The following was sent to the BARD email list. The JRN is passing this along for those who are not on this list. Please contact NLS or your library for more information about the following announcement. It is between the ruler markers.
With regret, we write to confirm that BARD no longer supports iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touch devices running any version of iOS earlier than 11.0. NLS staff worked hard to find a way around this situation, but after an exhaustive search, we have found none. We realize that, especially in these difficult times, this poses a very real hardship for some of you, since the only solution for continuing to use BARD Mobile is to purchase a newer device. You can find a list of all devices that run iOS 11 at this apple support page.
Any newer iOS device will also work. Since the current version of iOS is 14, some of these devices are quite inexpensive.
There are many low-cost Android devices and Fire tablets, also known as Kindle Fires, that can run BARD Mobile as well. If you opt for one of these, make sure that the Android device is running Android OS 7 or later, or that the Fire is running Fire OS 7 or later, which means eighth generation or later.
If replacing your iOS device is not an option for you, we can suggest a couple of alternatives:
- If you have access to a computer, you can download books and transfer them to a flash drive or cartridge for use with the free NLS Digital Talking Book Player available from your regional NLS library. If your computer is running Windows 7 or 10, BARD Express makes downloading books and copying them to flash drives particularly easy. Follow the BARD Express link on the BARD main page to learn more.
- If you don’t have access to a computer, you can ask your regional library to mail cartridges to you with books of your choosing that you can play on that same player. If you like, your library can copy books from a series or multiple books by the same author to a single cartridge.
For more information regarding either of these options, please contact your regional NLS library. You can obtain contact information by following the link “Find Your Library” at The NLOS main web page.
We apologize for any inconvenience or hardship this situation has created for you and hope you will find a way to continue enjoying BARD.
Sincerely,
The BARD Support Team
We hope this information is of value to users, and thanks for reading!