Olympus DS-50 Chat
Check out this quick demo of the new Olympus DS 50 digital audio recorder. I’ll have much more to say about this accessible device in the very near future.
Comments (2)
Coming up on Main Menu Live for the week of January 31st, 2007 – it’s VISTA time!
This is it folks! The week that Microsoft and many in the world have been waiting for! It is Windows Vista launch week and we cover it this week in a very special 3 hour edition of Main Menu Live! As a very dear friend said, VISTA may stand for “Visual, information, spoken to all”. Come and find out if this is indeed the case with the first two screen reader companies to publicly support Vista and Microsoft Corporation as we present all things Windows Vista! Darrell Shandrow (a co-host for Main Menu Live) and myself will be bringing you this very special Main Menu Live. Our guests will include:
- Daniel Hubbell from Microsoft’s Accessibility Technology Group will be joining us to tell us all about Vista.
- Jamie Pauls from Access Watch brings us another mini product review of Rhapsody 4.0 as we prepare for one of our guests to bring them on live.
- We may be hearing from Dolphin all about Hal for Vista. This is still in progress and if we can not bring it to you this week we will have it on an upcoming edition of Main Menu Live.
- Mike Calvo and Matt Campbell from Serotek will be joining us to talk all about System Access and Windows Vista. Serotek has already announced support for Windows Vista and we ask Mike and Matt all about the experience of using Vista with System Access. In addition, we will talk all about ScriptSure with System Access.
- This past week at ATIA, GW Micro announced that they will be shipping a public beta of Window-Eyes 6.1 for Windows Vista and other operating systems. We bring Doug Geoffray on Main Menu Live to talk to us all about Windows Vista. What will Window-Eyes users expect to see with this new operating system?
As you can see, it will be a jam packed show full of great news. Should you go out and buy Windows Vista? Wait a day or so and listen to this very special Main Menu Live before making your decision.
If you have any questions for any of our guests this week, then please get them to us. They can be mailed to mainmenu@acbradio.org. If you would prefer to call into the show and ask your question then simply call 866-400-5333 when the show starts. We will have open lines during the entire 3 hour show.
The on demand and podcast archives will be immediately available after the last airing of Main Menu Live on the Main Stream channel. Refer to the On Demand archives for the download or add this link to your PodCatcher to subscribe to the Main Menu podcast feed: http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=mainmenu. You may also want to join the ACB Radio Main Stream replay podcast feed
which is: http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=replay. Keep in mind that this weeks show will be a bit larger download for those of you that receive it with a podcatching client due to its length.
Please let everyone know about this weeks show. This is sure to be one not to miss. This new operating system will affect everyone eventually, you can count on that.
Main Menu Live can be heard on Tuesday evening at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific, and at 1 universal on Wednesday morning on the ACB Radio Main Stream channel. Don’t forget that this will be a 3 hour show.
Main Menu Producer
Olympus DS 30 Through DS 50 Digital Audio Recorder Manual Now Available
Jeff Bishop reports that the manual for the Olympus DS 30, 40 and 50 digital audio recorders is now available for download. See this article on The Desert Skies blog for details.
Alert: Maricopa County Regional Dial-A-Ride Online Survey
We urge all blind and visually impaired people living in Maricopa County to complete this Dial-a-Ride Paratransit Study online survey right away. There may be important policy changes made to Dial-a-Ride based on this ongoing study. As consumers and taxpayers, we must provide the critical input necessary to protect the services we need to receive in order to fully participate in society on terms of equality with the sighted.
FeedBurner Adds Audio CAPTCHA for Email Subscriptions
We are very happy to report that FeedBurner now provides an audio CAPTCHA alternative to their visual verification requirement for the Email Subscription service. This now means that blind and visually impaired people are allowed to subscribe to RSS feeds using their e-mail addresses. In the article A New Hack on the Burning Questions blog, the FeedBurner people tell the world this accomodation was implemented within one day’s time.
