Hello!
Just wondering if there is any good alternative to the native Books app on a Mac?
The Book app is too cluttered in my opinion. On iDevices we have great Voice Dream Reader, so maybe there is something similar for a Mac?
I need the ability to read ebooks with my Braille display and listen audiobooks in different formats.
Any hint would be greatly appreciated.
By Sergey, 9 December, 2021
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Voice Dream Reader for macOSā¦
Voice Dream Reader for macOS is coming soon. As far as I know, it's already in beta.
I don't do any pleasureā¦
I don't do any pleasure reading, or any extensive reading at all for that matter, on my Mac. It's too clunky to lounge with.
Furthermore, reading on the braille display on Mac is not worth the effort, in my opinion. Pages don't turn automatically and half the time I have to interact with the text if I want to read it (unless it's on a clean web page in reader view mode). If you have a Bookshare membership, reading books on the web wouldn't be a terrible experience with the braille display.
It would depend on several factors: How do you obtain your books and audiobooks? Does your braille display have a basic file feature? Depending on where you obtain your audiobooks, you'll be limited by your subscription's restrictions. If I am going to use my Mac, I just use the web cloud player because I don't listen to books on my computer enough to download my content to iTunes, even though it's not that difficult. And if you read Kindle books, you won't be able to do that on your braille display thanks to how Amazon designed it. You basically have to use their reading commands.
I'm so excited! I hope itā¦
I'm so excited! I hope it manages to replicate the same reading experience that I have on my iPad.
Amending an earlier comment
Braille Displays move to the next page, regardless of whether you interact with the text or not. But the VO focus won't necessarily change. You have to think about manually moving forward one element instead of just panning to keep your focus more up-to-date by section. You also have to do this to avoid the Mac going to sleep. Can't decide which is more inconvenient for my personal use case.