ARCHIVE / 2011:
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 333 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 333 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Training with Dean Martineau
Greetings, 1) Here's one blogger's reasons for staying with a windows laptop rather than using other portable devices: 2) The Carroll Center has added a third course on diabetes to its online offerings. Diabetes and Visual Impairment: A New View for Health Professionals is currently free, accessible to all who wish to take it, and various accrediting agencies provide continuing education credits. 3) By visiting the AppleVis blog, you can learn how they are Making it Easier to Find Relevant Content on the AppleVis Site, learn about the campaign to create the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame, and discover the appleVis podcast, among other discoveries. 4) Version 1.1 of the Nokia Screen Reader is now available. 5) Here is an interesting comparison of some of the many digital music services available, of course not taking accessibility into account. 6) An organization called the Association of Blind Citizens offers an Assistive Technology Fund to US residents. the Fund provides financial resources to cover 50% of the retail price of adaptive devices or software. 7) The ACB Radio Main Menu staff are now seeking new applicants for the volunteer Main Menu production team. To receive an application, send an email to 8) From AI Squared, here is information about the new features in ZoomText version 10: 9) Blind-aid is a Yahoo group where people can discuss blindness issues and make friends. To join, send a blank message to 10) For the mathematically inclined, SVGToSIG is a converter which allows owners of non-Tiger embossers to emboss SVG files. Version 3 is now available. 11) Serotalk Podcast 90 features interviews with four people, including a blind food critic, programmer and student, each of whom saw a problem or a challenge and tackled it head on. They didn't take no for an answer and they didn't let obstacles detour them from their goals. 12) With the advent of MobilSpeak 5.7 from code Factory, the latest iteration to the Symbian operating system, Symbian Belle, is now accessible. 13) Tech Access Weekly features short Daily tips podcasts and some longer, comprehensive ones regarding assistive technology. 14) Robert Carter gave himself three "software stocking stuffers" and talks about them in his podcast. 15) From CNET: 5 great uses for your old Windows computer: 16) One blogger suggests you do These 5 Things Immediately when you get a new Android phone: 17) The REACH Center for the Blind in Tupelo, MS will be accepting applications for a computer Instructor. Email: |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 332 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 332 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Merry Christmas
Greetings, 1) This article is called 100 Excellent Hints and Tips for every Computer User: 2) Thanks to the December 16, 2011 post to the NFB - Access Technology Blog, we learn about Mobile PC Monitor, a mobile phone app that allows users to control and monitor many facets of the operation of their PC. A big practical ability is the ability to kill processes, such as frozen JAWS processes, so that a reboot isn't necessary. 3) The December 13 post to the same blog discusses the new Brailliant braille display and takes HumanWare to task for inaccurately suggesting that the display presently works with IOS devices, which it now does not. 4) To high acclaim, GW Micro has released GW Skype, a standalone alternative application for the Skype internet telephony program. It works with any windows screen reader and replaces the standard Skype program. It is much more accessible than the standard skype program and it is intended that it will remain so, no matter what changes are made to the regular Skype interface. 5) De Witt & Associates will begin creating training books for window-Eyes, which can be purchased through Gw Micro. $99 Books on using window-eyes with word 2007 and Word 2010 are now available. 6) The creator of the JAWS discussion mailing list has launched a generalized technical support mailing list for use with issues not particular to JFW or its interactions with other programs. 7) The DAISY Consortium Announces the Latest Release of the Save as DAISY for Office 2010 Add-in. This lets users convert Word 2003, 2007 and 2010 documents to DAISY, and optionally add synthesized audio to the file. 8) Here are the most recent updates to the Gizmo site: |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 331 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 331 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: One Refurbished ALVA Braille Controller 640 Braille Terminal + Feature Pack for USD $2,500.00!!!
Greetings, 1) Among many other things, find out which Nokia phones work with the new free nokia screenreader on the third edition of the AccessTalk podcast: 2) This page contains links to the training webinars given in 2011 for Window-Eyes and the listing for the first six webinars for 2012. 3) You may hear some audio demonstrations of both the home and business versions of Cash Manager, the accessible financial management package, at 4) Tobi version 1.5.1 the DAISY Consortium's open source multimedia production tool, is out, featuring bug fixes and a new audio feature: 5) The December 8, 2011 post to theNFB - Access Technology Blog is entitled Speaking up about inaccessible Websites: 6) The December, 2011 issue of AccessWorld focuses on travel, with discussions about getting a guide dog and reviews of iPhone GPS apps, as well as a review of the Serotek HoverCam, a portable reading solution. 7) IBM has recently become aware of some accessibility issues with SPSS, a common statistical analysis package, when using JAWS and other screen readers. They may be looking for students or professionals who use screen readers and have access to SPSS with whom they can work to do accessibility testing. If interested, email: 8) The people behind AppleVis, the very successful site for users to tell others about IOS apps they like or do not, have started an app directory for Mac apps. http://www.blindbargains.com/link/6419 10) Handy Tech North America announces the availability of the $75 Mac Academy Basic Training Workbook and Study Guide, Second Edition. 11) A few years ago, Robert Shelton led a group which developed an application for access to graphical mathematics -- MathTrax, available from: 12) Out with Tek Talk and in with the Annual Accessible World Christmas Party during the usual time slot, GMT Tuesday, 20 December at 01:00. The person giving the most thoughtful gift to a friend or relative can win a $300 prize. 13) Here are updates from the Gizmo site: |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 330 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 330 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: One Gently Used BrailleNote Apex32 Cell Notetaker for USD $3,595.00!!!
Greetings, 1) Yours truly has finally put his toe into the world of social networking and has joined Twitter, accessing via the_Qube. Come follow me, @deantopdot. You out in the tidosphere will benefit from this development because of the information I glean from prolific tweeters like @jmosen and @ranger1138. 2) One such is this article: The Complete Guide to iTunes Books, Podcasts + iTunes U: 3) And check out Accessibility for Web Writers, a 14-part series: 4) This article is entitled How to download YouTube videos, and other curious things: 5) The University of Chicago Spanish-English, English-Spanish dictionary, a pocket dictionary originally available only in a 27' pamphlet paper edition, is now available for electronic download through Web Braille to registered borrowers. It joins Dictionary of eye terminology, Elson's pocket music dictionary and Dictionary of braille music signs as downloadable items with "dictionary" in the title. 6) Thanks to Fred's Head, we discover the Accessible iPad Blog which discusses the accessibility of this device for a variety of people. 7) There may be openings to beta-test JAWS scripts for Peachtree Complete Accounting. 8) Get the most up-to-date information about available accessible games on Tek Talk on GMt Tuesday, 13 December at 01:00: 9) New free and paid webinars are now posted on the Freedom Scientific training page: 10) Firmware 4.47 for the Milestone digital recorder/players from Bones offers many new file formats, including Bookshare, and some enhanced navigation features. 11) Sarah Alawami has created some Youtube videos about using WordPress: Part 1: Setting up WordPress: 12) Executive Products has created cases for the Brailliant 32, the Focus 40 Blue and the iPhone. 13) Here are a couple nuggets from the Gizmo site: Best Free Spell-Checker: |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 329 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 329 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Sendero Adventure GPS, USD $899 plus USD $25 Shipping
Greetings, 1) The Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco held an Employment Summit in September and the nearly 22 hours of content are now available online. 2) Here is a good audio demonstration of the capabilities of Siri on the iPhone 4S. 3) Here are two new ways to learn about iOS5 and the new iPhone 4S. The newest podcast in the Serotalk Podcast Network is Triple Click Home, and its first episode discusses the phone in detail. 4) On Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 6 December, iOS5 and the iPhone 4S will be the topic. 5) Daniela Rubio and her husband have a blog and podcast discussing Mac and IOS accessibility for Spanish speakers. Her email is: 6) Qwitter has been a very popular front-end to Twitter, but development on it is stopping. Fortunately, its developer has made the code open-source, so two projects have been launched to carry it forward. We'll see which, if either, remains active. Both are in the early stages. One is Twitmonger. The program is here to try: The other project is Qube. This is the download link: 8) This episode of In Touch, the BBC's programme for blind and partially sighted people in the UK, discusses gadgets for people who have recently lost their sight, both low and high tech. The podcast can be downloaded from: 9) Sightexchange is a mailing list where people can give away blindness-related items. Donors can only charge shipping, which is often unnecessary since many blindness-related items can be legally sent free. The list is worldwide and benefits people in many countries. To join, send a blank message to: 10) Viewpoint's Program #147 demonstrates the new features in JAWS version 13, particularly the convenient OCR feature. The presenters also summarize training resources. 11) These are some of the new and updated articles on the Gizmo site. Note in addition that the site contains a growing number of articles in Spanish: 32-bit and 64-bit explained 12) I am potentially in the market for an original Book Port (not the one current being sold.) If you might part with one in good working order, please write to: |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 328 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 328 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Brand New ALVA Satellite 584 Refreshable Braille Terminals for USD $5,795.00!
Greetings, We would like to kick off by wishing all of our US subscribers a Happy Thanksgiving holiday! 1) There have been a couple weekly Serotalk podcasts since the last mention here. 2) You can watch a video of how to use a webcam with the upcoming ZoomText version 10 to turn your computer into an affordable CCTV. 3) The November, 2011 issue of AccessWorld has a holiday focus, with articles such as Holiday Gift Ideas for People with Vision Loss, Choosing Toys for Children with Vision Loss, Online Holiday Shopping Using a Screen Reader: A Guide to Popular Retail Websites, and more. 4) Learn about Serotek's many accessibility solutions for students, professionals, seniors, veterans and everybody else on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 29 November at 01:00. 5) Of interest for people reading ebooks. A new version of Adobe Digital Editions is available. Users relying on VoiceOver, JAWS, or NVDA, and keyboard-only or high-contrast users can make use of this application to read electronic books, including books from booksellers such as Barnes and Noble and Waterstones, and books loaned via public libraries which use OverDrive for electronic book delivery. 6) Chris Gray is offering what he calls the Internet Entrepreneur Course for the Blind and Visually Impaired, $49.95 plus $19.95 in bonus content. When you visit the site, a 20-minute message speaks automatically, or can be read in text. 7) The blindtech list is an active mailing list where people can get answers to a variety of technology questions. to subscribe, send a message to: 8) The podcast feed for the recording of the Braille Forum, publication of the American Council of the Blind, has been changed. to subscribe, use this address: 9) Here follows a good crop of new and updated articles from the Gizmo site: |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 327 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 327 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: One Refurbished BrailleStar 40 for USD $1,500.00!
