#atia2010 Audio: ATIA 2010 Wrapup

 

It’s time for our audio recap of the festivities at ATIA 2010. Listen in as J.J. Meddaugh and Matt McCubbin discuss the high and low points of the conference and some of the new products on display.

#atia2010 Audio: ATIA 2010 Wrapup
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:17:13 GMT

#atia2010 Audio: Hands On with the Book Port Plus

 

The Book Port Plus was certainly the talk of ATIA, marking the return long-awaited return to the digital book player marketed by the American Printing House for the Blind. Larry Skutchan, Technology Product Leader for APH, gives us a hands-on demonstration of some of the features which will be present in this forthcoming product.

#atia2010 Audio: Hands On with the Book Port Plus
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:37:30 GMT

#atia2010 Audio: Guerilla’s Netbook OCR Solution

 

We have made several mentions to the newly-crowded OCR field seen at this year’s ATIA conference. Sal Terranova, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Guerilla Technologies, explains how their OCR product which uses a netbook and a digital camera differs from the rest in this audio interview.

 

#atia2010 Audio: Guerilla’s Netbook OCR Solution
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:32:09 GMT

#atia2010 Audio: Expanding your Vision with evSpex

 

eSight Corporation was showing off some rather unique optical gear at ATIA. We speak with Rob Hilkes, President, about evSpex, a new custom solution which can solve a variety of vision problems through technology. J.J. also was wearing a pair of evSpex during the interview, though they don’t do much for totally blind people.

#atia2010 Audio: Expanding your Vision with evSpex
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:29:44 GMT

#atia2010 Audio: An Open Book with Freedom Scientific

 

Freedom Scientific introduced a new version to its long-running OpenBook OCR product at ATIA in Orlando. Dusty Voorhees, Senior Product Manager, talks to us about OpenBook version 9, MAGic 12, and the latest from the company in this audio interview.

#atia2010 Audio: An Open Book with Freedom Scientific
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:25:00 GMT

#atia2010 Audio: What’s New with Code Factory

 

Mobile technology dominated several of the booths at this year’s ATIA conference. In this audio interview, Greg Gladman, Chief Technical Officer for Code Factory, talks to us about the recently-released Mobile Speak 4 and the future of Code Factory screen readers.

#atia2010 Audio: What’s New with Code Factory
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:21:26 GMT

Annual Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion & Disability Conference: Future History

 

Ohio State University’s 10th Perspectives Conference will present information on health, education, civil rights, technology and other subjects as they affect the lives of people with disabilities. Conference sessions will address subjects including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); Web accessibility; Universal Design for Learning; the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008; and Recruiting and Supporting Students with Disabilities in STEM programs. The conference will be held April 27 – 28, 2010 at the Ohio State University’s Columbus campus.

Annual Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion & Disability Conference: Future History

Camera Mouse–Another hands free mouse option

 

Camera Mouse is a free program that enables you to control the mouse pointer on your computer screen just by moving your head. To use Camera Mouse you will need Windows 7, Vista, or XP and a webcam. Camera Mouse was developed by researchers at Boston College and Boston University to help individuals with disabilities use the computer. The developers say

Camera Mouse works as a mouse replacement system for Windows computers so it should work with just about any application program. For example people use Camera Mouse with entertainment programs, education programs, communication programs, web browsers, and so on. Camera Mouse works best with application programs that require only a mouse and a left click and that do not have tiny targets. It’s easier to use Camera Mouse with application programs that do not require extreme accuracy.

Check out this free download at: http://cameramouse.org

Camera Mouse–Another hands free mouse option
Sharon Jones
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Free Downloadable APH Product Manuals

 

Did you know that APH products have manuals available for immediate, free-of-charge download. Examples of downloadable manuals include Crafty Graphics, Let’s See, and Basic Tactile Anatomy Atlas.

Manuals available for download.

The next time you have a new APH Instructional Products Catalog, look for the yellow & black book icon to find the manuals available for download. APH will add new manuals to the download page on an ongoing basis. We will announce additions in the APH News.

