SpreedNews is the fast way get updated on the world spinning around you.  SpreedNews is a news aggregator with a twist:  You read your news super fast.  You don’t need Evelyn Wood when you have SpreedNews.


You pick the news you want SpreedNews to present to you:

Clicking on a an article title starts SpreedNews’ presentation of the text of the story:

SpreedNews starts you off at 300 words per minute. 

I found that too slow and quickly moved up to 500 words per minute.

It’s amazing how fast you can really read when pressed.  SpreedNews give you a dynamic readout of how much time you’re reading the news via their service instead of reading at your own pace.

You can read SpreedNews via their website or you can use their specialized version for iPhone:

On the iPhone, you can navigate the SpreedNews site to find exactly what interests you:

I find SpreedNews to be delightful.  I save time while learning more — and when it comes down to the re-compression of time over space — SpreedNews doesn’t require me to make a Hobson’s choice between perception and understanding.

20 Comments

  1. David!
    I think I’ll give this a pass. I’m not really that pressed for time!

  2. Lovely! I just had a test drive – fabulous! I am a pretty speedy reader, love the function!
    Thanks David!
    One pointer, I think it’ll be easier to comprehend if we are able to see and read a complete sentence instead of few words.

  4. Hi Katha!
    Thanks for checking it out. I, too, wonder why they only present a few words at a time instead of larger chunks of text. Is that a speed-reading way of doing it or something else?

  5. I am not sure David, I was under the impression that it’s easy to understand a larger chunk of text because one can scheme through…at least I used to do it.

  6. David!
    I can speed read text when i have to anyways. But somehow spreednews isn’t for me! It’s just too bleh!

  7. That’s what I thought, too, Katha. Perhaps that method of block reading text is Copyrighted or something so SpreedNews needs to break up sentences into smaller bites?

  9. I see it as having great potential for those who have trouble focusing. By only presenting you with a few words at a time you are forced to read only what is in front of you. You can’t look back or ahead to see what is coming. You read the now and stay on task. I love it.

  10. Neat analysis, Gordon! That makes tremendous sense to me. With only three words, you’ll “see” them all and understand them without having to deal with a blur of words buzzing around. It does force you into the now and the immediate knowing, that’s for sure!

  11. David!
    There are just too many things that don’t work. Firstly, I can’t seem to add feeds that I might be interested in other than the ones that the site offers.
    And then, I don’t have to read the news. It’s one of the things I do when I get away from whatever is keeping me busy apart from the regular morning dose of news that I watch while drinking my coffee.
    So when I do read the news I approach it in a way that doesn’t require me to spreed it.
    The way SpreedNews makes me read three words isn’t the way I would read anything else anywhere else.
    All these points by themselves are enough for me to not really be keen on this service.

  12. I am in the not for me but might be useful for others camp.
    The three words at a time is irritating in the extreme.
    I can imagine for people that are on the go and have it on their mobile phones it could be very useful to keep up with the news and other information they need.

  13. I appreciate the detail, Dananjay, and you’re right about not being able to add feeds. I couldn’t get that to work, either. I understand it doesn’t fit your style of knowing.

  14. If you speed it up, Nicola. the words flash quickly so they become one long, continuous, sentence stretching from here to in front of you inside of the traditional side-to-side-and-down method. You never have to move your eyes. You just link the words into one long stream of conscious understanding. It does make reading news on the iPhone easier if you like larger print.

  15. I will take your word for it David – remember this Luddite does not have a mobile phone!
    I did speed it up to over 500wpm – I suspect that aspect might take some getting used to after traditional block reading.

  16. Fair enough, Nicola. We need to get you a mobile phone and a cellular tower on your roof! Yes, Spreed does require a new way of thinking about how text is linked to construct comprehension.

  17. There’s lots of news aggregators. This one lacks most of basic features available in traditional aggregators.

  19. I think they are out of business. I left them a comment two weeks ago and they didn’t respond.

  20. I think you’re right, Angela.
    From their blog:

    That being said we will unfortunately have less time to focus on projects like Spreed:News. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve received so far and will continue to fund our R&D lab and develop new reading technologies. We apologize in advance if we do not respond to your feedback as fast as we have in the past.But at this current time, our prime focus will be on pushing content to mobile devices with a clear eye to helping the publishers monetize that content. Such is the reality of 2009 – and from a technology point of view, the timing couldn’t be better. improve the system.

    http://blog.spreedinc.com/?p=121

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