Greetings!
Lately, I've been revisiting a passion project of mine that holds immense potential for the visually impaired community. To celebrate the launch of the iPhone 15 lineup, I’m excited to announce the release of an audio adaptation of Michael Feirs' book, "Personal Power Second Edition."
First and foremost, I'd like to express profound gratitude to Michael Feir. His generosity in providing the book for free and granting permissions for alternative formats has been pivotal in making this project possible.
Upon the book's release in 2022, I was instantly struck by its potential. I made multiple attempts to launch initiatives that would facilitate a professional narration of the book. However, the financial burden of such an endeavor was dauntingly high.
Fast forward to 2023, and the landscape changed with the emergence of Eleven Labs—a pioneering company that crafts incredibly realistic audiobooks using advanced artificial intelligence-driven text-to-speech technology. This is a departure from the conventional text-to-speech tools commonly associated with screen readers. From the moment I encountered Eleven Labs' offerings, I was enamored and have been exploring its capabilities since.
I owe a significant debt of gratitude to the Apple Vis community. This vibrant group has been an unwavering pillar of support, guiding me in maximizing the potential of my iPhone and Mac. In appreciation, I'm offering this community the "Personal Power Second Edition" audiobook, realized through Eleven Labs' innovative technology. I genuinely believe that this version is superior to existing audio renditions, and if it aids even one individual in mastering their iPhone, my efforts will have been worthwhile.
I must acknowledge one limitation: pronunciation. There may be instances where words might not be articulated as intended. Perfecting this aspect is challenging. Nonetheless, I trust that listeners will focus on the broader quality and merit of this nearly professional-grade recording, and truly enjoy it.
Below is the link to the google drive where you can download it.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lRWiDC5-2lXMmumrpiEAQWE8c1iD9BGA?usp=sharing
If you want to download it as one giant zip folder, here's the link for that.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iDyeyyrXVxPnNZm2i23fh1qtPZY7VYZY/view?usp=sharing
By techluver, 15 September, 2023
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This is awesome!
The only reason I could tell it was 11labs was cause of the breathing, it's great don't get me wrong, but it's almost to much breathing? In audiobooks I don't think you hear that much breathing or if you do it's not so pronounced.
Either way I think this is amazing for beginners to the IPhone and I think applevis should consider putting this in the getting started section.
The only thing is I do think you should zip the folder so people can download it all at once.
If we think this is awesome, imagine what 11labs and other companies will come out with in the future.
how do I download the entire book
How do I download the entire book I'm only getting parts. Please help.
I’m so glad to see such…
I’m so glad to see such positive reception for this. As far as how to download the entire book, you should be able to use however, you normally download Google Drive folders, this is just a standard Google Drive folder. I believe you click on the name of the folder, and it’ll open a drop-down where you can go to download. I’ll put together a zip file in the morning, if you need it before, then, you can try downloading it, I just don’t have time because I’m doing a bunch of things before iPhone pre-order time.
So appreciated!
Hello Techluver: Thanks so much for this project and sharing it with us!
zipped version
Hey there.
Here's a link to a zipped version for people to be able to download.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iDyeyyrXVxPnNZm2i23fh1qtPZY7VYZY/view?usp=sharing
this is marvelous!
Many thanks for doing this. It should be very helpful to people wanting to listen to the book while trying things out. The voice is easy to understand and the speed is good for beginners. Some larger sections are divided into two parts. While other formats offer more precise navigation, this version should be of great assistance for people wanting an easy way to listen. Any software capable of playing mp3 files will be able to handle it.
Trouble Accessing Google Drive Version
I, too, am having trouble accessing the current version and would like a .zip folder of it. That way I can share it with a sister who is also a VoiceOver user. Thank you so much for putting this together, and thanks also to Michael for doing such a nice job with this and the previous version of his book.
zip version
Hey there.
unfortunately i had to put it on google drive because that's the only place I have file storage. the top post has 2 links though: one to a folder, and one to a zip file.
Wonderful!
This is wonderful. I didn't know Eleven Labs could read books as well as this is read. Which voice did you use? I'm also a little curious how much this cost to produce, though please don't answer if you don't want to. It's probably significantly cheaper than getting an actual human to do it.
For those having issues downloading from Google Drive, I'd be happy to host a copy on my server, as long as it's okay with both creators. It hardly goes down unless I need to reboot for Linux kernel updates, and even then, it's only down for a few minutes at most. This would make it significantly easier for folks to download since it's a direct link. Alternatively, is there enough space to host this on AppleVIS directly? Something like this deserves to be stored somewhere more reliable than cloud storage.
Successfully Downloaded
I was able to download this book in audio just a bit ago, and the quality of the voices seems to be very good. Now all I think I have to do is try and share it with my sister. It turns out I could use at least some of this as well. Thanks again for creating it.
fine with me
It's fine with me if you host it.
As far as voice: I used Matilda, a premade voice.
As far as cost: that's not something i feel comfortable disclosing because my situation with Elevenlabs is a bit different, which is why i could do this in the first place.
Great Voice Choice
Subject says it all. The voice you chose for this is pleasant and easy to listen to. Thanks for your production!!!
Very impressive
Only listened to part of this, but so far, very impressed with how well this came out. Reminds me of days long long ago, back when the only way to put a book from something like BookShare or Gutenberg on a portable media player was to digitize it firs with a utility that would very slowly convert it to MP3 and then add it to the iTunes library or similar. We've definitely come a very long way since then. :)