ARCHIVE / 2010:
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 289 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 289 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One VoiceNote QT Notetaker for USD $1,100.00!
Greetings,
1) Four new DAISY training books, and mp3 files, on JAWS are now available: Excel Column and Row Headers, Settings Center, New in JAWS 12, Text Analyzer, New in JAWS 12, and Virtual Ribbon Menus, New in JAWS 12. If you have JAWS 12 you can use check for updates. People with earlier versions of JAWS or even people who don't have JAWS can download them from 2) HIMS, Inc announces upgrades to version 2.2 of the Booksense products. This upgrade fixes lots of bugs and adds some audio functionality. 3) HIMS also offers trade-in deals for their notetakers and DAISY book reader, allowing you to trade existing products for discounts. 4) The description of SeroTalk Tech Chat 82is, appropriately, Android Accessibility, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back! 5) Version 2 of the free iBlink Radio app for the Apple i-devices is now available from Serotek. With an improved interface and more content, this app brings together a vast number of radio stations, Radio Reading Services and podcasts produced by or for the blind. 6) SkypeTalking, a Skype add-on that adds accessibility regardless of your screen reader, is up to public beta version 0.9. 7) This Fred's Head post is entitled Share Files on Twitter, and gives several resources for doing so. 8) This Fred's Head compendium of information regarding braille translation software contains information about several options, including programs that probably don't run on the latest computers. It includes listings for programs enabling people to turn the PC keyboard into a Perkins-style six-key keyboard, braille music translation software, and other resources. 9) A new bug-fix release of Orca, which gives access to the Gnome graphical desktop in Linux, is available. 10) Openbook 9.0.1305, a hotfix, has been released. It can be installed over other version 9 installations. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 288 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 288 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One VoiceNote QT Notetaker for USD $1,100.00!
Greetings,
There will be an issue of Tidbits next week if there is news to share. 1) Jamal Mazrui has released version 3 of his JAWS scripts for the Thunderbird e-mail client. 2) NFB Newsline now allows users to download DAISY files of their favorite publications, which are converted to audio using the same settings you use when you listen on the phone. These files can then be played in the NLS digital player. The program used is called the DTB Downloader. 3) Gw Micro will offer a new webinar in 2011, called the Gw Insider. The first one will take place on Thursday, 19 January at 19:00 GMT, and they will be archived for later download or listening. These programs will focus on people who have overcome severe challenges related to employment, disability, and other issues. 4) Version 2.0 of the Trekker Breeze from Humanware is now available. It features the ability to input an address to create a route, to more easily track back once you have followed a route, the ability to receive custom GPS information from a pc, and other enhancements. 5) SeroTalk Podcast 57 brings us the Latest adaptive technology News for December 20, 2010,and they cover a wide range of topics; there's something of interest to pretty much everybody on this one. 6) The tips editor at Gizmo tells about Important and Useful Windows Applications You Didn’t Know You Already Had 7) RS Games Yahtzee is now ready for all to play. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 287 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 287 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents BrailleNote PKs!
Greetings,
1) Staying Connected: Technology Options for Older Adults is a pdf brochure that seeks to explain Skype, Facebook, Twitter and other modern technology to the senior population. 2) In the December, 2010 issue of AccessWorld, the focus is independent travel, with various reviews for GPS programs, We also learn about the Olympus DM-r recorder and about Microsoft's admitted failure to provide any hint of accessibility to Windows Phone 7. 3) NFB Newsline has added a job search feature, only accessible by phone, which lets users search a nationwide job classified database. 4) In Serotalk Tech Chat 81: Scott White and Stephen Tompkins Share 4 New Services from NFB Newsline, including the job search function. 5) This Gizmo article is entitled How to Prepare for Boot or System Problems by Creating a Windows 7 Repair Disk 6) Gw Micro has begun offering custom scripting, so individuals or companies can get their programs customized to best work with Window-Eyes. 7) Version 5 of J-Tunes, the package that helps JAWS version 11 or 12 users get the most out of iTunes, has been released. 8) Memberships to All inPlay are available for slightly more than half price until December 31. 9) Apps recently reviewed on the AppleVis site for users of iPhone, iPad and iPod include GoReader (RSS Reader with Google Reader™ full support), RF, weather alert usa, Slide Reader Broadsheet Edition, Accessible Minesweeper, Notesy for Dropbox, Da Vinci Sleep Clock, HowStuffWorks, Air Alarm, Movies Trivia, Warranty Checker, Tooth Camp, Decades Internet Radio US, X3 World Radio, Amazon Mobile UK, PC Monitor, Find My iPhone, and Talkatone - the social phone and IM for GTalk (gmail chat) and VoIP Google Voice 10) Free EASI webinars in January include Sing Along with Microsoft OneNote - An Accessible Digital Notebook! Jan. 10 a two-part webinar on Flash: Part 1: Flash: what is it, Jan. 11, Part 2 Flash: Making it Accessible, Jan. 18, a two-part webinar on Android accessibility: Part 1 Update on the evolution of Android Smart Devices and Accessibility, January 20, Part 2: Overview of Two, Major, Android Projects Focused on the accessibility of "Near Field Communications (NFC)-Enabled Android Smart Device" NFC Control, January 27. All sessions start at 19:00 GMT. Fee-based webinars on PDF accessibility are also available. 11) The Carroll Center offers a new $100 course entitled Choosing an Accessible Cell Phone. Account creation or logon is required to see the information. 12) An accessibility review of Klango version 3.5.1 has been added to the AccessWatch database. 13) Updates to the Window-Eyes script for Microsoft Word, allowing reading of footnotes and endnotes, and the script for TeamTalk, are not posted. 14) Vinux 3.1, an accessible Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 10.1, is now available. 15) The government of Australia has found problems with pdf accessibility. Here is a text version of their findings: 16) Executive Products has designing a case for the Braille Connect 32 and 40 displays. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 286 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 286 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents BrailleNote PKs!
Greetings,
1) WebAIM, housed at Utah State University, does good work in web accessibility. their third screen reader study is available to receive input through 10 January, 2011. This helps them track trends and maintain current data, so they ask screen reader users of any level to complete it. 2) If you want to know how a word is written in contracted braille, check the accurate and easy-to-use BRL: Contraction Lookup Dictionary 3) Chris Hallsworth has produced three podcasts, with perhaps more to come. The first is a review of the screen reader Cobra we mentioned here some time ago; 4) The Cisco Academy for the Visually Impaired is accepting applications for its three courses, on networking and computer essentials, that start in February, 2011. Each course costs $150 for individuals paying out of pocket. For information about these proven and popular courses, visit 5) SeroTalk Podcast 56 gives us the Latest Access and Tech News as of December 6, 2010 6) This month's edition of FSCast from Freedom Scientific concerns their SARA, Scanning and Reading Appliance, with the portable camera. 7) Users of the Klango Player can use the quality Ivona text-to-speech voices free, and the crew his building a unique web site for all. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 285 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 285 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One Refurbished BrailleSense Plus for USD $4,500.00!
Greetings,
1) Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic now offers a free software player for its books that works on both pc and Mac systems. 2) Freedom Scientific plans several free training webinars for the first quarter of 2011: Webinar Training Room Orientation, January 6, Virtual Ribbon Menus Feature - New in JAWS® 12, January 11, Getting Help with JAWS and MAGic®, January 18, Voice Profiles with JAWS and MAGic, January 25, JAWS and MAGic Reading Commands and Cursors Used by JAWS, February 1, Skype™ with JAWS and MAGic, February 8, PAC Mate Omni™: FSEdit Basics, February 15, PDF Document Reading and Strategies with JAWS and MAGic, February 22, OpenBook®, an Introduction, March 1, Facebook with JAWS and MAGic, March 8, Virtual Ribbon Menus Feature - New in JAWS 12, March 10, Leveraging the Freedom Scientific Web Site, March 22, PAC and Mate Omni - A Settings Overview, March 29, Surf's Up! Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic! April 5 3) Kelly Sapergia will discuss and demonstrate his favorite accessible computer games on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 7 December at 01:00. 4) The creators of the Mac-Cessibility podcast have come out with an episode highlighting the changes in iOS4.2 and with the accessibility of Apple TV. 5) The Federal Communications Commission accepts comments through Tuesday, 7 December on what advanced services are to be covered by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Apparently no comments from blind individuals have been received as of the time of writing. The archive below provides all necessary information for responding: 6) Two recent posts to the NFB Access Technology Blog concern a review of the Baum Pronto notetaker and a discussion about low-cost magnification software. 7) SeroTalk Podcast 55 takes us on a romp through DocuScan Plus, Fully Accessible Apple TV, Tech News, Spiel for Android and more 8) The free DAISY audio production tool OBI is now at version 1.2. 9) A Graduate student at Rice University is gathering information about accessible voting machine use for her thesis and for efforts to influence policy in this area. She wants blind adults to complete a survey: 10) The Gizmo team has a review of the Best Free Software to Cut, Split or Merge Audio Files 11) They also provide a link for Downloading Office 2010 Training Courses for Free, in PowerPoint format. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 284 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 284 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
Greetings,
Happy Thanksgiving to US residents and expatriates. I'm grateful for much, and I hope you are too. We'll start with a few items of mutually beneficial self-promotion: 1) Dropbox is a well-designed system for backing up and sharing files. If you don't have an account and might want one, drop me a note. If I invite you, we both get more space. 2) For a few months, you can get a one-month trial account on the Bookshare service if you have trouble reading standard print. The offer didn't specify a limitation to US residency. You will need to submit disability qualification according to their procedures, and once you qualify, you can download several of the books available to you in your country for a month. A Bookshare volunteer has to refer, you, and I can do it, so if you want to try Bookshare, drop me a note. 3) As the next few items refer to the iPhone, just a reminder that I provide affordable iPhone training. 4) Apple released iOS4.2 for the iPhone, iPod and iPad. This makes significant accessibility improvements to the iPad. All devices have improved braille support; deaf-blind users can use the devices independently now. Also improved reading of tables and other improvements. 5) Here are the iPhone/iPad apps recently discussed on AppleVis: ÜberTwitter, Navfree UK & ROI, TranslateMail, Audible, Guided Photo Pro, Music Memory, Sky Sports Live CricketScore Centre, music guess, Dictionary!, Racing UK, XFINITY TV, IRC999, Audiogalaxy Mobile, Three (3) (UK only), .977 Music / The Internet’s #1 Online Radio Network / 977Music.com, iBreviaryPro, Kingdoms Live, WHERE, and Magellan RoadMate USA. 6) Apple TV, the popular device that allows you to stream online tv and movies to your own large television, is now accessible using VoiceOver, 7) Serotek announces DocuScan Plus, their new $250 cloud-based OCR system that now works with computers, but will be extended to work on various mobile platforms. It is self-voicing, supports multiple languages and braille, and scans pdf documents. You can try it free until 1 December. 8) Mobile Access is a web site featuring podcasts, resources and tech news related to smart phones. The material on the Oratio screen reader for Blackberries is being moved to this site. 9) Code Factory has releasedMobile Speak 4.60, bringing free access to Nokia Maps, thereby giving Mobile Speak users free, accessible, turn-by-turn pedestrian and vehicle GPS. 10) Freedom Scientific will ship in December the new SARA CE, the Scanning and Reading Appliance with Camera Access, replacing the scanner originally provided with SARA. Price is $1,895 until 31 March, when it becomes $2,395. 11) HumanWare has released version 3.3 of the Victor Stream firmware. This upgrade gives access to Japanese and Chinese TTS voices, allows for more information to be provided about some books, and fixes some bugs. HumanWare recommends performing the upgrade, and using the Stream, in conjunction with the recently-announced version 3.3 of the Stream Companion software, as the program contains an automatic update feature. 12) On their Audio page, BlindBargains has recordings of several interviews from the recent ATIA Conference in Chicago. 13) BlindBargains has launched a Classified section, with ads posted on the web and to the Daily Deals e-mails, so that people can sell adaptive equipment and offer other services for a $5.00 charge. 14) Gw Micro has posted these articles to its knowledgebase: Improve software speech performance in Windows Vista and Windows 7 15) HIMS, Inc., makers of the Braille Sense and Book Sense lines of products, has set up its office in Austin, Texas. All information about the company's activities, and support for its products, is found on its web site, 16) This Gizmo article, Updated: 250+ Places for Free Books Online, may direct you to a new site or two. 17) Two Gizmo articles on the Windows Registry are Learn How to Use the Windows Registry Editor (Regedit) in One Easy Lesson 18) The American Printing House for the Blind now offers free electronic downloads of audio versions of Reader's Digest and soon of Newsweek to anybody already eligible for the NLS download program. 19) We return to the i-devices to close out the issue: the topic for Tek Talk for GMT Tuesday, 30 November at 01:00 will be List Recorder, a popular and highly accessible app for organizing life. 20) Jonathan Mosen has encapsulated in music the experiences many of us have with our Apple i-devices. A must hear: |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 283 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 283 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One Voice Sense Accessible PDA for only USD $1,595.00!
