching. Double-tapping a document with a single finger enlarges the document so that it fills the screen. This usually yields text that is reasonably large, especially on an iPad in landscape mode. On the other hand, using the three-finger zoom, iOS’s accessibility feature, makes it tricky to follow the cursor while reading.

Users can choose between high quality male or female voices. When opening a file for the first time, the user must choose between “English” and “English UK”. As well, there are 9 other languages to choose from, but each language costs an additional $4.99 as an in-app purchase. The additional languages include: Czech; Danish; Dutch; Finnish; French; German; Italian; Norwegian; Polish.

vBookz PDF Voice Reader has been available for Mac computers for some time. The short video below shows the app working on a computer, but it looks and behaves exactly the same on an iDevice.

It could hardly be easier to bring PDF files into vBookz PDF Voice Reader! Simply open a PDF email attachment, or a PDF file in your DropBox account. Then click on the forward icon to be given the option of opening the file in vBookz PDF Voice Reader. Once a PDF file has been opened, it remains on a book shelf in the “Library” for future reference.  The process seems to work well with both short files and those that are book-length. Files can also be brought into vBookz PDF Voice Reader from your computer, via iTunes.

It is noteworthy that there are two versions of vBookz PDF Reader–one for the US and Canada and another for the rest of the world. I don’t know if  there are difference. As a Canadian, I’ve only been able to test the version available to me here.

]]> http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2012/02/07/vbookz-pdf-voice-reader-finally-a-simple-text-to-speech-solution-for-pdfs-on-ipad-iphone-and-itouch/feed/ 0 http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2012/02/01/text-to-speech-for-pdf-on-ipad-or-iphone-with-voice-reader/ http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2012/02/01/text-to-speech-for-pdf-on-ipad-or-iphone-with-voice-reader/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:27:37 +0000 Paul Hamilton http://paulhami.edublogs.org/?p=5495 Continue reading →]]> Despite all the positive potential, Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch are limited by serious shortcomings. Some of these deficiencies are unfortunate, frustrating, and surprising in such expensive devices! It is extremely disappointing that Speak Selection, the text-to-speech Apple has built into iOS 5, does not work with PDF files.

It doesn’t matter whether the file is open in iBooks, GoodReader, or any other app I’ve tested, Speak Selection will not read a PDF file. I have invested a great deal of time in efforts to find a convenient solution. Nothing I’ve tried yet works perfectly, but I’m sharing one low-cost option that works well, as long as the original formatting of the PDF file is not required.

Voice Reader is a low cost ($1.99) app for iPad or iPhone that provides text-to-speech that reads PDF’ files aloud–in 21 languages, with 32 available voices. (Additional voices are $.0.99) Files, can be opened into Voice Reader from other apps, including DropBox. When open in Voice Reader, the text can be read aloud with a high quality voice. Or, if text can be copied, it can be pasted into Voice Reader. It is important to note that the original formatting of PDF files is lost when it is opened in Voice Reader.

Settings within Voice Reader offer some helpful adjustments, including reading rate, voice pitch, text font, and font-size. There is also a “Dark Mode”, which reverses the contrast to white text on a black background. Finally, Voice Reader not only reads text aloud, it can create an audio file in m4a format. The audio file can then be emailed from the device.

]]> http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2012/02/01/text-to-speech-for-pdf-on-ipad-or-iphone-with-voice-reader/feed/ 0 http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2012/01/26/find-apps-with-quixey-for-ios-android-chrome-mac-osx-and-more/ http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2012/01/26/find-apps-with-quixey-for-ios-android-chrome-mac-osx-and-more/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:28:02 +0000 Paul Hamilton http://paulhami.edublogs.org/?p=5362 Continue reading →]]> This afternoon, a school principal showed me the 15 Android-powered Toshiba tablets that her school district has purchased for her school. This principal is familiar with numerous apps for Apple’s iDevices, but she told me that she didn’t know quite where to start with Android apps. I referred her to Richard Byrne’s Android 4 Schools blog, and I was also able to tell her about a search engine that has been designed to search for apps that meet specific needs.

Quixey sums up the service they offer as follows…

Whether you’re searching for apps on your mobile device, browser, desktop or any other platform, we make sure you can always find the tools you need. We’ll find you apps for every activity and task imaginable. Just answer one question for us: What do you want to do?

