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I was kind of impressed by Spritz[0] speed reader a few years ago when I tried it. Fun to see their entire(?) business which raised over $4 million[1] in VC rep

I was kind of impressed by Spritz[0] speed reader a few years ago when I tried it. Fun to see their entire(?) business which raised over $4 million[1] in VC replaced by a JavaScript booklet. [0] https://spritz.com/ https://spritz.com/ [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/spritz#section-overview https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/spritz#section-overv...

kranner 6y ago
I'd argue it's better than Spritz because it preserves your privacy. I developed and sold a speed-reading app on iOS for a few years and users frequently wrote in to ask for Spritz support. Spritz had a patent (or patent application) and was known to shut down [1] non-licensees, so I looked over their API's terms of usage. Unfortunately they required users to create individual accounts with them. As this would enable them to track who was reading what with their technology, it was a non-starter for me and I'm sure many other devs felt the same way. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9046034 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9046034
kybernetikos 6y ago
I wrote a RSVP app in J2ME for my Sony Ericcson T610. I feel like it made sense then, when the whole screen was so small you couldn't reasonably read long form text on it in any other way. Some of my friends used it to read books on their commute on the tiny screens of phones back then. Now that phones and tablets are not much smaller than books anyway, you really have to be invested into the niche idea of speedreading to find it useful and as I understand it, most research shows that although you can increase your reading speed, it comes with a reduction in understanding and retention if you push it too far.
gnicholas 6y ago
I believe Spritz was taken over by one of their funders, as it happens. This is a cautionary tale to founders who are tempted to raise too much for the stage they're at — raising money accelerates your trajectory but also increases your chance of failure. It also shows that "money raised" is not always a good metric for success.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
Does that Bookmarklet work for others? Seems to do nothing for me in Firefox.
- bootlooped 6y ago
  I also cannot get it to work in Firefox.

kranner 6y ago

I'd argue it's better than Spritz because it preserves your privacy. I developed and sold a speed-reading app on iOS for a few years and users frequently wrote in to ask for Spritz support. Spritz had a patent (or patent application) and was known to shut down [1] non-licensees, so I looked over their API's terms of usage. Unfortunately they required users to create individual accounts with them. As this would enable them to track who was reading what with their technology, it was a non-starter for me and I'm sure many other devs felt the same way. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9046034 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9046034

kybernetikos 6y ago

I wrote a RSVP app in J2ME for my Sony Ericcson T610. I feel like it made sense then, when the whole screen was so small you couldn't reasonably read long form text on it in any other way. Some of my friends used it to read books on their commute on the tiny screens of phones back then. Now that phones and tablets are not much smaller than books anyway, you really have to be invested into the niche idea of speedreading to find it useful and as I understand it, most research shows that although you can increase your reading speed, it comes with a reduction in understanding and retention if you push it too far.

gnicholas 6y ago

I believe Spritz was taken over by one of their funders, as it happens. This is a cautionary tale to founders who are tempted to raise too much for the stage they're at — raising money accelerates your trajectory but also increases your chance of failure. It also shows that "money raised" is not always a good metric for success.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

Does that Bookmarklet work for others? Seems to do nothing for me in Firefox.

bootlooped 6y ago
I also cannot get it to work in Firefox.