Greetings, 1) Serotek is giving all Veterans with visual impairments lifetime memberships in the System Access Mobile Network, and is setting up dedicated forums for blinded veterans to share resources there. 2) OfficeConvert is a new set of utilities created by Jamal Mazrui to convert documents among a variety of file formats. 3) Congenitally blind English speaking adults can earn $120 for taking part in a 4-8 hour online survey being conducted at MIT. For information email: 4) From Fred's Head, we learn about Open Culture, a site with lots of free courses, lectures, audio books, language courses, and more. 5) The Jobs for the Blind blog is a name that speaks for itself. 6) Richard Baldwin is looking for screen reader users to test the latest version of his drawing program for the blind,SVGDraw01 with AudioTac. It now works with NVDA, and he wants to know how it works with other screen readers. 7) DeWitt & Associates have created two two-hour $179 online courses for parents of children who use screen readers or screen magnifiers. For information, email: 8) Jackie McBride will offer a two-hour $50 online class on building a web site using Wordpress, to take place on 13 January, 2012 at 20:00 GMT. A Q&A session will follow the class, and students will receive a written textbook as well. Only ten students will be accepted in this class, but Jackie will probably offer additional sessions if there is sufficient interest, and may sell her textbook separately as well, so if you may have any interest in building a web site, this is an excellent resource. E-mail 9) Humanware held a webinar, Documents to Go using Keysoft 9.2. Here is the archive: 10) The new features of Keysoft 9.2 for the Apex family of products will be the topic on Tek Talk on GMT 22 November at 01:00. 11) The topic for Viewpoints program A-1145 is a comparison of iPhone and Android from a blind user perspective. 12) Latest additions to the gizmo site include: How to Search for Exactly What You Want with Google |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 326 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 326 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Adaptive Technology Training with Dean Martineau
Greetings, 1) This Fred's Head article, entitled "The Works of Thomas Jefferson", is online and in ebook Format, may interest some: 2) The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) has recently released the second segment of a three-part article on the evolution of braille. In this piece, BANA focuses on the complexities of code building as well as on current challenges in transcription, translation, and backtranslation of braille. Parts One and Two of "The Evolution of Braille: Can the Past Help Plan the Future?" are now posted on the BANA website at: 3) For those wanting guidance on the use of the latest Apple products with VoiceOver, as well as with older versions, the adaptive technology podcasts from Vision Australia remain a consistent source of good information. 4) Version 0.0.18 of the drawing program for blind users is now available: The new feature in this version is called by the author the AudioTack display. The AudioTac Display makes it possible for blind users to interpret drawings using sound in conjunction with touch, an embossed tactile grid (paper), and a mouse or a touchpad. It makes it possible for blind users to obtain hardcore quantitative information about a shape, such as the locations and values of the peaks and troughs in a graph showing the price of a stock, or the distance between two walls in the floor plan of an apartment. 5) Version 1.5 of TOBI is now available. This free tool is designed to Create Accessible DAISY Multimedia. 6) Blind Access Tools and Service is an evolving site intended to assist those who are losing vision. 7) Here is the article: Top 10 Awesome Android Features that the iPhone Doesn't Have: 8) If you input November in the customer code field at this site, you get 25% off Kathy Ann Murtha's textbooks during November. 9) HumanWare is seeking input on the future of the Victor Reader Stream, and asks owners to complete a survey. Ten people who do will win an upgrade to the Stream's SoftPak. 10) The two latest installments of the Tech Doctor Podcast form a series, iOS5 Pushes the Accessibility Envelope 11) Part two of the Annual Stocking Stuffers series on Tek Talk runs on GMT Tuesday, 15 November at 01:00, giving you more interesting shopping ideas. 12) Gw Micro has released a portable reading device, the ReadEasy+, compact and powerful, but whose price is hard to ascertain. 13) The Hadley School for the Blind seeks to hire a highly qualified instructor for their technology related course offerings. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 325 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 325 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Come Join Low Vision International At ATIA Chicago 2011!
Greetings, 1) One of the dying wishes of terminally ill Becky Williams is that one of her songs about braille be recorded professionally. Owing to her long-term relation with the Hadley School, this has been done, so you can hear her song, Brailling Signs is Cool to Do and read the story of its creation. You can get the recording by putting brailling sign song in the subject and e-mailing:
sorge@hadley.edu 2) Outlook 2010 Keyboard Commands with Jaws, Window-Eyes and System Access is now available from National Braille Press In braille, eBraille, or Word, for $6.00: 3) Jamal Mazrui has updated Edsharp, the powerful text editor, with bug fixes and improved file conversion facilities. 4) These two web sites contain good information about using a Bluetooth keyboard with an I-device under IOS5. 5) Here is some rather advanced information on Advanced Query Syntax for searching under Windows Vista or Windows 7. 6) The DAISY Consortium announces the Release of Obi 2.0, a tool designed to make Creating Accessible Audio Books Easier. 7) From the Gizmo site, we learn about the site called Simple Help. "The main purpose of Simplehelp.net is to help beginner-to-intermediate computer users learn how to do various things with their computers. Simplehelp.net teaches a wide variety of topics to all levels, such as troubleshooting email, preventing spam and removing spyware." 8) Along the same line and from the same source, there is much Windows-related assistance available from Microsoft, but it is not simple to find what youre looking for in their maze. The Gizmo Tips editor has put together a short list of some Microsoft links that may make it easier to get answers when help is wanted: 9) Freedom Scientific announces a $500 to $1,500 reduction in the price of the Pac Mate and Pac Mate braille displays. 10) The archive of the webinar on the Victor Reader Stratus DAISY/MP3 player is now available. 11) With the approach of the traditional gift-giving times in many countries, you have two sources for low- and high-tech gift ideas, with many low-cost ones. The first is Tek Talk, which offers its two-part Stocking Stuffers feature every year. Part one will be on GMT Tuesday, 8 November at 01:00. 12) The second is the December Dilemma technology seminar from the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, on Tuesday, 15 November, at 21:00 GMT. You can take part online or by phone; to learn how to do so, RSVP to: 13) Nokia has created a screen reader for its phones, to be distributed by Code Factory. 14) EASIs November fee-based course, Creating Accessibility for Online Learning, starts on 7 November. The course costs $350, but people from overseas as well as those who purchase their course package get a 20% discount, and scholarships are also available. 15) Here are more goodies from the Gizmo site: Best Free iPhone Apps |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 324 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 324 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Introducing MagniLink Vision, Low Vision International's Modular Video Magnifier That Truly Does It All!
Greetings, 1) Kathy Ann Murtha is giving away full-length textbooks for Windows7, using either JAWS or window-Eyes. 2) And at the same time that Freedom Scientific has released JFW13, she now releases her $75 textbook on JFW 12. 3) Indeed, JAWS for Windows version 13 is available, featuring Convenient OCR for reading DVD menus and graphical pdf documents, enhancements to the Research-It feature, and a new Quick Settings dialog. 4) Michael Feir, long-time leader in making games accessible, will talk all things games on Tek Talk on GMT 1 November at 00:00. You'll probably find out about some accessible games with which you weren't previously familiar. 5) Freedom Scientific has converted some introductory training webinars that used to cost money into free webinars, and has lowered the prices on others. For example, a package of three 1.5 hour webinars on Word now costs $29. Also, basic training for JAWS 13 is available. 6) On Saturday, 29 October at 18:00 GMT, a special edition of the MacCessibility Round Table podcast will take place, where the Knights field questions about anything related to Apple and VoiceOver. You can listen live or download the podcast. 7) The Gw Micro interview with Chip Orange is now ready for download. For this and lots of others, visit 8) News from HumanWare: HumanWare Companion has been updated to version 3.5, fixing bugs and improving interaction with the Bookshare site. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 323 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 323 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Week's Featured Advertisement: Introducing LVI (Low Vision International) America! 1) The October, 2011 issue of accessWorld is now available, featuring articles about employment, a review of the Braille Sense OnHand, a discussion of the new AccessWorld app for the iPhone, and more. 2) John Martin has updated his BlindTunes JAWS scripts for the latest version of iTunes. 3) AccessTalk is a new technology-related podcast from the UK. 4) There have been a lot of improvements in the accessibility of IOS5, the latest version of the operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. One way for users of earlier versions to learn about the changes is via Kevin Chao's Unofficial VoiceOver Change Log, which can be downloaded as a short DAISY book. 5) A recording of the HumanWare webinar on the new Brailliant braille displays is available here: 6) You can also learn about the Brailliants on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 25 October at 00:00. 7) A new mailing list has been formed to discuss accessibility of the new SiriusXM player, both to discuss strategies to access the online channels and other services and to strategize on ways of dealing with the company. To join send a blank message to 8) The October 13, 2011 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog discusses the Ibis Reader, a cross-platform program for reading ePUB books that has some apparent advantages. 9) From the Gizmo site, we have "Best Free Time Correction Utility" |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 322 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 322 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: New BrailleNote PK's Reduced To $1,999.00 USD Each!
