Todd Bernard did a nice write up on vBookz back in Aug. Well V2 of vBookz came out and although there are few cool new things about it; like:
• vBookz adds orientation and navigation tools that enhances the reading experience.
• An interactive cursor allows users to follow along, pause reading or even repeat lines or paragraphs to ensure reading comprehension.
• Combining two senses together – sight and hearing – helps children and those learning to read in a second language.
On the innovation side:
* Animating the cursor in perfect sync with the Text-to-Speech engine
* Calculating the reading time for the entire book rather than giving the user arbitrary page numbers that changes when you re-size the fonts
* Video controls with time elapsed/time remaining and rewind/fast forward controls
What I really like is the idea that you can mix between reading a book, listening to it; then go back to reading again. Right now the video they have on the site does not give a true feeling to how the product really works, so later I'll create a post video on vBookz here when I get a chance, but basically its a robotic voice reading the text. Its not perfect by any stretch, but good enough to understand what is written. Better you can change the pace of reading, great for those books that have information you want to consume, less about enjoying the prose.
Later they are going to allow you to upload your own ePub content. THEN I think we will have a game changer in the book reader field.
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