WordStreamer is a speed reading tool that I put together over the weekend. It works on the principle that our brains only process text when our eyes are not moving. WordStreamer simply streams a text file one word at a time, at a rate specified by you. Since your eyes are not traveling from word to word, this allows you to read at a faster rate in no time by simply pressing up to increase the rate at which the words are displayed.
I got the idea from a British company that has a desktop program called BookMuncher that they are charging money for. I had planned to download and try out there app because I heard some pretty great success stories on the public radio and they had said "It's a free download". But.. it was free to download and $9.99 to try. I also noted they were going to release a mobile version, but it looked as if they planned to lock it down via the mobile service provider market(i.e. pay AT&T to download, pay AT&T for book). So basically I had to see what the fuss was about.
The goal of this release
The goal of release 0.7.5 is to get some testers for the new streaming control i made for this version.
Big Changes:
1. Lots of font customizations (color,size,style,alignment,max width per line).
2. Text from the surrounding area is displayed when paused.
3. Delays can be triggered from line breaks, word length, or punctuation.
4. Average words added to 'About' screen(total isn't yet saved across app exits).
5. The install directory has changed from "WordStreamer" to "WordStreamerPPC" (so you'll need to uninstall the old one manually).
The main goal of release 0.5.7 was for me to find out if this kind of thing works. So Far.. It does. After a short period you'll soon find yourself reading at pretty fast rate with ease. The only complaint I've seen online is a person saying there eyes hurt from focusing on one spot for a while without blinking.. Please people, press pause and blink
I went the quickest route for this early release and just did some form magic to make things work, since a large goal of this is to gauge user want. If the desire is there, i'll put in some time and do all of the drawing manually to better handle text wrapping and speed.
How To Use
The current target platform is Win CE 5.0 Pocket PC (compact framework 2.0).
You can jump right in when you start up WordStreamer by choosing 'Make Demo File' from the menu or choosing a file via the 'Choose File Option', then hitting 'Go' or Enter to start the process.
Keyboard Controls:
- Up, NumPad2, 2: Increase the speed the text is streamed.
- Down, NumPad8, 8: Decrease the speed the text is streamed.
- Left, NumPad4, 4: Lower the Font Size.
- Right, NumPad6, 5: Raise the font size.
- Enter/Return, NumPad5, touch screen, 6: Start/Stop streaming text.
Quirks or Issues
- The settings page tab order is all out of whack, Ill correct for next release.
- The Status bar per second and per minute timers always reflect values as if only 1 word is displaying at a time (The averages on the about screen reflect the correct totals though).
- The settings screen is not dynamically drawn(meaning a scroll bar has to be used) I'll be addressing this in 1.0.
- Only .txt files are currently supported.
- If your having issues with characters such as umlauts try using utf-8 encoding. Thanks Boops.
- [0.5.7]I've currently only tested the Smartphone version on an emulators. Testers are needed.
Future Thoughts (Feel Free to add your own)
- I've got some nifty document navigation thoughts for the future.
- What about an RSS reader or a tool for importing web page body text? If we can ever get some help with getting the AutoHotKey for CE compiler going there will be some great great things coming.
- I know i know the settings page is ugly. im probably going to do a tab view to get rid of the scrolling.
- Fullscreen view?
- .rtf/.doc support - if time or available libraries permit.
Note:
I find it easier to read at higher rates if i increase the font size a bit and hold the phone back from my face a couple feet (like in my lap or out in front like a book).
On npr people were reporting comfortably reading at rates of 200-400+ words a minute within 5 minutes of starting!
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If you got an error while installing Themes, Software or Games, please, read FAQ.
Supported operating systems:
Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 6 Classic, Windows Mobile 6 Professional, Windows Mobile 6.1 Classic, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
iSilo (Pocket PC) iSilo displays formatted hyperlinked documents. Compression is 20% better than the Palm Doc format. Text formatting includes mixed size text, colored text, underlininig, italics, bold, subscript and superscript, fixed-width font, and more. Images can be compressed greyscale (1-bit/2-bit/4-bit) and color (8-bit/16-bit), large and scrollable, and intermixed with text
eReader for Windows Mobile Classic/Professional eReader for Windows Mobile Classic/Professional - Our eReader application for Windows Mobile allows you to read your eBooks whenever you want and wherever you go. You can use eReader to add bookmarks, navigate your eBooks easily and search for words in your eBook
Wattpad Wattpad- This is a Beta application and it's my first. It's a full functional port of the java ebook reader available for download at wattpad.com.
I have tested it on my HTC Diamond and it seams to work well doh, i expect a lot of bugs from other devices ( didn't plan to release it )
Comic Reader Comic Reader is a special software to read comic strips on a Pocket PC device.
Video Preview of Comic Reader
Features:
- Lense Mode! click on any part of the page and it'll show a zoomed in section of that area
AudioTTSBook AudioTTSBook - AudioTTSBook is a TTS engine (Text to Speech) that reads/translates a text eBook in 51 languages. Tap the button to select the text file to read. The program will read the eBook and convert the book to voice and play the voice back in humans voice in the selected language. This service is provided by Google
CBZ Reader CBZ Reader - CBZ files are compressed files made for reading comics. This software allows you to read them from your Windows Mobile device.
With your fingertip you can (scrolling from down to up) zoom in to read better or zoom out (scrolling from up to down) or with the scroll from left to right go on with the page or come back (from right to left)
BookBag Plus BookBag Plus™ is your complete book and personal library organization software for Windows Mobile handheld PDAs, and it includes PC companion software! Keep track of books, magazines, etc. that you own, have read, have checked out, want to read or buy, and more. Quickly determine when books are due, includes multiple sort and filter options on the handheld and PC
MyQuotes MyQuotes is a desktop application which you can read eBook or study vocabulary or display personalized picture. In addition, MyQuotes is very customizable, you can configure MyQuotes to change the quotes and/or background image every several seconds/minutes/hours, you can also change it by clicking or key-press for prev/Next/Random
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WordStreamer is compatible with your device HKC G1000 (TechFaith Cynthia 850)
