Welcome to TTS+ Plugin for FBReader Forum!

Welcome to TTS+ Plugin for FBReader Forum! Please post here your questions, suggestions and bug reports, and thank you for using our product!
 
Greg
 
 
Please provide this additional data:
Exact TTS+ Plugin version: 1.0
Android version: 4.04 ICS
Android device: Samsung Galaxy S2 i777

Thank you very much for the plugin! I'm a fan of your software since Windows 95 :)

Is it free software (like fbreader) either?
Why do you need the read phone state (my unique IMEI/phone number) permission?
Could you please add Android 2.1 support?
Can you please provide an apk package download link? (The homepage (http://www.hyperionics.com/TtsPlus/) mentions it, but the link is missing)
 
A lot of questions, but Thanks a lot in advance! :)
 
Henrik

Hi Henrik,
I added back APK file download to the page. Yes, TTS+ Plugin is completely free.
 
The phone state permission is needed to stop talking when a phone calls comes in - you can then press a button on your Bluetooth control to talk, then press again to disconnect. Upon disconnect, reading of the book resumes. The program does not access any other information about the phone, but there is no finer resolution in Android permissions.
 
Android 2.1 - I sincerely doubt it... There are a lot of APIs missing even in 2.2, the program does not compile.
Edited later
Actually I manged to lower the minimum supported version to Android 2.2, but don't see a way to go even lower.
 
Greg

Hi Greg!
 
thank you very much for your effort and the explanation!
But is read phone state really necessary? if i'm not mistaken what you discribe is an out of the box android feature?  otherwise incomming calls could never break through an open app.. or at least i have a lot of apps who manage to do this without this "dangerous" permission. i'd rather live without it :/
 
And lowering the permissions is really helpful, because now i can use it on my ebookreader! thanks a lot for this! :)
 
Henrik

Henrik,
I checked all the apps that play audio on my phone: Music app that came with the system, Audible, Akimbo Player and Astro Player. They all use the same permission to read phone call state, in order to stop their audio playback when a phone call comes in. If you know how to do this without this permission, please tell me, but appears there is no other way. The Android system should be designed differently, so e.g. a permission to get notification when a call comes in and stops would not be the same as the one to read phone number and IMEI number, but I can't change that...
 
Greg

Apologies, Henrik! I just checked, removed the PhoneStateListener() callback and the permission it needs, and still the calls break through fine. Apparently the other callback I have, OnAudioFocusChangeListener() is enough for that. Will remove that permission in the next release. Thank you for your persistence!
 
Greg

Thank you very much, Greg!
I always wondered too. The most of the players have read phone state, it's true.  But there are some gems like DicePlayer or MX Player who work well without this and other privacy related permissions, and resume playback after the call has ended.
And I'd take bets that VLC will work the same way, once it's out (or i'll have a new unlucky dev to bug. hehe)
Am yet still looking for a decent audio-player with flac codecs that is phone state free, though. :/
 
The read phone state and identity permission might have changed over time.. "phone _state_" somewhat implies what you suggested. However to combine such a basic function (a phone that is blocked by a playing app?) with my personal unique identifier and phone number can only be a google idea. lol.
 
Anyways, thanks a lot for changing, and this fantastic plugin. It works like a charm! can't wait for the new version!
Is it hosted on github or somewhere?
 
oh and i just noticed: the direct link on the website is missing again. And, read phone state is now gone, but now it says:
"retrieve running apps" instead.
(="Allows the app to retrieve information about currently and recently running tasks. Malicious apps may discover private information about other apps.")
Sorry to be so persistent. maybe i haven't noticed it before... but. what is this for?
 
Best wishes,
Henrik

"Retrieve running apps" stack permission was always there. It's necessary for TTS+ Plugin to know when FBReader main app is on top, and if so interact with Bluetooth controls. Otherwise it must surrender Bluetooth controls to other apps, e.g. Music to let it play music etc. I cannot take it out.
 
Greg

Okay, thank you very much!
can you please reup it to the http://www.hyperionics.com/TtsPlus/ site?
and is there a source repository for it?
 
I'm using it frequently now and am very much in love with it. Great piece of software! :)
 
Henrik

Henrik,
I prefer to not have the download from my site - when people download from Play Store, the stats of my app go up and it becomes more visible to other users. I have not yet decided what I want to do with this program - release the source or develop further and keep it closed. Or a mixture of both, "lite" product open source and more powerful "pro" closed. I re-wrote it so it's not based on GNU licensed source of the original TTS Plugin. Are you interested in developing the code yourself too?
 
Greg

I see. Yes, you deserve way more votes in the market.
I suppose the problem at the moment is that your plugin is not advertised on the first fbreader page as "users also installed" or "viewed"... It only offers the old one out of the box.
On an always online phone i usually prefer the market version. But with a most of the time disconnected ereader i need the manual download version because google play drains a lot of battery.
 
