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This morning’s news about Google censoring the voice recognition feature in Google Docs got me thinking about software filters in ebook apps.

Word substitution filters like the one that Google built into the dictation feature are relatively simple tech, but few ebook apps have them. We can find any number of similar filters as web browser extensions (see cloud to butt, Literally, etc) but the only ebook app with this type of filter was Clean Reader.

That app used a substitution filter clumsily and to a prurient end, but the idea itself wasn’t a bad one (just unpopular with authors). There are any number of ways that this type of filter could add to the reading experience.

Earlier this year the Literary Platform detailed five possible filters, but I can think of at least two filters that they missed that I would like to see added to a reading app.

(Actually, what I really want is a reading app that lets the reader define their own substitution filter by supplying word pairs, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.)

Let’s start with a filter that would make it easier for readers to stay on top of epic fantasy novels:

The De-Tolkienizer

This filter is one possible solution for a fetish that certain SF and fantasy authors have for making up nonsensical and confusing names for persons, places, and things.

The De-Tolkienizer would search out all the words in a book which were not in a dictionary, and then let a reader select replacement words from a list of innocuous alternatives. Thanks to this filter, readers would no longer have to wonder whether the character would have time to see the amandil (priest) in the Kyplyngyr Forest before aduial (dusk).

I know this suggestion will be taken as heresy in certain quarters, and that some will say that the text of a book is sacrosanct and must not be altered, but many readers are frustrated by the confusing and unnecessary words that some authors invent for their books. It’s sometimes enough to drive readers to abandon a book.

But hey, made up words might be your thing, so let me suggest an app for you:

The Tolkienizer

This filter is basically the inverse of the De-Tolkienizer. It would give readers the option of replacing ordinary names for people, places, and things with invented words. The replacement words could be drawn from a random word generator, or one of the many wikis devoted to fantasy series.

The filter might also draw on SF wikis just to add an extra level of detail. Words sourced from a Klingon-English dictionary, for example, would add extra spice to a fantasy story because the words would be unfamiliar to any but the most ardent Star Trek fans.

Gender Swap

The muscle-bound barbarian hero is a common trope in the fantasy genre. Sure, many authors avoid that cliche but some still make use of it.

How would you like to "fix" those books by swapping the genders of the main characters?

As The Literary Platform explained: "… since gender is primarily displayed through pronouns, this is a pretty easy fix for an app like this. It’s already happening. Take this example of one parent who, while reading their daughterThe Hobbit, decided to switch Bilbo’s gender pronouns. It turns out Bilbo makes an absolutely fantastic female protagonist! There’s also, moving out of books for a moment, this guy who hacked his daughter’s version of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to make Link a girl. Or, without any tech at all, there are all these people who’ve decided to read the Harry Potter books while reading Hermione as black. Yes, an app like this opens up the doorway for the terrible human beings that got upset when they discovered a sympathetic character in The Hunger Games is brown, but surely that’s the point?"

I for one would love to find a way to make it clear that Hermione was a black girl, but that would require much more sophisticated software. More’s the pity:

Clean Reader’s greatest fault wasn’t that it replaced words, but that it was clumsy and showed a clear bias against the female form.

Like a lot of tech, a substitution filter doesn’t have any value in and of itself. The filter is neither good nor evil, and it’s what you use it for that makes it bad or good.

Now tell me that those aren’t good uses for a substitution filter, I dare you.

images by TerryJohnston, Natello

After fewer than 3 months on the market, the profanity-filtering reading app Clean Reader has been neutered by its developer.

Inktera announced on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that it was bowing to pressure from authors and publishers, and was yanking its ebookstore out of the Clean Reader app.

In support of #authors #readers #books everywhere, the @Inktera bookstore system has been pulled from @CleanReader, effective immediately.

— Inktera (@Inktera) March 26, 2015

Inktera is a subsidiary of PageFoundry, the ebook company which had developed and is supporting the app on behalf of Jared and Kirsten Maughan, Clean Reader’s owners.

PageFoundry is an otherwise ordinary ebook company which had developed an ebook platform (apps, ebookstore, backend). PageFoundry’s apps were combined with a custom content filter to create Clean Reader, and aside from the filter PageFoundry’s ebook apps are just your typical ebook apps.

While Inktera’s announcement doesn’t quite kill the app (I checked, and you can still sideload ebooks), it does effectively neuter the app. What’s more, this act suggests that the death of Clean Reader will probably happen as soon as PageFoundry can find a reason to get out of its contract with the Maughans.