Greetings, I may be interested in procuring working legacy notetakers with braille displays. Write to dean@topdotenterprises.com if you might want to part with one.
1) NVDA 2010.2 is now released, Includes Improved reviewing capability from number pad, Better support for adobe flash content, Support for reading table headers in Firefox, And other miscellaneous fixes and improvements
2) On the Blind Bargains App page, you can find a window-Eyes script and a JAWS Research-it script, both of us give users of those screen readers easy access to search for bargains.
3) AccessWorld from American Foundation for the Blind is now published monthly. The November, 2010 issue features lots of gift ideas and reviews of shopping web sites for people with impaired vision, accessibility reviews of the Samsung Haven from Verizon and of the Kindle 3, and more.
4) AFB is seeking participants for 2 important focus groups on the accessibility of Conference Calls and Webinars. A November 30 conference call is scheduled for individuals who use screen readers and a December first conference call is scheduled for those who use screen magnification. Each 2 hour session is scheduled for 8:00 Eastern Time, (01:00 GMT the following day. a $30 honorarium is provided. to learn more and participate visit
5) There is a new Mac-cessibility Round Table podcast, discussing FaceTime for the Mac, iLife 11 accessibility enhancements, (including GarageBand), and more.
6) SeroTalk Podcast 54 discusses Speeding Up Screen Readers with Antivirus Software, lots of miscellaneous tech news and system Access on a U3 Drive
7) The topic for Tech chat 76 was Computer Security
8) Users or potential users of Blackberries with the Oratio screen reader can get information and resources from this site:
9) The Lighthouse for the Blind in Seattle seeks a Computer Training Program supervisor. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 282 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 282 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One Voice Sense Accessible PDA for only USD $1,595.00!
Greetings,
1) Tek Talk for GMT 9 November features the second installment of Stocking Stuffers, the annual series where vendors of less expensive products for the blind present things you might want to buy for gifts. Start time is 01:00; people who join in regularly in the States and Canada won't notice a time difference, but if you are outside North America, the weekly start time for Tek Talk changes for a few months since the States will have returned to standard time.
2) Cory Ballard has started a podcast called All From my iPhone, where he demonstrates different apps. The first installment features Elements, a DropBox-Powered text editor.
3) In the last few days, accessibility reviews and discussion of these iPhone apps have appeared on AppleVis: my3g, Alex Voice winterboard theme, Skyfire WebBrowser, iBlacklist, PDANet, Cleartune - Chromatic Tuner, Captio - Email yourself with 1 tap, Waze – Social GPS navigation, traffic & road reports, Pocket Tunes Radio, Pocket Hypnosis: MAX, WebMD Mobile, PrayNow, CNN App for iPhone, VLC Media Player, Time Cave, Make it Mine, Respring, Ultrasn0w, and iFile
4) Darrell Shandrow and others have begun posting audio files demonstrating different iPhone apps on Blind Access Journal.
5) Frontier Computing is providing online training for $25 per session. The current series concerns online shopping.
6) Accessible Cell Phones for the Blind, Low Vision or Visually Impaired User is a site that gives general information about cell phone options to help people make choices.
7) CDesk for Media is a new $39 program designed to make the process of getting books from Bookshare or the National Library Service BARD program and transferring them to your portable player much easier. A fully-functioning fifteen-day demo of the program is available.
8) Rigel Technology sells its one-hour tutorials for $75, but until the end of the year you can buy three for the price of two.
9) NASA has internship opportunities for blind and otherwise disabled students. Apply from now through the end of February.
10) The State of Minnesota is seeking an adaptive technology specialist. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 281 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 281 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote QT 32 for USD $3,495.00!
Greetings,
1) A few minutes after I sent last week's newsletter off to Flying Blind, LLC, in came the news that JFW version 12 is now a full public release, out of Beta. This version includes a Text Analyzer feature to help find format inconsistencies in Word documents, improved support for web pages written in ARIA, a more efficient Settings Center, and support for fully operating in contracted braille.
2) As he has done for the last several versions, Jamal Mazrui has created a comprehensive text archive of the documentation for JFW 12.
3) The latest Tech Doctor podcast features an interview with Larry Skutchan of American Printing House for the Blind about the past, present and future of adaptive technology.
4) National Braille Press and student teams at Bentley University are conducting research into the use of assistive technologies - specifically, notetaking devices - by visually impaired and blind individuals. The survey consists of thirteen questions and should take only a few minutes to complete.
5) The seventeenth game in the Blind Gamers series from Ian Humphreys is BG Brainiac, Spoonbill Software's version of a game you may know as Concentration. It is blind accessible but graphics allow sighted players to play along with blind players. email requesting BG Brainiac and Ian will send you the download link.
6) The next two weeks on Tek Talk will be the annual Stocking Stuffers programs. Each week, sellers of some low-tech products of potential interest to the blind will discuss their products. The first installment is GMT Tuesday, 2 November at 00:00.
7) HIMS manufactures the Sense line of notetakers and reading devices. They have ended their working relationship with Gw Micro and have opened their own office in Austin, Texas.
8) in SeroTalk Podcast 53, we learn about Tech News, bluetooth Keyboards, iDocks and iCases
9) Serotek Tech Chat 74 covers the Latest and Greatest Accessible iPhone Apps
10) The Gizmo team gives us a review of the Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service.
11) Fred's Head tells about The Will Creator, a site that claims to generate a legal will.
12) They also inform us about the free RadioSure player with some 10,000 stations you can listen to and record.
13) Chip Orange has added the same marking and text selection features now available in JFW 12 to his Window-Eyes Microsoft Word script. Now users can mark a place in a document without altering the document, can navigate to another location, and easily select text between the mark and the new location. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 280 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 280 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote QT 32 for USD $3,495.00!
Greetings,
1) According to the 20 October, 2010 posting to the Access Technology Blog, the National Federation of the Blind has evaluated the Desire2Learn Learning Environment version 9.0.1 and found it to be fully accessible for instructors and students.
2) Exploring Microsoft Word 20076 with JAWS by Tony Frazer is now available from National Braille Press in electronic braille, text, large print or paper braille for $10.
3) New drivers supporting all current BAUM and Humanware Bluetooth and USB braille displays that comply with Freedom Scientific's Digital Driver Signing initiative have been released, so these displays will now work with current versions of JAWS. You can get the driver at
4) Until the end of December, you can buy a Victor Reader Stream for $359and get the SoftPak, which ordinarily costs $49, for free. The SoftPak includes support for unprotected EPUB books, MP3 and WAV recording, support for unprotected MP4 Audio Files, support for Audible Enhanced books and support for Microsoft Word 2007 Docx documents.
5) A quick glance through the recent bargains pages at BlindBargains.com will reveal several good deals on different accessible cell phones.
6) To celebrate White Cane Day in Poland, the makers of Ivona Accessibbility are discounting the package by ten dollars or six euros for the next week. The package includes high-quality American and British English voices and a text reading program. the package comes with the screen reader NVDA pre-configured, and some proceeds from the sale go to support development of NVDA. Use promo code 2B8LW3 online to get the discount.
7) Beta 3 of JAWS version 12 is ready for testing.
8) The September, 2010 edition of FSCast from Freedom Scientific features information about new features in the latest version of the Pac Mate and a demo of using the Focus 40 Blue braille display with the iPhone.
9) Over the last few days, contributors to AppleVis, the comprehensive site for news and reviews about accessible apps for Apple portable devices, have contributed accessibility reviews of these apps: Villains, HeyTell, IHeartRadio, posted Lite, go walkies for Guide Dogs (UK), Sun Compass for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone Ventafone,
10) Navegon is an accessible GPS app for the iPhone that is used by many blind owners. It will be the subject of discussion on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 26 October at 00:00. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 279 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 279 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents BrailleNote PKs!
Greetings,
1) The October, 2010 issue of AccessWorld from American Foundation for the Blind is available, including an introduction to Twitter, a comparison of two illuminated magnifiers, a guide to getting the most from the Vocational Rehabilitation system, and more.
2) For a bit of comedy, watch the Harry Potter-style battle between the synthesizers used by JAWS and NVDA on YouTube.
3) This Fred's Head post described a couple sources for educational videos.
4) In Android news, J.J. at BlindBargains has produced an audio demo of Intersection Explorer,and Adroid app that lets you virtually explore a map for orientation.
5) Here is an updated, admittedly incomplete,listing of accessible apps for Android phones.
6) Accessible Android is a blog detailing ways to use Android phones without vision.
7) Version 1.02 of the vOICe for Android is out, featuring an improved color identifier.
8) Moving on to window-Eyes script news, Jeff Weiss has written several games which are available as free scripts. They include Word Scramble, Play Back, Spelling Test, Lunar Lander, Mission Impossible and States.
9) Jeff has also upgraded his Text to Clip script to version 1.3. This script lets you collect blocks of text for later reuse.
10) Finally n this domain, Gw Micro staff tries to help those switching from JAWS to Window-Eyes with JAWS Quick Key. You turn on Quick Key mode, then press the JAWS keys you know and are told the equivalent Window-Eyes hotkeys for them.
11) Gizmo has updated his list of Best FreeOnline Backup Sites. Both the article and the subsequent comments are interesting.
12) Another article from that site teaches us How to Repair Corrupt or Damaged Windows System Files
13) And another one presents 13 Laptop Security Tips
14) RoboBraille, the European site that lets you email files for translation to braille or conversion to audio, now accepts scanned images and some other image formats for conversion.
15) How to is a UK site containing a growing number of free e-books providing information on a wealth of topics.
16) Serotalk Podcast 52 gives us the tech news of the week and an interview with a blind couple raising twins.
17) Accessibility reviews of Aqualung, TotalRecorder version 7/8, Non-Visual Desktop Access version 2010, Chit Chat for Facebook version 1.41, Google Chrome version 7x Dev Branch, DECTalk Demo version 4.64, FonixTalk Demo version 6.1, XMPlay version 3.5.1, and foobar2000 version 1.1 have been added to the Access Watch database.
18) EASI presents Moodle, Desire2Learn, Sakai and Blackboard accessibility, A Four-part fee-based Webinar Series on the Accessibility of Learning Management Systems, Oct. 19, 26 and Nov. 2 9 at18:00 GMT. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 278 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 278 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One Zoom-Ex Portable Scan, Read, Magnification System for US$1,595.00!!!
Greetings,
1) "Let Technology Help You Get Organized" is the next Technology workshop at the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Saturday, 22 October, 20:00 GMT. The workshop will cover notetakers, barcode scanners, money identifiers, OCR and digital recorders. Participate in person, by phone or online. Register at
2) Freedom Scientific has reduced the price of the Pac Mate Omni by $900 and released version 6.5, which includes support for RealSpeak voices, enhanced DAISY book support and other improvements.
3) We often list programs written by Jamal Mazrui in this newsletter. Now Jamal has put links to all his programs on one page.
4) US residents have now until 15 October to file their viewpoints about accessible cell phones with the FCC. Comments can now be submitted via email. Jamal Mazrui has assembled an archive of relevant documents, available here:
5) The Gizmo site now includes Free 15-point Security Checklists, lists for PC users at home, PC users at the office, parents, children and young people, students and company bosses.
6) At the same site, we learn to Find Out Exactly What's on your PC Using a Hidden Windows Command
7) The first three of a series of tutorials featuring the new Book Port Plus are available in the American Printing House Webcast Archive.
