ReadBeyond publishes 111 free English short stories in EPUB 3 Audio-eBook format
Padua, 2014-06-27
ReadBeyond published 111 English Short Stories in EPUB 3 Audio-eBook format, making them available for free on major online stores and on ReadBeyond's Web site.
Each Audio-eBook is an EPUB 3 reflowable eBook, containing the text of one English short story, its human-narrated audio recording, and text and audio are synchronized via the so called EPUB 3 Media Overlays (SMIL). The synchronization information allows the reader to follow the narration by highlighting the text being spoken and to navigate the audio by simply tapping/clicking on words (tap-to-play).
"We are happy to publish these 111 English Short Stories in EPUB 3 Audio-eBook format. They demonstrate that, by adopting an open format like EPUB 3, the benefits of reading+listening (and switching between these two modalities) can be freely enjoyed by anyone, without being tied to a device or a vendor by the use of a proprietary format like Amazon's Whispersync for Voice, and without constraining the user experience by imposing a Fixed Layout to the publication.” states Alberto Pettarin, ReadBeyond's CEO.
"We also wanted to prove that producing an EPUB 3 Audio-eBook can be done quickly and inexpensively. In fact the hardest part of the job, that is synchronizing the pre-recorded audio with the text, was carried out by our automated service Sync, which does not require human intervention at all."
"We are very proud of publishing these Audio-eBooks for free, so that anyone can enjoy them, and judge first-hand the fact that reading+listening is a wonderful accelerator for reading skills, especially when learning or mastering a foreign language. The combination of written text and human narration conveys to the learner more information than just reading or just listening, as several scientific studies have shown. Moreover multimodal reading is appreciated by people with reading disorders, like dyslexia, proving that a well designed eBook, even if originally conceived for leisure, can also double as an assistive tool. The digital medium makes the whole experience very intuitive and immersive… for instance, kids love Audio-eBooks!"
"Finally I want to thank the volunteers of both Project Gutenberg and LibriVox for releasing their work under a liberal license, allowing others to build on top of it. Sharing these Audio-eBooks is our way of paying it forward", concludes Alberto.
The 111 English Short Stories in Audio-eBook are available, for free, in online stores and from ReadBeyond's Web site: http://www.readbeyond.it/shortstories/.
Although the files are compatible with any reading system supporting EPUB 3, we suggest Menestrello, the app for iOS and Android that ReadBeyond designed specifically for Audio-eBooks. Menestrello can be installed from the App Store or Google Play. For more information, please visit the Menestrello's official Web page .
About ReadBeyond
ReadBeyond Srl (http://www.readbeyond.it/) develops innovative software to create, distribute, and enjoy digital contents. Italian Startup with headquarters in Padua (Padova), ReadBeyond is the applied research lab currently global leader in Audio-eBooks with synchronized audio/text in EPUB 3 format.
Contact Information
ReadBeyond
words never heard before
Padua (Padova), Italy
http://www.readbeyond.it/
info@readbeyond.it