As I’ve used Quixey, I have found it to do a pretty good job of accomplishing its intended purpose. It isn’t perfect, and you may need to cull through the listed apps to find something that will reaally work for you.  The image below shows the top four of more than one hundred search results that were returned when I entered the search term ‘text-to-speech for Android’. (If the image is too small for you to read, you can view an enlarged version by clicking on the image–at least if you are viewing this post on a computer.)

Hat-tip to Kerry Randle, SET-BC‘s provincial coordinator, for making me aware of Quixey.

Blurb Mobile  is an app for iPhone and iPad that makes it easy to combine images with text and/or voice narration to create multimedia presentations. I have tried Blurb on an iPad, and it has done exactly what I wanted it to do. It has created a slide show with both text captions and audio narration attached to each slide.

I used the iPad to find and download 5 copyright-friendly images. Importing images from the iPad’s Camera Roll into Blurb worked smoothly, and it was extremely easy to add text and to record the audio narration. As illustrated below, when in edit mode, click on the mic to bring up a recording box, or on the T to bring up a box for entering text.

There are several ways of sharing presentations or stories created with Blurb Mobile. Of course, a story created on an iPad looks great on the Blurb Mobile app on an iPhone. Presentations can be shared with anyone on Blurb’s website, in what it calls its ‘Story Stream’. Each presentation has its own URL, so that link can be shared. There is a convenient way to post a Blurb presentation to a Tumblr blog. Or, you can upload a Blurb directly to your Youtube account. Unfortunately, the Youtube version does not show any text  that has been added to images.

Click on the image below, and you will see my sample project as hosted on the Blurb website.

Now here’s what the same project looks like on Youtube.

Now here it is again on my Tumblr blog.

I would be remiss if I did not add that there is more that you can do with Blurb Mobile. You can include a brief (up to 30 second) video clip, and import audio files. With an imported audio file, you could add a musical background to play throughout your story or presentation. You can choose from different “themes” that determine the look of your finished project. Multiple images may also be added to a single slide in a variety of different layouts

There is nothing you can’t do with the basic version of Blurb Mobile, and the app is not ad-supported. If you wish, for $0.99, you can upgrade to Blurb Mobile Plus. The upgrade offers more themes to choose from, additional audio recording time, the option of including more video clips, etc. For example, the free version lets you include up to 8 images and 1 video clip. The ‘Plus’ version allows up to 15 images as well as 3 video clips.

Here is the cautionary tale exactly as related to me…

Friends of mine have a new iPad. Their 9 year old son loves to play games using free apps that they’ve found. They recently discovered they have a bill of over $500 on their credit card thanks to “In app purchases”. What this means is that while the boy is playing, the game will offer to let him buy “food” or other items he needs to progress with his game. If he clicks on “Buy” there is no request for a password or other authorization. It just goes right through to his parents’ credit card!

My colleague kindly shared the lesson learned through this painful experience.  Here is what you can do to to ensure that this does not happen. Open ‘Settings’ and under the ‘General’ settings, click on ‘Restrictions’.

Now click on ‘Enable Restrictions’ on the new screen that opens. The screen shown below will then open and you will be asked to set a 4-digit restrictions pass code.  You need to enter a pass code, and you’ll be asked to confirm it when you do.

After creating your restrictions passcode, another screen will open. Scroll down to the section ‘Allowed Content’ and make sure that ‘In-App Purchases’ are turned off, as shown below.

The passcode you created will have to be entered and In-App purchases turned on before any In-App purchases can be made.  The family in the story above was able to have the charges to the App Store reversed, but I suspect it wasn’t easy.  So, I hope this information is helpful in saving hassles and headaches.  Please share this post with anyone whom you think needs to know.

Safari Reader is a feature that has been available in recent versions of the Safari browser running on both Mac and PC computers. With iOS5, it is now available in Safari on Apple’s mobile devices.  Safari Reader removes ads and other distracting content on a web page. Reader leaves only text with related illustrations. Reader also offers a convenient way of adjusting font size, which will be helpful for anyone with low vision.