8) The Migel Memorial Library is a large library of blindness-related resources. You can now search the catalog at
9) Serotek Tech Chat 71 tells us about This Month in Access Technology, September 2010
10) The Lions Center for the Blind in Oakland, California is seeking a computer >instructor/assistive technology specialist. For more information, or
11) Facebook is seeking an experienced User Interface Engineer to address accessibility issues. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 277 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 277 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote PK for USD $2,000.00!
Greetings,
1) The saga of Blio continues. Blio is the reading system that has been promised with much fanfare for several months. Now it has been released, but the version that is said to work with screen readers is not due until October.
2) The Samsung Haven, the fully accessible phone from Verizon, will be the topic for Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 4 October at 00:00.
3) Speaking of that phone, the podcast that introduces and explains it has been updated.
4) The second public beta of JAWS version 12 is out, featuring some improved performance on some flash pages and many bug fixes.
5) Directions for Me, from Horizons for the Blind, will provide a consistent, quality source of complete packaging information for everything from preparation instructions to ingredient lists to Nutrition Facts labels for many common grocery, health and beauty products.
6) There is a brand new Tech Doctor podcast called "Women In Technology" at
7) "Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic - the Latest News" will be a webinar on Wednesday, 6 October at 19:00 GMT. Register here:
8) Ricky Enger from Serotek has written a thorough accessibility review of the Kindle 3 with recommendations for future development.
9) SeroTalk Podcast 51 covers the Keurig Coffee maker, $99 Audio Recorder and $4.99 iPhone GPS App
10) Fred's Head reminds us about Sight Exchange, where you can give away blindness-related items and receive such items. the group is on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to the mailing list by sending a blank message to |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 276 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 276 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote PK for USD $2,000.00!
Greetings,
1) SeroTalk Tech Chat 69 discussed Handheld and Portable Video Magnifiers
2) The September 20, 2010 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog reviews the Dice HD Radio.
3) "Apple Pickin’ Time: What’s New In iOS4.1" is the latest Tech Doctor podcast, as Robert Carter interviews Anna Dresner to discuss the latest Apple operating system.
4) Anna will be the guest on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 28 September to discuss new features of Audible.
5) Stevie Wonder discusses the negative effects of the current copyright law toward the blind and disabled to a UN committee on this video.
6) The Microsoft Word script for Window-Eyes has been updated to permit better navigation between pages.
7) Sendero LookAround is a $4.99 iPhone app that gives limited information about a user's surroundings. Its sales will help the company decide if it wants to write more detailed apps for this platform.
8) Freedom Scientific has openings for tech support specialists, both at the Florida headquarters and by contract with the option of working from a distant location. those interested should email a resume to Bryan Carver |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 275 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 275 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote PK for USD $2,000.00!
Greetings,
1) The Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco offers its next technology event, a Braille Notetakers Interactive Workship, Saturday, 25 September from 17:00-19:00 GMT. You can participate live at
2) The next version of the free screen reader NVDA is now in beta test, and testers are welcome to try it out and report bugs. Notable features of NVDA 2010.2 include greatly simplified object navigation; virtual buffers for Adobe Flash content; access to many previously inaccessible controls by retrieving text written to the screen; flat review of screen text; support for IBM Lotus Symphony documents; reporting of table row and column headers in Mozilla Firefox; and significantly improved user documentation.
3) If you're frustrated because Window-Eyes Browse Mode Reloads when Typing in Edit Boxes, you can grab the latest Gw Micro script, Enhanced Auto Load 1.0
4) The Braille Sense OnHand is a $4,995 notetaker with 18 braille cells a built-in compass and GPS receiver. It is shipping now.
5) FreedomScientific announces the release of a free upgrade to MAGic version 11 that allows for true dual-monitor support, allowing two programs to be simultaneously displayed and magnified on two monitors.
6) This Fred's Head post discusses new accessibility initiatives by eBay and their partnership with the National Federation of the Blind to promote eBay as a viable platform for blind business owners.
7) The 15 September post to the NFB AccessTechnology Blog gives the technology team's rather unfavorable impression of the new Kindle.
8) Innovations, the weekly technology show on The Global Voice, is now available as a podcast.
9) Josh Kennedy has launched a podcast mostly devoted to demoing old software and hardware.
10) "How to get my child accessible textbooks", is a webinar from Bookshare to take place Wednesday, 22 September at 17:00 GMT. register at
11) A new version of the communication and networking system Klango is available with new features for Facebook users and many bug fixes.
12) Handy Tech North America is looking to hire a sales/customer service worker for their office in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. Email cover letter and resume to |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 274 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 274 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote PK for USD $2,000.00!
Greetings,
1) The Gizmo site now has a Tips section which seems to be receiving lots of new material
2) Submitting Comments to the FCC on Cell Phone Accessibility is the topic for SeroTalk Tech Chat 67:
3) SeroTalk Podcast 49 dealt with New Apple Products, Amazon Kindle 3 and Talking Android Phone
4) The crew at SerotTalk will enlarge on the theme of accessible Android phones in Tech Chat 68 on GMT Friday, 10 September at 01:00.
5) Speaking of accessible phones, a considerable breakthrough seems to have occurred at Verizon, where they have come out with the Samsung Heaven with full speech for all the phone's capabilities except e-mail and the web. It reads text messages, and can be had quite affordably. this is the link for a lengthy podcast demonstrating all the phone's features:
6) The public beta of JAWS version 12 is out, featuring contracted braille input, a new way of organizing JAWS settings, and a simplified and clarified ribbon bar for Microsoft Office.
7) Learn about what is new with Apple IOS4, and new things keep coming all the time, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 13 September at 00:00.
8) Shaun Everiss is preparing a podcast on the history of the talking book from its inception to the present. He is looking for information about players that have existed. If you have information or links to share with him, write to
9) A reader suggests that those looking for mobile phones for seniors and people with low vision check out Consumer Cellular, which resells Doro phones, said to be large-button, easy-to-use phones from Sweden. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 273 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 273 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote QT 32 for USD $3,495.00!
Greetings,
1) You can get the book Exploring Microsoft Word 2007 with JAWS for $10 in electronic or paper braille or text downloafd from National Braille Press.
2) BG Scrabble is the sixteenth free accessible game from Spoonbill Software. It allows up to four players. To request it, send e-mail to
3) The September, 2010 issue of AccessWorld is now available, offering articles concerning how to use Yahoo FrontPage, reviews of good and frustrating web sites, a comparison of the different players you can use to play DAISY books, and other articles.
4) This GW Micro blog post provides the company's responses to a set of questions regarding the future of screen readers during one of the US summer conventions.
5) The time for yet another new version of JAWS approaches, and in the official FSCast issue #45 they discuss what's coming in version 12.
6) The gang at Mushroom FM have produced a guide explaining how to listen to their station (and a lot of others too) on a variety of mobile devices.
7) Here is a detailed accessibility review of the Kindle d-book reader which has supposedly been made accessible to the blind.
8) A reader recommends the JustFreeBooks site for finding books:
9) Apple is hiring an Accessibility SoftwareQuality engineer |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 272 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 272 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One BrailleNote QT 32 for USD $3,495.00!
Greetings,
1) Making your voice heard by the FCC is the topic of the GMT Friday, 3 September SeroTalk Tech Chat. Darren Burton and Paul Schroeder from the American Foundation for the Blind will share important information about an opportunity for US residents to bring their concerns about cell phone accessibility directly to the FCC. They will share their perspectives and all the information needed to file comments directly with the Commission. The program airs live at 01:00 , at
2) What does it take to start your own Internet radio station? How does one go about putting it on the Net, and then how do you build and maintain an audience? If you've never broadcast before, should you take the plunge and start your own station, or should you go with an established operation? These and more like them are questions to be answered on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 31 August at 00:00.
3) David Bales' new guide to the windows 7 taskbar covers the Start menu, the taskbar buttons, and the notification area. It's written specifically for Jaws users, but most of it is relevant to users of other screen readers.
4) Visit the new home of Accessible Games today, and get any one of 10 great games for only $9.99!
5) Keith Hinton will be publishing Window-Eyes related thoughts and questions in his new blog.
6) This Fred's Head post offers some sources for buying college textbooks for less.
7) This one is called How to Add Your Facebook Stream to Windows Live Messenger
8) Those of you in the market for a new range, DVD player or dishwasher may be interested to know that the National Federation of the Blind has just updated the Usable Consumer Electronics list, which lists a variety of easy-to-adapt mainstream appliances and devices. The list describes the product interface, and what makes it usable to blind consumer, as well as giving model numbers to make it easier to find the device in question. More generally, the list will help consumers identfiy what brands and what product lines are likely to be workable. We hope it's helpful!
9) The NfB Access Technology Blog post on August 16, 2010 offers a review of the BrailleTec BTec 100
10) They've started a new Tech Tips section at the Gizmo site. Among the first tips are - An Unusual Way to Reduce Windows Boot Time, Quick Ways to Shut Down Windows, How to Manage Flash Cookies, Shortcuts for Hibernating Windows, How to View and Clear the Cache in the Google Chrome Browser
11) Browsing the web using an alternative DNS server has advantages. this one unearthed by the Gizmo editor has security advantages. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 271 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 271 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One ALVA 570 Satellite for USD $4,500.00!
Greetings,
For a long time, I had a low-cost service where I sold a package of 50 audio articles for $9.00. I ended up finishing around 35 of the articles and didn't continue with the project, Hence, I'm making all the material available to everybody. Though much of the material is dated, some of it is still useful. So if you want to listen to any of the Sound Computing articles, just go to
1) Code Factory has created a new YouTube video of MobileSpeak 4.5 with a Nokia X6 to demo some of the advanced features of the new touch modes in MobileSpeak:
2) Because many people seem to find this aspect of iPhone use challenging, I have created a 24-minute audio tutorial on arranging apps on your home screen, creating folders, and the like. It has been submitted to the Blind Cool Tech podcast, but in the meantime you can download it here:
3) Learn about two new products, the Bay Area Digital Internet Radio, and the Pronto braille and speech notetaker, sold by Bay Area Digital, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 24 August at 00:00.
4) GW Micro has produced what they're called Window-Eyes 7.2 Refresh, which fixes a few bugs using the Thunderbird e-mail client, the start-up process for windows Vista and windows 7, some difficulties faced by participants in the Pay to Own program, and some lesser bugs as well.
5) Serotalk Podcast 48brings us lots of different tech news as well as features on Two Bluetooth Keyboards, Apple Magic Trackpad and More
6) Jamal Mazrui has released another useful program, Encoding, which lets you view or change the system used to encode a document. If you work with documents in different languages or created in different operating systems, it could be useful.
7) We announced this ages ago, but the product wasn't really out then. Now Freedom Scientific is shipping OpenBook 9, its newest version of the OCR program, which can be bought with the Pearl Portable Reading Camera.
8) This Fred's Head post is called Talk to Your Friends on Facebook From Windows Live Messenger |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 270 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 270 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents One ALVA 544 Satellite for USD $2,600.00!
Greetings,
1) The August, 2010 issue of Access World is now available, containing an article on technology policy, a guide to choosing notetakers and other portable devices, a review of the NLS digital book player, and more.
2) Chip Orange has written a two-part article for the Gw Micro Wiki on how to write a Window-Eyes script. Since this is a wiki, the articles are subject to revision and improvement by anybody in the community. Part one is here:
3) Importing contacts into the Sense notetakers from a CSV file is a Gw Micro knowledgebase articdle that has been updated with examples of the process to follow to accomplish this.
4) There is finally a good and accessible hd radio available in the US, and you can hear about it on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 17 August at 00:00.
5) A rapidly-growing community resource where people describe accessible apps for the iPhone, iTouch and IPad is AppleVis.
6) The b-t-r mailing list has been created for discussions about the Total Recorder program which allows for recording of streaming audio and Skype conversations. The list is on yahoogroups. To join send a blank message to
7) "Apple Accessibility: What Does It Mean?" is a presentation Robert Carter made at the recent ACB convention. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 269 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 269 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) This Youtube video from Code Factory seeks to show that with Mobile Speak 4.5 using a touch screen becomes as easy as using a phone with physical keys.
