Audible Support Comes To Victor Reader Stream 3 Plus Other Features
A new update has been made available for users of the Victor Reader Stream 3rd Generation device from Humanware.
Version 1.3 brings a much requested feature – support to read Audible Books on the device. The company says that device activation will now be stored in the internal memory of the player instead of the SD card, as it was previously on the 2nd generation Stream, so you no longer need to activate every SD card you want to use.
Humanware says if you already have Audible books on an SD card, simply activating your player will allow you to read them. They note that books for Audible can now be downloaded to internal memory, but can still be moved to the SD card by pressing the “3” key.
They advice updating your AudibleSync software to version 1.8.16 or above so it can see the Stream.
There are a number of other new features in version 1.3, including:
Alphabetical order on bookshelves: Your books will now be organized alphabetically on all the bookshelves – so no more scrambling around to find a particular title in your collection.
Faster SD card load: Humanware have implemented some optimizations in the indexation of the SD card that now makes it much faster to load. The bigger the card, the more significant the improvement.
Suspend mode: Enable this option in the General Settings to turn the Power button into a Suspend button. Suspending the device will result in less battery usage than when turned on, and it can be woken up much faster. If you want to shut down completely, an option is available at the end of the settings menu when Suspend mode is enabled.
Audio decoder update: They’ve updated the audio decoder in the Stream. This means that a few stations that didn’t work with the previous version will now work, especially in the TuneIn bookshelf.
Acapela voice update and new voices: They’ve updated the TTS voices to the latest version of Acapela. This allows them to offer additional voices, and the quality of the existing voices has been enhanced. The company notes that If you have already downloaded different voices, you will be reverted to the default voices and will have to download them again.
Previously On Double Tap
On the 6th of March episode of Double Tap, Steven Scott spoke to Mathieu Paquette, Product Manager at HumanWare, and Andrew Flatres, their Braille Product Manager. They covered a wide range of topics, including updates for the Victor Reader Stream 3, upcoming features for the Stellar Trek navigation assistant, and the latest developments on the Mantis Q40 and Monarch Braille displays.
Mathieu discussed the forthcoming software update for the Stream 3, addressing issues such as bookshelf organization and faster SD card loading. He also talked about the collaboration with TuneIn and potential future partnerships with content providers like BBC and others. Andrew details the new version 2.2 update for the Mantis Q40, which introduces a terminal-only mode, auto power-off, and other enhancements, as well as updates on the Monarch and Annie.
Listen to that conversation now: