Nana's Focus vs BetterRead

Nana's Focus is a reader for studying from your own texts. It does not promise you will read three times faster, because that would not be true. It looks after something plainer. Three pages in, you should still have the first one. Three ways to read, because different things slip away from different people. Spot: words arrive one at a time, in one place on the screen. Your eyes stop wandering, because there's nowhere to wander to. Line: the whole sentence in front of you, with a pointer leading your eye underneath. Traditional reading: a plain page at your own pace. This is where you drag your finger over what you need to know. A breath before reading. In through the nose, a short sip more on top, then a long breath out through the mouth. The out-breath has to be longer than both in-breaths together, because the whole thing rests on that proportion. One minute, three or five, and you can turn it off. Noise in the background, if it happens to help you. Steady pink noise, generated as it plays, so your ear never catches a loop. Here is the honest version of where this stands: in a 2024 pooling of thirteen studies, steady noise improved performance for people with ADHD and made it worse for people without. The gain was small, and it varied a lot between individuals. Turn it on for one session and see for yourself. Highlights become cards. Drag your finger across a sentence and pick what it is: a definition, a date, a key point, or "I don't get it". The app writes questions from the first three. From the last one it writes nothing, because there's no point cramming what you don't understand. Cards come back to fit the date. Give the app your exam date and it spreads the reviews so the last round lands before the exam, not after it. The closer the date, the more often the questions come back. The Study tab works out how much you have to read each day to get through the material in time. It leaves the final days for reviews alone, because a chapter read once isn't enough. Nine lessons called "How to study". Active recall, spaced repetition, desirable difficulty, prequestions and more. Each lesson says how much evidence stands behind it, and where the evidence is thin it says so. Six ways to remember. For the things that have to come back word for word, or in order. None of them will help you understand a text, and the first screen says so before you start. At the end of every sitting, one question: what stayed with you, in one sentence, out of your own head. That is how remembering works. Read your own: PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, DOCX, txt, or text you paste in. That is what this app is for. One short text is waiting on the shelf to start with, "Evening in the building", the same passage you read during the reading test, so the shelf isn't empty on the first day. No account in the app, and no sign-in. Your texts, highlights, cards and progress stay on your phone, because there's no server for them to go to. What this app doesn't do: it doesn't speed your reading up and it doesn't claim to switch off the voice in your head. The popular advice about silencing that voice isn't backed by the research, and the app says so plainly. Trial and purchase You turn on seven days of the full version whenever you like, with no card and no account. Until then, the free version works. After that it's one purchase, once and for good: 29.00 USD. No subscription. The purchase unlocks the whole app. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://nanas.pro/legal/privacy

Reading, for when your attention has other plans. BetterRead keeps your eyes on the page with a moving guide line, hold-to-read and read-aloud with word highlighting, and it never loses your place in articles, PDFs, EPUBs and free classics. Made for readers with ADHD and anyone who keeps losing the thread. No streaks, no ads, no account. BetterRead is built around the four places reading falls apart: starting, staying with it, coming back and remembering. START • Opens on the one thing you're reading, with one button: Pick up here. • Save articles to read later from Safari or any app, or add PDFs, DRM-free EPUBs and pasted text. • A short Waiting queue, capped at 10 on purpose, so read-later never becomes a guilt pile. • Time left is shown in minutes, never percentages. • A curated library of free public-domain classics, like Pride and Prejudice and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Try a book for 2 minutes before you add it. STAY ON THE PAGE • Guide: a line moves under the sentence you're on, so your eyes always have somewhere to go. • Flash: one word at a time, with the rest of the sentence faintly visible. • Hold to read: the words move only while your finger is on the screen. Let go and they stop on the exact word. • Listen: read aloud with each word highlighted, using the voices on your iPhone. • Set your pace from 150 to 800 words a minute. Adaptive pacing slows for long sentences and rare words. • A focus timer with 10, 15 or 25-minute blocks and a short break after each. COME BACK WITHOUT STARTING OVER • Leave at any moment and you return to the start of the sentence, never the middle of a thought. • Picking up where you left off: the sentence you stopped on, a short recap, and one button to continue. • Keep reading widgets for the Home Screen and Lock Screen, plus Siri and Shortcuts. REMEMBER WHAT MATTERS • Capture any passage word for word with one tap, and jump back to its exact spot later. • Explain puts a hard sentence into plainer words. Who is this? reminds you who a character is, from what you've already read. • Ask a question about what you've read and see the passages the answer came from. Nothing after your place is used, so nothing is spoiled. • Every session ends with a warm summary: "You read for 12 minutes." MADE FOR COMFORT • Six themes for different kinds of reading: Original, Quiet, Calm, Focus, Easy read (following dyslexia-friendly guidance) and Bold, in light and dark. • Six typefaces, plus adjustable letter, word and line spacing. • Translate a page on your device. PRIVATE BY DESIGN What you read stays on your device. AI features run on-device with Apple Intelligence. No account, no ads, no tracking. BETTERREAD PRO The whole reader is free, including 5 AI answers a day. BetterRead Pro adds: • Recaps, Explain and Ask without limits • Your focus timer on the Lock Screen • Block distracting apps while you read (Screen Time) • Scan printed pages to read • Read whole books in another language • Export captures to Obsidian, Notion or Readwise Pro is available as a monthly subscription or a yearly subscription with a 14-day free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and renewal is charged within the 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel any time in your App Store account settings. Good to know: BetterRead can't open DRM-protected books bought from other stores. AI features need a device with Apple Intelligence turned on, and they can make mistakes. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://clumsycode.com/betterread/privacy