2) Here is a YouTube video showing how to pair the APH Refresh-a-Braille display with an iPhone or iPod Touch.
3) The creator of that last video. Chase Crispin, has launched a mailing list for comparing all the digital book players on the market. To join, send a blank message to
4) Back to the iPhone, Serotek Tech Chat 66 poses the question: Is the iPhone 4 Worth the Upgrade?
5) SeroTalk Podcast 47 brings us the Latest A T and Tech News
6) The 30 July, 2010 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog provides links for listening to the Apple Audio Seminar and the eBay seminar at the recent National Convention.
7) A couple weeks ago we mentioned the digit-Eyes audio labeling system, an iPhone app that both reads commercial barcodes and lets you label your own items inexpensively. This app will be the topic of Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 10 August at 00:00.
8) Handy Tech North America has decided to clear out their stock of about 60 iBill US bank note identifiers for only $95.00 including shipping. This device has been well received. To see if there are any of these left at this price, e-mail
9) From Gizmo: Free Audio Books Online
10) And also, Free Training Manuals for MS Office 2003 and 2007, from a commercial site that now gives these older version manuals away.
11) The Gizmo team is looking for reviewers of free software. It might be interesting for somebody so inclined to seek to do accessibility reviews.
12) Blind With Camera School of Photography is a virtual school with step-by-step tutorials for the visually impaired to get started with photography and guidance to sighted photographers for starting photographic workshops with local visually impaired people.
13) BlindBargains.com and 7-128 Software combine to offer lower prices on some of 7-128's games. The company has also added SAPI speech to their games.
14) National Braille Press now has Windows 7 and Vista Explained: A Guide for Blind and Partially Sighted Users By Dr. Sarah Morley Wilkins and Steve Griffiths in various versions including one with tactile diagrams.
15) E.J. Zufelt will present a webinar on Aug. 10 on planning and purchasing an accessible web-site, along with Mike Gifford, CEO of OpenConcept Consulting in Ottawa. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 268 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 268 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Learn about Skype version 4.2 and its accessibility on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 3 August at 00:00.
2) US residents who are not yet Bookshare members might want to take advantage of their offer in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Starting August 1 and running for three months, people can get a free member ship entitling them to 20 books during that period. If they opt to become paying members, the $25 setup fee will be waived.
3) This Fred's Head post is entitled Online Hindi Audio books and E Books for free download
4) Bookshare - ClassMate Reader Download Training 101 will be a free webinar on Tuesday, 10 August at 16:00 GMT. Pre-registration is required.
5) The Limelighter is a $3,995 low-vision music reading device from Dancing Dots that enables people with low vision to read and mark up sheet music with varying magnification levels.
6) Disable Constant Refreshing While Typing Search Queries on Google's Webpage is a new article on the Gw Micro Knowledgebase.
7) A reader recommends Xmarks, Bookmark Sync and Search site |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 267 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 267 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents 1 Gently Used Eye-Pal SOLO for $1,550.00
Greetings,
1) If you are eligible for Bookshare and haven't been keeping up with the collection, you will find that they have added hundreds of computer-related publications. Those from oReilly Books may be available to users in Canada, Great Britain and India.
2) NFB-Newsline has recently released Podable News, which allows subscribers to download MP3 files of publications and their individual sections, so that they can cobble together a publication tailored to their interests, containing just the preferred sections from different publications. These files are downloaded automatically with free Newsline software, and can be played on the computer (with a media player such as Winamp), copied to an MP3-playing device such as the IPod, or downloaded to some digital talking-book players. More information about Podable News may be found at
3) Here's a source for some free video lectures of university classes:
4) Chip Orange has updated his Window-Eyes scripts for Microsoft Office so that they will work with Office 2010.
5) Ian Humphreys has released BG Crossword Puzzle, his fifteenth accessible game. You can read about it here:
6) David Bales has written another of his free guides, this one discusses how to use Windows Explorer under windows 7. While specifically written for JAWS users, almost all of it applies to users of other screen readers.
7) This Fred's Head post discusses an accessible way to stream Sirius-XM Radio using VoiceOver
8) With the ongoing increase in blind iPhone ownership, we'll be mentioning accessible apps that might be of interest to many. Here's a post about an app that lets you print from your iPhone as well as transfer files to and from your computer.
9) We have yet to mention the digit-Eyes audio labeling system. This iPhone app will cost $29.95 until July 31. It lets you create audio or text labels so that you can use your phone to identify all manner of products. It also reads millions of commercial bar codes from many countries.
10) Speaking of the iPhone, if you find all these different i-gadgets a little confusing, which does what and which might you want, then listen to Anna Dresner on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 27 July at 00:00.
11) The deadline for applications for this terms courses in the Cisco Academy for the Visually Impaired is almost upon us. If you have good computer and internet skills, and are interested in learning about Building, Maintaining, and troubleshooting PCs or Networks
12) The American Printing House for the Blind is considering making Readers's Digest and Newsweek available for free download. Here is a link to a survey you can complete to show any interest you may have in this idea:
13) Viapple-voiceover is a new mailing list on googlegroups for discussing all aspects of VoiceOver on the Apple.
14) SeroTalk podcast 46 features some interviews from the ACB convention with providers we haven't heard much from before.
15) The editor at Gizmo has updated Probably the Best Free Security List in the World
16) Another article that has received an update is Free Collection of Audio and Video Converters
17) I have no idea if this technique is accessible (let us know if you try it) but here's a Gizmo article entitled An Easy Way to Connect to Any PC Remotely
18) Finally, while we're at it, Here's one called Tips and Tricks to Make Full Use of Favorite Links |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 266 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 266 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: E-Blink Showcase Presents 1 Refurbished Brailliant 40 for US$1,895.00
Greetings,
1) Thunder was perhaps the first free non-Internet-dependent screen reader. Development on it continues with version 2, which works with Windows 7 and Office 2007, and now supports Internet Explorer. the portable version can be installed on any computer. Greek, Polish and Spanish versions are coming. You can visit the blog at
2) Cobra, a screen reader from Baum in Germany, is now at version 9. It claims great stability, use of OCR to access otherwise inaccessible screen elements, and a more reasonable price, 499 euros, or some $625. A 30-minute demo version is available, and it offers speech-braille, speech-magnifier, or full configuration versions.
3) If you have, or are willing to sign up for, a Windows Live or Hotmail account, you can get 25 GB of free online storage through Microsoft SkyDrive. Gizmo tells us of a freer utility to make your SkyDrive show up as a regular drive on your computer, for easy data transfer.
4) Listen to yours truly discuss the current accessibility, promise and challenges of speech recognition such as Windows Speech Recognition and Dragon Naturally Speaking, for the blind, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 20 July at 00:00.
5) On the speech recognition front, JSay version 8 is now available. This package integrates JAWS version 11 with Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1, and offers full compatibility with Windows 7 32 and 64-bit versions and with all JAWS features including ResearchIt.
6) The July, 2010 issue of AccessWorld from American Foundation for the Blind is now available, featuring reviews of the iPad, Refresh-a-Braille, I-Pal Solo and I-Pal LV, several articles about access technology in school, and more.
7) Members of the free Klango network who are members of Facebook have access to a Facebook client which is said to be much more accessible than the usual one.
8) Here is a YouTube video showing Window-Eyes' support forr Office 2010.
9) Serotek offers 20 interviews with vendors at the American Council of the Blind convention:
10) Humanware has announced the availability of Map Manager 2.0.9 and Trekker Maps 3.2 for the Trekker and Trekker Breeze. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 265 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 265 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) You can learn about new tech developments in general and particularly those seen at the NFB Convention on Serotek Podcast #45
2) This page is entitled"CD/DVD -R +R RW – what does it all mean"
3) Fred's Head directs us to the free PDF Accessibility Checker which cheks fourteen accessibility criteria within PDF documents.
4) Here's a post from Gizmo describing a utility that lets you retrieve software installation keys on your computer.
5) A new mailing list called audio-tech is a good place to ask questions about mp3 players, mobile phones, iPods and similar devices. To join, send a blank message to
6) Do you ever find yourself wishing you could tell the world about something you now use and can't imagine living without? If so, you can tell the world about it on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 13 July at 00:00. You can send a recording to have played during the show, but you should be available to answer questions. To have your product presentation accepted, e-mail Bob Acosta
7) Accessibility reviews of window-eyes version 7.2, acefire version 1.3, pop peaper version 3.2, google gmail notifier version 1, and qwitter version 4.0.2 have been added to the AccessWatch database.
8) The game site Blind Adrenaline, catering to blind and sighted card players , is celebrating its first anniversary by giving everybody a free month of play during July.
9) Blindvoip is a new mailing list on the Freelists system for discussing use of Voice Over Internet telephoning by the blind to make inexpensive phone calls. Put the word 'subscribe' in the subject line of a message to
10) GW Micro announces the release of Sense Navigation version 2010, allowing Sense notetaker users the ability to optimize their travel experience with new maps, enhanced address searching, a history list, and much more. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 264 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 264 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) The latest NFB - Technology Resource List is available.
2) Gizmo tells about about Pen Suites, collections of apps run from a "pen" or "thumb" drive. Here are some especially useful collections:
3) The Gizmo team also tells us about A Great Anti-Keylogger for Free
4) Chip Orange has written Window-Eyes scripts for the Windows Speech Recognition module in Windows Vista or Windows 7. These scripts, along with the free WSR macros, have the potential to give Window-Eyes users nearly the same level of hands-free computer control afforded by JSay for JAWS users, but at no cost.
5) FSCast Issue 43 from Freedom Scientific concerns their Vision Awareness Days and the accounting package Accomplish Cashmanager whose developer has worked to ensure its accessibility with JAWS.
6) Serotalk Tech Chat 64 is about What's New in Microsoft Office 2010
7) On SeroTalk Podcast 44 we learn about iOS4 Enhancements, Tech News, and the Latest on Mobile Devices
8) The 30 June 2010 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog gives resources to accompany the Apple Macintosh and Mobile Accessibility sessions at National Convention. The 22 June post gives their impression of IOS4, the latest upgrade to the iPhone.
9) Sendero Group announces Sendero Maps, Accessible Talking Maps for the Windows PC. The program lets you create and follow a route to a destination, exploring intersection by intersection, and learn about millions of points of interest. The program price ranges from $395 to free, depending on what other Sendero programs you have purchased.
10) This archive of some 30 documents contains accessibility guides and research studies from microsoft.com.
11) Victor Reader Stream and SAMNet Content from Serotek will be the topic of a Webinar on GMT Friday, 2 July at 01:00. Stream users can now easily access SamNet content.
12) Reigel Technology offers these $75 trainings, each from 21:00-23:00 GMT on the appointed day: Windows Live, Tuesday, 13 July; Accessible PDF Creation, Tuesday, 27 July; Internet Explorer 8, Thursday, 12 August; NVDA Free Screen Reader, Tuesday 23 August. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 263 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 263 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) GW Micro has created BookSense Buddy, a program to make it easy to transfer documents to the BookSense.
2) Jamal Mazrui has converted and assembled a collection of 350 files related to the GNU/Linux operating system and applications. The files are in either html or structured text
3) You can get a thorough VB.net 2008 And Windoweyes Tutorial, again written by Jamal, here
4) Learn about the iPad on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 29 June at 00:00.
5) Learn about online dating for the blind and low vision and how adaptive technology, such as mobile apps, can help bridge the distance between those in the singles arena on Saturday 26 June at 17:00 GMT. This will be the latest episode of The Secret Life of Mark Marcus talk show.
6) This Fred's Head post is called "Tired of Windows Update Nagging? Tell Windows to Leave You Alone!"
7) This one is called "Microsoft Tool Helps Developers Create Programs Viewable by the Visually Impaired"
8) If you want to learn to use VoiceOver and the Mac, you can buy the Mac Academy Workbook and Study Guide from HandyTech for $75 on cd.
9) Kathy Ann Murtha sells her three-hour seminar on What's New in Word and Outlook 2010 for $150, and will answer buyers' questions.
10) This Fred's Head posting is called Add Universal Keyboard Shortcuts to Windows Media Player.
11) This one, from Gizmo, is called "Free Acronis Drive Monitor Warns You Of Impending Hard Drive Failure".
