Wednesday 8 August 2012

How to use 'Talk to Move' feature in 'Chess Book Study' app

Why 'make' the move when you can speak the move!?

Chess Book Study is the ONLY Chess app for Android that has a 'Talk to Move' feature.
You simply hold the mic and speak out each move.


Steps:
1. Enable 'Talk to Move' setting from the app settings.
2. Hold the on-screen mic, speak one move and release the mic
Speak piece   square    OR     source square   destination square

Sample moves:
e4 = hold the mic, say e4 OR pawn e4 OR e2 e4, release the mic
Nf3 = hold the mic again, say knight f3 OR g1 f3, release the mic
0-0 = say king g1 OR e1 g1
0-0-0 = say king c1 OR e1 c1
Bxf6 = say bishop f6 OR g5 f6

Note:
* Only English algebraic notation supported. Let me know if you need more.
* No Internet connection required. All offline!
* This is an experimental feature and may occasionally cause the app to freeze/crash. Disable this feature if you face any issue.

AnalyzeThis just got Stronger, Better & Prettier

Today's AnalyzeThis update brings the most powerful open source engines, Stockfish 2.2 and Critter 1.6, at your finger tips!

What's new in v1.2
Critter & Stockfish just became even more stronger! Critter upgraded to 1.6 and Stockfish upgraded to 2.2.


Start/Stop engines. Now you have the power to simply turn off one engine, while the other engine is digging deeper into the position. Lesser battery, better results!


Increase/Decrease engine primary variations/lines. Wish to try some more variations from the engines? Just press + and the engine will provide you with additional primary variations.


Edit board added. Now you can set pieces manually

Copy game as PGN. 
Future versions will have direct PGN Load/Save support. Till then, you can manually Copy the game as PGN using this feature and paste in your favorite program.


Takeback and move Forward buttons! Yes, yes I know. The existing method was not always intuitive and would also cause false touches. Now, you have dedicated buttons that get out of your way (hide themselves), so that you can just focus on the position!


Other enhancements and stability fixes. Show/Hide board coordinates. See App Settings.

Chess Book Study v1.5 released

Today was an exciting release. Chess Book Study v1.5 has an interesting 'Talk to Move' feature!
Yes, you just speak the move and it will be played on the board! 
If you wish to try, please enable it from the app settings.

What's new in v1.5
Talk to move! Careful in public, people may think you are crazy. Enable it from the app settings.
How to use

Option to Hide board and read the book in full screen. Especially useful on small screen phones. Now you can read the book commentary without the board getting in the way

Open any Web sites like chesscafe.com, chessbase.com etc and follow the moves on the board. Many of these sites publish games without a javascript board. This makes it difficult to follow, till now!

Paste FEN. Especially useful to copy from websites like chesscafe (they always have a fen string underneath the diagram)

Copy game as PGN. Future versions will have direct PGN Load/Save support. Till then, you can manually Copy the game as PGN using this feature and paste in your favorite program.

Zoom out to upto 50%. User Carl mentioned that some of his PDFs are too big on a 7in screen. Well, Carl, you can now zoom out to 50%

Option to show coordinates! With coordinates on, its easier to follow the moves, especially for newbies.

Takeback/Forward buttons! Yes, yes I know. The existing method was not always intuitive and would also cause false touches. Now, you have dedicated buttons that get out of your way (hide themselves), so that you can just focus on the position!

Minor enhancements and bug fixes - Resize board option has moved to the Settings. Clear Board option is now in the Edit Board popup. Also, "Black Move" option has been added to Edit Board popup which can be enabled if the position you are setting up is with Black to move.

PS. For the above features to work properly, you need to upgrade EBookDroid (customized for Chess Book Study) 
(Talk to Move is an experimental feature and may cause occasional freezes/crashes. If you face problems, please disable the option and report to me :)  )