Check out this excerpt from the article:
At 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 18, we put “normal” development on hold, gathered together in our new and improved conference room (now with white-boards and a projector!) and figured out our one-day projects. That’s the rule for Hackathon: enter the day with an idea, exit the day with a fully-implemented new feature for FeedBurner. “That’s impossible! Even for a computer,” you say. Well, this ragged band of rebels was up to the task…
This tells us that bringing down the “no blind people allowed” sign of inaccessible visual verification is mostly a matter of simply getting the decision makers and developers to decide to do the right thing. We just need to keep on the advocacy and the pressure, when necessary, to insist on equal access.
Freedom Scientific declines invitation for Main Menu Live Vista Presentations
Jeff Bishop reports that Freedom Scientific has declined an invitation to appear on next week’s January 31 ACB Radio Main Menu program discussing Windows Vista. Doug Geoffray with GW Micro and Mike Calvo with Serotek will be present representing the blindness access technology industry, as well as Daniel Hubbell from Microsoft’s Accessible Technology Group. See this article in the Desert Skies blog.
Coming up on Main Menu and Main Menu Live for the week of January 24th
This week begins a new era for Main Menu. We begin our interactive portion during the second hour of Main Menu starting this week. First of all, what
is coming up in the first hour:
- We first hear from Stephen Guerra from Independent Living Aids to talk to us all about the Dora the Explorer Interactive Talking Crayons. This is a very innovative product to assist parents in engaging with their young children who may be blind or who may have low vision.
- We next hear from Marc Mulcahy with a very in-depth review of the Icon from Levelstar.
- During the second hour we open the phones and bring Marc and Stephen on to Main Menu Live to talk with all of you. You will be able to call in and ask either of our guests questions. In addition, we will have three panel experts on the show with us to answer any technical questions you may have. Randy Knapp will talk about serial ATA external drives and Don Barrett will discuss with us some interesting things about File Dir and TextPal among others from Jamal. Both gentlemen have very technical expertise in the assistive technology industry and in computer technology as well.
- During Main Menu Live, we will also be presenting the Access Watch Review of the week. This will be a 1 or two minute segment each week with a short review from the Access Watch web site. This week we hear all about Windows One Care Live from Microsoft.
Coming up on January 31st on Main Menu we talk all about Windows Vista in a very special live edition of Main Menu. We will have Daniel Hubbell from the Microsoft Accessibility Technology Group, Mike Calvo from Serotek and Doug Geoffray from GW Micro coming on Main Menu that week. Get your questions ready and call in and ask away. This is going to be a fun one for sure!
Main Menu can be heard on Tuesday evening at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific, and at 1 universal on Wednesday morning on the ACB Radio Main Stream channel.
Jeff Bishop
Main Menu Producer
New Replay A/V Demo and Tutorial Podcasts Available
Petro has created a series of podcasts that demonstrate and teach the use of Applian’s Replay A/V 8.03 from a blind perspective. These podcasts may be reached through Petro’s blog or by adding http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/PetrosPodcasts to your podcatcher or RSS reader.
Olympus DS-50 Digital Audio Recorder Frequently Asked Questions
Olympus has released a FAQ for their new digital audio recorder. A review of this document reveals the interesting fact that the voice output is provided by way of pre-recorded audio rather than text to speech synthesis.
Catch Karen and I on the Marlaina Show This Evening!
Jeff Bishop reports the following, which you all certainly will not want to miss.
This week we bring Tim Cumings and his wife on to the show to talk to us all about them. Who is Tim? What goes into the production work for the shows we hear on Main Stream like Cooking in the Dark among others. Come and ask both of them any questions pertaining to the shows they produce as well as
any audio production questions you may have.
During the second hour we bring on Darrell and Karen Shandrow. Many of you know Darrell from his work on the blog Blind Access Journal and the Google petition. Darrell has an unbelievable story to tell about his childhood and his life and Karen also has a fascinating story to tell as well. What brought them together? How did he propose to Karen? Yes, it even has a ACB connection.
We will discuss the new Main Menu line up during the show as well all about the new live format. You can come and ask questions about this as well.
All this and more is up for grabs on the next Marlaina, heard on ACB Radio MainStream. It all starts on Sunday night at 8 PM Eastern, 5 Pacific, which is Monday morning at 1 Universal. The program will replay for 24 hours, and of course, is available via podcast from the ACB Radio replay page. As always, we’ll take your calls at our toll-free number, 866-400-5333.