12) And this one is "Updated: Gizmo's Freeware Spyware Removal Guide"
13) Hopefully, this is accessible: "This Top Windows Tweak Tool is Now Free"
14) A new version 1.83 of The vOICe Learning Edition is available. The program allows you to understand pictures as sound patterns. The executable can be downloaded from the direct URL:
15) Here is a podcast on using the Miranda insteant message client with Window-Eyes 7.2.
16) Mark Taylor will be busy on Saturday, 26 June, as he announces a second talk show, "Taking Calls on Mobile GEO 2.5" at 19:00 GMT.
17) ABISee, Inc. will give a $500 Compaq Presario Notebook, while supplies last, to anybody who buys their portable low-vision reading device, the Zoom-Twix, by the end of July. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 262 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 262 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) The Mac-cessibility Network is a good site to follow for news about all things Apple and accessibility.
2) Apple announces the Release of Mac OS X 10.6.4 with Braille Display Improvements and more.
3) From Fred's Head, we learn of a site that lets you look up products on Amazon by size to see if they fit your space.
4) This Fred's Head post is called "Burn CD Images with ISOBuddy".
5) Tek Talk will feature the latest about the Victor Reader Stream, on GMT Tuesday 22 June at 00:00.
6) Jamal Mazrui has updated his JAWS scripts for the Thunderbird e-mail client to version 2.6. These scripts come highly recommended and make Thunderbird a viable e-mail program to use for JAWS users.
7) Humanware announces a free upgrade for BrailleNote Apex and mPower users: KeySoft 9.0.2 for BrailleNote Apex and KeySoft 8.0 build 21 for mPower.
8) Kathy Ann Murtha is holding a $150 three-hour seminar on What's New in Microsoft Word and Outlook 2010 on GMT Monday, 21 June at 23:00
9) The recent online Book Sense seminar is now available for download.
10) GW Micro announces that the price of the Portable SenseView magnifier has just dropped $100 to $695!
11) The Floss manuals site contains 49 manuals for different programs and projects, including Firefox and Audacity as well as many I've never heard of. Jamal Mazrui has converted the manuals on the site to text and put all the manuals into an archive.
12) The Equipment Solutions Specialist Team at Vision Australia have begun producing podcasts. they have two series so far:using Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) with VoiceOver
13) GW Micro has reduced the price of the Voice Sense to $1,995. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 261 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 261 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) You can download Freedom SScientific FSCast #42, where you can learn about dual monitor support in MAGic and about the Dropbox site for backing up and syncing files.
2) From the Access India list comes news of a podcast on proofreading.
3) Rigen Technology offers a 32-hour Office Skills class and a 14-hour Web Development course.
4) Gizmo brings us news of a free utility to create bootable USB drives which is supposed to work in Windows as well as Linux.
5) The Gizmo team has also updated their choices for Best Free Audio / Video Format Conversion Program
6) The 3 June, 2010 issue of windows Secrets leads off with Five small and essential apps to armor your PC
7) The Cisco Academy for the Visually Impaired is offering three $500 classes to start in July; classes are self-paced and discounts and scholarships are said to be available ITE1 is an introduction to PC repair including: Hardware, installing and maintaining an operating system, Troubleshooting, portable devices, and customer service. Discovery 1 is focused on home and small business networking. It is the first of four courses that prepare students to take the CCNA certification. Exploration is a more in depth look at networking, both theoretical and practical for those students who wish to really get their hands into building and designing networks. More information can be had by e-mail at caviinfo@gmail.com or at the newly-designed website:
8) SeroTalk Podcast #43 discusses all the news about the upcoming iPhone release with its new accessibility features and lots of other news.
9) For a long time, the Jawslite mailing list was a good source for getting help and sharing information about JAWS. The original list is no more, but a new one has been formed. To join, write to: |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 260 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 260 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) The Applian Technologies for Blind Users site was created by an enthusiastic user of these recording product for Windows pc's.
2) Jonathan Mosen and Brian Hartgen have developed The Mushroom FM Fun guys Guide to Internet Broadcasting. This is a three-hour 20-minute audio tutorial that will help get prospective broadcasters up and running with all the necessary tools. It is free and available in DAISY and mp3. Choose the Become a Presenter link here:
3) HandyTech has re-launched the Mobile Access Payment program whereunder U.S. residents can buy Code Factory software such as Mobile Speak and Mobile Geo on one-year interest-free contracts.
4) Mark Taylor will present a Code Factory live broadcast on Mobile Geo 2.5 on GMT Saturday, 5 June at 17:00.
5) This Fred's Head post is entitled "What is Computer Vision Syndrome?"
6) The Tech Doctor podcast begins a series entitled "Windows 7 and Mac OS X: A Head to Head Comparison"
7) If you have to use sharepoint at all, here's an excellent article outlining strategies for using SharePoint with a screen reader
8) The .NET framework is an accessible system both for those wishing to write programs and for those running those programs. Jamal Mazrui has written gotNET to help developers help those running their programs ensure that the necessary version of the free .NET framework is installed on their system.
9) EASI will have free webinars in June regarding hardware DAISY players and the PDF Accessibility Wizard.
10) Vinux is Linux for the visually impaired, based on Ubuntu 10.04 - Lucid Lynx. It includes a screen reader, screen magnifiers and support for USB braille displays. 11) Rigel Technology offers three of its two-hour, $70 trainings during June. These can usually be purchased for the same price on cd if you can't attend in person. All start at 21:00 GMT: Tuesday 8 June: Google This; Thursday 17 June: Dropbox 499; Tuesday 22 June: Microsoft Office 2010. The only way to register for these appears to be by phone at (888) 723-5011 Ext. 1
12) From Gizmo: You can easily create your own customized program launcher just by making smart use of inbuilt Windows features. This two minute tutorial shows you how.
13) These next few Gizmo items are for the more technically inclined: New Free Sysinternals Tool: RAMMap
14) Find Out What's Been Causing Your PC to Crash
15) Blue Screen of Death Survival Guide: Every Error Explained
16) US owners of the Book Sense can take part in a free 1-hour training on downloading NLS books and placing them on the device. The training will bake place Thursday, June 10 at 11:00 A.M. EDT, 8 A.M. PDT. To register, e-mail jeremy@gwmicro.com placing "BookSense Training Registration" in the subject. The training will afterward be available at:
17) The article "Browse Mode restarting when performing a Google search in Firefox" has been added to the Gw Micro knowledge base.
18) Tobi version 1.0, the DAISY Consortium's open source multimedia production tool, is now available. Tobi produces full-text full-audio Digital Talking Books in the DAISY 3 (ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2005) format. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 259 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 259 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Several intriguing posts from Gizmo this time. Here's an article about a free privacy settings scanner for FaceBook.
2) As always with info from Gizmo, accessibility of the subject matter is unknown, but here's one called "Free Programs to View or Edit Very Large Text Files"
3) And here's "4 Killer Gmail Features You Might Not Know About"
4) Another one: "A Brilliant Way to Organize a Meeting or Activity Online"
5) Finally, we bring you "The Worlds' Best List of Online Applications"
6) The 14 May, 2010 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog gives the editor's First Impressions of the ViewPlus Premier 100 braille embosser.
7) The next Lighthouse Technology Seminar will be Friday, 11 June at 20:00GMT, Apple Products and Accessibility. They aren't allowed to stream this one online, but you can take part via conference call. You can find out how to do that by RSVPing
8) Various changes are happening with the Victor Reader Stream. Version 3.2 of its firmware supports Russian, Brazilian Portuguese and Belgian Dutch. Version 3.2 of the Stream Companion software, also compatible with the Classmate, allowing transfer of pdf files as text and doc files as html, and allowing you to back up and restore your sd card. Information about those upgrades is here:
9) National Braille Press brings us Using the Accessible iPod: iTunes 9 Edition, available in braille, text, or DAISY for $15.
10) Loadstone GPS for Symbian phones, version 0.73 is now released.
11) SeroTalk Tech Chat 63 discusses Differences Between Windows and Macs, with two users sharing their likes and dislikes in several areas of working with both systems.
12) In SeroTalk Podcast 42 Mike Calvo Rants and we hear some Tech News and Two Product Reviews
13) This Fred's Head post is entitled How to Conquer Assistive Technology Barriers for Low-Tech Parents
14) Here's information about a freeware program that helps you Recover Lost Router Passwords
15) Finally from Fred's Head, this article discusses how Website Developers Can Use Accessible Text CAPTCHAs
16) As a practical example of this latter innovation, those blind users who can't resist buying in-flight WiFi service on those flights that offer it may be able to use it now thanks to the fact that the service provided by Aircell now offers this type of CAPTCHA in addition to its inaccessible visual one.
17) Winamp scripts for Window-Eyes are now at version 3, with several additions. most notably the ability to choose a soundcard to use when Winamp is launched.
18) Mobile Geo version 2.5 is available, including Support for 2010 Maps and POIs, Manual Route Creation, Address Search by Zip Code and More |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 258 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 258 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Learn about new Open Book 9 OCR software and the nbew PEARL camera for fast scanning on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 25 May at 00:00.
2) A set of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the subject of software development by people who are blind or visually impaired is being compiled. The first version has been written by Jamal Mazrui and can be had here:
3) Non-Visual Desktop Access version 2010, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware version 1.44 and Accessible Pdf have been added to the Accesswatch review system
4) A visually impaired programmer who uses asp.net has prepared tutorials which can be had at
5) HumanWare offers trade-ins of other notetakers besides their own for people who want to acquire an Apex, at least in the US. For information, write to
6) This Fred's Head post is called "Shopping for unique gift items?" and contains many resources.
7) SeroTalk Tech Chat 62 is entitled "Viewing Tv Through Your Pc or Mac. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 257 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 257 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) The topic for SeroTalk Tech Chat 61 was The iPad, Tool or Toy?
2) SeroTalk Podcast 41 gave us Latest Tech News, a discussion of MLB At Bat App for the iPhone and iPad, and Getting Started with System Access and SAMNet
3) This Fred's Head post, from WikiHow, is entitled How to Defend Against Cybercrime on Social Networks
4) This one discusses the exciting fact that Over 1 Million Digital Books are Now Available Free from the Internet Archive
5) And this one is entitled UK Service TextMagic Makes Texting Your Friends as Easy as Sending Email
6) Gizmo brings us an article entitled This Free WiFi Network Finder is Easy to Use and Very Powerful
7) The May, 2010 issue of AccessWorld contains reviews of accessibility for Android and Blackberry phones, first impressions of the iPad, an update on home appliance accessibility, and more.
8) On Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 18 May at 00:00, (Monday evening Stateside,) you can learn about two products from Franklin: the Franklin Bill Reader and the Speaking Language Master Special Edition.
9) Google has evolved sufficiently and added enough new features to warrant a new and revised edition of Google It! A Guide to the World's Most Popular Search Engine by Jonathan Mosen with Anna Dresner from National Braille Press. It costs $14 in braille or electronic editions.
10) T&T Consultancy Ltd announces the 3.1 version of its JTools add-on which brings enhanced functionality for JAWS users of the latest JAWS upgrade. This upgrade brings full windows 7 compatibility, more support for TWInbox, and enhancements to other features.
11) EASI will present a Free Webinar: Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Section 508, on Monday, 24 May at 18:00 GMT. Register in advance at
12) Humanware announces the availability of the BrailleNote Apex 18, an 18-cell version of the new light and powerful incarnation of the BrailleNote.
13) Sarah Alawami has produced some introductory tutorials on Skype version 4.
14) Jonathan Mosen, Brian Hartgen, Jeff Bishop and several others have banded together to staff a new Internet radio station, MushroomFM, calling itself "The Home of the Fun Guys." |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 256 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 256 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Here is a summary of online information about audio-described movies, as offered by the Media Access Group at WGBH: this new sitelists DVS movies available on DVD as well as listing all movies that have ever been described:
2) Learn about products from Prodigy Diabetes Care, including their newly-improved Count-a-Dose and their exciting plans for the future, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 11 May at 00:00.
3) Here's a Fred's Head post entitled Find Deals without All the Browsing that gives tips for finding good deals on Amazon and eBay.
