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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 255
The Week's News in Access Technology

Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
http://www.flying-blind.com/

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Greetings,

1) We haven't directed you to the Ranger Station blog for a good while, mostly because the good Ranger is tweeting much more now; ranger1138 is probably worth following on Twitter if you are so inclined. But he did blog recently, and offers a balanced perspective of the iPad.
http://therangerstation.blogspot.com/2010/04/some-random-impressions-on-ipad.html

2) The 8 April, 2010 post to the NFB Acces Technology blog contains links to the interviews the team conducted during the CSUN conference. Noteworthy is their interview with Torsten Brand, creator of the Talks screen reader for Synbian phones, who was extremely well-respected in the adaptive technology industryd and who passed on at age 47 shortly after the conference.
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Access_Technology_Blog.asp

3) Steve Hoffman of Talking Communities will discuss the present and future of web conferencing software on Tek Talk on GMT 4 May at 00:00.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2

4) This Fred's Head post discusses APHont, a type style scientifically designed to promote readability by people with low vision.
http://www.fredshead.info/2005/09/fonts-for-low-vision-readers.html

5) This Gizmo article discusses a new Microsoft service currently in open public beta that provides a set of online and offline tools for diagnosing and fixing common PC and device problems. According to the author, it may be a beta but it's already a useful and highly usable product that offers a support lifeline to many average Windows users with PC problems. This new Microsoft service currently in open public beta provides a set of online and offline tools for diagnosing and fixing common PC and device problems.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmosbest/~3/OzVHcWcIYgk/new-microsoft-service-fixes-common-pc-problems-free.htm

6) This one is entitled A Free, Efficient Replacement for Windows Search
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmosbest/~3/KExhdUT5OyE/free-replacement-windows-search.htm

7) Here's an intriguing one I haven't tested called Create a Live Web Page from Scratch in Seconds, via Email
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmosbest/~3/xbgU4GxBt9Y/posterous.htm

8) The last one from Gizmo is entitled Powerful but Lite Word Processing Programs. It highly recommends Jarte, which is highly accessible. The article also contains links to best free text editors, programming editors and html editors, and all these articles about free software and services are followed by enlightening discussions.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmosbest/~3/i7cKQChWnpc/word-processor-replacement.htm

9) The latest Tech Doctor podcast is entitled Does Size Matter: iPad Versus iPod
http://www.dr-carter.com/?p=46

10) Kathy Ann has made available three free lessons on downloading documents and opening archives.
http://www.accesstechnologyinstitute.com/Access/dl/index.htm

11) The American Printing House sells a $50 CD entitled Review of Office Ribbon Bar. The catalog number is 1-10519-00.
http://www.aph.org

12) It appears that the latest update to JAWS version 11 brings significant improvements to access to Yahoo! Messenger, Windows, the Yahoo! homepage and the classic Yahoo! mail interface.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/JAWS-whats-new.asp

13) SkypeTalking is a program that claims to provide improved access to Skype. It reads incoming/outgoing Skype alerts, such as online statuses, incoming calls, file transfers and incoming/outgoing chat messages by using the Skype API and your favorite screen reader, reducing or eliminating the need for scripting for individual screen readers.
http://code.google.com/p/skypetalking/
SkypeTalking is one of the topics on this week's Innovations program, so the interview will soon be in the archives.
http://theglobalvoice.info

14) The next interactive workshop offered by the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco will be an iPhone Interactive Workshop, Friday, 8 May, 20:00-22:00 GMT. People can participate in person, over the phone or online. For information on how to do this, write to
rsvp@lighthouse-sf.org

15) Jim Snowbargerhas enhanced HotSpotClicker, a free set of jaws scripts used by non-scripters to increase application accessibility, to build 195, adding various features
http://HotSpotClicker.org

For questions and comments regarding Tidbits, please e-mail Dean Martineau at dean@topdotenterprises.com. Dean Martineau provides adaptive technology training by phone, online, and in person, with flexible arrangements, and at affordable prices.

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