I have only little coding experience so far. I just thought because fbreader is free and open source software, I'd wish the plugin might accompany that (Cool Reader has built in support for example). but i wouldn't want to miss a part of TTS+ recent functionality.
I just have very little experience with the market. Some have a donate version for their foss apps, but i don't know how much revenue that gets, especially for plugins...

Thank you for all your comments, Henrik! I'm learning all of this stuff too. Not sure how long I can keep up my interest in this project.
 
Greg

Well, I have to thank you for your great plugin, Greg!
I think it's pretty much flawless already.
Just one bug that i've discovered: once you hit TTS settings and hit back key the plugin disappeares, also does the menu option.
(haven't tried bluetooth as i lack a headset)
 
What would be nice to add:
-setting/disabling option of the dim-rate
-setting if nothing, word, sentence, or paragraph should be highlighted while reading
and
-a setting to display some sort of other highlight, for example a bracket or something, that is more easy on eInks partial refresh (every paragraph highlight fully refreshes the reader right now, thus draining a lot of precious battery)
 
maaayybeee if you'd gpl it someone else would add it! (I'd even look into it, but I'm not sure how good of a coder i am. hehe. You made fantastic software already!)
 
Henrik

I released ver. 1.0.4 maybe 2 hours ago (I see that now TTS+ in Play Store is updated too), that fixes the bug with disappearing plugin.
Yes, the other updates would be nice. However, they would have to be done within FBReader itself, or I would have to write my own eBook reader.
I highly recommend using a Bluetooth headset, or at least some other kind of headset that has controls to pause/resume. I couldn't live with constantly reaching for the phone, unlocking it etc. do stop/resume, or even skip back a paragraph if I was distracted and missed some important contents.
 
Greg

aaah okay thanks. I've downloaded it from the homepage (thanks a lot for adding it again) I'm going to try it laters.
The external control idea is fantastic. Is there a Headset you can recommend?
 
And is there no way to change the dimming? This is (besides screen refreshing) the only thing that really bothers me on my eink, because it's very dark.
 
I took a closer look at the competition (cool reader) which has built in voice support. What's good with the cool reader tts is, it only highlights the sentence, this only invokes partial refresh, not the whole page. But other than that it doesn't recognize the language, i couldn't change it, and i don't like the controls really. It's pretty simple. TTS+ is far superior. and I like fbreader better. Maybe geometer plus will be able to merge it some day :) (*hint hint* hehe)

Dimming is what Android system does, when a dialog is displayed. I don't know yet, if it's possible to turn this off. Well, but here is Google to ask... Yes, it's possible and easy to do, already works for me without dimming. If you want, download the newer APK that I just pushed to this web site - still has the same version number etc., but no longer dimming.
Will see what else I can do about highlighting...
 
Greg

Grand! thanks!!
highlighting the sentence instead of the paragraph might be better on eink. the choice between highlighting off / word / sentence / paragraph would be divine :)
 
I'll reply in a few days because I'm away for the weekend!
thanks a lot Greg, for all your effort, so far!
 
cu soon!
Henrik

Hi Greg,
 
We would love to work on this project if you'd be willing to open source it. We have a reader forked from FBReader called "Go Read" that is built for print disabled (blind, dyslexic, etc.) readers. We've also got sentence level highlighting and are working on word level highlighting since that isn't readily available through the current Android API. Your plugin has more features we'd love to bring to our blind and dyslexic students. And I'm hoping you have a more sophisticated sentence detection algorithm than we do :) Our product is free so we're definitely not trying to make any money off your work. Just trying to increased the possibilities for a lot of challenged students.
 
You are welcome to see our source code at https://github.com/benetech/FBReaderJ 
 
Thank you,
Rom

Hi Rom,
I'll consider opening the source as soon as I stabilize it a little bit more. I'm still fithting bugs, it's so difficult to make it behave correctly while I cannot change anything in FBReader code itself.
 
About word highlighting: it's not possible with the way TTS interfaces are implemented in Android currently. There is no notification of any kind that would be sent back to me from TTS when one word has been played and another begins. And we cannot send it single words for speaking, as then speech would be halted and unnatural. Still have a few things to improve in sentence detection as well. BTW, your github link did not work for me.
 
Greg

romsrini

 Hi Greg,
 We would love to work on this project if you'd be willing to open source it. We have a reader forked from FBReader called "Go Read" that is built for print disabled (blind, dyslexic, etc.) readers. We've also got sentence level highlighting and are working on word level highlighting since that isn't readily available through the current Android API. Your plugin has more features we'd love to bring to our blind and dyslexic students. And I'm hoping you have a more sophisticated sentence detection algorithm than we do :) Our product is free so we're definitely not trying to make any money off your work. Just trying to increased the possibilities for a lot of challenged students.

You are welcome to see our source code at https://github.com/benetech/FBReaderJ 

Thank you,
Rom

 
Hi Rom,
I now released the source code of TTS+ Plugin to GitHub, see https://github.com/gregko/TtsPlus-FBReader
 
Greg