vBookz is an e-book reader that reads out loud. The vBookz provides access over 30,000 books free of charge. Definitely these are all public domain ebooks. The best thing about vBookz is the magnifying glass interface indicating current reading location, the magnifying glass follows the text as the book is being read, making the reading experience much more enjoyable and fun.
According to the news release,
vBookz is NOT ‘books on tape’: it is a live text-to-speech generator with no need for conversion nor stored books files. It is a new way to enjoy reading: eyes-free reading while on the move, driving or just relaxing, assisted reading for the sight impaired or audio feedback for children or those learning to read in a foreign language.
vBookz adds to speech capability orientation and navigation tools that enhances the reading experience, combining two senses together – sight and hearing. An interactive cursor allows users to follow along, pause reading or even repeat lines or paragraphs to ensure reading comprehension.
Features:
‣ Download 30,000 books FREE of charge!
‣ Supports 13 more languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
‣ Swipe the bookshelf to browse through the book.
‣ Easily access the book you would like vBookz to read to you by tapping on it.
‣ Tapping the magnifying glass icon enables you to easily find words in the current page or in the entire book.
‣ Swipe the magnifying glass and vBookz will start reading to you.
‣ Follow the magnifying glass while the book is being read.
‣ Drag the magnifying glass to set a new reading point or flip pages using a swipe gesture.
‣ Tap and hold a book icon in order to organize your bookshelf.
‣ Adjust reading fonts and size using the AA icon on the top right of the page.
‣ Plan your reading time using the time-elapsed/time-reaming indicators.
‣ Adjust the speed of reading and voices using the setting menu.
‣ Use the time line to navigate through the book.
You can listen here both the male and female voices in different languages available with vbookz. The app is itself $4.99 that comes with English voices. In order to buy addition voices you have to spend $4.99 each. The ebooks are downloadable from RSS feed of Lexcycle catalog. All ebooks are in ePub format. As of today (June 3, 2010) the number of available for free download as as follows:
English, 24,489 Books
French, 1,483 Books
German, 566 Books
Finnish, 509 Books
Dutch NL, 443 Books
Portuguese, 373 Books
Spanish, 241 Books
Italian, 215 Books
As you see no ebook in Swedish, Greek, Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Czech are yet available. You can always check the Lexcycle catalog for the availability of ebooks.
Related Posts :
The ruling from the Library of Congress provides DRM circumvention exemptions for the ebooks thi ...
With the release (to be released on August 27) new Kindle 3, there will be a lot of people who a ...
According to Amazon, the 2.5 software update for Kindle and Kindle DX is coming late May. He ...
Launching the Basic Web Browser Your Kindle comes with an experimental application called Web ...
Okay guys, it’s not eInk device, but still does a lot of things at a cheaper price. Lightw ...
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for covering vBookz!
{ 1 trackback }