4) SeroTalk Podcast 40 covers a variety of news items and gives an explanation of XP Mode for Windows 7
5) Gizmo has updated its Best Freeware List in the World
6) I don't know about accessibility here, but this Gizmo post tells of a free program that lets you Edit or Share Google Docs Files from within Microsoft Office.
7) The 4 May, 2010 post on the NFB - Access Technology Blog is entitled iPad First Look
8) FSCast for April, 2010features the forthcoming Open Book 9 with its Pearl camera, and a discussion of the Focus 40 Blue braille display.
9) Jamal Mazrui has consolidated much of his programming effort into a package for developrs of applications called the Homer Application Framework. It is designed to make it easy for developers to build sophisticated applications with a graphical user interface (GUI), and for end users to benefit from the friendliness and power of those applications.
10) You can download audio and PowerPoint from a Gw Micro webinar on how to use NFB NEWSLINE with the BookSense
11) GW Micro announces the availability of Window-Eyes version 7.2, with support for the forthcoming Microsoft Office 2010 and other enhancements including faster loading of listviews.
12) American Printing House will conduct three webcasts to provide introductory instruction in the Book Port Plus during May. They will take place Friday 7, Thursday 13 and Tuesday 18 May, all at 16:00 GMT. More advanced topics will be covered during June webinars. Space is limited, but these will be archived. To register, e-mail
13) Microsoft has a page of various education competencies. Each competency is taught using self-study questions and resources.
14) Version 1.2 of the GPS device Trekker Breeze is available, featuring more accurate positioning, better voices and the ability to navigate to points of interest. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 255 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 255 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) We haven't directed you to the Ranger Station blog for a good while, mostly because the good Ranger is tweeting much more now; ranger1138 is probably worth following on Twitter if you are so inclined. But he did blog recently, and offers a balanced perspective of the iPad.
2) The 8 April, 2010 post to the NFB Acces Technology blog contains links to the interviews the team conducted during the CSWUN conference. Noteworthy is their interview with Torsten Brand, creator of the Talks screen reader for Synbian phones, who was extremely well-respected in the adaptive technology industryd and who passed on at age 47 shortly after the conference.
3) Steve Hoffman of Talking Communities will discuss the present and future of web conferencing software on Tek Talk on GMT 4 May at 00:00.
4) This Fred's Head post discusses APHont, a type style scientifically designed to promote readability by people with low vision.
5) This Gizmo article discusses a new Microsoft service currently in open public beta that provides a set of online and offline tools for diagnosing and fixing common PC and device problems. According to the author, it may be a beta but it's already a useful and highly usable product that offers a support lifeline to many average Windows users with PC problems. This new Microsoft service currently in open public beta provides a set of online and offline tools for diagnosing and fixing common PC and device problems.
6) This one is entitled A Free, Efficient Replacement for Windows Search
7) Here's an intriguing one I haven't tested called Create a Live Web Page from Scratch in Seconds, via Email
8) The last one from Gizmo is entitled Powerful but Lite Word Processing Programs. It highly recommends Jarte, which is highly accessible. The article also contains links to best free text editors, programming editors and html editors, and all these articles about free software and services are followed by enlightening discussions.
9) The latest Tech Doctor podcast is entitled Does Size Matter: iPad Versus iPod
10) Kathy Ann has made available three free lessons on downloading documents and opening archives.
11) The American Printing House sells a $50 CD entitled Review of Office Ribbon Bar. The catalog number is 1-10519-00.
12) It appears that the latest update to JAWS version 11 brings significant improvements to access to Yahoo! Messenger, Windows, the Yahoo! homepage and the classic Yahoo! mail interface.
13) SkypeTalking is a program that claims to provide improved access to Skype. It reads incoming/outgoing Skype alerts, such as online statuses, incoming calls, file transfers and incoming/outgoing chat messages by using the Skype API and your favorite screen reader, reducing or eliminating the need for scripting for individual screen readers.
14) The next interactive workshop offered by the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco will be an iPhone Interactive Workshop, Friday, 8 May, 20:00-22:00 GMT. People can participate in person, over the phone or online. For information on how to do this, write to
15) Jim Snowbargerhas enhanced HotSpotClicker, a free set of jaws scripts used by non-scripters to increase application accessibility, to build 195, adding various features |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 254 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 254 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) The first release for the year of the free screen reader NVDA is out. Version 2010.1 mostly features bug fixes.
2) Jamal Mazrui has updated his powerful free text editor EdSharp to version 3.2
3) You can now buy any of twelve RealSpeak voices for use with your Serotek products.
4) In Freedom Scientific's official FSCast podcast this month, we learn about a coming free upgrade to JAWS 11 and how JAWS is working with the new social networking features, including Facebook Chat, in the AIM 7.2 Instant Messaging client.
5) My Axess is an independent source for news, reviews, and information on various technology related to mobile devices.
6) The creator of Blind Mind promises more podcasts to be forthcoming. In this one, we hear an interview with Dennis Lembree, creator of accessibletwitter.com & author of web accessibility blog Web Axe
7) It's hard to avoid terms like tweet, post, and poke, these days. If you know these words have new meanings, but you're not sure what those meanings are, or you'd like to learn more about social networking, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Anna Dresner will try to help on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 20 April at 00:00.
8) Last week, we mentioned the BARDTalk mailing list for discussing the US NLS book download program. There is also an associated web site with resources:
9) EASI presents a $225 4-part webinar: Hands--on Web Design for Beginners & Intermediates, based on DreamWeaver as the web design tool. The series will take place on four Tuesdays starting 20 April at 18:00 GMT.
10) Dr. Sarah Morley has written a new book for blind and low-vision users: Windows 7 and Vista Explained.
11) This Fred's Head post is called Find TV Episodes with Google
12) This article from Gizmo is called How to Stop Bad Websites Infecting Your PC
13) Gizmo's pick for the Best Free Drive-Imaging program has been updated. I don't know if any programs mentioned here are or are not accessible, but at least they come highly recommended at it doesn't cost anything to find out.
14) HotSpot 3.0 is a Window-Eyes script that may enable non-scripters to easily make window-Eyes work better with many applications. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 253 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 253 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) With the release of the Apple iPad, another Apple device with built-in accessibility, here is a Mac-cessibility podcast with a panel discussing their impressions.
2) Here is a site that lets you hear popular names:
3) The Tech Doctor Podcast is a new podcast hosted by Robert Carter and Jenny Axler. It will focus on product comparisons to help people make purchasing decisions among the numerous competing products in several categories. The first edition compares the Plextalk Pocket and the Book Port Plus.
4) The NFB Access Technology Blog has posts about Audio-Tactile Graphics and about the new Pearl/Open Book system due out in May from Freedom Scientific.
5) In their usual vein, with the announcements of blindness-specific reading systems which cost a lot of money, Serotek will direct your attention during Tech Chat 57 to three reading solutions costing under $200. You can take part live on GMT Friday, 9 April at 01:00, and of course the program will be available for listening later.
6) Handy Tech North America is holding a five-day Mac Academy, 14-18 June, to teach VoiceOver with Snow Leopard on the Mac. Cost for the training by itself is $1,000.
7) BCScan is a free service that allows you to organize, catalog, learn about, and manage Your groceries, CDs, movies, household products, medications, or just about anything Else. It works using a lower-cost bar code scanner and a database of millions of products. Learn about it on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 12 April at 00:00.
8) Users of the BrailleNote Apex can download KeySoft version 9.01, which contains some bug fixes, better WiFi connectivity, Spanish speech synthesizer, and other improvements.
9) To join a mailing list for discussing accessibility of and use of FaceBook, send a blank message to:
10) To join a mailing list concerning the NLS download service in the US, send a blank message to: |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 252 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 252 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) You can hear 27 interviews from the recent CSUN conference from Serotek.
2) The second Serotek source for CSUN discussion was SeroTalk Podcast 38 where they play their favorite interviews.
3) Serotek's final use of this programming will come on GMT Friday, 2 April at 01:00, when they will have a panel discussion about the most exciting discoveries from CSUN. Perhaps more interesting, they will discuss Windows XP mode, a free Microsoft feature allowing users of many versions of Windows 7 to run Windows XP on their systems.
4) One of the CSUN interviews, and a forthcoming reading option for the blind, is Blio, the accessible commercial bookstore that is said to allow people to buy any of hundreds of thousands of commercially-available electronic books. Blio will be the subject of Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday,6 April at 00:00.
5) Another CSUN interview subject was the two new products released by IRTI, an entertainment center software with talking remote control, and a new student-teacher editin of their Eclipse-Writer program. .
6) J.J. of BlindBargains conducted his own set of CSUN interviews, and many of the guests are different than those you'll hear in the Serotek set:
7) Do you ever wish you could translate a big number into a meaningful real life example for your listeners? Well, Steve Duncan apparently had a bit too much free time, so he gives us the site NumberQuotes - Get a quote, make a point, where you can input a number and get a lot of examples of what that number would mean.
8) Gizmo directs us to a potentially valuable tool: a free bootable CD (or USB stick) with the AVG anti-virus scanner and a number of repair tools built in. It's Linux based
9) This Fred's Head post tells you how to uninstall Windows Live Messenger.
10) Some programs add options to the right-click menus of Windows Explorer, and perhaps you'll never use some of those options. Fred's Head directs us to Menumaid, a free program for cleaning up those menus.
11) Salman Khan is creating a free site with over a thousand free science, math and finance viewos on many levels. You can read some articles about his endeavor and see the list of videos here:
12) Jamal Mazrui is experimenting with the notion of screen OCR, where you can have a program take a picture of the screen of most any window and recognize the text contained there. The result is GrabText, which might work but which needs some money if it is to be viable.
13) Some people have determined to ask Freedom Scientific to implement a lease-to-own scheme so that individuals can buy JAWS without having to pay so much money up front, as they can do when buying Window-Eyes. Whether Freedom Scientific morally need or need not act on this petition, nothing requires them to, and nothing suggests that they will, but here it is in case you want to sign it: |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 251 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 251 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) For what it's worth, members of Mensa in the US tell us their favorite web sites:
2) Users of Symbian phones are on the verge of losing their preferred accessible GPS, Wayfinder Access. A petition is being signed online, and apparently it has generated enough attention on the part of Vodafone, the company who has bought the rights to the software, to lead to productive negotiations about the future of Wayfinder Access. Hence, the promoters of the process hope many people will sign the petition to show Vadafone that this is a matter of concern to the blind.
3) A company called Blastbay is producing an audio game production engine that is supposed to allow non-programmers to create audio games. The system is in test now, so anybody can try it. Here's a Fred's Head article about it:
4) New security tools help protect your PC is a recent article in the Windows Secrets newsletter.
5) Gizmo brings us 10 Free Sites that will Scan Your PC for Viruses
6) I have no idea if any of these are accessible, but Gizmo also brings us Lots of Free PDF Tools
7) Freedom Scientific says it will launch what it characterizes as a portable reading solution, the PEARL, during April. It consists of a camera and a new version of OpenBook, version 9. The System can also function as a video magnifier. It needs a pc to operate, and costs $2,195 unless you can upgrade from a previous version of OpenBook.
8) A composer silently conducted his piece of music on video, then played piano to his own conducting, then posted this video and asked singers to record their part. The result is the virtual choir.
9) Being a day late gives me the chance to announce this week's Main Menu program, which will consist of part one of a two-part demonstration of the Book, Port Plus. Subscribe to the podcast for Main Menu here:
10) Thanks to BlindBargains, I can tell you that Lucy Greco has partnered with Yahoo Accessibility to feed video from the CSUN conference from a camera mounted on her guide dog's harness. Here is the Flikr feed
11) With NFB Newsline, you can receive news and information over the phone, via e-mail, or through NFB Newsline in Your Pocket, whereby you can easily transfer your reading material to your favorite portable device. Now you can have different lists of favorites for each of these delivery methods and can manage them online.
12) Cory Ballard spends a week with the Victor Reader Stream and reviews it.
13) GW Micro is announcing several products at CSUN that we can't really get; no price or delivery date is mentioned, but sooner or later: The Voice Sense QWERTY is a small notetaker with standard keyboard and lots of features
14) One Gw Micro upgrade that is available now is the Book Sense version 2.1, with support for SAMNet and NFB Newsline in Your Pocket and other improvements.
