Voice Dream Reader on M1 Mac

By VivekP, 27 August, 2021

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi all,
I find myself to be a proud owner of a new M1 MacBook Air. I recently switched from my MBP 2017 to this one.
I have been fascinated with the fact that the M1 Macs can (in principle) run IOS and iPad OS apps.
I was wondering whether I could run VoiceDream Reader on my M1 Mac? Has anyone been running it on their M1 Mac?
If I (in principle) am able to run it on my M1, then how may I go about it?
Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.
Thank you and have a good day!

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Comments

By Dalia on Sunday, September 12, 2021 - 22:45

Voice Dream Reader is currently not available on the Mac (in that the developer has opted to not make the iOS version available for M1 owners).

However, in better news, the developer recently posted this to Twitter:

The macOS version is being developed! As soon as Apple releases TestFlight for Macs, beta testing will begin. Stay tuned for more info!

https://twitter.com/VoiceDreamApp/status/1430125715668750336

By mikołaj hołysz on Sunday, September 12, 2021 - 22:45

On Mac OS older than 11.3 , you could do this pretty easily. If you had the app purchased, you could download the IPA file from the App Store, via iMazing for example. The IPA installer didn't check whether the device you're on is allowed to run the installed app, so, as long as the Apple ID you were signed in with had the app purchased, the install would succeed.

On newer Mac OS versions, this check is performed, so the IPA will just refuse to install. There's no easy way around this (except downgrading, which poses security risks). If you own a jailbroken iOS device, there's apparently a way of extracting the unencrypted, unrestricted IPA that your Mac will install without the need to contact Apple's servers, but I haven't tried this.

By VivekP on Sunday, September 12, 2021 - 22:45

Hey, thank you so much. I just upgraded my macOS software so this suggested way is our for me now.
I’ll await the official update from VoiceDream LLC.
Thank you once again and have a good day.

By Maldalain on Sunday, September 12, 2021 - 22:45

Maybe you should try Speech Central if you are keen to have the functionality of the VDR on iOS. Speech Central is available for mac.

By Scott Duck on Sunday, September 12, 2021 - 22:45

I am also looking forward to Voice Dream Reader for the Mac. As I understand it, he is completely rewriting it as a Mac app so it will work on all Macs, not just the M1 macs.

Hi Maldalain,
Yes indeed, you are right. However, I have purchased VoiceDream suite so I was hoping not to pay for Speech Central for my Mac.
Thank you for your help,
Have a good day!

Hi Scott,
that, in fact, is a wonderful news.
Here is me hoping that our IOS purchases can be carried over to Mac appstore for this app.
Do you, by any chance, have a link to any article online which I may peruse? Have the VoiceDream LLC people said this somewhere? I would be curious to read about it.
Thank you and have a good day!

By Labsii on Thursday, May 12, 2022 - 22:45

Voice Dream Reader for Mac appears to be released today. You can get it at this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-dream-reader-for-desktop/id972112040?mt=12

Additional information is that you can't transfer any purchases from iOS, it doesn't offer any additional voices and it costs 5$/month.

Speech Central was suggested by one user in this thread as a possible alternative with similar features. As a developer of that app I didn't want to comment on opinions that it is better to wait and possibly save some money (Speech Central costs 9$), though I was pretty sure that things will roll out like this. Just personally I have expected some high fixed price (like 50$), 5$ monthly subscription is even beyond my expectations.

Also if you decide to use Speech Central for the Mac keep in mind that Speech Central for iOS is completely free when used with VoiceOver.