Update: Or maybe not. Clean Reader posted an update to their FB page which acknowledges the removal and says "there will be several changes made to the app and an update will be released in the near future". So they don’t see the app going away.

This news arrives in the midst of a storm of protests from authors who object to readers choosing to filter the content in the books they read. Over the past week many authors have protested the app with arguments ranging from moral rights and religious bias to objections to its poorly designed filter.

I’ve covered the highlights of the protests before, so I won’t repeat myself here. But I do want to point out that the listing for the Clean Reader app in Google Play shows that the app has an install base between 500 and 1,000. (Hat tip to Felix Torres for spotting that detail.)

The thing is, folks, this app probably had more protesters than actual users, making this whole series of events a tempest in a thimble. There’s the principle involved, sure, but as I see it far too much energy was invested in protesting an app which no one was using anyway.

Google added a new hands-free typing feature to its online office suite last week, one which won’t be of much use to potty mouths.

Blogger Gretchen McCulloch thinks the word recognition tech works great, but she has also discovered that certain language makes Google uncomfortable:

It’s pretty good, actually — it recognized both pronunciations of “gif” and “aunt” in the contexts “animated ___” and “uncle and ___” although it tended to assume that I might have the bit/bet merger, which I most emphatically do not, and thus presented me with a few transcriptions that felt like odd candidates to me.

But then I tried swearwords and hit the fucking jackpot. Here’s a screenshot of what I got:

Yes, Google has the sensibilities of a Sunday school teacher, albeit a literate one.

As you can see, some swear words made it through, but not others, and one commenter on McCulloch’s blog had a good explanation as to why. All the unfiltered words have alternate meanings (cock:rooster, tit:bird, ass:donkey, bitch:female dog, etc).

That’s not exactly a great reason to only allow certain words through, but it is still a better method that the one that Clean Reader is using. That app debuted earlier this year with an (optional) prudish word replacement filter. It caused a huge uproar, leading to the ebookstore getting pulled from the app, but surprisingly did not lead to the app being disabled. The app is still around, and it still works (it was just updated last week).

Unfortunately, the new Google Docs filter can’t be turned off at this time.

This is not the first time that the ad network has decided to wash your mouth out with soap. The Google voice function on Android has a similar filter. It could be toggled on or off in the settings menu, but I can’t find any similar option for the new Google Docs filter.

image by yoshiffles via Flickr

Pocketbook hasn’t been able to make much headway in Amazon’s core markets, so the Ukrainian ereader maker has recently taken a new approach: it’s recruiting allies.

Last month Pocketbook announced Pocketbook B2B Cloud Solution, their deceptively named whitelabel platform. Following in the footsteps of txtr, Pocketbook is now offering a service which lets companies rebrand Pocketbook’s  ebook platform.

Pocketbook will support companies who want to develop their own ebook platform based on Pocketbook’s ereaders, apps, and ebookstores. The ereader maker will develop the rebranded apps and help them get approved in Google Play and iTunes. Pocketbook is also offering to license its ebookstore, or simply develop a book recommendation service (discovery engine) for use in a partner’s site or store.

This service even extends to Pocketbook’s hardware, and includes the devices' branding and full software customization. Pocketbook is eager to add custom splashscreens, bookstore apps, and social service apps.

Pocketbook B2B Cloud Solution hasn’t gotten much attention so far, but the service actually launched last month in Germany. This story didn’t make the news at the time (because I couldn’t understand what the bleep they were talking about), but Pocketbook signed a German book wholesaler right around the time of the Leipzig Book Fair. Umbreit, a name which means little to those outside of Germany, announced that it was partnering with Pocketbook.

The press release is less than clear on the exact services Pocketbook will be providing, but it does note that Pocketbook B2B Cloud Solution is going to formally launch later this year at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

When that happens Pocketbook will be but the latest company to enter this market. Pocketbook won’t have much to worry about from the late txtr, but they will still have to compete with Page Foundry, which has licensed a whitelabel ebook platform for the past 4 years.

Page Foundry’s past partners include high-profile names like Asus, and under its Inktera brand, PF currently supports 22 3rd-party apps in Google Play (including the much-maligned Clean Reader app).

Other competitors include Bluefire, which has developed apps for Android, and iOS (but no ebookstore platform), Datalogics, and (in a distant way) Kobo. Late last year Kobo launched a program to recruit device OEMs. That service was focused more on getting Kobo apps on to 3rd-party hardware rather than rebranding Kobo’s service, but it does fall within shouting distance of Pocketbook’s new offering.