Change the name. I'm pretty creative and am usually able to come up with at least a somewhat plausible argument for either side on any question, but here I can not even come up with an idea for how to even begin to search for an argument that the name you have chosen, "OpenSpritz", for your program that clones the functionality and appearance of the "Spritz" app, from "Spritz Technology, Inc." is not an infringement of their trademark, which they have been using in commerce for several months (according to their filing with the trademark office). Even if I had a holocaust cloak and a wheelbarrow, I would have no idea how to make a plausible argument in your favor.
If "spritzing" were a common term for presenting words one at a time, then maybe there would be the beginning of an argument, but as far as I can see this has never been called spritzing before they came up with that name.
You definitely could have been less sensationalist in your advice.
Something like, "Looks like you might be infringing on the trademark of a company that produces a similar product. You should consider changing your name to avoid legal complications."
Let's not use sensationalist this way, I think maybe you were looking for 'hyperbolic' or 'intense' or something. I agree with the others, too, no point in mincing words, as you have done for him.
Just as body language dictates much of our communication, so does tone. I would therefore argue that it does in fact improve communication and therefore advice.
Also, why must we only use the bare minimum language to convey the point? We're not allowed to have fun with words and add some personality? Ok then, direct me to the grey overcoats and I'll join the single-file line of subjugated masses shuffling their way towards death.
I've been using something similar called "Spreed". It's an extension for Chrome and it's been super helpful for me to actually retain the things that I've read.
Why do people insist calling this "Spritz-like" like it's something new invented by Spritz? Just google on RSVP technique for speed reading and you'll find a million of references and implementations. Even wikipedia has an article[1] citing >50 years old research.
I was going to comment to say ability to pause/rewind would be awesome. Seems like you've already done that! I also like the interaction of selecting the text you want to speed-read.
One thing that might be interesting, is a shortcut to jump to the article where the current word is.
This happens when I want to glance at a paragraph above, and don't want to rewind all the way back.
This is actually pretty amazing. When I speed read, I usually use my finger to set the pace ahead of my eyes which is REALLY hard to do on the computer. Since I'm used to using a finger as a guide, I often find myself skipping over lines/words @ 400-600 WPM on the computer. This appears to solve that problem. Thanks for the link!
Rich, if you'd like help with clean text extraction, ping me at john at diffbot.com. I like the Spritz concept and we'd be happy to support your bookmarklet through free API calls.
One idea that I've yet to see anyone try is to increase letter size as distance increases from the highlighted letter on either side. Presumably as the fovea is centered on the highlighted letter, resolution for letters farther away decreases gradually, so increasing letter size may compensate for it. I'll be trying this soon for my iOS speed-reading app (http://velocireaderapp.com).
I bought two speed reading apps earlier this week - didn't realize yours did epubs. More important than increased letter sizes, I think, is the redicle. I hope you add it to your app.
Instead of choosing WPM from the outset from a drop-down, how about having a default start WPM and being able to change the WPM with keyboard shortcuts while you're reading?
With this as in most reading I find myself slowing down in some parts and speeding up in others. With keyboard shortcuts one could keep one's eyes on the text while tweaking the speed.
The keyboard shortcuts for the speed could be =/- or 0-9, like for the Autoscroll bookmarklet:
Since there seems to be a nice collection of speed reading bookmarklets and extensions being shared on this thread, I want to toss in mine as well: "Read"
Most of the speed reading extensions listed in the comments use one word at a time. Maybe its just me but I find it very disconcerting since word lengths change causing a flashing experience. When I read I like the continuity of the sentence or phrase. Maybe in addition to selecting wpm there should also be an option of phrase length. I did an informal test and found that I could read faster than 400 wpm when reading the original text but found it tough to maintain context when using 300wpm using the bookmarklet
Nice! As I mentioned in the original Spritz thread, I've just released an android app[0] that does something similar. Think I'll use the positioning concept from (open)spritz to improve things.
I do wonder what the Spritz team were doing for 3 years. Like the OP, it took me a couple of hours late one night to get to basics working.
Google Glass is not centred as far as I recall, I imagine it'll put quite a bit of strain on your eyes to read any significant volume of text from top-right corner.
Hate to say it but this is awesome. Exactly what I was hoping to find as soon as they announced. Change the name, or perhaps give them the code and they can release it if they see fit.
If "spritzing" were a common term for presenting words one at a time, then maybe there would be the beginning of an argument, but as far as I can see this has never been called spritzing before they came up with that name.
ps: nice bookmarklet