How fast do you read? Probably not as fast as you can.
Spritz is a new way of displaying text via smartphones and watches which - its developers claim - can boost your reading speed up to around 1000 words per minute, with no learning time required.
Instead of blocks of text, Spritz breaks paragraphs down into individual words and flashes them up, one at a time, very quickly.
By watching this stream of words - and crucially allowing your internal monologue to relent in the face of rapid, almost subliminal reading, you can get through text much, much faster.
The downside? It feels - to us - a bit unpleasant, like having a headache while driving at 109 miles-per-hour:
Try reading this at 250 wpm:
This is 350 words-per-minute:
This is 500 words/minute
But with a bit of finesse, or practice, we can also see how this could help you digest your reading list quicker than you ever thought possible. Doing the sums, Spritz's top level (it also has settings for lower speeds) could let you get through Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall in less than two hours - compared to 15 hours for the audiobook, and weeks for most readers of the print edition.
The team behind Spritz say their app is boosted by a focus on word positioning, by which every word is fixed at a crucial 'just left of middle' point to make it easier to parse
"After your eyes find the ORP, your brain starts to process the meaning of the word that you’re viewing," Spritz says. The ORP is red to make it even easier to see.
Spritz is currently talking to partners about making its tech appear in smartphones - such as the upcoming Galaxy S5 and its various wearable counterparts - though a standalone app doesn't appear to be forthcoming any time soon.