Greetings, 1) Resources for those engaging in or wishing to learn about programming by the blind have been reorganized, so here is a rundown: A mailing list where beginners and advanced programmers can learn is program-l. To join, send a message to program-l-request@freelists.org and in the subject field put the word "subscribe". 2) Speaking of programming and programmers, Chip Orange will be the guest on the GW Insider on Tuesday, 25 October. 3) The release of the iPhone 4S and IOS5 appear to be about to improve mobile phone access a lot. Here is an article entitled, "What's new in iOS 5 for the iPhone: From an Accessibility Standpoint" 4) Another blind user has written his experiences learning and using the iPhone, and the resulting article is in the October, 2011 Braille Monitor. 5) TechVision sells many lessons on using JAWS with popular applications. 6) Learn about JFW version 13 on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 18 October at 00:00. 7) EASI offers a free webinar on Friday, 14 October at 1800 GMT, featuring presenters at the upcoming AHG Conference. 8) Learn about the ILoview, new small video magnifier from AI Dwustrf. 9) DAISY Pipeline is a set of tools for creating DAISY documents. 10) J-Say 9.1 is now available, working with JAWS 12 and Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional 11.5. 11) A new version of the drawing program usable by the blind is now available, with three new features and several fixes. 12) Here is the latest from the Gizmo site: How to Create a Custom Hotkey for Your Favorite Application or Folder |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 321 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 321 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: New BrailleNote PK's Reduced To $1,999.00 USD Each!
Greetings, 1) AT&T is giving its US customers a free copy version of Code Factory Mobile Accessibility, called Mobile Accessibility Lite, for use with its Android phones. 2) Learn about the SendSpace file storage and transfer service on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, October 11 at 00:00. 3) Thanks to Fred's Head, we learn about the Directory of Free Assistive Technology Software Compiled by the University of Athens 4) American Printing House for the Blind has updated its Guidelines for Print Document Design 5) Between Top Tech Tidbits and the weekly Serotalk Podcast, anybody can keep up with adaptive tech news and news about pertinent technology in general. 6) The new Brailliant braille displays are available from Humanware, featuring thumb keys, the same braille displays found in the Apex products, and lower prices, though these are hard to find on their web site. 7) Here are some of the latest finds on the Gizmo site: 300,000 Free Lectures From The World's Top Universities 8) J.J. Meddaugh with his A T Guys company is selling a video magnifier from Chris Park Designs. The introductory price is $649, to go up $50 after the first 200 units are sold. this 8-ounce magnifier has a 4.3-inch screen and claims features not available on other products. 9) Amazon seeks a program manager focused on the assistive technology user experience. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 320 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 320 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Issue's Featured Advertisement:
Greetings, 1) Procedural Note: In order to deal with the occasional unexpected Internet outage at my home, I am going to prepare the newsletter on Tuesdays, at least mostly. Hence, if you want an item to appear, I need to have it by 18:00 GMT on Tuesday. If I get it later, it still may appear, but chances are less. 2) Learn about the accessibility features of the Kindle 3 on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 4 October at 00:00. 3) The next Lighthouse Technology Seminar will compare and contrast the various cell phones that are available for use by the blind. This takes place Thursday, 6 October, at20:00 GMT. To take part by phone or by audio stream, RSVP to 4) The September 27, 2011 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog discusses two very handy resources for dealing with software updates in general and updating Adobe Flash player in particular. 5) This Fred's Head post is called To-Do List on Twitter 6) Thanks to Fred's Head, we learn that here, you can download a PDF of the Counselors & Mentors Handbook on Federal Student Aid 7) Kathy Ann Murtha offers An Immersion into Window-Eyes 7.5, a downloadable textbook for $75. 8) On 19 September, 2011, the National Federation of the Blind and the Maryland Technology Assistance Program held a Web Accessibility Day, an in-depth look at how accessible Web content that complies with federal and state regulations is created. The handouts from the event are available here: 9) Here are the latest nuggets from the Gizmo site. Note that these articles are updated frequently, and I don't list them anywhere near as often as they are updated, so if you want to always get the latest version of an article, you might want to keep up with the RSS feed or monitor the site. For this week: Study The Origin Of Words With This Etymology Dictionary 10) Humanware is looking to hire a sales representative to cover the southwest region of the US. D-mail resume and copies of diplomas by 21 October to |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 319 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 319 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: One (1) ALVA Satellite 570 Refreshable Braille Terminal for $1,500.00 USD!
Greetings, 1) Window-Eyes owners can now purchase Software Maintenance Agreements on time plans and can choose to buy two upgrades rather than three, making them more affordable. 2) Hadley School's Forsythe Center for Entrepreneurship is open for enrollment. It offers several courses, some new to the school's curriculum, to help aspiring business owners. 3) Learn about the Carbonite online backup service on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 27 Sepbember at 00:00. 4) EASI offers a 4-part Fee-based Series on Creating Accessible PDF documents in October, each Tuesday in October at 18:00 GMT. 5) News from the Serotalk site: Podcasts now appear weekly, and are always worth the listen. In addition, a new podcast, That Android Show is the newest podcast on the SeroTalk Podcast Network: 6) It being autumn in North america, the public beta for the next version of JAWS, version 13, is available for all to try. 7) Richard Baldwin has created a drawing program for blind students. Version 0.0.8 is now posted and available for free and immediate download at: 8) This post to the Google Blog discusses Google's accessibility efforts and commitments. 9) Larry Lewis will present a free webinar on Friday, 30 September at 18:00 GMT entitled "Apple, Braille, The Classroom, and You!" It will focus on the increasing use of Apple devices within the classroom and how low cost, wireless, refreshable Braille can turn these devices into alternatives to traditional notetaking options. 10) We'll end with a wealth of tantalizing items from the Gizmo site: Best Free Right-Click Context Menu Extensions list |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 318 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 318 A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: New BrailleNote PK's for $2,999.00 USD Each!
Greetings, 1) The August, 2011 issue of the Gw Insider has been posted, featuring an interview with a well-known officer in the Indian army. 2) The August 24, 2011 viewpoints podcast discusses advanced features of JAWS. 3) In addition to the two paid sessions already mentioned here, EASI is offering two free webinars during September: Tobi: a software tool to author DAISY multimedia, Tuesday, 20 September at 17:00 GMT, and Practical comparison of screen readers, using scenario based user testing, Wednesday, 28 September at 17:00 GMT 4) The GPSAthon is Sendero's innovative and somewhat radical pricing experiment. they will combine purchases worldwide for GPS systems running on the BrailleNote, VoiceNote, Braille Sense or Voice Sense until the end of the year and give everybody a quantity discount depending on how many people buy. People who commit to buy a system will save at least $500 from the usual price and perhaps more depending on how many people buy. 5) J-Tools version 4.2 is available. This provides J-Tools functionality for JAWS 12.0.1170 and (if appropriate) Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5. 6) Optelec invites Braille display users to fill out an online survey about their Braille display usage and what features and functionality they would like to have included in future Braille displays. Optelec will draw names of 5 survey participants who will receive a ShopLowVision.com gift card worth $50. Your answers will be treated confidentially. Answering this questionnaire will take about 15 minutes. 7) Recent Viewpoints broadcastsinclude Blind Friendly Games and Toys 8) With Serotalk podcast 76, podcasts will appear weekly and contain more product reviews. This one contains lots of disaster preparedness info as well as the usual tech news you probably want all in one place. 9) Here are some of the latest offerings from the gizmo site, This Mail Attachment Downloader Could Be Very Useful Indeed 10) The NFB Access Technology Blog comments on DocuScan Plus 11) Robert Carter demonstrates the JamBox, a very interesting bluetooth speaker that can turn most phones into good speakerphones. 12) The Carroll Center has launched two free online courses on diabetes management. One is for patients and families 13) The Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the blind and Vision Impaired is recruiting for a computer instructor position. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 317 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 317 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: BrailleConnect32s for $2,000.00 USD Each!
Greetings, 1) Tek Talk carried a discussion of the forthcoming Orion 18, the Android-based Braille tablet being developed by LevelStar in partnership with APH. Of course, the whole program is part of the Tek Talk archives, but in addition, the LevelStar team has created a 50'minute edited version which you can hear here: 2) Are You a Human is a start-up company seeking to replace inaccessible CAPTCHA's with games which would be accessible, and also seeking to create audio games for the visually impaired. they are looking for testers. If interested, write to 3) Geoff Adams-Spink has written a blog entry on his experience with the Lion operating system as a person who uses magnification. 4) The NFB has decided to make the recordings of its employment Seminar at the summer convention freely available. 5) GW Micro announces a new window-Eyes app, Sonar Enhance. It improves access for Cakewalk Sonar X1 (producer, studio, and home). It is in its early stages, so they're looking for feedback. 6) Serotalk Podcast 75 keeps us up to date on adaptive tech and tech news. 7) Here is the latest from the Gizmo site: How to use the Windows 7 Magnifier to Make the Computer Screen Easier to See |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 316 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 316 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Six (6) BrailleConnect32s for $2,000.00 USD Each!
Greetings, 1) Here are a few recent additions to the Gizmo site. As always, none of these recommended programs has been tested for accessibility. they're looking for volunteers over there, so that's a facet somebody might want to add to the site: Best Free Folder Synchronization Utility 2) American Council of the Blind and Google are Conducting a Survey to Better Understand Computer Usage and Assistive Technology Patterns in the Blind Community. To take this by phone by mid'September, call 347-772-8355 3) Audiobuffs is a new mailing list to discuss audio production at the beginner and semi'professional level. 4) the Indiana Adaptive Technology Project produces weekly podcasts on technology for different persons. 5) A number of interviews covering the latest in technology have been posted to the Serotalk site. 6) EASI offers two fee-based courses in September: Creating and Repurposing More Accessible Content, 7) Shane Davidson has had to reconfigure his site, so here are links to previously-announced iPhone podcasts that have changed: application review: ariadne gps for the iphone. 8) If you own an Apex device and have beenhaving trouble downloading or unpacking books from Bookshare, you can benefit from this hotfix. Users without the problem do not need it, as it only addresses this issue: 9) The Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast #15 discusses the accessibillity of the Lion operating system, especially the enhancements to Voiceover. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 315 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 315 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: One Refurbished VoiceNote BT mPower Notetaker for US$595.00!!!
