Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 343
The Week's News in Access Technology

A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
http://www.flying-blind.com/

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Greetings,

1) There is alot of information about the recent CSUN conference, where you can learn about technology that is here now and that which will presumably be coming soon. By far the most useful set of audio interviews taken at the Conference can be found at:
http://blindbargains.com/audio/
A stream containing all the Serotek interviews at:
http://serotalk.com/2012/03/03/all-csun-2012-interviews-now-available-on-spn-radio/
Here are 5 good news stories from CSUN 2012, courtesy of Media Access Australia:
http://mediaaccess.org.au/latest_news/general/5-good-news-stories-from-csun-2012
Here is a presentation on Mobile Accessibility, and the associated panel discussion.
http://www.iheni.com/mobile-accessibility-presentation-at-csun-2012/
There was a presentation on the accessible DAISY format and its convergence with EPUB3. The slidedeck and text transcript are here:
http://www.slideshare.net/daisyconsortium/epub-3-state-of-the-art-and-accessibility-11826887
Here is one CSUN recap:
http://john.foliot.ca/csun-2012-recap/
Finally, the writers of the NFB Access Technology Blog give their summary of the conference:
http://nfb.org/access-technology-blog

2) The public beta release of Windows 8 has generated alot of talk. Here is an article on it from Week in Geek:
http://www.howtogeek.com/107581/week-in-geek-windows-8-consumer-preview-downloaded-1-million-times-in-first-24-hours/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=040312
And here is "Windows 8 Consumer Preview Review: Part I - Introduction, Installation, and Improvements" from Inclusive Planet:
http://www.inclusiveplanet.com/en/channelpost/13210890
GW Micro has placed a recording of the Window-Eyes and Windows 8 CSUN 2012 presentation on their podcast page:
http://www.gwmicro.com/podcast

3) Christopher Toth, the talented author of the defunct Qwitter program and the Hope program that makes Pandora accessible has now produced QRead, a $30 reading program that allows for impressive navigation of most unprotected ebook formats.
http://q-continuum.net/qread/

4) From the Serotalk Podcast Network we have Episode 6 of That Android Show
http://thatandroidshow.com/2012/03/05/what-would-you-do-for-a-clondike-phone/
And Serotalk Podcast Podcast 98
http://serotalk.com/2012/03/06/serotalk-podcast-98-triplespectives/

5) This Blind Access Journal podcast features an interview with Nancy Miracle, maker of the iOS app Digit-eyes which is apparently ripe for an upgrade.
http://blindaccessjournal.com/2012/03/csun-nancy-miracle-digit-eyes-bar-code-scanner-for-ios/

6) Here is an AppleVis podcast entitled TuneIn Radio: 50000 Radio Stations in the Palm of Your Hand
http://www.applevis.com/node/2485

7) If you want to test a web site for accessibility, you can input the URL into the WAVE Web Accessibility Tool
http://five.wave.webaim.org/

8) Office Enhance provides enhancements for Microsoft Office products under Window-Eyes, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, in the spell checker.
http://www.gwmicro.com/apps/Office_Enhance

9) An update for Dolphin Guide fixes problems accessing the BBC Listen Again service and other bugs.
http://www.yourdolphin.com/productdetail.asp?id=30&z=3

10) Tween is a mainstream Twitter app that happens to be accessible to users who are blind. This page gives keyboard shortcuts and pertinent links.
http://www.dlee.org/tween/resources.htm

11) Here is David Pogue's article, Time to Kill Off Captchas from Scientific American:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=time-to-kill-off-captchas

12) You might enjoy "My 17-Point Checklist For Teaching Good Writing and Blogging" from Search Engine Journal
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/my-17-point-checklist-for-teaching-good-writing-and-blogging/40338/

13) Here are recent finds from the Gizmo site:
Is this Website down, or is it me?
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/website-down-or-it-me.htm
Get A Story A Week Sent To Your email, Kindle, or Instapaper For Free
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/get-story-week-sent-your-email-kindle-or-instapaper-free.htm
Create Your Own Music Mash-Up From MP3 Files
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/create-your-own-music-mash-mp3-files.htm
The Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/ultimate-developer-and-power-users-tool-list-windows.htm
Understanding Codecs
http://www.techsupportalert.com/understanding-codecs.htm

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