Updates to Quick Reads, Reviews, and Subtitles for iOS
It looks like AppReview is clearing the decks for next week's wave of OS 27 updates. Here's what's new from my apps today.
Quick Reads
This update catches the app up with pretty much everything the web app got over the summer.
First off, you can now add notes to your highlights. After doing this for a little while, I have learned that people sometimes like to leave a note as to why they highlighted something. That's been available on the web for a little bit, and now it's on the iOS app as well.
Simply tap a highlight in an article and add a note.
Trash is less of a commitment
It used to be if you deleted an article, it was gone forever. Poof. Vanished immediately. No takebacks. Now, across the web and iOS, there's a trash bin that your deleted articles will go in, and they will be automatically cleared out after 30 days. You can access this from the archive page in the app.
Save text, not articles
Quick Reads is primarily about saving links to read later. However, some people like to save arbitrary text to either read in a delightful reading environment or to use the text-to-speech feature to listen to something.
Now, when you add something to your queue, you can choose whether you're adding a link or raw text, and you can paste in whatever you'd like.
Podcast transcripts
I recently added a feature that will generate podcast transcripts when you save them to your queue. Thank you, Marco Arment, for the idea how to do this. Now those transcripts will show in the app.
Quick Reviews
I've updated the standard review format to look a little nicer. The scores are now made of a glass material, as is the poster on the left. I've also added a bit of a gradient to the background to make it feel a little more dynamic. If you still want that totally flat background, you can go to the Layout tab when styling your review and flip it back to flat.
Quick Subtitles
This release comes with two new models, both aimed at those trying to get their transcripts a little quicker.
The Whisper model has been updated to a Turbo version, which delivers the same quality transcripts, but does so about 10% faster. This replaces the previous Whisper model and will require a new download the first time you use it.
The Parakeet V3 model is still in the app and is still what I would recommend to people looking for the maximum performance while still delivering slightly better quality than Apple's built-in option. However, I have now included Parakeet V2 as an alternate option, which delivers comparable quality and is also about 10% faster than the V3 model. Just be aware, V2 is English only.
Of note, this update is coming to the Mac version as well, but it remains stuck in app review, so hopefully by the time you read this, it's just out and you wonder why I wrote this at all.