Greetings, 1) Those wishing to explore the topic of notetaking devices, whether we need them at all and how to choose one if we want one, will have two chances to explore the topic. First is Main Menu, on GMT Saturday, 13 August at 00:00, and rerun thereafter. 2) Next the same topic will be addressed on Teak Talk on GMT tuesday, 16 August at 00:00. 3) The August, 2011 issue of AccessWorld contains A Comparison of Three Low-Cost, Hand-Held, Camera-Model Video Magnifiers, NonVisual Desktop Access and Thunder: A Comparison of Two Free Screen Readers, Book Review: Twenty-Six Useful Apps for Blind iPhone Users, by Peter Cantisani, and regular features. 4) A T Guys has partnered with Executive Products to create a custom form fit leather case for the iBill BankNote Identifier. The case protects the unit while allowing the iBill to be used without taking it out of the case. To order, visit 5) HumanWare announces an updated audio tutorial for the Stream. It is available for download from: 6) Humanware offers US residents some back-to-school specials good through 30 September. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 314 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 314 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1) I actually updated the Tidbits RSS feed 2) The August 1, 2011 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog is entitled An Initial Reaction to OS X Lion, and includes several links for sources for information about Lion in particular and about using the Mac in general. 3) Another post to the same blog on the same day discusses Adobe Digital Editions 4) A series of four webinars, entitled Braille Transcriber and Teacher Training, is available on the American Printing House webinar site. 5) LouisPlus from APH apparently allows people to look for school-related instructional materials easily from one site 6) This Fred's Head post is called Chat with Your Facebook Contacts through AIM Instant Messenger 7) Another post discusses Braille Institute's VisionSim FREE App for iPhone, iPad and Android Devices 8) SpeedDots, makers of tactile screen protectors for i-devices, now has a web site. 9) Learn about Leader Dogs for the Blind, and more especially about the Kapten GPS system and their program to incorporate it into guide dog training, on Tek Talk on gMT Tuesday, August 9 at 00:00. 10) The Serotalk team continues rhythmically cranking out update podcasts that cover a wide range of topics, keeping up with all the news and providing useful links so we don't have to do it. 11) They also bring us Tech Chat 111: This Month in Access Tech, July 2011 12) FSCast 56 for July 2011 features demonstrations of the recording and playbac capabilities of the Plextalk Pocket. 13) Among the new and updated articles on the gizmo site, we find The Editors' Choice List: Our Selection of the Best PC Freeware 14) As a back-to-school promotion, you can buy Zoom-Twix for $2,495, saving $400. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 313 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 313 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Unveiling ALVA USB! The latest 40-Cell Braille Display for Less Than USD $3,000!
Greetings, 1) Shane Davidson has posted a review of Papaya Broadcaster for the iPhone to his blog. 2) This post from the NFB Access Technology Blog discusses a new site, Access2Science, practical guidance for accessing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). 3) Here's a Fred's Head post entitled How a Blind Gamer Plays Zelda by Ear 4) And here's one with the title, Repair Your Mobile Device at iRepairFast.com 5) Those who have followed with amusement the rolling-out of the Blio book reading system may want to know that the free Blio app is now available for the i-devices. 6) Those who are considering the app might want to examine this Blind Access Journal post entitled New Blio for iOS app: A Brief Demo, which tends to explain why the app's availability has caused so little stir on the Viphone mailing list. 7) On the other hand. Read2Go the DAISY app from Bookshare, is now available, and has received considerable positive reviews. this is a link to the FAQ about the program: 8) Join Mark Taylor on Saturday, July 23rd at 19:00pm (GMT) for a live conversation with the creator of the popular Ariadne GPS for the iPhone, Mr. Giovanni Ciaffoni on the Secret Life of Mark Marcus Live talk show. During show time, call 724-898-1193 to participate or to just listen-in. To learn more about the Secret Life of Mark Marcus including how you can sign up for text message alerts and how you can listen online, go to 9) Code Factory has released two new applications for the blind and visually impaired, both now available on the Android Market. The Mobile Accessibility Web Browser is a stand-alone version of the browser included in the Mobile Accessibility Suite while their music player offers a simple interface to play music files stored on the phone's memory card. 10) this Fred's Head post is entitled A STEPP in the Right Direction for Accessible Textbooks 11) Talk of textbooks brings us around to school, and the July, 2011 issue of AccessWorld focuses on issues of interest to students, though not only to students. It includes articles about AFB CareerConnect, writing research papers, studying science and math, notetaking and a review of the Kapten GPS system among others. 12) The Orion 18 won't be available until later this year, but developers from Levelstar will be on tek Talk to discuss this innovative portable braille device on GMT Tuesday July 26 at 00:00. 13) Blindhow is a web site whose aim is for users to share tips and information about dealing with blindness with others. The organizers are giving away an Apple Tv, an iPad and other items to contributors, with odds for winning increasing the more you contribute to the site 14) From windows Secrets comes n article on how to do a non-destructive reinstall of Windows. 15) SeroTalk Tech Chat 109 gives us 2011 Convention Highlights 16) And it's time for another SeroTalk podcast, Number 72, covering a variety of information with relevant links in the Show Notes. 17) And we'll end with some of this week's major additions to the Gizmo site: Best Free Online Backup Sites |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 312 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 312 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Unveiling ALVA USB! The latest 40-Cell Braille Display for Less Than USD $3,000!
Greetings, 1) Serotalk Podcast 71 is out with the latest tech and adaptive tech news and a bit ore besides. 2) On Tek Talk, GMT tuesday, 19 July at 00:00, you can learn about the Victor Reader Stratus, a portable device that plays cd's, mp3's and digital books and includes a high-quality voice for playing text-based DAISY books. The Stratus product page is 3) EASI has just created a short pamphlet to help computer support staff who work, at least periodically, with students with disabilities. Frequently these staff have little experience working with this population, and this 7-page pamphlet strives to make the interaction less stressful for the staff and more helpful for the students. 4) On GMT Saturday, July 16 at 01:00, Mark Taylor will be discussing and taking live calls from those using Apple iOS devices including iPhones, iPads, etc via VoiceOver, on his Secret Life of Mark Marcus talk show. To listen to or participate in the conversation, during show time call (724) 898-1193. To learn more about the Secret Life of Mark Marcus including how you can sign up for text message alerts and how you can listen online, go to 5) This Fred's Head post is entitled Change the Background Color in Adobe Reader 6) Here are some of the recent additions and updates to the Gizmo site: Birdsong Free Online |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 311 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 311 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Unveiling ALVA USB! The latest 40-Cell Braille Display for Less Than USD $3,000!
Greetings, 1) For a review of the Ariadne GPS program for the iPhone, read the blog post at 2) "My Accessible Google", a user interface designed to make access to Google’s calendar much simpler and more efficient for persons with vision impairment, will be the topic for Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 12 July at 00:00.
3) Earle Harrison has recorded a demo of the TVSpeak program, showing what it is and why you may well want it. 4) A handy web resource for those wanting to get involved with tandem bicycling and perhaps find sighted riders to partner with, even if you may not have a bike, can be found here: 5) Mobile Speak 5.5 for Symbian is now available, featuring support for the latest phones, a graphics labeler, a phone search feature, and better voices. 6) A T Guys in conjunction with a new company, Speed Dots, is now offering brand new tactile screen protectors for the iPhone 4 and 3GS. Other models will be added later. 7) HumanWare announces version 3.4 of the HumanWare Companion, the free program for transferring data to the Victor Reader Stream. this version allows users to find Bookshare books from within the program and transfer them directly to the Stream. 8) the American Printing House now sells the Wilson Digital Voice Recorder for $29.95. It records up to eight hours of messages or lectures and content can be transferred to a computer via UsB. 9) Recent additions to the Gizmo site include: How to Keep an Eye on the Health of Your Laptop Battery 10) Coverage of the two US consumer conventions can be heard on SAMNet Radio. 110 Serotek's Mike Calvo wrote a blog post advocating for accessibility. 12) In SeroTalk Tech Chat 108, 3 techies from the UK and Ireland discuss the top tech and access tech news stories for June 2011 13) the creators of AppleVis, Accessible iOS apps, news & guides for blind and vision-impaired VoiceOver user,s have launched user groups, which, as they say, "offer a great opportunity to connect and learn from each other in ways not normally associated with large communities." 14) Recent reviews and entries on the AppleVis site include VM Alert - Video Motion Detector |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 310 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 310 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Unveiling ALVA USB! The latest 40-Cell Braille Display for Less Than USD $3,000!
