Press "Enter" to skip to content

Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, July 15, 2010 – Volume 266

The Week’s News in Access Technology

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

E-Blink Showcase Presents 1 Refurbished Brailliant 40 for US$1,895.00

Product photo of a refreshable braille display, shown twice on a white background: a long, slim, silver-gray unit seen from the front, with a second, paler copy below it like a reflection. Along the top edge runs a single row of small braille cells with navigation keys beside them. A small dark logo sits at the left end of the front panel and a model name at the right end, both too small to read at this size. The display is wide and flat, made to sit just in front of a computer keyboard on a desk. This sleek, ergonomic Braille Terminal that typically retails for US$4,995 provides portability and efficiency without compromising the amount of Braille access afforded to the end user. Price includes shipping costs within the continental (48 contiguous) United States. Please e-mail e-blink@flying-blind.com or call +1 (216) 381-8107 if interested. This is a single unit that will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Greetings,

News

1.) Thunder Screen Reader Version 2

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.) Baum’s Cobra Screen Reader Version 9

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.) 25 GB of Free Online Storage with SkyDrive

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.) Tek Talk on Speech Recognition for the Blind

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.) JSay Version 8 Released

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.) July 2010 AccessWorld Reviews the iPad

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.) Klango Facebook Client

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.) Window-Eyes Support for Office 2010 Video

Here is a YouTube video showing Window-Eyes’ support forr Office 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/gwmicro#p/u/6/5K00QnyPf78

9.) Serotek Interviews from the American Council of the Blind Convention

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.) Map Manager 2.0.9 and Trekker Maps 3.2

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

Subscription Information

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.

Would you like to receive text-only versions of the Top Tech Tidbits and Adaptech Insider Newsletters? If so, find the link at the bottom of each Newsletter titled “Update Profile/E-Mail Address”, and check this newly-available option.

Feel free to forward individual Tidbits, or the entire tidbits issue, to interested people (but make sure they don’t already receive it; a lot do!) When doing this, please have the courtesy to cite your source, perhaps directing them to the Tidbits archive (see below.)

Tidbits is intentionally concise, and we know a lot of people may not understand some items because little explanation is given. If a particular Tidbit brings up a question in your mind, feel free to ask, and I will try to answer as time and knowledge permit.

Visit the Tidbits archive at https://www.toptechtidbits.com/tidbits2010.html where you can grab back issues. All that welcome information for future issues can come to me at dean@topdotenterprises.com.

You can subscribe to Top Tech Tidbits on the Flying Blind, LLC Website at: http://www.flying-blind.com. Here you will find an accessibly friendly and secure form into which you can enter your email address, click submit, and begin receiving Tidbits weekly. It’s that easy.

| Flying Blind, LLC | 955 Pembrook Road | Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44121 |

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Top Tech Tidbits

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading