Top Tech tidbits for Thursday, February 1, 2007
1) the latest monthly Freedom Scientific podcast, which you can either download directly or grab in your podcast receiver answers many questions about JAWS and windows vista, specifically, that if you use version 8 and if, and only if, you have a current software maintenance agreement, you will be able to run vista when a new build of version 8 is made available in the first half of February. this same build will, incidentally, introduce many fixes to JfW version 8 for everybody else, and announcements are to be forthcoming on the web.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/default.asp
2) Gw Micro has released a public beta version of window-Eyes, version 6.1, in versions for users with vista and with 2000-xp.
http://www.gwmicro.com/beta
3) Serotek has announced that Freedom Box system Access now works with windows vista. Fortunately, they also have plans to incorporate a scripting engine into the program sometime this year so that the scope of the program can be extended.
http://www.freedombox.info
4) the next two Main Menu programs, heard at 01:00 on Wednesday gmt, repeated every two hours throughout the day, then available as podcasts, are as follows: on 7 February, Kurzweil 1000. 14 February, Applian technologies, makers of Replay A/V and Replay Converter.
http://www.acbradio.org
5) Chris Pirillo, of Lockergnome fame, has started a link-intensive little newsletter/rss feed called Pirillo's Picks. You can join by e-mailing
picks@lockergnome.com
the next two items come from there.
6) Google isn't the only way to search the web, and it isn't always the best, depending on what you want to achieve. Here's a page entitled The Top 100 alternative Search Engines.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_100_alternative_search_engines.php
7) NationMaster is a fun site seeking to pull together comparisons, information and statistics of all sorts about the countries of the world.
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
8) Serotek announces the release of two remote-access packages for System Access. RAM lets blind folks remotely control or examine other computers on an enterprise network, while RIM allows blind users to provide training or tech support to individuals anywhere who have an Internet connection.
http://www.freedombox.info.
9) Last time I mentioned the new Olynpus digital recorders which appear to provide some accessibility features. Michael Lang has prepared a review and some demo recordings of the DS-50.
http://www.longus.info/
10) HumanWare has strengthened its ties to Baum, maker of braille isplays. that company has a new series of displays, the BrailleConnect 12, 32 and 40. HumanWare also announces a Dell pocket pc device running MobileSpeak Pocket costing $595 for a limited time.
www.humanware.com
11) Fred's Head Companion directs us to a free, web-based strategy game, 1000 A.D.
http://www.1000ad.net/thegame/
12) The January, 2007 issue of AccessWorld appeared a few weeks ago, including a reviews of the two screen readers for mobile phones, a discussion of accessibility of home appliances, reviews of two portable magnifiers, a review of HumanWare's Auto-Reader, and more.
http://www.afb.org/accessworld
13) Gw Micro announces the official release of version 4.0 of the Braille Sense, incorporating a database, improved reading of braille books, more flexible e-mail handling, and numerous other improvements.
http://www.gwmicro.com
14) the long-running program and podcast Cooking in the Dark has a new feed address. You can listen to the program on ACBRadio on gmt Sunday every three hours, and on Houston Taping for the Blind Radio
http://listen.tapingfortheblind.org
on Wednesdays and thursdays at 21:00. the new address to paste into a podcatcher is
http://www.cookinginthedark.libsyn.com/rss
finally, you can download the current show and many old ones from here
http://www.cookinginthedark.libsyn.com
15) Petro has produced a series of podcasts about Replay A/V, and is now branching out to include reviews and tutorials of other technology. You can download or listen
http://petrogia.blogspot.com
or you can add this address to your podcatcher
http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/PetrosPodcasts
16) On gmt 6 February at 01:00, Accessible world will present Exploring the Power of Microsoft Word (Part 1)
http://www.accessibleworld.org
17) Readers in the U.S. will likely be surprised at the number of choices for buying food online, as exposed in this Fred's Head Companion post:
http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2007/01/tips-to-buying-food-online-accessible.html
18) And this article from the same source offers resources for trustworthy medical information online.
http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2007/01/trustworthy-medical-websites.html
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