15) In Window-Eyes script news, the Free Space script will give you information about your drives.
16) Scripts for MS Word now read table titles more effectively, and the Office script has some bug fixes.
17) A new script for MS Access provides some access to Access forms, with more functionality to come.
18) Anybody want to hear a musical composition made up of Windows sounds?
19) Here is a short audio tutorial on using the Talks screen reader with the Google Mobile app.
20) Sendero Group has stated that it will release a simple navigation app for the iPhone later in the spring, with more iPhone apps to follow. they have also been announcing the new features to be found in version 7 of their GPS programs for the Braille Note family.
21) A T Guys offer Mobile Geo for for $599, and a package with Mobile Geo, Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier will cost $725, all until 31 July.
22) Make it Work, a computer consulting company, will answer computer questions and discuss safe Internet surfing procedures on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 30 March at 00:00.
23) Here is a tutorial for a symbian mobile phone app called Ovi Maps. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 250 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 250 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) This site lets you listen to playlists of music that it believes relate to different moods.
2) This author will discuss the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic seb site, the process of downloading books from RFB&D, and why you might want to access the service, which is now free to any print-disabled American, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 23 March at 00:00
3) Cory Ballard spends a week with the Book Port Plus and reviews it.
4) Serotek Podcast 37 covers a variety of tech news and discusses the portable talking Bible.
5) Serotek Tech Chat 54 discusses online educational resources.
6. Users of current versions of Window-Eyes can take part in the public beta test for version 7.2, which adds support for Microsoft Office 2010, improves support for iTunes and provides a lot of fixes and small enhancements.
7. BlindBargains.com helps us find DAISY and html program and venue information for the upcoming CSUN conference.
8) They also lead us to Blind Mind, a blog and podcast with tech reviews and tutorials. In the latest episode, we get a preview of Talks for mobile phones version 5.
9) Independent Living Aids has a mobile phone that could be of interest to people with low vision. The Ez One from Snapfon displays digits in a 28-point font and speaks them as entered, features a high-iontensity LED light and an S.O.S. button which can dial local emergency services as well as ring four pre-programmed numbers when pressed for five seconds, and has an fm tuner. the phone costs $99.99 and works on GSM carriers worldwide, including with prepaid cards.
10) AFB Consulting and Adobe present Debunking the Myth of PDF Inaccessibility, a free 90-minute webinar on Monday 5 April at 17:00 UTC. People can phone in toll-free from Australia, the UK and the US.
11) This sounds too good to be true, but I had heard about it elsewhere: Fred's Head directs us to MYP2P, a web site where you can watch most live sports events free.
12) This Fred's Head post is entitled Assistive Technology Alternative Financing Programs and Access to Telework Loan Programs, and lists programs by state.
13) Fred's Head points us to Stiel, a free, open-source screen reader for Android phones and netbooks. the product is under development an at present gives access to basic features of the devices.
14) The Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired did a podcast overviewing the accessibility of the Olympus digital recorders.
15) Kathy Ann Murtha has lowered the prices on textbooks related to web browsers and updated their content to add new screen reader features such as ResearchIt for JAWS.
16) Olearia is a free DAISY player for the Mac:
17) ReadHear is a DAISY Reader for the Mac from the UK available for purchase but with a 30-day trial period:
18) FaceBook chat is accessible to users of JAWS for windows and of VoiceOver on the Mac through AOL Instant Messenger. The feature enhancement is now in beta testing, so you can get it at:
19) Jamal Mazrui has updated JAWS Script Exchange to version 7.2. This version offers some fixes and additions, and the package comes with several script sets you might want to install.
20) There is a GOVERNMENT OF CANADA WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY Petition available for interested people to sign
21) Accessibility evaluations of Klango version 3.1.1, Entombed version 1.0, autoit version 3.4.0.0 and Day by Day version Professional have been added to the AccessWatch database.
22) Apple is seeking an Accessibility Quality Engineer to work in Cupertino, California. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 249 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 249 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Version 3.03 of the Skype scripts for Window-Eyes are now available on the Gw Micro Script Central at
2) Doug Lee has been developing CLISK, the Command Line Interface for Skype. Skype users can do most things using the command line, so if you like using the computer in this way, get the program and read the manual.
3) An accessibility review of Non-Visual Desktop Access version 2009.1 has been added to the AccessWatch database.
4) American Printing House announces the availability of the Book Port Plus, a digital audio player with excellent recording capability and the ability to play books from NLS, Recording for the Blind, Audible and books in many text formats. The price until September 30 is $299.
5) NFB Newsline in Your Pocket now works with the Book Port Plus and the Book Sense, enabling users to easily transfer favorite Newsline content to those devices.
6) Thanks to Fred's Head, we learn of the Vision Simulator, a Customizable, Low Vision Simulator That Shows how the World Looks to the Visually Impaired. There is lots of other useful information on the main Lighthouse page.
7) This Fred's Head post leads you to 100 science podcasts and to the Smithsonian Channel with other science instructional material.
8) This one is a reprint of an article from May have 2008 entitled Observational Astronomy for the Visually Impaired
9) Windows 7 does not have an e-mail program included as part of the operating system. Two popular choices to use are Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird. Gene Asner will give a thorough guide to both so you can choose one and then use it successfully on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 16 March at 00:00. With US daylight savings time starting this week, the broadcast time will be what you're used to if you live in North America, but probably not if you don't, since the program is scheduled based on US time.
10) Humanware has released the victor Stream Cd Edition, consisting of a special cd player add-on to the Stream for playing books on cd. Current Stream owners can buy the attachment, or the unit can be purchased as a whole.
11) Freedom Scientific has slashed the price of its Focus 40 Blue braille display by 38%, down to $2,795. This display connects via USB and bluetooth and works with mobile phones and computers.
12) Social Networking and You: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for Blind Users is a new book by Anna Dresner available in paper or electronic braille , DAISY or text from National Braille Press for $12.
13) Jamal Mazrui has released version 2.7 of his Twitter client McTwit. This version makes adjustments necessitated by changes in Twitter and adds some new features. the program is available here:
14) Executive Products has designed a new CASE for the NLS/BPH Digital Talking Book Player available to Library for the Blind users in the US.
15) The nearly three-hour seminar on the KNFB Reader held last Thursday can now be downloaded.
16) Reading Bookshare Books on Victor Reader Stream is a free webinar that will take place on Tuesday, 15 March at 20:30 GMT.
17) There will be a window-Eyes script writing class July 1-2 in Dallas for $650.
18) Serotek Tech chat 53 featured a Tribute to george Buys who recently passed on and who rendered many services to the online blind community, a discussion of the iBill Talking Currency Identifier, and a lengthy discussion of Setting Up a New Computer under windows xp and Windows 7. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 248 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 248 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Here's a Fred's Head post consisting of several resources related to the title "The Sky's Not the Limit: Astronomy for the Blind and Visually Impaired"
2) The NFB Access Technology Blog has updated its article on the newly-released Mobile Speak version 4.
3) Access4 Us offers two reviews of talking clocks: Jensen SmartTalk AM/FM Dual Alarm Clock Radio
4) The latest FSCast from Freedom Scientific features an interview regarding jTools and jTunes, and a demonstration of how to set up an iTunes account using JAWS.
5) The March, 2010 issue of AccessWorld contains articles about social networking, about the ScripTalk audio prescription labeling system, reviews of two digital book readers, and more.
6) Tek Talk for GMT Tuesday 9March will feature demonstrations of useful utilities like CCleaner.
7) There will be a KNFB Reader Hints and Tricks discussion on Friday, 5 March at 02:00 GMT. You can either call in at your expense by phoning (218) 339-3600. The access code is 329906#. Or you can Skype to the organizer, Michael Hingson at mhingson.
8) Serotek Tech chat 53 on GMT Friday, 5 March at 02:00 will discuss Setting Up a New Computer
9) Serotek Podcast 36 contains some tech news, comments on Software That Works Great With System Access and demonstrated the Entombed game we mentioned last time.
10) This Windows Secrets article is called windows Shortcuts can Boost Your Efficiency.
11) And this one is called Freeware Outdoes Windows Built-in System Tools.
12) Gizmo brings us 100 Incredible Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists.
13) Users of the iPhone Dragon Dictation app will appreciate this listing of commands that the app shares with the pc-based program.
14) Nuance has released a free pdf reader which allows you to convert pdf documents to Word, .txt. .xls or RTF format online, to complete forms and all this in a smaller and, they say, more secure package than Adobe Reader. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 247 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 247 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Here's a valuable resource if it remains active: Cory Ballard spends a week using an adaptive device, then writes a review about it on the Access4 Us blog. So far, the site has a review of the Icon from Levelstar.
2) The creators of Entumbed say that it is the first ever complex audio roll-playing game. It is now officially released, and you can grab the demo here:
3) The Main Menu show gets an exclusive this week, as Larry Skutchan from American Printing House will discuss the philosophy and demonstrate some of the features of the Book Port Plus audio player due to be released in March. Listen GMT Saturday, 27 February, at 01:00.
4) Tek Talk will present an interview concerning the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project on GMT Tuesday, 2 March at 01:00.
5) This Fred's Head post is entitled "Keep Track of Congress with RSS, Email or Twitter"
6) This blog post from the NFB Access Technology Blog briefly reviews the Handy Tech iRead OCR software package we mentioned a few issues back.
7) This one records some first impressions of Mobile Speak version 2.
8) Gizmo offers us the guide "Where to Find Free Legal Information on the Web"
9) And this one: "Best Free Online University Courses"
10) They have also updated their recommendations for Best Free Disk Defragmentr
11) "Quick Cures for the Worst Windows 7 Annoyances" is the lead article in the February 18, 2010 issue of Windows Secrets.
12) The Blind Technologists group has been created on the professional networking site LinkedIn.
13) Students who are between the ages of 16 and 22 years who are braille readers and users of assistive technology are needed for a study. This University of Pittsburgh study will explore how you use both braille and electronic information for classroom work, and how you learned these literacy practices. Write to
14) Version 11.50 of all Dolphin Systems screen readers and screen magnifiers brings support for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and much enhancement to the support of Microsoft Office.
15) Humanware announces the release of the firmware for Victor Stream 3.1,a free upgrade featuring some new shortcut keys and the ability to sort books in the talking books folder into subfolders.
16) More developments for solving CAPTCHA's: a couple fans of the Firefox plub-in Webvisum have urged me to remind you about it: |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 246 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 246 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) SeroTalk Podcast 35 features Lots of News, 5 Things for the iPhone, and 3 Radios Under $100
2) Serotek Tech Chat 50 focused on Online Backup solutions and Unattended Windows Installations
3) Fred's Head points us to Full Screen Weather, which combines Google maps with weather information to give local weather.
4) We've mentioned Solona, the great service for helping us get past those inaccessible CAPTCHA's that block access to web sites. This Fred's Head post explains how two other services have combined with Solona to make solving CAPTCHA's even easier.
5) Thanks to blindBargains.com, we learn about the site Supercook: recipe search by ingredients you have at home.
6) The February, 2010 issue of The Braille Monitor contains an article entitled The Internet Archive: An Untapped Resource for the Blind
7) If you are a Gw Micro product user, and you send them a testimonial of how their products have helped you in your life by 28 February, you give them permission to use that testimonial on their web site and at the same time you enter to win a couple prizes. Send your praise to
8) "Internet Your Way to a New Job: How to Really Find a Job Online" is a new $11.95 two-volume braille, or electronic, book from National Braille Press
9) Learn about the present and future of NFB Newsline, with lots of exciting plans for increasing your access to current information, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 23 February at 01:00.
10) There are good prospects for basefall fans to have better accessibility to access live baseball broadcasts and team web sites this season.
11) Reaper, a music production program, is now said to be accessible with NVDA.
12) Speaking of NVDA, EASI will hold a free webinar about this free, open-source screen reader on Wednesday, 3 March at 21:00 GMT. Register here:
13) If there are any jaws scripters interested in contributing to programming jaws 11 to work with visual studio 2010 please send an email to
14) Thanks to blindBargains.com, we learn about this article, Quick Cash: 24 Ways to Make Money While Unemployed
15) Gizmo's booklet, "The 46 Best Ever Freeware Programs" has been updated, and now contains many more program listings. Many of these programs will be accessible.