Greetings, 1) Recent additions to the gizmo site include Best Free Email Client 2) the Google Chrome operating system is now available on the Chromebook, a tiny computer that gives access to Google's online apps. this computer and that system can be made to speak using the Speakit screen reader. More about it on Serotek Podcast 70, item 8 below. Learn about that program from this Fred's Head post: 3)AppAdvice regularly gives suggestions for the best iPhone apps in different categories. They recently came out with a list of the best apps for the visually impaired. the list has some glaring omissions, but is interesting and would get a person off to a good start with apps. 4) Freedom Scientific will now be distributing the Plextalk Pocket, the DAISY player and recorder made in Japan, on which the Book Port Plus is based. they will charge $275 for the player until October 31. 5) Dar.fm, which stands for Digital audio Recorder, has garnered good reviews from one accessibility-conscious reviewer and one mainstream reviewer that I know of. It gives you 2GB of space to store recordings of any streaming service available. It's like TIVo for radio, letting you record anything available and play it back when you want. 6) On the opposite side of the accessibility spectrum, I am unable to verify this from here in Costa Rica, but one user reports that the Netflix site is now inaccessible to blind users. No indication as to whether this is true when using all screen readers, but if it is true it is a backward step that might call for some feedback to the organization. 7) Serotek Tech Chat 107 is entitled Video Game News and Reviews for Disabled Gamers 8. SeroTalk Podcast 70: Sell a Kidney, provides the usual rage of news and views for the fortnight. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 309 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 309 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1) The free RoboBraille translation service has now officially added support for american English grades 1 and 2 braille. You can attach a document in a variety of formats, including pictures of print documents, and have the result e-mailed to you as a braille document. to generate contracted braille, e-mail your print document to 2) A second tutorial on the use of the Cobra screen reader is available. 3) Accessible World Tek Talk Presents A Discussion And Demonstration Of Religious Software, on gmT Tuesday, June 28, at 00:00. 4) Window-Eyes 7.5.1 is a free upgrade to users of version 7.5. It features support for Firefox 4, 5 and 6, improved support for Internet Explorer 9 and Microsoft Word, and apps that give more support to Outlook and thunderbird. 5) Code Factory announces TV Spea for US users. This program gives owners of TV tuner cards complete access to tune, watch and record television or radio. A 30-day free trial is available, the the program is sold in North america by Handy Tech. 6) The word Origins blog was launched in May. Its author discusses words added to the Oxford english Dictionary starting in 1911 and moving to the present. 7) Recent articles to the Gizmo site include How To Prepare Your Computer for Disposal 8) Serotek Tech Chat 107 discussed Video Game News and Reviews for Disabled Gamers 10) Jackie Mcbride is again launching a session of her JAWS Scripting class, featuring lectures, a textbook and individualized instruction. the class costs $150. 11) Zack Hurtz has launched Blind Access, a site that seeks to assemble resources for adjusting to blindness from localities all over the planet, as well as helpful articles and tips from site visitors. 12) J-Tools 4.1 will be released on 27 June. this package supports JAWS version 12 and adds useful text selection features. If Dragon Naturally speaking 11 Premium is installed, you can dictate into some popular applications and have text echoed back to you. 13. SeaMonkey 2.1 is available. This is a freeweb browser, e-mail client and web page creator. It is known to work with JAWS and NVDA. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 308 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 308 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1. Microsoft describes this new free program as "... a recovery tool that can help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to help identify and remove rootkits and other advanced Malware." 2. Serotek podcast 69 covers the latest Apple news and other news as well. 3. The June, 2011 issue of AccessWorld concentrates on mobile phone accessibility. It includes Deborah Kendrick's review of the book Anna Dresner and I wrote on the iPhone for National Braille Press, as well as more about learning the iPhone, Android and a basic Verizon phone. (Parenthetically, thanks to a defective laptop, this is the first issue of Tidbits to be created using an iPhone and a Braille display. It's a little slow, but it can definitely be done.) 4. The June, 2011 issue of the Braille Monitor features an article from the lead saleperson for the KNFB Reader entitled The KnfbReader Mobile: Concepts, Misconceptions, and the Future 5. The Access Technology Blog from the NFB has a post entitled Impressions of Mobile Accessibility 6. Continuing the focus on portability, Tek Talk will feature an up-to-the-minute demonstration of the accessibility features of the Android platform, including discussions of flat-screen and standard keyboard phones and a comparison between Android and the iPhone from a knowledgeable perspective. The presentation will take place on GMT Tuesday, June 21, at 00:00. 7. A mailing list has been created to discuss use of the Miranda instant messenger client with screen readers. To join, send a blank message to 8. CashManager Financial Software is a package designed to meet the needs of small to medium-sized businesses. Much work has gone into making it accessible for the blind. Three versions are available, including Home and Non-Profit versions. Now, Handy Tech is the North American dealer for the product. 9. Ian Humphreys has come out with the 18th free accessible game from Spoonbill Software. BG Codebreaker substitutes all the letters of the alphabet with numbers then invites you to decode words. You can browse all 18 game descriptions here: 10. EASI is presenting free webinars where authort discuss recent books on accessibility. Two of the webinars are yet to take place, and you can learn about and register for them here: 11. The American Printing House wants owners of the Book Port Plus to know that their staff will be able to update units to the latest version for those who attend the two consumer conventions this summer. The new version has better file management, the capability to listen !many online radio stations through the unit's built-in WIFI feature, and other fixes. 12. A new article has just been posted to the GW Micro Knowledgebase: Reviewing a Web Page With the Mouse Pointer While Using Mozilla Firefox Version 4 13. Two more discoveries from the Gizmo site: Everything You Need to Know About Modern Mobile Operating Systems 14. Among the segments to air on Main Menu on GMT Friday, June 17 at 23:00 will be an interview with blind contemporary Christian artist Ginny Owens discussing how she uses technology. 15. National Braille Press continues its tradition of producing excellent books on the iPhone with Twenty-six Useful Apps for Blind iPhone Users, available for $9 in braille, e-braille, DAISY and Word. 16. Freedom Scientific offers a number of free and paid training webinars during the third quarter of 2011. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 307 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 307 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1) VisWiz is a new free iPhone app available in the US and Canada. It lets you get human assistance to perform a lot of visual tasks. Martin Courcelles has written a blog post on it for the CNIB blog. 2) On the same subject, Martin has two posts summarizing his favorite apps. Part 1 3) And Seminars Hadley will present Everything i, a seminar designed to help clarify the differences among the iPhone, iPad and ipod. this will take place on Tuesday, 21 June at 15:00 GMT. the seminar will be archived. To register, visit 4) Learn about BlindTunes, a set of JAWS scripts to make iTunes more usable, on Tek Talk on GMT 7 Junbe at 00:00. 5) The Main Menu team is soliciting input as to what you would like to hear on this weekly program. To offer some, e-mail 6) Here are the latest gems from the gizmo site: Best Free Streaming Media Recorder 7) The JFW mailing list has moved to a new location. Here is the official site: 8) SeroTalk Podcast 68 covers the usual wealth of tech news. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 306 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 306 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1) Cisco Academy for the Visually Impaired is now accepting enrollments for their second semester starting in July. The cost is $500 but as always scholarships are granted to those who are paying for their own courses bringing the cost down to $150 with the option of a payment plan if needed. For more information listen to the podcast at: 2) For some time, Chip Orange has been offering free weekly classes on developing apps for window-Eyes. Now, Gw Micro will maintain the archive of classes and an RSS feed. Past classes can be found at 3) HIMS has released version 6 of the firmware for the Braille Sense and Voice Sense, including much better connectivity options, access to Google Talk for voice and text chat, and more. 4) National Industries for the Blind offers the Joseph Roeder Assistive Technology (AT) Scholarship, which is a $2,500 grant to an individual who is blind, interested in pursuing education in computer science, information systems or a related field and pursuing a career in access technology. Applications for the $2,500 grant are due by July 8. 5) The iBlink app is now available for Android phones. This free app from Serotek gives access to blindness-related podcasts, radio stations, and radio reading services. 6) HumanWare is giving away a Trekker Breeze or a $300 gift certificate to people who write success stories regarding their products which they can use for marketing on the web site. Stories are due by June 8. 7) ABiSee offers a Refer a Friend program. If a person you refer buys a product, you earn $100. Fill out the form located at 8) Finally in the giveaway department, HIMS is taking entries for a SenseView Lite magnifier through the end of May. On the first business day of each month, a new free or discounted product will be offered. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 305 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 305 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings,
1) We learn from an earlier issue of Braille Book Review of web sites to find described movies. 2) Learn about Dolphin Guide, a system for those who want to use the computer but who don't want or need to learn the complicated operating system, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 24 May at 00:00. 3) T and T Consultancy has released JSay Pro version 9, which works with Dragon Naturally Speaking version 11 and JAWS version 12 to provide powerful voice input capability. 4) For a JSay user's story, visit 5) Sendero gPS 2011 is now available for the Braille Note family, with versions for SenseNav and Mobile Geo to come. This version has seven major improvements, especially new map and point of interest databases. 6) This Fred's Head article describes My Accessible Google: Non-Visual Access to Google's Calendar Application 7) This one talks about WebTalks, an Android app that speaks RSS feeds. 8) Serotek Tech Chat 101 discusses Accessible Games for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad 9) From Gizmo this week, we have these items: Use Google to its full potential 10) Leader Dog will be the exclusive distributor of the Kapten PLUS GPS system and will sell it for $295, making it the most affordable stand-alone GPS device for the blind. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 304 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 304 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1) The May, 2012 Braille Monitor contains an article entitled Access to Electronic Books, a Comparative Review 2) Here is a Fred's Head post entitled Tips to Buying Food Online: Accessible Resources 3) John Martyn is working on JAWS scripts called BlindTunes to improve the accessibility of iTunes for JAWS users. The scripts are being tested now and you can test them. Send an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in the subject to join the mailing list 4) The May, 2011 issue of AccessWorld is now available, including Some Suggestions for Products for Seniors with Vision Loss, AFB’s Center on Vision Loss: A Showcase of Accessibility and Independence in Daily Living, Tips on Buying a Computer and Optimizing its Display for Computer Users with Low Vision, Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin, An Evaluation of the Milestone 312, The Jitterbug is Back: A Review of the Jitterbug J, and Guide Software, Revisited. 5) Here is a rather disquieting article about the accessibility, and lack of it, for some users of Internet Explorer 9. 6) HumanWare has updated its line of portable CD DAISY book players by releasing the HumanWare Stratus. 7) National Braille Press is developing a portable braille device, a combination notepaper, smart phone, and PDA. they have chosen four possible names, and welcome votes for one of them or suggest your own. 8) HumanWare is hiring a Blindness Product Specialist. 9) Serotek announces that DocuScan Plus OCR is now available for the Mac, in the Mac App Store and from the below site. The $299 price entitles the user to use the cloud-based scanning program on both platforms. 10) Michael Lauf and Ricky Enger are out with SeroTalk Podcast 67, covering their usual range of topics. 11) SeroTalk Tech Chat 100 was a Microsoft Windows Q&A 12) Recent updates to the Gizmo site include: Get This 170-page Windows 7 E-Book For Free 13) HIMS invites people with low vision to enter on their site by the end of May to win a free SenseView Light. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 303 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 303 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Low-Cost Portable Refreshable Braille Is Here