The following manuals were recently posted to our manual download page, www.aph.org/manuals/index.html

• Braille: A Different Approach Instructor’s Manual, Braille: 5-16750-04
• Reach for the Stars, Planning for the Future: A Transition Process for Families of Young Children, Braille: 5-08410-01
• Parent Early Childhood Education Series, 1P, Braille: 5-96201-00
• Moving Ahead: Goin’ on a Bear Hunt Reader’s Guide only, Braille: 6-77907-00
• Reclaiming Independence: Braille Resource Guide, 2V, Braille: 5-30020-00
• Sense of Science: Animals, Guidebook, Braille: 5-08990-00
• Tactile Connections: Symbols for Communication Guidebook, Braille: 5-08837-00
• StackUps: Teacher’s Guidebook, Braille — 5-08960-00
• Beginner’s Abacus Guidebook: 5-03180-00
• Basic Science Tactile Graphics: 5-08850-00
• Teaching Touch Manual: 5-08861-00
• Word Associations Print/Braille Labels Braille Manual: 6-39051-00
• U.S. Puzzle Map Braille Guide: 5-01140-00
• Braillewriting Dot by Dot, Teacher’s Manual, Braille: 5-17401-00
• Crafty Graphics: Stencil Embossing Kit, Large Print Guidebook: 7-08844-00
• Crafty Graphics: Stencil Embossing Kit, Braille Guidebook: 5-08844-00
• IntelliTactiles: Pre-Braille Concepts User’s Guide, Print: 7-08516-01
• IntelliTactiles: Standard Overlay, User’s Guide, Braille: 5-08515-00
• IntelliTactiles: USB Overlay, User’s Guide, Braille: 5-08513-00
• Let’s See: Sensory Activities Kit, Braille Manual: 5-08141-00
• Let’s see: Perceptual Activities Kit, Braille Manual: 5-08151-00
• Tactile Treasures : Math and Language Concepts for Young Children with Visual Impairments, Braille Guidebook: 5-08842-00
• Braille Connection: Mentoring Manual, Braille: 5-11102-00
• ENVISION I, Teacher’s Instruction Manual, Braille, 10 and Younger: 5-08551-01
• ENVISION I, Teacher’s Instruction Manual, Braille, 11 and Older: 5-08551-02
• ENVISION II, Teacher’s Instruction Manual, Braille, 10 and Younger: 5-08552-01
• ENVISION II, Teacher’s Instruction Manual, Braille, 11 and Older: 5-08552-02
• Sense of Science: Plants: Guidebook, Braille: 5-08980-00

You are free to print or emboss these manuals as needed. APH will continue to package hard copies of these manuals with their products. We will also continue to sell hard copy manuals as replacement items. If, however, the manual is posted as a free download, we will not carry inventory on the shelf for immediate delivery. If you order one of these manuals separately, delivery time will be 4-6 weeks for large print and 8-10 weeks for braille orders.

 

Free Downloadable APH Product Manuals
noreply@blogger.com (Michael McCarty)
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:02:24 GMT

Find Free Wi-Fi

 

Looking for free Wi-Fi in your area? Are you preparing for a trip? Well MetroFreeFi.com MetroFreeFi.com offers a really nice service where you can choose states from a menu, and MetroFreeFi will generate a Notes file for your iPod or compatible notetaker. Drop the files on your iPod or notetaker and you’re good to go!

I thought I knew most of the free Wi-Fi spots in Louisville, but the MFF file showed me about a dozen I was unaware of. Some of the notes even detail special procedures for getting a WEP key for particular locations.

It’s a free service, and well worth the time. Click this link to find Wi-Fi hotspots in your area: http://www.MetroFreeFi.com.

LaptopFriendlyCafes.com

“At LaptopFriendlyCafes.com you’ll find your local free wifi and power ready laptop spots. We have over 300 tried and tested cafes listed worldwide where you can power up your laptop, surf the web for free and enjoy a coffee.”
Click this link to visit http://www.LaptopFriendlyCafes.com.

 

Find Free Wi-Fi
noreply@blogger.com (Michael McCarty)
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:38:51 GMT

Caption Action 2 – See Flo TV Super Bowl Ad? Flo TV Doesn’t Caption!

 

What is Flo TV?? Flo TV is an example of why we need HR 3101!Note: Caption Action 2 has contacted Flo TV with questions and is waiting for their response any time now. In the meantime, here is what we know about Flo TV, and more!What is Flo TVFlo TV is a mobile TV broadcaster. They broadcast mobile television to cell phones, the back of car headrests, and to a Flo TV …

Caption Action 2 – See Flo TV Super Bowl Ad? Flo TV Doesn’t Caption!
Caption Action 2
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:18:45 GMT

FastestFox

 

Browse faster with a wide variety of Firefox enhancements.
 

FastestFox
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:00:30 GMT

Adobe promises faster Flash on Macs

 

Adobe Systems, evidently stung by recent criticisms of its widely used Flash Player browser plug-in, has promised better performance on Mac systems.

"Given identical hardware, Flash Player on Windows has historically been faster than the Mac, and it is for the most part the same code running in Flash for each operating system," said Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch in a follow-up comment to his own blog post. But Adobe and Apple have been cooperating to make things better, he said. "In Flash Player 10.1 we are moving to Core Animation, which will further reduce CPU usage and, we believe, will get us to the point where Mac will be faster than Windows for graphics rendering."