16) A group has come together to try to save Wayfinder Access, the GPS program for Symbian phones which is being discontinued.
17) BlindBargains.com has an long interview with Humanware's Michelle Pepin discussing, among other things, the Oratio screen reader for Blackberry. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 245 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 245 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) In case you or a friend contracts the dangerous Internet Security 2010 Worm, instructions on this page can help you clean the system:
2) Bookshare will hold a webinar entitled All about Bookshare for Canadian College and University Students on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 19:00 GMT,
3) Version 2.80 of the Winamp scripts for Window-Eyes have been released and they can be downloaded from
4) In the January, 2010 FSCast, Jonathan Mosen speaks with Karen Petrou, Chief Executive Officer of Federal Financial Analytics in Washington DC about her work, and her use of Freedom Scientific technology, and to Vicky Cardona and Rusty Kelly of Freedom Scientific's Test Department about their crucial role in the release of new hardware and software.
5) This Fred's Head post discusses several sources for online poetry and related resources.
6) This one is a basic Blind and Visually Impaired mobile phone buyer's guide
7) This one gives you a couple ways to Find Free Wi-Fi
8) Serotek Tech Chat 50, taking place on GMT Friday 12 February at 02:00 will discuss Online Backup solutions and Unattended Windows Installations
9) Here are the results of a survey of over a hundred Web sites for gamers with special challenges…
10) Listen as the BlindBargains team gives their summary of the ups and downs of the recent ATIA conference.
11) Dave Williams from Dolphin Systems will discuss that company's activities and particularly their Easy Reader. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 244 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 244 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Ed Bott gives us a long list of short ways to get to many places on your computer in Windows 7. Most also work in Vista.
2) IZotope produces music technology software. They say they are committing to make their software accessible to the blind in 2010. Those interested are invited to contact them to test their software as they add the accessibility features.
3) We have two great sources for audio interviews from the recent ATIA conference. Both feature a lot of interviews, discussing some existing but mostly forthcoming products, and you're likely to learn of some companies you hadn't heard of and which may or may not become important. One is the Blind Bargains Audio Index
4) SeroTalk Podcast 34 replays a couple of those interviews and more, discussing Blio Reader, Booksense, Oratio for Blackberry, Mobilespeak 4, and Talks 4.5
5) This Fred's Head post describes the Windows 7 Magnifier, much improved over that found in previous versions of Windows.
6) Balabolka is a free program which lets you turn .doc, .rtf, .pdf and .htm files as well as the contents of the clipboard into audio files for use on an mp3 player using the SAPI voices found on your computer.. I haven't tested it for its accessibility or effectiveness.
7) Here's a Fred's Head post about how to marry Twitter and LinkedIn.
8) The editors at Gizmo's Best Freeware have produced Probably the Best Free Security List in the World, a very comprehensive rating of free security software.
9) I haven't heard one way or the other about accessibility of this, but according to the editor at Gizmo, the New Free Edition of Paragon Backup & Recovery Impresses
10) This Gizmo article is entitled How to Schedule Programs to Run Automatically. The System Scheduler program they recommend is fully accessible.
11) Jamal Mazrui has released version 1.3 of TestPage, a command-line utility and dialog interface for doing a simple, automated test of a web page for problems related to accessibility for users with disabilities, or to other aspects of HTML validity according to standards of the World Wide Web Consortium
12) Humanware and CodeFactory have released Oratio for the newest Blackberry phones , a $435 screen reader which they have promised for some months, and whose name has changed during that time.
13) Brian Hartgen will discuss access to iTunes version 9.2, primarily using his jTunes version 5 which works with JAWS, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 9 February at 01:00.
14) Code Factory has released Mobile Speak version 4, which works on both Symbian and windows Mobile phones, allows you to tie a license to a phone number so that upgrades are free, and works on touchscreen and keyboard devices.
15) Larry Lewis of Flying Blind, LLC has produced two podcasts concerning this new Code Factory release. His Eyepod TechnoCast Volume 9A gives An Exploration of the Enhanced Text to Speech capabilities present in Mobile Speak 4
16) At the same time, Code Factory has released a public beta of its navigation software running on windows Mobile phones, Mobile Geo. this version is compatible with Mobile Speak version 4, runs on the new phones it supports, and implements the latest Sendero GPS software. To read about it, go to
17) GW Micro has released Window-Eyes scripts to enhance the experience of using Windows Live Mail with Window-Eyes.
18) The Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco produces a monthly newsletter where they announce their quarterly technology events, possibly discuss other tech news and trends, and also discuss other goings-on at the Lighthouse. To subscribe, visit |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 243 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 243 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Some may find this ODLIS, the online dictionary of library and information science useful:
2) Recent versions of Window-Eyes have been characterized by stuttering or sluggishness for those using EloQuence as their synthesizer. This patch fixes these problems and improvves performance:
3) This Fred's Head post gives some information and resources concerning Rockbox, an open-source replacement firmware for mp3 players which adds speech access to many commercial players.
4) Serotek Tech Chat 48 covered power searching the internet including sites for news, hard-to-find information, useful search engines and search techniques.
5) EASI offers its four-part fee-based Accessible Web Design class starting on 1 February.
6) Instructions for the vOICe program have now been translated into Chinese.
7) The article Getting to Know the GW Toolkithas been added to the Gw Micro knowledge base.
8) Handy Tech is now selling the iRead, an OCR program for the blind designed by Handy Tech Germany. The program costs $750 and a 30-day demo copy can be obtained here.
9) Humanware will be demonstrating the BrailleNote Apex, and answering questions about its blindness products, at the Lighthouse for the Blind inSan Francisco on Thursday, 18 February from 21:00-23:00 GMT. Those who can't attend in person can take part online or via telephone. To RSVP, e-mail by 16 February
10) The US IRS makes many forms available in accessible format to the blind.
11) Firefox version 3.6 has been released. You can read about the accessibility improvements it contains here
12) The Global Voice continues to produce technology shows as well as many others. They do not have a podcast feed yet, so they are sending e-mails to their lists to let listeners know which shows are not in the archive and can be downloaded. Find out what they air and how to join their lists at their home page |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 242 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 242 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Version 1.12 of MaPlEr, a $10 media player and playlist manager is available, ready for Windows 7 and using bookmarks and global hotkeys.
2) Larry Lewis will be discussing the new MobilSpeak 4.0 on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 26 January at 01:00.
3) You can also find audio demos of this cross-platform screen reader at
4) Accessible World is also holding more technology-related programs on North American Tuesday evenings, or GMT Wednesday mornings. On GMT Wednesday, 27 January, engineer Lloyd Rasmussen from NLS will unofficially speak about the NLS BARD program, giving tips for making the most of the book download site.
5) Some students have launched the Accessible Classnotes project so that students from across the world can share their course notes and thereby improve opportunities for equal education.
6) GW Micro gives us the first announcement related to the March CSUN conference in San Diego with their two-day script writing class.
7) Blind Bargains has relaunched its mobile site, with an interface streamlined to work for mobile phone users.
8) As Baum has not yet signed onto the Freedom Scientific Secure and Compatible Braille Display Initiative, FS has created its own driver for the Brailliant and BrailleConnect running in 32-bit versions of Windows.
9) Nickie Coby has prepared a blog entry entitled Touching Wellness in which she lists several accessible apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch related to wellness.
10) This short Fred's Head post describes a way to update one's Twitter account from the address bar in any browser.
11) Serotek Podcast 33 summarizes the latest tech news within and without Serotek, including discussion of the newly accessible Skype app for the iPhone and an interview with Robert Carter. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 241 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 241 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) This Fred's Head post is entitled Add a Recycle Bin to Your Flash Drives
2) The Marican Printing House for the Blind's Tactile Graphic Image Library continues to grow and serve as a resource for anybody anywhere needing to include raised graphics in their work.
3) Recent posts to the NFB Access Technology Blog discuss things seen at the Consumer Electronics Show and request those attending the organization's summer convention to vote for the tech presentation they want to see offered.
4) Anybody considering acquiring the Intel Reader would do well to read the article in the January, 2010 Braille Monitor entitled Initial Thoughts on the Intel Reader
5) Unfortunately, future development for Wayfinder Access, the GPS solution for Nokia phones, is ended. Existing copies will presumably be supported, and you can still buy it, but Vadafone has purchased the Wayfinder program and is ceasing to develop Wayfinder Access.
6) Now that free RFB&D keys are available for use on the Book Sense, a new article has been posted to the Gw Micro knowledgebase: Using RFB&D with the BookSense
7) Chip Orange has written a long article on the Gw Micro Wiki for beginners who want ot write Window-Eyes scripts.
8) GW Micro has written a couple useful scripts recently. One is Progress Indicator, with support for Firefox progress bars
9) New mailing list for those of you who own a Rockboxed Sansa talking MP3 player as well as for anyone who might be interested in the subject of Rockbox on a Sansa MP3 player has been started. These may be very accessible and affordable mp3 players.
10) The topic for Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 19 January at 01:00 will be What was cool at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show from the perspective of a blind user?
11) Serotek is still giving away free Accessible Event accounts, good for up to three participants, until the end of January.
12) They have also started selling monthly subscription packages of their products for as little as $9.95 per month. You pay a one-time $25 sign-up fee, then you have access to the package you pay for during the months you pay for it.
13) EASI will offer a free webinar on Google's Android phones and access to them on Wednesday, 20 January at 19:00 GMT.
14) They will also offer a $195 four-part series on social media and accessibility for people with various disabilities on Mondays at 17:00 GMT starting 25 January.
15) Optelec has done their customers the favor of paying Freedom Scientific's very high braille driver signing fee. Hence, signed drivers for JAWS 10 and JAWS 11 in 32- and 64-bit versions for the ALVA BC640 and BC680 Braille terminals are now available. |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 240 |
|
Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 240 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings,
1) Michael McCarty has updated his Fred's Head article on Finding, Researching and Downloading Books, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias on the Net
2) He also directs us to PupilTube, a hopefully growing site where people can submit instructional videos.
3) Shoot Da Me is an audio-based shooting-type arcade game.
4) Catching up from the end of 2009, SeroTalk Podcast 30 discusses online shopping Tutorials and dictation on the iPhone
5) And Serotalk Tech chat 45 gave 2009 Highlights and Updates
6) This great Fred's Head post describes a great way for Windows 7 users and most users of Windows Vista to gain access to all Windows settings in a very accessible format:
7) Yours truly will be offering an overview, mini-tutorial and perspective on the iPhone, focusing on productivity, navigation and radio tuning, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 19 January at 01:00.
8) Two editions of the Freedom Scientific official podcast FSCast are out. In Issue 36, the team discusses the continually increasing functionality of the Research feature of JAWS 11, then discusses the Braille Challenge.
9 The Serotek team shares its view of its philosophy and company history in a one-hour long recording The Serotek Story – Part 1, Only the Beginning!
10) Jamie Pauls created two tutorials, one on the Rhapsody music service and one on Nero version 8. Both tutorials are somewhat out of date now but can still guide people in the use of the current versions of Rhapsody and Nero. The tutorials are now free for everybody to have.
11) The Access Ability blog has two posts devoted to offering a very positive review of the iBill talking banknote identifier.
12) The team continually working on the open-source screen reader NVDA has set up a support e-mail list for the product, which excels in its support of Firefox and web pages that use ARIA. To join, send a blank message to
13) An accessible, Internet-based, multi-player Monopoly
14) People can now obtain a 14-day trial version of the KNFB Mobile Reader
15) Version 2.0 of the Booksense is available to people in the US from Gw Micro. It offers much better navigation and bookmarking capability. |
This stand-alone Scan & Read solution provides intuitive, robust access to hardcopy print in a fraction of the time that traditional stand-alone scanners take to perform the same task, and the results are spectacular! So is the price which includes shipping & handling within the continental (48 contiguous) United States! Please e-mail 
This sleek, ergonomic Braille Terminal that typically retails for US$4,995 provides portability and efficiency without compromising the amount of Braille access afforded to the end user. Price includes shipping costs within the continental (48 contiguous) United States. Please e-mail 