Greetings, 1) I have recorded a podcast about my life in Costa Rica to date. It covers a variety of topics including obscure ones like the radio dial in this remote part of the country. I plan to submit it to Blind Cool tech, but until then, you can grab it here: 2) You can learn about The Global Voice, the innovative Internet station that seeks to bring the blind and sighted together, on Tek Talk for GMT Tuesday, 4 May at 00:00. 3) Here are some of the latest updates on the gizmo site: 4) Thanks to the team at BlindBargains, we learn about Convert Files, a straightforward and effective site for converting a multitude of document, presentation and media files into your desired format. You can, for instance, convert YouTube videos to mp3 or pdf documents to .doc among many others. 5) Each week, Nancy and Pete Torpey share their life experiences and information they have gathered over the years living with vision loss - from the everyday to the high tech, on a half-hour program called viewpoints. Both have Ph.D.'s in physics; one is sighted, the other blind. They love travel and music. 6) In Serotalk podcast 66, the team discusses their usual broad array of topics that is impossible to synopsize in one or two sentences. 7) In Serotalk Tech Chat 98, Users Share Their Favorite Windows Software 8) Blind Software offers a free version of their calendar/ planner 9) The EASI free webinar on 14 June will feature Sheryl Burgstahler reporting on the book she edited on universal design and online learning 10) Public Beta version 2.5 of the Save as DAISY plug-in for Microsoft Word now supports Word 2010. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 302 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 302 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
Greetings, Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 302 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
Greetings, A shout out to the Baha'is throughout the world, as the holiest and most joyous festival of the Baha'i year starts today. Also wishing our Jewish readers a fantastic Passover Celebration and our Christian readers a Blessed Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 1) There is a wealth of new material on the Gizmo's Best Freeware site. I'll list a lot of it, but if you want to keep up with everything posted there that I may not choose to announce, here is the address for updated articles: 2) At last, here are the most common keyboard commands for the very latest version of Microsoft Word, in one handy volume, compiled by yours truly. Major headings include Word commands, JAWS commands for Word, Window-Eyes commands for Word, and finally System Access commands for Word. In addition to keystrokes, it also includes step-by-step instructions for customizing the keyboard and the Quick Access Toolbar. the $6.00 booklet is available in paper or electronic braille, or in Word format. 3) Tek Talk Presents APH Talking PC Maps, Bringing Your World to Your PC GMT Tuesday, 26 April, 2011 at 00:00. 4) The NFB is seeking information about accessibility barriers in the digital technology used by all students, teachers, and administrators in K-12 schools, universities, and colleges in the United States. We encourage students, teachers, administrators and parents of blind students to complete the following survey so that the NFB can learn more about educational technology that is either helping or hindering the learning process for blind students. 5) In honor of its 25th birthday, Dolphin Computer Services has released a rather amusing retrospective podcast. 6) In Serotalk Tech Chat 97, Four Users Share their Favorite Accessible Mac Apps 7) The April 11, 2011 post to the NFB Access Technology Blog discusses the Snapfon, a new mobile phone desibned for ease of use for seniors and others seeking a simple phone.
8) This Fred's Head post is called FreePhone2Phone Makes Free 10-Minute International Calls, After an Ad or Two 9) Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic has changed its name to Learning Ally, and JAWS systematically mispronounces it. 10) Voiceover on Podcast is a recently-renamed podcast where all things Voiceover are reviewed. 11) Mushroom FM is celebrating its first birthday this weekend, with a $500 cash competition, t-shirt giveaways, retrospectives about how and why the station got started and its first year on the air. 50 hours of continuous live programming begins at 5 AM eastern on Saturday. A new Mushroom FM trivia question will be asked each hour. Everyone who answers right will go into the $500 prize draw which will be conducted between 6 and 7 AM Eastern on Monday morning. 11) A new article has just been posted to the GW Micro Knowledgebase: Block Audio Ads and Popups on SendSpace and similar Websites with Internet Explorer 12) The State of Texas is looking for a technology trainer to work in Austin. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 301 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 301 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
Greetings, Well, we're back for the time being. I haven't yet decided to start a blog or go on Facebook, so I'm not systematically telling about my experiences, though I have written a letter describing the healing process my wife is going through and can send it to whomever wants it. Meanwhile, in a few weeks we will be moving, and the Internet may not be convenient, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, to do our best to catch up: 1) Two articles have lately been placed on the Gw Micro Knowledge Base: Working With Window-Eyes User Profiles 2) the April, 2011 issue of AccessWorld is now available, featuring, among others, articles about the blind driver challenge and about apple TV. 3) Freedom Scientific announces several new free webinars: Strategies for Navigating Difficult Web Pages with JAWS, May 3; Text Analyzer - New in JAWS 12, May 31; Facebook with JAWS and MAGic, Part Two, June 7; PDF Document Reading and Strategies with JAWS and MAGic, June 21; Twitter with JAWS and MAGic, June 30 4) At onlinedocumentconversion.com you can upload an image file and receive a nice OCR of the file via email within 3-5 minutes. Registration is free and there's no cost involved. 5) Kathy Ann now has a textbook on Outlook 2010 wityh JAWS and window-Eyes 6) the april, 2010, Braille Monitor has an article entitled A Few Notes on Buying a Computer, Third Edition 7) Here are several new and updated articles and listings from the Gizmo Site: Best Free Online Genealogy / Family Tree Applications 8) Serotalk Tech Chat 97 discusses Top Accessible Mac Apps 9) Serotalk Podcast 54 covers its usual array of interesting current copics, almost a must listen if you want to keep abreast of adaptive technology. 10) As anticipated, Mobile Accessibility from Code Factory, making Android phones accessible, is now available for purchase from the Android store as well as through Code Factory. 11) A new DAISY book on using Open Book, with its new portable camera, is now available on the Freedom Scientific training page. Mp3 files of the material are also available from the same page. 12) Four blind scientists have collaborated to launch Access2science.com, a site to promote involvement in science, technology, engineering and math by people with disabilities. 13) NFBNewsline has added five magazines published by Meredith Corporation to those freely available to subscribers, by phone, online, or on several portable devices. the new offerings are Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness and Parents. 14) Here's a new web site: chicks dig Macs. 15) Sendero Group and american Printing House for the Blind have collaborated on Talking Pc Maps, a program to allow people to become familiar with their environment, plan routes, and simulate trips. APh sells the program for around $275. 16) Here is a recording of an interview with Ted Henter about the history of JAWS. 17) Mobile speak 5.0 for symbian is avaiable as a free upgrade to users of version 4. It includes Support for Symbian^3, Support for Nokia Email, and a New Review Cursor feature |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 300 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 300 Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
Greetings, 1) The makers of Blio, the recently-launched reading system, are back again to convince us of its promise. You can learn about it on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 22 March at 00:00. 2. The March, 2011 issue of the Braille Monitor contains an article entitled Blio: A Formative Technology of the Twenty-First Century 3. Window-Eyes version 7.5 has now been released, including a completely re-designed (and much more intuitive) user interface, full UIA support, support for Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Live Mail/Windows Live Messenger 2011, plus a brand new Remote Assistance feature and more. 4. GW Micro and Duxbury Systems announce a collaboration that provides unparalleled access to Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) and Perky Duck using Window-Eyes. This app is available from App Central, formerly known as Script Central. 5) The posts for March 15, 2011 on Fred's Head give various information about ways to access and learn about March Madness, the big NCAA basketball tournament that starts in earnest today. 6) Thanks to Fred's Head, we also learn about PostalShout, a company that, for a fee, lets you write letters at home and send to them so they can mail them on paper. 7) This Gizmo post gives lots of information about finding online radio streams, especially, though not exclusively, classical stations. 8) They also give us an updated version of The Best Free Security List in the World 9) Not to mention an Updated list of Free Business Books Online 10) The final nugget from Gizmo is an article describing Hundreds of Free, Fascinating Talks Online 11) Here is an audio tutorial from Bay Area Digital discussing how to use the Pronto notetaker with a cell phone. 12) Bay Area Digital also offers a DAISY version of the manual for the Cobra screen reader 13) SeroTalk Podcast 63 covers a wide array of current tech news. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 299 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 299 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: Flying Blind, LLC at the 2011 CSUN Conference!
Greetings, 1) There exists a way to convert most Kindle books to html files, enabling us to read them in braille and to have perfectly thorough navigation. The process takes several steps, and some sighted collaboration will probably be needed at least once. While most books convert, a few do not, so it may be wise to grab the sample which is offered and test it before buying the book. All necessary files and instructions are here: 2) Ipplex has released a $1.95app that works on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and latest iPod that recognizes US currency. All reports are that it is easy and highly effective. The company plans other apps too. 3) In an approximately 12 minute episode of the Candle Shore Podcast, Mark Taylor demonstrates how List Recorder, an iOS App, can be used as a virtual teleprompter for blind and low vision users. 4) SeroTalk Tech Chat 92 features a panel discussing This Month in Access Tech for February 2011 5) in SeroTalk Podcast 62: An Aria on Aria, the SeroTalk team discusses a wide range of news and information 6) Dolphin Computer Access has updated Guide, an interface designed for people who might find standard computer operating systems too complex, to version 6. It lets you e-mail, use the web, play games and more, in much simpler form than other systems. 7) Android Access offers information, raings, and accessibility reviews for dozens of accessible Android applications. Users can post reviews of apps they've tried or view tps and tricks submitted by others. Learn more about how to get started with the Android operating system, and stay up to date with the latest news and features. 8) On Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 15 March, learn about current and future happenings with the Braille Sense, Voice Sense and Book Sense products from the staff at HIMS. 9) Blind-flight-simmers is a mailing list discussing all aspects of computer flight simulation by the blind. 10) The blindsysadmins website aims to be a resource for system administrators to ask questions, read about accessible applications and systems and interact with people interested in similar topics. It also aims to provide proof to employers that blind system administrators are efficient, reliable, hard working and resourceful. 11) Rigel Technology is offering a 40-hour Advanced Microsoft Office Skills course, both in spring and in more accelerated form in summer, and a 20-hour Web Site Development course. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 298 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 298 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: EBlink Showcase Presents One BrailleConnect32 for US$3,000!
