Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 266
The Week's News in Access Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
http://www.flying-blind.com/
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Greetings,
1) Thunder was perhaps the first free non-Internet-dependent screen reader. Development on it continues with version 2, which works with Windows 7 and Office 2007, and now supports Internet Explorer. the portable version can be installed on any computer. Greek, Polish and Spanish versions are coming. You can visit the blog at
http://theblindblogger.blogspot.com/
and download the screen reader here:
http://www.screenreader.net
2) Cobra, a screen reader from Baum in Germany, is now at version 9. It claims great stability, use of OCR to access otherwise inaccessible screen elements, and a more reasonable price, 499 euros, or some $625. A 30-minute demo version is available, and it offers speech-braille, speech-magnifier, or full configuration versions.
http://www.baum.de/cms/en/cobra/
3) If you have, or are willing to sign up for, a Windows Live or Hotmail account, you can get 25 GB of free online storage through Microsoft SkyDrive. Gizmo tells us of a freer utility to make your SkyDrive show up as a regular drive on your computer, for easy data transfer.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmosbest/~3/GhCgwTtBXHM/free-utility-makes-ms-skydrive-even-more-useful.htm
4) Listen to yours truly discuss the current accessibility, promise and challenges of speech recognition such as Windows Speech Recognition and Dragon Naturally Speaking, for the blind, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 20 July at 00:00.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2
5) On the speech recognition front, JSay version 8 is now available. This package integrates JAWS version 11 with Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1, and offers full compatibility with Windows 7 32 and 64-bit versions and with all JAWS features including ResearchIt.
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com
6) The July, 2010 issue of AccessWorld from American Foundation for the Blind is now available, featuring reviews of the iPad, Refresh-a-Braille, I-Pal Solo and I-Pal LV, several articles about access technology in school, and more.
http://www.afb.org/accessworld
7) Members of the free Klango network who are members of Facebook have access to a Facebook client which is said to be much more accessible than the usual one.
http://www.klango.net
8) Here is a YouTube video showing Window-Eyes' support forr Office 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/gwmicro#p/u/6/5K00QnyPf78
9) Serotek offers 20 interviews with vendors at the American Council of the Blind convention:
http://serotalk.com/2010/07/14/20-interviews-from-acb-2010-convention-in-phoenix-arizona-3/
10) Humanware has announced the availability of Map Manager 2.0.9 and Trekker Maps 3.2 for the Trekker and Trekker Breeze.
http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/support/map_3_2_upgrade
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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