Things should get better with video, too, one of the primary reasons Flash has thrived on the Web. "Video rendering is an area we are focusing more attention on–for example, today a 480p video on a 1.8Ghz Mac Mini in Safari uses about 34 percent of CPU on Mac versus 16 percent on Windows (running in BootCamp on same hardware). With Flash Player 10.1, we are optimizing video rendering further on the Mac and expect to reduce CPU usage by half, bringing Mac and Windows closer to parity for video."

The words reflect an Adobe effort to explain itself while under competitive threat. HTML is gradually encroaching on the turf Flash has had largely to itself, and some are taking advantage of the opportunity to bash Flash.

Adobe also is taking on the matter of bugs.

In particular, it’s answering a security problem Matthew Dempsky reported in September 2008, shortly before Flash Player 10 was issued. Dempsky took Lynch to task for his statement in the comment that "we don’t ship Flash with any known crash bugs, and if there was such a widespread problem historically Flash could not have achieved its wide use today."

Flash Player manager Emmy Huang apologized for the issue in a separate blog post.

"We picked up the bug as a crasher when it was filed on September 22, 2008, and were able to reproduce it. Remember that Flash Player 10 shipped in October 2008, so when this bug was reported we were pretty much locked and loaded for launch. The mistake we made was marking this bug for ‘next’ release, which is the soon to be released Flash Player 10.1, instead of marking it for the next Flash Player 10 security dot release. We should have kept in contact with the submitter and to let him know the progress, sorry we did not do that," Huang said. "It slipped through the cracks, and it is not something we take lightly."

And for those who are interested in helping Adobe track down problems, Adobe’s Ted Patrick called on people to try the Flash Player 10.1 beta.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Adobe promises faster Flash on Macs
Stephen Shankland
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:43:00 GMT

Gmail to Get Social News Feed: Report

 

Google plans to add a stream of recent status messages and media from users’ contacts to Gmail as soon as this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The feature, which could be announced at a press event tomorrow, would be very much in line with what Google told us it wanted to do to catch up on the social front in 2010: as I wrote last month, “to expose and elicit more of the social network built into the tools that many of us already use.” It also makes a lot of sense, given how central email is to our daily existence and our connections to people.

According to the WSJ’s unnamed sources, the new feature would be a “module” in Gmail where users can click through to see a stream of friends’ updates, YouTube video sharing and Picasa photos. It would be an extension of Gmail’s instant-messenger style status messages, which are displayed along with presence information and currently aren’t archived for search or perusal.

The problem with lightweight incorporation of status updates, though, is that the tools around social streams have already gotten quite complex. Gmail will have to do a good job of understanding who we want to hear from, letting us group and block contacts, and integrating with other updates like Facebook and Twitter. If Google really wants to do this right, it should open everything up to outside developers.

Meanwhile, Yahoo already shows an aggregated stream of status messages and online activity within its web mail product; it calls the feature Yahoo Updates.

Thumbnail photo by Flickr user christyxcore.

 

Gmail to Get Social News Feed: Report
Liz Gannes
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:35:02 GMT

Quickly Backup Your Firefox Profile with about:support [Firefox Tip]

 

Navigating to the directory where Firefox stores your profile has always been a bit of a pain, but the recent release of Firefox 3.6 makes finding that folder—and from there backing up your bookmarks, extensions, or entire profile—a breeze.

That’s because Firefox 3.6 added a helpful new about page for support and troubleshooting. Just type about:support in your Firefox address bar to give it a look. The new page separates a ton of useful troubleshooting information into sections, including Application Basics (name, version, profile directory, installed plug-ins, and build configuration, followed by all of your installed extensions, and then ending with your profile’s modified preferences. Mozilla put this all together as a helpful tool for finding important information for users elbow deep in troubleshooting, but as Nirmal over at Life Rocks 2.0 points out, it also serves as a great shortcut for quickly backing up your Firefox profile.

Just click the Open Containing Folder (or Show in Finder in OS X) button to go straight to the profile folder for that Firefox installation. Once you’re looking at it, backing up your profile is as simple as copying that folder. Windows users, you can also give previously mentioned MozBackup a look if you’d like help with the backup-and-restore process for everything from Firefox and Thunderbird to Songbird.

Backup Your Firefox Profile Easily using about:support [Life Rocks 2.0]

 

Quickly Backup Your Firefox Profile with about:support [Firefox Tip]
Adam Pash
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:00:00 GMT