On Monday April 21, I did a Tek Talk presentation about playing chess as a blind person along with Alan Dicey, president of the U.S. Braille Chess Association. The presentation went well, and we were pleased to have the chance to let people know that blindness doesn’t have to be a barrier to playing this great game. If you’re interested, you can download the MP3 file from the Tek Talk archives.
LevelStar and APH released an update to the Icon and Icon Braille+ earlier this week that includes a variety of useful new features. The ones related to playing books and music include the following:
Updating to version 1.1 is a three-step process that includes registering your unit with either LevelStar or APH, depending on the unit. Registering is important if you want to play protected formats such as NLS books.
If you subscribe to Serotek’s System Access Mobile Network, you can play almost any content from that network on a Victor reader Stream running version 1.2. This includes described movies, radio shows, podcasts, e-mail messages, blog posts, and more. All you need is a PC running System Access - either installed on the PC or via a thumb drive - or the web-based SA To Go screen reader. Step-by-step instructions and audio demonstrations are available.
One particularly refreshing aspect of this service is that though your Stream must be authorized to play the protected content on the SA Mobile Network, you don’t have to do anything to authorize it. Authorization is handled completely automatically, so that the only indication you have that it’s happening is an occasional “Book key processed” message. If your Stream isn’t running version 1.2 when you attempt to use it with the SA Mobile Network for the first time, the network updates it automatically as well. It is wonderful to have these usually tedious processes handled so gracefully. Serotek is to be congratulated.
Version 1.2 of the Stream includes some other nice features as well.
In short, this is a particularly useful Stream update.
The zen Stone is still out there, and its price has been reduced to 34.99 on the Creative website. However, Creative has also released two new players without screens that have the accessibility of the Zen Stone plus some nice new features.
One is the zen Stone with Speaker 2 GB. As far as I can tell, this player is exactly like the Zen Stone except that it has 2 GB of memory and a built-in speaker. I have not seen one, so I don’t know what the sound quality of the speaker is like. It costs $49.99.
The other is the MuVo T100. This player has 4 GB of storage; plays Audible formats 2, 3, and 4; has a one-touch bass boost; and connects directly to a USB port without the need for a cable. The only drawback of this player, as reported by a T100 user on the Blind iPod mailing list, is that it apparently doesn’t move between sections in Audible books correctly. It costs $69.99.
Creative has produced other inexpensive MP3 players, but these include screens and extra features such as voice recorders and stopwatches. Based on what I’ve heard about Creative players with screens in the past, it is likely that the basic features of these players are reasonably easy to use, but that the more complex features require memorizing menus or are difficult to access wihtout sight. If you want a fully accessible player, therefore, be sure no screen is mentioned in the description of the player you’re considering.
I think it’s interesting that both Creative and Apple have produced players with larger memories and no screens. Presumably the hardiness and small size of these players make them appealing to sighted users. I hope this type of player continues to be popular for a long time.
Apple has reduced the cost of the second generation 1 GB iPod Shuffle reviewed in A Pocketful of Sound to $49. The company has also released a 2 GB version of the Shuffle, which costs $69. As far as I know, the two types of Shuffle are identical except for the amount of storage.
My new book, A Pocketful of Sound: A Quick-Start and Buyer’s Guide to Accessible Book and music Players, was released yesterday. A lot has happened since I turned in the book for publication, so I’ll be posting frequently over the next few days to share what’s been going on. If you like listening to books and music on a portable player, these are exciting times!
Google It! was reviewed in the March, 2008 issue of AccessWorld. The review is a good introduction to the book.
I recently gave a presentation on Tek Talk in which I introduced the basics of using Google and GoogleNews. The talk was based on Google It. It was fun, but doing a live training session really keeps you on your toes!
This post concerns the Audacious Audiopuzzles book I discussed in the previous post. If you live in the United States and order the book directly from the creators’ website, you can request a braille track listing and to have the CD case labeled in braille. If you live outside the United States, you can’t order directly from Audiopuzzles.com and must order from Amazon.com, and Amazon doesn’t provide a means to order the braille options. However, no matter where you live, you can contact the Audacious Audiopuzzles creators through their website and request braille track listings and braille labels you can put on the CD case. So while the process is slightly more complicated for people outside the U.S., everyone who needs it can get the book information in braille.
