Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, December 20, 2012 - Volume 384
The Week's News in Access Technology

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

This Week's Featured Advertisement: One Refurbished BrailleConnect 24 Refreshable Braille Terminal for $1,500.00 USD!!!
That's right, Flying Blind, LLC is offering this gently used rarity at a fantastic price, and just in time for the holiday. This wireless, 24-cell Braille input/output solution marries pocket-sized access with desktop functionality. It is also worth mentioning that the one and only Stevie Wonder was the original purchaser of this unit, so you'll be giving a home to a one-of-a-kind Braille display that has been in the hands of a modern-day virtuoso and living legend! This BrailleConnect 24 is in fantastic shape, and is the perfect solution for a person who uses a desktop PC, and a portable i-device. Price includes shipping and this unit will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. For more information, or to purchase this unit, email featured@flying-blind.com or call +1 (216) 381-8107 today! Happy Holidays from the Team at Flying Blind,LLC!

Greetings,

1) I (Dean Martineau) am part of a screening committee helping a donor wishing to donate adaptive technology to one or more K-12 students who will use it well and who would not otherwise be able to obtain it. This offer is not limited to students in the US. Approximately $3,000.00 USD worth of equipment can be made available, which can cover the price of some braille displays, laptops, tablets and reading devices. There is a preference for providing braille hardware, but all requests will be considered. If you have, or are, a student who meets the criteria of potential effective use and genuine inability to obtain the equipment any other way, write to dean@topdotenterprises.com describing the student and his or her equipment needs, concisely but thoroughly. This will be an informal and fairly rapid process. If the right candidate(s) are found, they obviously will not receive their new technology on Christmas, but they might be able to know it is coming, and should receive it in January.

2) The DAISY Consortium announces that Obi 2.5 has been Released, allowing users to "Create DAISY Compliant Audio Books with Rich Navigation":
http://www.daisy.org/daisy-news#newsitem1204

3) A few years ago, the December and January issues of FSCast were taken up by a well-constructed two-part tutorial on the use of iTunes with JAWS, also quite useful to users of other Windows screen readers. Now, with the release of iTunes 11, history is repeating itself, and the first part of the current two-part tutorial formed the content of the December, 2012 issue of FSCast:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast073-december2012.asp

4) Access Technology Institute has release its $80 textbook, "An Immersion into Windows 8 with JAWS for Windows":
http://www.blindtraining.com/shop/win8-jfw.htm

5) What are the best and most influential products released in 2012, according to CNET?
http://www.cnet.com/8301-33506_1-57557848-306/galaxy-s3-beats-iphone-5-for-best-device-of-2012/

6) The December 2012 issue of AccessWorld contains reviews of the Candy and Candy Grip Hand-held Video Magnifiers from HIMS, Inc., The "iBill Second-Generation US Currency Identifier", the "Nest Thermostat" and more:
http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp

8) This Lifehacker article is called "Top 10 Handy iOS Tweaks That Don't Require Jailbreaking":
http://lifehacker.com/5968627/top-10-handy-ios-tweaks-that-dont-require-jailbreaking?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_twitter&utm_source=lifehacker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

9) For some dramatic audio stories, visit:
https://donnajodhan.com/

10) There's a new app for iOS to help people learn VoiceOver. It's called VoStarter. Read about it, with some feedback, here:
http://www.fredshead.info/2012/12/learning-how-to-use-voiceover-with.html

11) Here is a direct link to a presentation about Android given at the Computer Center for Visually Impaired Persons at Baruch College:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ccvipdemo

12) In podcast updates:

You can follow the "How to be Blind Roundtable Podcast" here:
http://htb2.com/

There are now nearly twenty podcasts on the AppleVis site with David Woodbridge demonstrating various features of the Mac:
http://www.applevis.com/podcasts/tags/mac-os-x

Join David Woodbridge on a Tour of his iPhone's Home Screen:
http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/join-david-woodbridge-tour-his-iphones-home-screen

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Visit the 2012 Tidbits Archive at https://www.toptechtidbits.com/tidbits2012.html where you can grab back issues. All that welcome information for future issues can be directed to our editor, Dean Martineau, at dean@topdotenterprises.com.

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