Greetings,
1) Fred's Head offers us a Portable Handheld Electronic Video Magnifiers Comparison 2) SeroTalk Tech Chat 91 bore the title Accessible Online Games with Sound for the Blind 3) Chip Orange is offering free weekly classes on programming, particularly related to Window-Eyes scripting. These are offered via TeamTalk, and are archived. For information about access to the live programs, write to 4) T&T Consultancy now offers individualized JAWS scripting for programs you want to use. You first pay for an evaluation of the situation, then receive an estimate of the cost to script. They may expand to other formats. e-mail 5) JAWS scripts for the Online Bible program are now available on 6) Last week's Gw Insider broadcast was canceled because of inclement weather. It will take place on Thursday, 3 March at 19:00 GMT. It will be archived. 7) Code Factory announces Mobile Accessibility for Android, which is both a suite of ten accessible programs such as web browser, e-mail program and more and a screen reader for the phones. It supports all Android phones from version 2.1 and above, and works with touch screens and keyboards. It is only available in English now, and costs $95 from the Android market. A 30-day demo is available. Video and audio demos can be heard here: 8) Learn about accessible and affordable audio players that use Rockbox on Tek Talk on Tuesday, 8 March at 01:00 GMT. 9) A release candidate for the next version of NVDA, version 2011.1, is now available for all to try. 10) The Cobra screen reader, made by Baum Retec Ag of Germany, is now available from Bay Area Digital. the screen reader works with modern programs and systems and has built-in OCR for reading difficult screens. It comes in versions that support braille, screen enlargement and speech output. 11) HumanWare will hold a series of webinars on the Apex family of products. All are on Thursdays at 20:30 GMT: 12) AccessTechnologyInstitute offers Immersion to Word 2010 tutorials for JAWS and Window-Eyes. Each downloadable tutorial costs $75. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 297 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 297 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Advertisement: EBlink Showcase Presents One BrailleConnect32 for US$3,000!
Greetings,
1) RoboBraille is a free service that lets you turn documents from many file formats, including scanned pdf, into contracted braille or mp3 files. the service has added a web interface that is much easier to use, and continues to add more languages. French and Spanish are said to be coming within a few months. 2) The lead article in Windows Secrets for Febreuary 17, 2011 is A complete guide to Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts. The article starts out basic but advanced information follows. 3) The Gizmo team tells us about The Best Free Microsoft Downloads. 4) the popular 250+ Places for Free Books Online list has been updated by the Gizmo editor. 5) And this Gizmo post is called Stolen WiFi: How To Check and What To Do If Your WiFi Is Being Pilfered 6) CDESK is a suite of programs designed to make the computer easy to use. CDesks eight included applications are Word Processing, Contacts list/address book, Internet Browsing (with webpage magnification and screen reading), Universal Email client, Document Scanning/Reading |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 296 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 296 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Accessible Service: YourTube by Povidi
Greetings,
1) Anna Dresner and I will be discussing anything and everything iPhone/iPad/iTouch on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday at 01:00. Besides discussing our co-authored book from National Braille Pres and answering questions from all comers, we will each provide a mini-tutorial. Anna will discuss obtaining and reading electronic books on the devices, and I will discuss Safari and alternatives to it for using the web. 2) Java Access Bridge 2.0.2 is aimed at providing support for Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. Furthering development of Java Access Bridge can be of great benefit to enterprise users. An early release version is available at 3) the latest Web Axe podcast #89 is a preview of the upcoming International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN 2011). You can download the podcast at 4) The next Free online training webinar from Gw Micro will be The Basics of Using the Internet with Window-Eyes. It will take place on Wednesday, March 9 at 19:00 GMT. 5) SeroTalk Tech Chat 90: covers Accessible Books for Everyone Part II 6) Serotalk Podcast 61 covers a wealth of interesting stories: 7) The Mac-Access blog, which also has an associated large mailing list, is a new source for information about Mac accessibility. 8) This Fred's Head post discusses a cd burning program called ExpressBurn. 9) And this one gives many resources for repairing Perkins Braille Writers. 10) Yahoo! for Web Accessibility will be the next Seminar Hadley, on Friday 24 February at 19:00 GMT. To register, visit 11) IBM Research-Japan and WGBH's Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) are conducting a joint study on the applicability of speech synthesis for video description. 12) an MBA student team is working to develop a technology that could improve Braille products. They are in the early stages of their project, and have recently launched an online survey to help them better understand the needs of individuals who are blind and visually impaired. 13) A recording of a webinar from GW Micro describing the new features of Window-Eyes 7.5 is now available to download. The recording lasts just over 76 minutes and goes into a lot of detail with plenty of time for questions. The direct link to download the file is |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 295 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 295 The Week's News in Adaptive Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
This Issue's Featured Accessible Service: YourTube by Povidi
Greetings,
1) window-Euyes public beta 7.5 is available, offering better access to Microsoft office 2010, access to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, access to the beta of Internet Explorer 9, and an improved user interface among other improvements. 2) AccessWorld for February, 2011 is now available. It features a review of DocuScan Plus, an accessibility check of the Yahoo toolbars, and more 3) Tek Talk features two useful features on GMT tTuesday, 15 February at 01:00. You can learn about the Hope interface that makes the Pandora music service accessible, and also how to use a Bluetooth keyboard with your i-devices. 4) Comprehensive information about the upcoming CSUN conference in March is available on a web page with all the extraneous links removed. 5) Robert Schifreen recently wrote a 350-page book, all about how to create web sites from scratch with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL. The accessible pdf has been freely available. Soon you'll be able to browse the book online but the pdf will cost, so grab it while it's free. 6) Gizmo tells us about A Handy Windows Troubleshooting Tool that's Free For Non-Commercial Use 7) The Best Guide to Anonymous Surfing on the Web has been updated. 8) Gizmo tells us about a program that helps you save on printer ink, and you can get a free license. 9) Fred's Head gives us Tips to Buying Food Online: Accessible Resources 10) From them, we also learn about the availability of Hotmail alias accounts so you can have five and eventually more e-mail accounts per address. 11) SeroTalk Tech Chat 88brings us This Month in Access Technology for January 2011 12) J-Tools version 4 is released. Compatible with JAWS version 12, new features include viewing text notes in the jaws virtual viewer, easily select between multiple Outlook 2010 accounts, support for Outlook 2010 calendar including all views, new shortcuts and contacts facility and much much more. Learn about the upgrade and listen to the podcast on the TandT Consultancy page: 13) Bay Area Digital announces an upgrade to the Pronto notetaker. Software Version 3.2 brings EloQuence speech, Added email functionality for sending and receiving attachments and the Ability to handle both .doc and .docx files along with other improvements. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 294 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 294 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) Learn about the latest developments with the SARA Scan and Read Appliance as well as with MAGic from Freedom Scientific on GMT Tuesday, 7 February at 01:00 on Tek Talk. 2) the December and January issues of FSCast constitute a two-part tutorial on using JAWS with iTunes. 3) Recent issues of windows Secrets have contained lead articles about windows 7: 4) AT&T Labs - Research, with the cooperation of the standards committee on text-to-speech synthesis systems of the Acoustical Society of America, is running a web-based experiment to evaluate the intelligibility of synthesized speech for people who have been legally blind from six years of age or younger. 5) There's a lot of new material on the NFB Access Technology Blog: Two posts concerning the Kindle Pc Software from Amazon, several posts about discoveries made at the Consumer Electronics Show, and an article about the accessibility of online music services. 6) The February, 2011 Braille Monitor contains an article entitled DAISY: What is it and Wny use it 7) The January issue contains an article entitled Making Cell Phones Accessible Computers in Our Pockets Must Talk 8) A lot of good material from Gizmo this week: they discuss A Free Security Software Service That Will Wow You 9) they offer A Quick Way To Install Dozens Of Free Apps 10) To commemorate Data Privacy Day: they offer Tips, Tools, Tricks, and Add-ons 11) They explain How to Check Which Programs Are Phoning Home From Your PC 12) We can learn How To Detect Drivers for Unknown Devices in Windows 13) And, assuming any of this site is accessible, they offer news of a Free Brain-Training Game that Claims To Improve Your Memory 14) HumanWare is giving away a Victor Reader Stream and a SmartView Pocket. 15) The SeroTalk crew gives us another crack at ATIA 2011 highlights in podcast 60. Many more interviews from the conference can be found on their site. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 293 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 293 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) The epic work of literature Getting Started with the iPhone: An Introduction for Blind Users is now available from National Braille Press. Well, maybe it's not quite a literary classic, but I did co-author it with Anna Dresner, so I am rather partial to it. You can get it in paper or electronic braille, text, or DAISY. 2) The creators of NVDA are in danger of running out of money for their operation, showing that free screen readers are not really free. 3) Amazon.com is releasing a new version of Kindle for PC that adds accessibility features designed for blind and low-vision customers. If a screen reader is installed on the computer, allEnglish-language books in the 750,000 book collection can be read with the program's own synthesizer. Some free books are available, but the vast majority are for purchase for reasonable prices. 4) Duxbury Braille Translator version 11.1 is now available, with lots more translation languages, more math capabilities and support for braille learners. 5) Rick Harmon's latest Blind Geek Zone podcast discusses the new accessible Kindle version, the NVDA financial crisis and the Hope program for accessing Pandora. 6) this Fred's Head post lists lots of resources for repairing Perkins Braillers. 7) this one gives links for accessible resources from the Internal Revenue Service. 