Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, October 31, 2013 - Volume 429
The Week's News in Access Technology

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

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Greetings,

On behalf of all of us here at Flying Blind, LLC, we would like to wish all of our readers a ghoulishly Happy Halloween!

1) Cloud HQ may be a partial solution if you struggle with accessibility of Google Drive and Google Docs. It allows you to sync Google Drive with Dropbox, and Google Docs documents are converted to Word documents:
https://www.cloudhq.net/dropbox

2) JAWS 15 has been released, with its considerable support for Windows 8.1, some improved web access, more streamlined Braille support, and more:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/jaws-whats-new.asp

3) Jonathan Mosen's blog always features well-considered perspectives and resulting comments. Recent articles include "There's No Such Thing as a 'Blind Ghetto Product'":
http://mosen.org/index.php/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-blind-ghetto-product/

"A Matter of Respect. Why I always write 'Braille' with an uppercase B":
http://mosen.org/index.php/a-matter-of-respect-why-i-always-write-braille-with-an-uppercase-b/

"Vienna Waits for You. Great RSS Reader for Mac":
http://mosen.org/index.php/vienna-waits-for-you-great-rss-reader-for-mac/

4) While we're talking about Jonathan, his book on iOS7 is still available through his site as previously announced, but is now also available from National Braille Press in DAISY, hardcopy braille, and .BRF format:
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/IOS7-EYE.html

5) A Twitter user recommended "Startpage Search Engine" for its clarity and privacy settings:
https://www.startpage.com/

6) This is "A Review of Five iOS Navigation Apps" looking at accessibility for blind users:
http://www.incobs.de/tests-english/items/ios-navigation-apps.html

7) And on that topic, here is a review of BlindSquare, one of the apps mentioned in the above post:
http://markusboettner.net/

8) A lot of people may be able to benefit from the "Getting Started Kit for People New to Vision Loss" from VisionAware:
http://www.visionaware.org/section.aspx?FolderID=7&SectionID=135&TopicID=550

9) Easy Chirp is a cross-platform, accessible Twitter client that has been unavailable for a while, but is now back:
http://accessibleinsights.info/blog/2013/10/29/easy-chirp-returns-with-new-sporty-features-and-more-power-under-the-hood/

10) Meanwhile, development continues on the accessible Twitter client Chicken Nugget:
http://q-continuum.net/chicken_nugget/readme.html#changelog

11) From HowToGeek, we learn "How to Use Windows' Advanced Search Features: Everything You Need to Know":
http://www.howtogeek.com/173703/how-to-use-windows-advanced-search-features-everything-you-need-to-know/

And "Ransomware: Why This New Malware is So Dangerous and How to Protect Yourself":
http://www.howtogeek.com/174343/ransomware-why-this-new-malware-is-so-dangerous-and-how-to-protect-yourself/

12) Hadley hosts a quarterly iFocus seminar series with training on iOS devices. iOS7-related training videos from the series are now posted to their YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/hadleyschool

13) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is collecting information about the preferences of blind users who browse the Web on mobile devices. They've created a short survey (15 questions) that can be completed in 10 to 15 minutes, and will be available until 22 November:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RCD9SR

14) This is a bit over a year old, and many of the sites mentioned may well not be accessible, but "The Big List of 100 Tools, Tips and Tricks to Wwork More Eefficiently Online", from the Buffer Blog, could nonetheless be an interesting article to explore:
http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-big-list-of-100-tools-tips-and-tricks-to-work-more-efficiently-online

15) Here is an OS X Mavericks feature list:
http://www.apple.com/osx/whats-new/features.html

16) Serotek finally offers the ability to download its software:
http://www.serotek.com/downloads

17) Here are "4 Free Text-to-Speech Apps for Windows":
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=168

18) And from the same source, here are "9 Free Windows Apps for Low Vision Users":
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=195

19) We'll wrap up with this week's audio content:

Hear from the new President of Freedom Scientific on this month's FSCast:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/default.asp

The SPN team has been busy, with Triple Click Home #23:
http://tripleclickhome.com/2013/10/29/triple-click-home-episode-23-earth-to-itunes/

And That Android Show #21:
http://thatandroidshow.com/2013/10/28/that-android-show-episode-21-flowers-rainbows-and-puppies/

This is a quick Audioboo on how to make some apps accessible with iOS:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/1686044-the-way-to-get-teamspeak-and-other-qt-things-to-work-with-voiceover

Eyes on Success focuses on the iOS app Digit-Eyes:
http://www.eyesonsuccess.net/eos_1344_podcast.mp3

AppleVis offers us:

Recording Audio Output from your Mac and your Voice Simultaneously:
http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/recording-audio-output-your-mac-and-your-voice-simultaneously

A Demonstration of Some of the English TTS Voices Available to VoiceOver users in OS X Mavericks:
http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/demonstration-some-english-tts-voices-available-voiceover-users-os-x-mavericks

AppleVis Extra #17: Fleksy - Happy Typing with Bill Rappos:
http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/applevis-extra-17-fleksy-happy-typing-bill-rappos

And Stretch Your Audio with AudioStretch:
http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/stretch-your-audio-audiostretch

Finally, from BgZ come:

Sega Game Gear Review:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/sega-game-gear-review/

Star Conquest Part 3 Space Combat for Cadets:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/star-conquest-part-3-space-combat-for-cadets/

And Sleep Timer Use on the Talking MP3 Players:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/sleep-timer-use-on-the-talking-mp3-players/

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