ilo pona! good tool!
some of the audio is wrong, which can be expected when it's done by computer and not a person. so sometimes listening exercises can be difficult. not the end of the world
it'd be awesome if more sentences were added eventually, or perhaps even short stories. perhaps it's beyond the scope of the app, which is fine. again, i think this is a great tool to supplement one's journey! thanks for all the hard work!
Response from developer
Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, when developing apps with text-to-speech, we only have access to the built-in AVSpeechSynthesizer of the iPhone which is not the most natural sounding by default, and Apple doesn’t give us access to the more natural Siri/Apple Intelligence voices. They do have an option for the user to download a more “premium” version of their AVSpeechSynthesizer in the accessibility settings, and I am actually implementing that right now for a version 1.2 update (along with many additional sentences.) The only other alternative is for me to spend thousands of dollars on voice actors to read each and every word and sentence (which I obviously can’t afford as an indie developer) and then include all of those audio files into the app which would then add bloat to the app and your iPhone. As soon as there is a better alternative than the AVSpeechSynthesizer, I will be updating the app accordingly.
The groundwork is laid for this to be a very useable app.
However, there is still a bit of work to be done and doesn’t yet justify its price point.
Right off the bat I’m hit with some very poor AI pronunciation of words and incorrect stressing of syllables. This makes the app not only more difficult to use, but flat out teaches the user incorrect pronunciation. The “sentences” portion only has a few preselected phrases that you’ll go through in about 10 minutes.
The dictionary is good…. But again… poor AI pronunciations make it almost unusable.
Flash cards and matching apps are great, and the grammar instruction is great for those that prefer using textbook style learning methods.
Fix the AI voice and provide more sentences if you’re going to charge for the app.
Address these and you have an efficient and effective app to teach this simple language.
pona tawa sina. mi towa.
Response from developer
Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, when developing apps with text-to-speech, we only have access to the built-in AVSpeechSynthesizer of the iPhone which is not the most natural sounding by default, and Apple doesn’t give us access to the more natural Siri/Apple Intelligence voices. They do have an option for the user to download a more “premium” version of their AVSpeechSynthesizer in the accessibility settings, so I am implementing that now for a version 1.2 update (along with additional sentences.) The only other alternative is for me to spend thousands of dollars on voice actors to read each and every word and sentence (which I obviously can’t afford as an indie developer) and then include all of those audio files into the app which would then add bloat to the app and your iPhone. As soon as there is a better alternative than the AVSpeechSynthesizer, I will be updating the app accordingly.