When Safari opens a web page that contains an article, such as a blog post or Wikipedia entry, a ‘Reader’ button appears in the address bar, as shown in the image of a Wikipedia article below. Note: this button will not appear on the “home” page of a website or blog. You must go to a specific article or blog post for the ‘Reader’ button to show up.  Nor will the button appear on a page without text, such as a page consisting exclusively of embedded video or lists of links.

Clicking the ‘Reader’ button on the original article brings up the screen shown at the bottom. Notice the convenient opportunity to adjust font size, with potential to make the font extremely large for anyone with low vision.  On the iPad, clicking on the ‘Reader’ button a second time brings back the original article.  On the iPhone, a ‘Done’ button serves the same purpose.

I Like Books — 37 Picture Books in 1 App is exactly what its name says it is, and more.  This app is excellent for any emerging reader.  Each of the 37 pattern books consists of multiple pages with engaging photographs, along with text that can be read silently or aloud.  As the text is read aloud, by a recorded human voice, the words are highlighted on the screen.  The pages can be set to turn automatically, or they can be turned by the reader.

The app could hardly be easier to use. Books can be chosen from the app’s book shelves, which is shown below.

The cover page for each book offers the reader three options, as shown here.

]]> http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2011/11/24/i-like-books-high-quality-free-app-for-iphoneipad/feed/ 1 http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2011/11/20/nebulous-notes-great-writing-app-especially-for-writers-with-low-vision/ http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2011/11/20/nebulous-notes-great-writing-app-especially-for-writers-with-low-vision/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:53:41 +0000 Paul Hamilton http://paulhami.edublogs.org/?p=3782 Continue reading →]]> I’m writing here about another app that is “nearly free” at $3.99.  I mentioned this one in my post about using TextGrabber to convert hard copy to accessible digital text.  I think Nebulous Notes deserves more than a mention. There are many note taking apps, but this one has features that will benefit countless users, especially anyone who has difficulty seeing the screen.

Nebulous Notes is a text editor for the iPhone and iPad with a unique feature-set.  Multiple fonts are available, default text-size can be enlarged significantly, contrast between text and background can be customized in any way the user chooses, and the brightness of the screen can be adjusted right in the app.   Combine these features with the text-to-speech now built into iOS5, and Nebulous Notes works as an effective writing tool for almost anyone.

Here’s a screenshot of what Nebulous Notes can look like on an iPad, with the onscreen keyboard.  Some users, of course, will prefer to use an external keyboard.  As you may notice, there is a customizable ‘Utility Bar’ atop the onscreen keyboard.  For users, who are able to use the onscreen keyboard, and who prefer that, the Utility Bar offers many of the functions typically found only on an external keyboard.

Here’s what the ‘Settings’ box looks like in Nebulous Notes.  This demonstrates the customizations available in Nebulous Notes.

The shot below shows just how easy it is to use ‘Speak Selection’ with Nebulous Notes.  Note: ‘Speak Selection has to be turned on in the iPhone/iPad Settings.  Here’s the path:  Settings–General–Accessibility–Speak Selection.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Nebulous Notes is designed to work seamlessly with DropBox; and this is another feature that is invaluable to many users.

I have emphasized the potential of Nebulous notes for individuals with low vision.  I do not have low vision, and I have used Nebulous Notes extensively in my own work.  I have found that that the app works extremely well for me.  So, this is a writing app that may be helpful for a wide range of writers.

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ZoomReader is an iPhone app that combines the iPhone’s camera with high quality OCR, flexible reading options (magnification, contrast, etc.), excellent text-to-speech, and even voice recognition for commands. Aisquared is to be commended for putting all of this together for only $20.  They’re not only making accessibility simple, they’re making it affordable!

I was very impressed when I saw ZoomReader demonstrated at ATIA, and I’ve embedded a video here that gives a pretty good indication of what this app will do.

If you already have an iPhone, the upgrade to OS 3.0 is free.  So, it’s worth being aware of, and spreading the word about, the accessibility features that are part of the new iPhone operating system. Ars Technica has put together a video that effectively highlights functions that support vision challenges and that offer text-to-speech.  I’m embedding the video here to help spread the word.

iPhone OS 3.0 Accessibility Features from Ars Technica on Vimeo.