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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 215
The Week's News in Access Technology

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

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.

1) The iPhone, accessible out of the box, has been generating lots of talk and information. Mark Taylor, on his Candle Shore blog, has converted chapters from the User's Guide into various accessible formats. To find them, choose the Documentation link from his blog page, which has considerable recent coverage concerning the phone.
http://mark.candleshoreblog.com/

2) Of particular interest from his blog is his very thorough review of the phone:
http://mark.candleshoreblog.com/2009/06/30/review-not-every-apple-iphone-is-a-golden-delicious/

3) Part of the allure of the iPhone is the existence of thousands of apps to make the phone do all sorts of things. Apple only guarantees that the apps that ship with the phone will work with speech, but others do with no effort. Holly Anderson has compiled a list of the apps which have been found to work with VoiceOver
http://www.lioncourt.com/voiceover-compatible-iphone-applications/

4) The June 25 Serotek Tech Chat Discussed the New iPhone 3G S
http://serotalk.com/2009/06/26/june-25-live-tech-chat-discussing-the-new-iphone-3g-s/

5) Who knows if this initiative will work, but Marcus Engel
http://marcusengel.blogspot.com/2009/06/pardon-my-geekiness.html
suggests that we write to Apple to encourage them to arrange so that NLS books can be played on the iPhone. It would be cool, so if you want to do it, write to
accessibility@apple.com

6) There are at least two mailing lists for blind users of the iPhone to share experience, learning and frustration. To join aiphone, send a blank message to
aiphone-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
or to join viphone send a blank message to
viphone-subscribe@googlegroups.com

7) Still talking about mobile phones, for those interested in the very usable Talks screen reader for Nokia phones, you can download a Seminar on using the Talks object viewer to stop things from being spoken and how to make things speak that didn't initially. Also covered N86 with other phones.
http://3p.blindsea.com/casts/Talks4-00-3.mp3
http://3p.blindsea.com/casts/chat-talk-about-software-for-phones-20080426.mp3

8) And Humanware and Code Factory are planning to release Orator, a screen reader that will work on some upcoming Blackberry phone models. In anticipation of this event, a user intends to create a web site and mailing list for discussion and advocacy concerning accessible Blackberry use. If you want to be informed of developments, e-mail
carlos@oceansky.us

9) Leaving phones for this week, Window-Eyes version 7.1 is available, with support for Windows 7, support for 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7, enhanced Braille functionality, new scripting features for end users and script authors, and more.
http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/Latest_Features

10) Jamal Mazrui announces that the accessible Twitter interface McTwit version 2.0 is now available. McTwit offers nearly comprehensive access to Twitter capabilities, which are provided, not through a generic web browser interface, but through a dedicated Windows dialog that is
completely accessible.
http://EmpowermentZone.com/mtsetup.exe

11) WinZoom is a screen magnifier which costs less than some others and claims to provide the same or higher quality.
http://www.getwinzoom.com/

12)Kathy Ann Murtha announces a 4-week, $80 An Immersion into Windows Vista - The Training, including downloadable lessons, a textbook and chat/lecture. Class starts 8 July and meets four Wednesdays starting at 23:00 GMT.
http:/www.ewebcart.com/1637/cart?add=1&item_id=187

13) Fred's Head leads us to the downloadable Dictionary for Parents of Students with Disabilities.
http://www.usd.edu/cd/publications/dictionary.cfm

14) Thanks to them, we also learn about alice.com, a shopping/reminder site where you can be reminded when you need to buy popular household items and then have them delivered at good prices with free shipping.
http://www.alice.com/

15) This Gizmo article is called How Windows 7 and Vista 64 Support 32 bit Applications
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmosbest/~3/NTMyj0Rey7s/how-windows7-vista64-support-32bit-applications.htm

16) The official podcast of Freedom Scientific, FSCast is ready for June, 2009.
http://podcast.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast031-june2009.mp3

17) An e-mail list has been created to facilitate discussion about specific issues faced by Visually Impaired Leaders and Managers, As well as about general leadership and management topics. To subscribe to this group, send email to
vilam-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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