I’m always looking for ways to read content faster. I’ve found a number of speed-reading apps that I use on my iPad that I enjoy. These apps take web content and present them to your one or two words at a time at high speed. I find them to be a great way to read through content faster while still absorbing what I’m reading.
One of the drawbacks of these apps is that they follow a “read later” workflow. If there’s content on the web that I’m interested in reading, I can send the page to Instapaper or Pocket to read later. The speed-reading apps I use on my ipad connect with those apps so that I can read the articles I’ve flagged to read later at a faster pace. It’s great for late night reading on my iPad, but it doesn’t really help the reading I’m doing in the moment.
Sprint Reader does.
I learned about Sprint Reader when Tracy Parish shared an article about it that she read on Trendblog. It does everything I’ve come to enjoy about speed-reading apps on my iPad, embedded into my browser experience. With the Chrome browser extension installed, all you need to do is select the text on a we page and right click. There will be an option that says “Sprint read selected text” and when you choose that option, a new window appears. The text is already loaded and all you need to do is select PLAY to have the article appear one word at a time.
By default Sprint Reader presents one word at a time at the rate of 300 words per minute, but you have access to settings that can change the number of words that are presented, or adjust the speed in which words are presented slower or faster (up to 600 words per minute).
The biggest benefit of Sprint Reader for me is it’s presence in the browser. “Read Later” speed-reading apps are great, but they don’t help with the now of work. Sprint Reader enables me to take advantage of the benefits of speed-reading apps in my browser, as part of my work. I’ve only been using it for a couple of days, but I already see the benefits that it is having on my work.
If you’re interested in speed-reading and are using the Chrome web browser, I highly recommend checking out the free browser extension Sprint Reader. Here’s a quick video demo of the extension in action.
