Yeah, when they mentioned speeding up spoken texts, that was when I had to disagree with the article -- I can easily listen to some material at 1.25-2x, though it's true that if my mind wanders at all, I miss quite a bit. Of course, that's also true when reading at normal speeds, but since it's then playing back slower, you'd miss less in the same amount of time, right?
In this case, I swiped down with two fingers to start iOS' speech function and it read the article quite quickly for me. I was able to better follow along with the reading as it highlighted words on the page. So while I won't say the article is wrong in absolute terms -- it's definitely a different experience to "speed read" in any practical manner than to read each word carefully on your own -- I do think some speed up with assistive tools or training is possible. :)
I have. Works great for (unabridged) audiobooks paired with their original texts. I even put on the Quake and Deus Ex soundtracks while listening to the audiobook of Masters of Doom while reading the paperback.
Mind blown on this one too. It makes sense too - the aural bits of the brain and the reading bit of the brain don't interfere modally, so can act in parallel.