8) SeroTalk Tech Chat 87: 2011 ATIA Highlights will have quite a Top Tech tidbits feel, as Larry Lewis and I will join Brad Hodges and Michael Lauf to discuss the stories to come out of this conference. This event will be at a different time than usual, Saturday, 29 January at 20:00 GMT. 9) The Gizmo team has update Updated: Probably the Best Free Security List in the World 10) Microsoft used to sell a scientific calculator called Mathematics. I don't know if it is accessible, but now it is free. 11) Learn about DocuScan Plus, the new low-cost accessible reading solution from Serotek on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday 1 February at 01:00 12) Users of the BrailleNote Apex will receive a welcome upgrade, version 9.1, due out in February. You can read about what it is to contain here. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 292 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 292 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) The Hadley School offers three new free technology-related correspondence courses: 2) An upgrade is coming for the BrailleNote family of products, and you can heaar about it on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 25 January at 01:00 . 3) The Voxkeys project makes some Mac programs easier to use with VoiceOver and makes others accessible through scripting. Accessibility of Garage Band, the music production program, is enhanced by using VoxKeys. 4) Youthful Chase Srispin has become an authority on many adaptive tech products, and has produced lots of training podcasts and YouTube videos. Now, he has launched Blind Mobile Tech, a site that links to all his productions, to his blog, and to some content produced by others. 5) GoodReads is a UK site featuring a mailing list on reading and locating booksin usable formats. 6) Jamal Mazrui has updated many of his free programs. All of them have been mentioned here before. The updates are not generally major, except that in a couple cases support is added for use with NVDA, but they're worth getting if you already have the programs, and the programs are worth getting if you don't already have them and you might want souch a program: 7) In Gw Micro news, the article Using Window-Eyes with Office 2010 (list of hotkeys) 8) Gw Micro will offer a free webinar once a month during 2011. The schedule is already posted, with the first training concerning what's coming in the next version of Window-Eyes. All webinars take place the second Wednesday of the month. The first two will be at 19:00 GMT, and once North America embarks on daylight savings time, they will be at 18:00 GMT. 9) window-Eyes uses key combinations of the arrow keys with both the alt and control modifiers to change speech settings on the fly. Those keys don't work on all systems without tinkering, so a script has been posted to provide alternative keystrokes. 10) Finally, if you use Window-Eyes 4.5 or earlier, the company has an upgrade path which may save you some money if you want to start using the current version. 11) Version 2.3 of Accessible DAISY allows for faster downloads,and for using more feeds. 12) New JAWS scripts for the GoldWave sound editor, version 5.5, have been posted. 13) The SmartView 360 is a new desktop magnifier from HumanWare. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 291 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 291 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) The Gizmo team alerts us to 31 new free programs we can download now. These are small, somewhat specialized programs. 2) They also provide us with this article: Worms, Trojans and Malware: What Are All Those Security Words and What Do They Mean? 3) ABiSee Inc. announces That Its Instant Readers, Eye-Pal and Zoom-Ex, Are Now Compatible with Kurzweil 1000. K1000 users need to have the latest patch to version 12 to use these camera devices. 4) The Serotek team and guests are back again to discuss people's current favorite iPhone apps. 5) Executive Products now has a custom case for the Braille Sense Plus. 6) Mike May will discuss his experiences and impressions from the Consumer Electronics Show on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 18 January at 01:00. 7) wxMaxima is a free, open source "computer algebra system". It is quite accedssible, and therefore could be useful for users as well as for those wishing to encouragement development of such a system. It is available at 8) Papa Sangre is a totally sound-based game for the iPhone and iPad. Here is a review of it: 9) This is a Fred's Head article entitled Website Teaches Alternative Uses for Everyday Items 10) And here's one about Ptoogle, a Twitter search engine for pricing that lets you find, track and compare prices on items. 11) This 30-minute podcast is entitled Exploring the iPod Touch and Learning Braille Using the Refreshabraille 18 Display 12) On Main Menu for GMT 15 January at 02:00, you can hear this week's tech news, a discussion of the Hope interface for the Pandora music service, a rebroadcast concerning Apple TV, a demonstration of entering an address for GPS with the Trekker Breeze, and discussion of a program called Unrestrict PDF. 13) With schedule changes in place, EASI now offers a webinar on Flash accessibility on January 18 and a webinar on OneNote on January 19. 14) From India comes Accessible News DAISY, a program that lets you convert news web pages and blogs into digital talking books. The program is free for two weeks, and $30/year thereafter. |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 290 |
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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 290 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) A tidbit from an e-mail list: You can track UPS packages by e-mail by sending the tracking number in the message body to 2) Learn about the many new features in the Trekker Breeze on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 11 January at 01:00. 3) In SeroTalk Tech Chat 83, we learn about 2010 Access Technology Highlights and Letdowns 4) SeroTalk Podcast 58 brings us the Latest Tech News as of January 3, 2011 5) John Martin has written JAWS scripts to make the Rhapsody music subscription service accessible. This Fred's Head post discusses the package. 6) The January, 2010 issue of AccessWorld features a review of low-cost magnifier WinZoom 4 and of the magnification found in Windows 7, as well as updates on accessible appliances and Apple Portable device accessibility, discussion of the HIMS/Gw Micro separation, and discussions of approaches to fitness. 7) The team that has brought us Qwitter, the accessible Twitter client, has now devised an accessible interface to the Pandora radio program. 8) Handy Tech North America offers three new workshops: A two-day workshop on Office 2010 with JAWS, and three-day workshops on Producing Music with the Mac and Mac Academy Beyond the Basics. Their training schedule is here: 9) the Gizmo team offers us A Handy Guide To Microsoft's Free Security Tools 10) They also give us a pdf called 9 Great Freeware Programs that should be on Every PC 11) Blekko is a search engine that seeks to provide results free of spam and purely commercial results. 12) An accessibility review of Accessible Twitter version beta version has been added to AccessWatch. 13) Reviews of these apps for iOS4 have been added to Applevis in the last couple days: Secret Sound, MailTimer, Blind Memory, Rick Dees Digital Network, Dragon Dictation, Numerology, Cydelete, Toggle SSH, and uTorrent Remote 14) A local doctor is conducting research to evaluate a new investigational treatment for insomnia and daytime sleepiness in individuals who are totally blind. Participants will be compensated for their time and effort and will receive study medication and study-related medical evaluation at no cost. |
Flying Blind, LLC would like to take a moment to wish all of its subscribers, customers and suppliers, and competitors alike, a joyous and most blessed holiday season. To our Christian readers we wish you a Merry, Christ-centered, Christmas. We are so very grateful to all of you who subscribe to Tidbits and to the thousands of you that support Flying Blind, LLC throughout the year. We wish you and your loved ones a safe and most memorable holiday season. Season's Greetings from all of us at here at Flying Blind, LLC!
Once again, Flying Blind, LLC scores big on the refurbished Braille display front! The ALVA BC640 offers seamless Bluetooth and USB connectivity with a variety of today's most popular screenreaders. Its Braille keyboard enables you to write directly to a PC or Mobile device wirelessly in your preferred Grade of Braille. The stereo speakers on its feature pack allow you to route the audio from your computer or mobile device wirelessly to the Braille Controller. You may also store files on the Braille Controller as well as use its internal notetaker to create, edit, and share documents with a PC. This one of a kind, 40 cell Braille display is approximately 50% off its suggested list price. Price includes shipping within the continental United States and as a single item will be available on a first come, first serve basis. Email 
Flying Blind, LLC is pleasantly shocked and excited to have a gently used BrailleNote Apex32 Notetaker for sale for USD $3,595.00 - that's approximately USD $2,800.00 off of it's suggested list price!!! The BrailleNote name is synonymous with excellence and innovation, and the Apex continues to set standards that other notetakers have yet to meet. This unit has hardly been used and is in excellent condition. It's size makes it a perfect stocking stuffer for some lucky recipient this holiday season. That, and it's robust yet intuitive functionality will offer limitless options to whomever receives it. This is a single unit and will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. Includes shipping anywhere within the continental United States. For more information, e-mail 
Flying Blind, LLC is pleased to offer this turnkey mobile phone solution for 50% off of its suggested retailed price. And the best part about it is, everything comes preinstalled for you! This solution includes an HTC 743 Handset with built-in GPS receiver, installed with Code Factory's globally acclaimed Mobile Geo and Mobile Speak software. We'll even provide one map region pre-installed on an 8GB micro SD card. This is one of the industry's smallest, yet most robust GPS units on the market, and is also the GPS solution that is rigorously used by Flying Blind, LLC's founder, Larry Lewis, when travelling around town or around the country for business or pleasure! The handset is unlocked and can be activated for phone service with AT&T or T-Mobile or utilized independently without a data or phone plan. Act now while supplies last by sending an email to 
Flying Blind, LLC still has a couple remaining refurbished, BrailleConnect 32 Braille terminals for the staggeringly low price of $2,000.00 USD each, that's $2,100.00 USD off of their suggested list prices. Several of these units have been snatched up this week, so act now to take advantage of this amazing bargain! Each display is in fantastic working order and has been thoroughly tested prior to delivery. This sleek yet rugged Braille terminal offers enough Braille for PC and Macintosh use while providing enough portability for use with today's portables such as netbooks, tablets, and mobile phones! Each display comes with a 30 day warranty and all six units will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information email 
Looking for a low-cost, Braille input / output device for your iPod, iPad, or iPhone? BraillePen12 and BraillePen Slim give you two affordable state-of -the-art solutions for using refreshable Braille to portably and efficiently access the applications on these, and many other mainstream devices. For more information email 
This latest ALVA offering provides instant plug-and-play access to all Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. It is a true "plug-and-play" device, meaning that no third party drivers are required to set up the device on your computer. Install your favorite screenreader and you will quickly realize how easy and efficient ALVA USB is to use, both in the competitive, employment environment as well as the classroom setting. ALVA USB makes for an affordable companion to your home computer, performing countless tasks both independently and efficiently. For more information email 
