Thanks for your question Nancy.
We designed Earl’s tap & speak interface to make reading newspapers and other content as easy as possible for anyone, including people who might be intimidated learning today’s accessibility technology. Earl is different from NFB’s news reader in at least a couple of ways. Probably the most notable difference is how the user interacts with Earl in contrast to NFB Newsline. NFB relies on Voice Over to manipulate the app controls and settings, and to select and read the content. That means the user needs to be pretty comfortable with all VO gestures in order to use NFB Newsline. Earl on the other hand does not require Voice Over at all. There are no buttons or controls to navigate, everything is controlled using a single finger double tap anywhere on the display followed by one of our straightforward intuitive spoken commands. This same simple tap and speak approach is also used to make all content selections in Earl. With this simple interface, a person can select and read their newspapers without having to learn Voice over gestures at all. As noted in an earlier post, for those who are comfortable using VO style gestures, we’ve also built in some gestures that can be used as a quicker alternative to the most frequently used reading and navigation controls. Another significant difference is that Earl gives you a choice of five high quality reading voices with which to read your selected content as noted in the review excerpt below. Here’s an excerpt from a review of Earl by the reviewers over at “Old Hat Guide” which also speaks to your inquiry. “If you are the type of person that likes to stay up to date on current events, then Earl is the app for you. With Earl you will be able to independently read one or more than one of over 250 newspapers from around the world. At this point you might be saying, “But I can already do this with the NFB Newsline app.” Yes this is true, but with Earl you can listen to your favorite newspaper with high quality synthesized speech as opposed to having to listen to the normal Samantha voice that Voice Over uses on iOS. This will make for a much more enjoyable reading experience. The first thing that I noticed about Earl upon launching it for the first time is that you interact with the app with your voice and not with gestures. This means that Voice Over is not required to operate this app and thus means that someone who is not blind can very easily use this app as well as someone who is blind. I love this fact as this is the first application on iOS that I have come across that can be used by both a blind person and a fully sighted person without having to do any special customization. The developers of Earl were very creative in the design of their app, and by making an app that can be fully operated with your voice it means that regardless of your disability, as long as you have the ability to talk, you will be able to use this app. Now let me talk for a minute about the speed of the app. I have found that overall this app is extremely quick to accept a voice command and then load up an article and begin reading it to you. All that you have to do after launching Earl is double tap anywhere on the screen and you will hear a tone. Then give Earl a command, and if you do not know any commands you can simply say, “Help,” and Earl will tell you what commands you can use.” Find the full review at * http://oldhatguide.com/earl-for-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch/*<http://oldhatguide.com/earl-for-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch/> In our most recent release, we’ve also added additional features to help users get started quicker with Earl and more easily find answers in our in app help option. We’ve got lots more useful information about Earl on our home page at * www.EarlSpeech.com* <http://www.earlspeech.com/> You can reach us for support at *[email protected]*<[email protected]> I hope this is helpful. Best. Bill On Sunday, February 17, 2013 10:43:00 AM UTC-8, Nancy wrote: > > Can someone help me understand why you would use Earl instead of the NFB > Newsline app? > Nancy > > Nancy Badger, Ph.D > Assistant Vice Chancellor, Student Services > UT Chattanooga > Sent from my iPhone with dictation software. Please excuse spelling > errors. > > On Feb 16, 2013, at 8:56 PM, Bill Spiry <[email protected] <javascript:>> > wrote: > > > Here's a bit of updated info. We've changed our website to > WWW.EarlSpeech.com/ > > [email protected] > > [email protected] > > > > in the upcoming release, we've added a Quick Guide intro screen as > > well to help folks get oriented to the tap and speak interface. here's > > the info it will include: > > > > Welcome to Earl! > > Please listen carefully. This quick guide will help you get started > > using Earl. > > You will not see any text, buttons, or controls. > > The content of each screen will be read to you out loud. . > > To have Earl read any screen again, including this quick guide, double > > tap the screen with 1 finger, wait until you hear an ascending tone, > > and clearly say. READ AGAIN. > > To select an item from any list, double tap the screen, wait for the > > tone, and speak any word in the name of the option. Or. Speak the > > number of the option. > > To learn more about available commands, gestures, or other help > > options, double tap the screen, wait for the tone, and say. HELP. > > Now you are ready to begin using