If you enjoy puzzles, you might take a look at Audacious Audiopuzzles Book #1. While not a downloadable book — you have to buy it on CD (for US$14.99) — I am mentioning this book here because the content is completely accessible, and the creators have put a great deal of effort into further enhancing its accessibility to braille readers. The copy they sent me included a braille track list, and the CD case was labeled in braille. If you order from their website, you can request these options. The book is also available through Amazon.com, but braille track listings and CD labels are not available if you order from Amazon. Other ways to get the track listings are from the Audiopuzzles website and by inserting the CDs into your computer. The book is listed with the Gracenote CD database, so if you use iTunes, Winamp, or another program that makes use of that database, you’ll be all set, and you can rip the CDs to files you can play on a portable player if you wish.
The book consists of 40 puzzles on two CDs. The range of puzzles included is wide — logic, word, and math puzzles; brain teasers; sound identification; and more. My family and I and two children we take in a carpool have been listening to the puzzles while driving to and from school, and everyone is enjoying them; the kids ask for them whenever they get into the car. We are about halfway through the book. The children range in age from six to ten, and quite a few of the puzzles are over their heads, but they can do just enough of them to hold their interest. The sound identification puzzles — where you are presented with six related sounds and have to figure out what they are — are particularly popular. My husband and I are enjoying all the puzzles. Occasionally a clue or puzzle seems rather obscure, but in most cases they are great fun. The creators assume you are doing the puzzles in your head; they never refer to pictures or other written material. So this is a fun, accessible product for children and adults, blind and sighted alike.
Internet Explorer 7 includes several features that make it easy to subscribe to RSS feeds and read the articles in those feeds quickly and efficiently. In the November 2007 edition of FSCast, Jonathan Mosen demonstrates everything you need to know to use these features, including finding the RSS feeds on a page, subscribing to the ones you’re interested in, navigating the feeds, reading articles efficiently using tabbed browsing, and subscribing to podcasts. While he uses JAWS 9 for this demonstration, almost all the commands and keystrokes he uses work just as well with other screen readers. This is a great resource.
I apologize for not announcing this a long time ago. A couple of months back, Apple came out with a version of iTunes 7 that was stable enough for Brian Hartgen to be able to write scripts that work with JAWS 8.0, as well as with JAWS 6.0, 6.2, 7.0 and 7.2. It’s great that this is possible. Brian hopes to be able to add more functionality to the scripts soon. I hope Apple will make his job easier by improving the accessibility of iTunes. It’s a great program when it’s usable.
eMusic has offered music in unprotected MP3 format at reasonable prices for quite a while; I have been a satisfied customer for two years now. So I was pleased to learn today that they have begun to offer audiobooks in this format as well. It was hard to find information about exactly how the service will work, as it’s very new, but here’s what I know:
It will be interesting to see how this service works out. I am pleased that authors and audiobook producers are willing to offer popular material in an open format, and I wish the venture well.
I recently adapted Jonathan Mosen’s audio Get Going with Google tutorial to create a braille tutorial called Google It! A Guide to the World’s Most Popular Search Engine, and it’s now available for $12 U.S. from National Braille Press in hard copy braille and for download. An interesting development since the book went into publication is that Google now offers free directory assistance in the United States for locating businesses. The phone number for this service is 1-800-goog-411, or 1-800-466-4411. The service is voice activated; you are asked for the city and state, then the business name or a business category. I gave a business name, and was offered the options of being connected immediately or of getting details, such as the business address and phone number. It worked well and was very quick. Nice job, Google!
I am writing this post using the mobile version of WordPress.com on my PC. In addition to its usefulness for pocket PCs and similar devices, this site is great if you want to write a quick post or add a link to your blogroll without having to wade through the forms on the main site.
