For those of you who read ebooks on smartphones, what are you using these days? Applies to both Android and iOS. I mostly still have success with VoiceDream but it is sometimes quite broken in stupid ways. Also, I know there are a few options for Android but haven't tested all of them, and with the purchase of a tiny little media player phone, I'm curious how people are doing this. I have audiobooks covered on both platforms with Book Player and Smart Audiobook Player, (though I'm still always curious what other people use), but ebooks are harder to get right. I especially want to retain the headset control that VoiceDream has—basically, I want ebooks to act like audiobooks, play in the background, respond to headset/media buttons, etc. I know EasyReader can do this, I think Speech Central also can.
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

simon.old

@fireborn @FrostPoem I'm honestly impressed. Mine hasn't and probably won't. I'm not quite that comfortable typing on it, for a start. But it's a lot more generally useful than I expected it to be. I just wanted something that could do Spotify, NPlayer, book readers, podcasts, and maybe YouTube. Turns out it's actually an all-around amazing phone, despite being technically slower than my 2019 Samsung.
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

❄️Faerie❄️

@fireborn I was literally just saying to someone that, if Apple keeps coming out with bigger and bigger phones, and cancels the last smaller thing, I would likely be looking into Android, because I am more than tired of this trend. Right now I have the SE 2020, but I miss how tiny iPhones used to be, especially having recently seen an iPhone 5. Good to know something like this exists, and it tempts me ... probably more than it should.
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

❄️Faerie❄️

@fireborn That makes sense. Admittedly, I'm fairly contented with the ways I use my phone, and if it started doing that I would likely seek a way to turn the feature off, though knowing what was eating battery on a day I specifically needed it to last might be very potentially useful. Still, that's really neat, and it sounds like you've found ways that it makes your life better, which is always the best thing to do with whatever tech you have.
in reply to ❄️Faerie❄️

@FrostPoem @fireborn MagSafe charging and magsafe compatible power banks are the major upgrades there, along with the battery which is about 30% better. That probably isn't as big a deal if you don't often use wired headphones. I still do sometimes, so not having a way to charge my phone without (1) leaving it in one spot or (2) unplugging my headphones was seriously annoying. There are cases that claim to make the SE magsafe compatible, but I've never tried them. As soon as the 2022 SE was released with the same inexcusably shitty battery as the 2020 SE, I jumped ship to a 13. That said, magsafe accessories are annoyingly expensive, and you'd basically be sidegrading to the 13 mini--not really upgrading or downgrading, just trading some advantages for other disadvantages. So you're probably better off keeping what you have until it's ancient and there's some new thing to replace it. Maybe we'll get lucky and Apple will decide the Mini needs to return in the form of a 2025 SE.
in reply to simon.old

@fireborn That's what I'm hoping for. I'd only consider another OS if I was literally forced bigger, and even then I'd probably hesitate a while. I never ever used wired if I can help it, so no real disadvantage there. And thought about upgrading, but always sort of came down on the side of thinking it wasn't worth it. Anyway yeah, fingers crossed Apple continues to have at least one smaller thing.