Éist: PDF/Ebook to Audiobook

## What's new - Lock screen Now Playing restored on iOS. Track title, chapter, and play/pause/skip controls are visible again from the lock screen and Control Center. - More reliable background playback on iOS. Synthesis pauses periodically while the screen is locked so iOS no longer force-closes the app during long listening sessions. - New "Background reliability" toggle (iOS only). Settings → Background reliability lets you turn the new pacing strategy off if it ever makes playback worse on your device. On by default. - Bigger audio buffer ahead of you. When the app is open, Eist now caches up to about 60 minutes of audio ahead of the cursor, so locked-screen playback survives much longer without pausing to synthesize. ## Under the hood - Thermal-aware buffering pulls back when the device is hot and resumes when it cools down, instead of cooking the SoC to fill an already-large buffer. - Synthesis-side CPU sampler instrumentation for diagnosing background pressure on older iPads.

What's new in 1.1.4: • Clearer "what's synthesising next" indicator. Upcoming segments now correctly show whether they're cached, being synthesised, or still queued — no more "all greyed out" right after opening a chapter or swapping voices. • Cleaner voice switching mid-chapter — no stale markers carried over from the previous voice. • New premium themes and fonts for subscribers. • Auto-scroll lands more precisely on the active segment.

This update makes browsing free public-domain books faster and more reliable. • Free Books now loads from a faster, more dependable source, so the catalogue appears quickly instead of hanging or showing an empty screen when the book service is busy. • The last list you viewed is now kept on your device, so the Free Books tab still shows titles even on a flaky connection. • Fixed a rare layout glitch where a long error message could run off the edge of the screen. Thanks for listening with Éist. Feedback or questions: eist.app

What's new in 1.1.6: • Faster, more reliable voice downloads — voices come from a faster mirror with automatic fallback, and big voices download in a single stream. • Real progress bars for Kokoro and Supertonic downloads instead of a spinner. • New "Reset voice downloads" option in Settings if downloads ever get stuck. • Playback stops stuttering mid-chapter — synthesis keeps up with the playhead again. • Free Books opens instantly on launch.

NEW: READ-ALONG MODE Read along as you listen. Each word appears one at a time, perfectly in sync with the narration, so your eyes stay on the page and your focus stays on the story. The focal letter of each word is highlighted to make it effortless to follow. Tap the bolt icon while a book is playing to try it — tap again to return to the normal text view. Great for staying locked in on dense non-fiction, tricky passages, following along, or learning a language. ALSO NEW - Sync dial: nudge the words a touch earlier or later to match your reading style, with a clear "in sync" centre mark. Remembered per voice. - "Wait for read-along timing" setting (Settings → Playback): on slower voices, hold the opening words of a chapter until their timing is ready, so they never rush ahead. Off by default. - The sleep timer now works in Read-along mode too. RELIABILITY & POLISH - Pause is instant and reliable, including on iOS — no half-second of audio sneaking through. - Unplugging your headphones no longer resumes playback through the phone speaker. - Fixed rare phantom replays at the end of a chapter or book. - Smoother, gap-free playback between segments. - Éist now pronounces its own name correctly ("esht") when read aloud. As always: fully on-device, no account, no tracking.

What's new in 1.2.1: • Read in many more languages — Éist now detects your book's language and narrates it in that language, with dozens of new voices added. • Smoother, more accurate read-along — word-by-word highlighting stays in sync better, supports more languages, and is now built in with nothing extra to download. • Faster voice downloads using several connections at once. • More natural narration — numbers, dates, currencies and times are spoken the way you'd say them. • A batch of playback reliability fixes for smoother listening.

Read-along now works in five more languages — Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. Invite friends and earn free months — share Éist and get a free month for every friend who starts a trial. New annual plan — the best value, billed once a year. Optional trial reminders — if you'd like, we'll email you before your free trial ends, so there are no surprises. Plus cleaner voice names, refinements and fixes throughout.

• Invite a friend — you both get a free week of Pro, no card needed. • Big accessibility improvements: better VoiceOver support, layouts that hold up at large text sizes, and clearer contrast throughout. • More reliable playback, plus a lot of polish under the hood.

Behind-the-scenes polish and a refreshed look. Thanks for listening with Éist!

• A more generous free tier — now 3 books free (up from 1). • The app now opens in English when your language isn't supported yet, instead of defaulting to German. • A smoother, clearer upgrade experience. • Stability and quality improvements.

"Start Here" — Éist now plays a short audiobook automatically the first time you open the app. It's narrated in-app, shows you read-along in action, and gets you listening within about two minutes. On iPhone: a new voice, Rich (Turbo), makes narration sound more natural and starts playing almost instantly. Read-along: accuracy and timing improvements — the on-screen word highlight tracks your ear more closely. On the free plan, read-along is available up to 30 minutes a day; Premium removes the daily limit. Auto-advance is now on by default, so your audiobook continues into the next chapter on its own. More of the app is now translated, including the screens you see before starting a book and before subscribing. Reliability: clearer error messages when a voice isn't available, lock-screen playback fixes, and general speed improvements throughout the app. Thank you for reading with Éist.