BARD Mobile vs Lector

CARRY A LIBRARY IN YOUR POCKET Access tens of thousands of books—from current best sellers to much-loved classics, popular magazines, and music instruction and scores—in audio and electronic braille, with new selections added daily. WHO IS ELIGIBLE? BARD Mobile is a service of NLS. NLS provides free audio and braille reading materials to residents of the US and American citizens living abroad who cannot read regular print. If you are blind or have temporary or permanent low vision or a physical or reading disability that prevents you from holding or reading the printed page, you may be eligible for this program. For more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/nls/about/eligibility-for-nls-services. HOW DO I GET STARTED? This app allows access for eligible users who have enrolled in the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) at the Library of Congress. To enroll, call 1-888-NLS-READ (1-888-657-7323) and follow the prompts to find your state. Or to learn more at https://www.loc.gov/thatallmayread. If you are already an NLS patron, contact your cooperating NLS library to request a BARD account. You can find your library by visiting https://www.loc.gov/nls/find-a-local-library/. SUPPORT For support and help with BARD account issues, or to report bugs, email NLSDownload@loc.gov. For FAQ, visit https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/bard-access/nls-bard-frequently-asked-questions/. For the User Guides: https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/bard-access/bard-mobile-ios-version/

Lector is a speed reader that respects punctuation. Every RSVP reader flashes one word at a time at a fixed rate. That is what makes them fast, and also what makes them exhausting: a full stop goes by in exactly as long as the word "the". Lector weights the time each word holds — 1.8× at the end of a sentence, 1.4× at a clause, a little longer for long words — on a scheduler that corrects its own drift and never silently skips a word. Sentences keep their shape at speeds where they normally dissolve. TWO WAYS TO READ Flash mode holds each word still in the centre of the screen. Nothing moves, so your eye never has to chase anything, and this is the mode that works at the top of the speed range. Ticker mode scrolls the line continuously past a fixed mark, so you can see the words either side of the one you are on. Turn the phone sideways, and you get most of the sentence. Some books read better one way, some the other, so Lector remembers which mode you used for each book. CONTROLS YOU DON'T HAVE TO AIM FOR Press and hold anywhere to pause, let go to resume. Hold either edge to skim at up to 3× and release to drop back. Pull down while holding to latch that faster speed so you can let go. Nothing here needs you to find a small button while words are moving. YOUR OWN BOOKS Import EPUB, PDF and plain text files, or paste text straight in. Lector reads the book's own table of contents, so you can skip the front matter and jump between chapters. PDFs get their running heads stripped, and their line-end hyphens rejoined, because "extraor- dinary" is not two words. "Open in Lector" appears in the share sheet in Files, Mail, Safari and anywhere else, including for DRM-free library downloads. You can also point the camera at a printed page. Text recognition happens on the device, several pages at a time, and Lector keeps the words rather than the photograph. A GOAL MEASURED IN MINUTES The daily goal is minutes read, not words. A word target rewards winding the speed up and skimming, which is the one habit a speed-reading app should not encourage. Read five minutes and the day counts towards your streak; hit your goal, and you bank a streak freeze, which is spent automatically on a day you miss. EVERYTHING STAYS ON YOUR PHONE Lector has no servers, no analytics, no accounts you must create and no third-party code of any kind. Your library never leaves the device — not as a feature you switch on, but because there is nothing in the app that could send it anywhere. Export a backup to a single file whenever you want one, and restore it later; that file goes wherever you choose to put it. ALSO • A home screen widget with today's minutes and your streak • Live Activity on the Lock Screen while you read • Spotlight search that finds your books and their chapters by name • Hold the middle of a word to look it up without losing your place • A history chart by week, month or year, against your goal • Bionic emphasis, if bolded word-openings help you • Dynamic Type throughout, plus five reading sizes on top of it • Optional daily reminder that stays quiet on days you have already read Lector is for iPhone and needs iOS 17 or later.