Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Talking TEch for April 19 2016

A Great Episode of the Tech Doctor Podcast: Celebrating 40 years of Apple

 

From the Tech Doctor Blog page re this episode:

 

We were fortunate to have author and Mac journalist, Shelly Brisbin join us. Shelly started using the Mac in 1986. She brought us a very unique perspective as a technical writer, publisher and low-vision Mac user.


With around 400 instructional podcasts under his belt, David Woodbridge is arguably the most prolific Apple accessibility podcaster. We all learn from the excellent podcasts that David produces.


Larry Skutchan harnessed the power of the Apple II in 1983 when he wrote one of the first fully accessible talking word processors. We introduce this podcast by playing a sample of the Echo II speech synthesizer which Larry’s word processor used to speak the text that was on the Apple’s screen. Larry went on to write a very popular terminal program for the Apple II. ProTerm enabled us to access such popular online services as GEnie, CompuServe and hundreds of BBS systems. Larry went on to write a very popular screen reader for DOS called ASAP.

At present, Larry is the Director of Technology Product Research at the American Foundation for the Blind.

 

The link to the Tech Doctor Episode 40 years of Apple is:

 

http://media.blubrry.com/accessibility/p/dr-carter.com/podcasts/20160409.mp3

 

From Info Sound: Cobolt’s talking Microwave and Talking Combination Oven

 

Now if only these devices were available in Australia.

 

http://www.infosound.org.uk/audio/infosound_1220P-160416t.mp3 

Microsoft is Putting Windows 10 and Cortana at the Centre of Smart Homes

 

Great to see that all major organisations are putting a lot of effort in to the connected home and internet of things.

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3050850/internet-of-things/microsoft-is-putting-windows-10-cortana-at-the-center-of-smart-homes.html#tk.rss_all 

FAceBook Adds Alt Text to Photos

 

This works straight off the bat as it were: i.e. go through your time line and receive a description of a photo.  For example a camping photo may have Alt-Text like “Water, Sky, people outdoor”.

 

https://www.facebook.com/accessibility/videos/1082033931840331/ 

Talkback Public Beta 4.5 soon Released with Enhanced Web Support

 

Not quite out yet, but great to see upcoming improvements in web navigation.

 

http://blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=15086 

Audible's Channels offer short audio programs for members

 

These are free books that you can listen to across a whole range of categories.  You will find the channel tab at the bottom of the app screen with the other tabs.

 

http://www.imore.com/audibles-channels-offer-short-audio-programs-members 

How To Get Your eBook to Read (iBook or Kindle) When your iPhone Screen is Locked

 

This is a nifty feature of getting iOS to speak and scroll the screen in an iBook or Kindle book and have your iOS device locked at the same time.

 

http://s59.podbean.com/pb/15d53c924d17dda973cff827455d4440/5712b4d5/data2/fs54/339150/uploads/Speak_screen_demo_from_the_lock_screen.mp3 

Only Just Recently Discovered This: Using Siri to Call Emergency Services in Australia

 

You can now say to Siri “Call Triple Zero, and Siri will respond calling emergency services in 5 seconds.

 

Giving Feedback to the ABC iView Trial for Audio Description

 

If you have not yet given feedback to the ABC iView trial, please use this link to give your feedback.

 

https://theabc.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2hI24N0EnTBIE3X

1 comment:

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