Readel updates

Big update time, PHEW.

Hello, everyone. Big update time. When I say this was a long process, I mean it. A lot of effort went into 1.4.4. From re-writing the whole project to cloud service mishaps, I hope you like the new update.

The elephant in the room. Readel is no longer free.

Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room, Readel now has in-app purchases. For context, Readel was selected to be part of the Elevenlabs grant program, which provided a free key service to Readel. However, you all exceeded the limit of the grant...this meant I had to come up with something. I spent a long time thinking about how I should implement a paid version and I wanted to do it the right way.

Each user gets 10,000 characters per day by default. If you wish to raise the daily limit, you can purchase more characters. When you buy more characters, this will be added to the daily limit. For example, if you buy 30,000 characters, your new limit will be 40,000 daily characters (30,000 + the default 10,000).

You will still get access to all voices and quality settings for free.

Playback speed.

The highly requested feature is here. You can now control the playback speed of the audio. FYI, this was the source of re-writing the program. You wouldn't believe it, but it was quite complicated.

Pause/Resume.

Quality life improvement and requested feature. You can now pause/resume audio without losing your spot. The audio will start to play from where you left off, instead of restarting the playback.

NEW Reset button.

A new button has been added to reset the audio playback to the beginning.

Fresh paint.

Readel has a subtle new look. I like this look better than the old one. Please, let me know what you think.

And finally.

Enjoy the extension. Remember, I'm easy to contact. If you need any help or have any questions, feedback or errors. You can send me an email or use one of the forms provided on the home page.

Readel is now FREE.

Readel was succesfully picked to be part of ElevenLabs grant program and now has access to better recources and free credits. This means that I can remove the cost of Readel for the time being.

Skip to the next track.

You can now skip to the next sentence. Personally, my favourite feature in this update.

More UI updates.

I've made some improvements to Readel's UI again. The button is now in the middle right side of the screen to stop the button from getting in the way. Please let me know what you think of the change.

Purchase Credits.

You are now able to purchase credits for Readel. This is where your feedback is important. Please be candid on what you think about the prices or payment model. I want to pick one you are all happy with. Let me know via the feedback.

New UI updates.

Readel's got some new paint. I have updated the UI, added some new buttons (such as Purchase credits & Updates) and removed ones I didn't think added any value.

Voices, Voices, Voices.

4 new voices have arrived to Readel. (Chris, Anna, James, Zues). All voices are free and I will continue to add more as updates come.

Pick where you start listening.

When you highlight text to listen, Readel will continue reading the rest of the page from where you selected.

New volume slider.

Control the audio volume by hovering over the Readel play button, then clicking on the volume button. *NOTE* Currently, the volume slider position is wrong. This will be fixed in the next patch.

Where the play button shows.

I have change the way the play button pops up on websites. There is a new criteria the button needs to meet. The page needs atleast 300 characters and for some websites like OpenAi's ChatGPT and Youtube has been disabled as I don't have an implementation for these yet. However, you are still able to use the highlight-read feature.

Improved account handling.

Previously, there was no way to tell if you were signed in to Readel. Which, doesn't help, as the whole program fails if you aren't signed in. I have added a new method, if the first method (Sign in on install) fails. You will also be notified if you aren't signed in and you will be prompted to do so. *NOTE* You can view your email via Readel's extension pop up.