41–49 of 49 posts
Is there something like this for epubs or pdfs with a truly high-quality TTS? All apps that I know of use iOS internal TTS (sounds awful, not as good as Siri). Then is also Voice Dream Reader and even with the paid premium voices it is still not pleasant to listen to. Siri-grade TTS or Elevenlabs would be pleasant enough, though.
“Scan up to 250 printed pages per month for $9.99/mo” I’m sorry, but LOL. Not even a full book. That has to be one of the most terrible business models. I guess it’s in line with most app subscription models these days, only much worse. And if the excuse is “well it costs me too much on Azure and the phone native APIs are not good enough”, perhaps the answer is “don’t do it then”. No thanks.
You're not the demo. So your no thanks is expected.
But, there are plenty of people with eye problems as OP laid out, and I can guarantee you that a large amount for them would be happy to pay $9.99 for the ability to actually consume and enjoy printed books that don't have pdf/eBook editions.
But saying “don’t do it” is so off-base. It’s completely dismissing an entire sector of the market and humanity that isn’t like you.
And perhaps that sort of comment, if given to a first time founder working on a tool that helped a swath of the population… they might see that and get discouraged.
And then that tool that could legitimately improve people’s days, by allowing them to engage in parts of life they can’t easily access by themselves, wouldn’t exist.
As someone who has spent my entire career in the realm of selling things, this is a solid business model that provides a great solution to a likely, very underserved, market.
Plus the tech is cool and sounds fun to build. So, good work OP!
Very excited to see all the cool things people publish once LLM pricing drops.
“Scan up to 250 printed pages per month for $9.99/mo” I’m sorry, but LOL. Not even a full book. That has to be one of the most terrible business models. I guess it’s in line with most app subscription models these days, only much worse. And if the excuse is “well it costs me too much on Azure and the phone native APIs are not good enough”, perhaps the answer is “don’t do it then”. No thanks.
I literally made an account for the first time in 7 years of lurking to respond to this ridiculous comment. You're not the demo. So your no thanks is expected. But, there are plenty of people with eye problems as OP laid out, and I can guarantee you that a large amount for them would be happy to pay $9.99 for the ability to actually consume and enjoy printed books that don't have pdf/eBook editions. But saying “don’t…
Is there something like this for epubs or pdfs with a truly high-quality TTS? All apps that I know of use iOS internal TTS (sounds awful, not as good as Siri). Then is also Voice Dream Reader and even with the paid premium voices it is still not pleasant to listen to. Siri-grade TTS or Elevenlabs would be pleasant enough, though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
iOS has pretty decent built-in OCR and TTS but give it a try on a book page if you're curious — unfortunately the OCR makes a lot of mistakes (as well as including footnotes etc.) and the TTS is still pretty robotic. I do hope and expect they'll improve soon, though, at which point the only advantage of this app will be that it can scan multiple pages at a time — probably not enough of an advantage to justify its exi…
That’s interesting, my experience with the iOS OCR has been pretty good, but I haven’t used it for anything like this. What are you using instead?
“Scan up to 250 printed pages per month for $9.99/mo” I’m sorry, but LOL. Not even a full book. That has to be one of the most terrible business models. I guess it’s in line with most app subscription models these days, only much worse. And if the excuse is “well it costs me too much on Azure and the phone native APIs are not good enough”, perhaps the answer is “don’t do it then”. No thanks.
I literally made an account for the first time in 7 years of lurking to respond to this ridiculous comment. You're not the demo. So your no thanks is expected. But, there are plenty of people with eye problems as OP laid out, and I can guarantee you that a large amount for them would be happy to pay $9.99 for the ability to actually consume and enjoy printed books that don't have pdf/eBook editions. But saying “don’t…
You mean pay $9.99 for the ability to listen to half or less of a book, because there is a ridiculous 250 page per month limit.
Yes, this is such a great solution for these people indeed.
Is there something like this for epubs or pdfs with a truly high-quality TTS? All apps that I know of use iOS internal TTS (sounds awful, not as good as Siri). Then is also Voice Dream Reader and even with the paid premium voices it is still not pleasant to listen to. Siri-grade TTS or Elevenlabs would be pleasant enough, though.