Earl. > > Do you want to hear this quick Guide the next time Earl starts? To > > make your selection and start using Earl, double tap the screen, wait > > for the tone, and say > > 1. yes. > > 2. no. > > To read this Quick Guide again, double tap the screen, wait for the > > tone, and say. READ AGAIN. > > > > Look for us at the C-Sun Conference. > > > > > > Peter Holdstock wrote: > >> Hi, sorry as I know I should email any technical support queries > elsewhere > >> but thought it might be useful for this list to see the response. I > tried to > >> find out about the finger gestures as for me it would be much quicker > and > >> convenient than using the speech. It didn't seem that you could > navigate the > >> whole app using gestures. Is that correct? If not, could you provide a > list > >> of gestures as voice over commands don't seem to wortk in most cases > i.e. I > >> want to be able to scan through the list of options, make a selection, > go > >> back etc with gestures. > >> > >> The app is great but a little slow to use with just speech and I'd like > to > >> see more content for the UK but I realise a lot of papers have their > content > >> subscription based now. > >> > >> Thanks > >> > >> Peter > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: Bill Spiry > >> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 1:34 AM > >> To: VIPhone > >> Subject: new accessible news reading app - Earl > >> > >> Greetings friends. > >> > >> Read Again Earl > >> We�ve just released our new accessible news reading app called �Earl.� > >> It�s our first, and I�d really like to hear what you all think about > >> it. We�ve put a lot of time and effort into getting it right and I > >> think Earl is pretty special. > >> > >> Here are some details� > >> > >> We�ve designed Earl for every person who wants to read the paper every > >> day, and do it without having to spend a lot of time learning and > >> using a complicated set of gestures and commands. > >> > >> Just double-tap your screen, listen for the double tone, speak a few > >> straightforward commands and Earl� will read articles you select from > >> nearly 300 newspapers from around the world, without your ever having > >> to see the screen. From national news sources to your local paper, > >> Earl� makes the latest news accessible to you, anytime, anywhere. All > >> you need is an iPhone�, iPad� or iPod Touch�, an internet connection > >> and a desire to keep up on what's happening in your community and > >> around the world. The Earl app is uncomplicated, accessible with or > >> without VoiceOver and just plain fun to use. > >> > >> The Earl app gives you full control over all of Earl�s powerful > >> features. You�ll be able to try out all of Earl's features including > >> our tap and speak controls, voice and speed settings, ability to > >> customize your favorites newspaper list, and bookmarking articles. > >> Without a subscription, you�ll have access to read up to three > >> articles a day from all of the content available from our growing > >> library of nearly 300 U.S. and international newspapers. > >> > >> By double tapping any Earl screen, waiting for the double tone, and > >> saying �SUBSCRIBE�, the app will take you to the Apple App Store where > >> you can subscribe to the Earl Subscription service. Once you > >> subscribe, you�ll have unlimited access to read as much as you want > >> from all of our extensive and growing content from around the world. > >> > >> Go to our Read Again Earl website to find more info about our app and > >> subscription service. You�ll find an extensive FAQ that answers many > >> of the questions we anticipate from users and we�ve included a set of > >> tutorial podcasts you can find in the �learning� tab as well as an > >> intro and demo video. > >> > >> Earl Home Page > >> http://readagainearl.com/ > >> > >> Earl in the App Store: > >> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/Earl/id573701016?ls=1&mt=8 > >> > >> We�re already working on our first update to Earl which will include > >> some great enhancements, such as the ability to launch a customer > >> support phone call or email to Earl Support directly from within the > >> app. > >> > >> I would appreciate any public feedback you all would be willing to > >> give our Earl App through the App Store, our �read Again Earl� > >> Facebook page, Twitter, or any other likely suspects you are aware of. > >> We would really like your �likes� if you feel we deserve them! > >> > >> > >> also, feel free to contact me directly at > >> [email protected]<javascript:> > >> > >> thanks. > >> > >> -- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" > Google > >> Group. > >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:>. > > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >> [email protected] <javascript:>. > >> For more options, visit this group at > >> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > >> --- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > >> "VIPhone" group. > >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an > >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" > Google Group. > > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:>. > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] <javascript:>. > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > > --- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "VIPhone" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
