Get Lightning-Fast Eyes With Speed-Reading Apps
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Reading the entire Harry Potter series in a week — could it be possible?! Spritz, a new app that debuted at last month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, wants to reinvent how you read and get you bolting through books while you do it. It will be loaded on Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch devices as an email app that gets mobile eyes moving away from scrolling, swiping, and pinching to read, but rather streaming one word at a time at the user's reading speed.
Spritz's technology streams words individually using a display called a Redicle, which keeps the eye centered on the same place as each new word appears. According to Spritz's research, the most time-consuming part of reading is the act of the eye moving from word to word across the page. In aligning the word, as seen in the example below, the brain and eye don't have to waste time processing movement and can get on to the reading. Finally conquer A Song of Ice and Fire!
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In addition to English, Spritz supports Spanish, French, German, Russian, and Korean, and is working on getting the app to customers beyond the new Samsung gadgets soon. If you need to get kick-start your reading time now, read on for more apps that'll have you zooming through books. Source: Getty / DANIEL ROLAND
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Velocity
As its name suggests, Velocity ($3) wants to push your reading time to superhuman levels. The app, specifically made for the iOS 7 interface, uses a one-word-at-a-time approach as well, but it's the integration into the iPhone ecosystem that we love. Avid users of Instapaper and Pocket can speed read the articles saved in those services through Velocity, so you can perfect this habit with materials that'll captivate you.
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Speed Reading Trainer
Androidians, the free Speed Reading Trainer promises to get you up to 500 words per minute in two weeks. Continue to check your progress as you increase read times with the app's diagnostic tool.
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Acceleread
Turn your speed-reading practice into a game with Acceleread (iOS, free with in-app upgrades starting at $5), which lets you create measurable goals within its training course program. Receive gold stars and trophies when you reach reading goals and track your progress with charts that show your current speed, highest speed, and average speed. It's for the speed-reading data hound!