April 24, 2024

Victor Reader Stratus M

October 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

HumanWare has announced that its Victor Reader Stratus M multi-media accessible audio book player is now shipping.

“The Victor Reader Stratus M model continues the legacy of HumanWare’s 13 year history of developing simple, easy-to-use audio book players that offer extended multimedia capabilities,” says Gerry Chevalier, Victor Reader Product Manager. “It can play many recorded book and audio formats including DAISY, MP3, commercial audio books or music CDs. And customers can use any of their preferred media: CD, DVD, SD cards, or USB flash.”

The Stratus M has reading capabilities beyond just listening to recorded books and music. It can also play text books and documents in formats such as BRF, DOCX, HTML, RTF, and TXT with high quality computer voices from Acapela .

Victor Reader Stratus M claims superb fidelity for a loud built-in speaker, with a pronounced audio tone control, variable speed playback control, built-in carrying handle, and rechargeable battery. Users can also directly copy CD DAISY books to an SD card without use of a computer.

The Stratus can play both DAISY recorded and DAISY text books from most DAISY libraries around the world. In the United States this includes books from NLS, Learning Ally, and Bookshare.

The Stratus4 M model features a simple 4-arrow keypad providing sequential navigation such as next/previous chapter, section, page, line, sentence, word, and character. In addition to sequential navigation, the Stratus12M model has a 12-key telephone style number pad allowing direct navigation such as “go to Page” and “Go to heading”. The keypad is described as having high contrast keys, well spaced, with tactile features, with all key presses returning audio feedback for the non-sighted user.

 

Source: HumanWare

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AccessWorld Delivered to Your iPhone

October 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The American Foundation for the Blind has announced that you can now download the AccessWorld app on your iPhone.

And it’s free!

According to AFBBlog, “it’s like having 10 years’ worth of AccessWorld at your fingertips! The app also allows you to locate the contact information for any member of the AccessWorld team, should you have any questions or comments.”

Optimized for VoiceOver and other Accessibility features, the app is designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Ricky Kirkendall, AFB Tech intern from Marshall University, worked in conjunction with his mobile development company, FloCo Apps LLC, to create the AccessWorld app

The AFB Tech staff  encourages you to download the AccessWorld app and to check for updates as they make improvements and add features and they look forward to hearing your feedback on the latest AFB projects.

Source: AFB

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NASA Invites 150 Twitter Followers to Mars Rover Launch

October 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We gadgeteers felt the need to boost this signal:

NASA will host a two-day launch Tweetup for 150 of its Twitter followers on Nov. 23 and 25 at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Tweetup is expected to culminate in the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch window open is scheduled to open at 10:21 a.m. EST on Nov. 25.

The Tweetup will provide NASA’s social media followers with the opportunity to tour Kennedy Space Center; speak with scientists and engineers; and, if all goes as scheduled, view the spacecraft launch. The event also will provide participants the opportunity to meet fellow tweeps and members of NASA’s social media team.

Curiosity’s arrival at the Red Planet is anticipated in August 2012 at Gale crater. During the two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether a selected area of Mars offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life and for preserving evidence about life if it existed.

Mars Science Laboratory is the fourth space mission launching this year managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The first three are Aquarius, launched June 10 to study ocean salinity; Juno, launched Aug. 5 to study the origins and interior of Jupiter; and the twin GRAIL orbiters, which departed for the moon on Sept. 10.

Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

› Register Now

Source and more information at NASA Upcoming Events.


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XKCD Web Comic #960: Subliminal (described)

October 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A web comic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Panel One: Drawing of a stick figure seated before a desk with a computer monitor. A stick figure with dark hair is standing behind the seated figure, resting a hand on the chair back.

Person One: “What hidden arrow?”

Person Two: “I thought everyone knew about it. Pull up the FedEx logo.”

Second Panel: A closer view of the same scene.

Person One: “Where is it?”

Person Two: “Right there. Look at the white space.”

Person One: “I don’t see it.”

Third Panel: A distorted view of the purple and orange FedEx logo. The white space between the capital F and the lower case d and above the e forms a tank, the white space from the interiors of the e and d form a ball player with a 24 on the back of his uniform reaching out to catch a ball. A smiling, mustached man’s face wearing a brimmed hat and facing left is formed by the white space between the capital E and the lower case X.

Person One: “All I see is Guy Fawkes watching Willie Mays catch a fly ball while an armored assault vehicle rolls by.”

Person Two: “…You either need more medication or less. Not sure which.”

Hover text: Once you see it, you can’t help seeing it every time. Until your body finishes metabolizing the mushrooms.

 

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

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Android Accessibility from AT&T (for a limited time)

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

AT&T is making Mobile Accessibility Lite, a custom version of the screen-access application, Mobile Accessibility,  available for visually impaired customers. And it’s free. Developed by Code Factory, the application “features a suite of accessible apps so customers can perform the most common wireless tasks enjoyed by most Android users.”

The AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite application contains eleven accessible apps grouped together in a “suite.” The inclued apps–Phone, Contacts, SMS, Alarm, Calendar, Email, Web, Where Am I, Apps, Music Player and Settings–are intuitively designed for ease of use. The Nuance Vocalizer® voice reads text under a finger, allowing customers to perform any number of tasks, such as answering a call, managing their contacts, writing an SMS, editing a calendar entry, sending an email, or accessing GPS to get an update on their current location.

Speech recognition is also included, but it will only work with Android version 2.2 and later, though AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite supports all Android phones version 2.1 and above. If interested, do not delay, because AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite will be available for free for a limited time.  Customers who are blind or have low vision are invited to download the free app in Android Market.

Source: AT&T

 

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Bumps Comic #1: Sound Judgment (described)

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A new weekly comic of Braille and Adventure featuring Slate and Dot, two university students, and Slate’s guide dog, Nemeth.

 

 

 

Drawing: On the left is a vertical brush stroke of blue representing Slate and on the right is a vertical brush stroke of green representing Dot. Below is a smaller, horizontal orange brush stroke representing Nemeth.

Scene: Slate and Dot are seated at a table having a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. Dot is reading something on her laptop while Slate is attempting to engage her in conversation.

Slate: “Everybody we know has a podcast except us.”

Dot: “That’s because we’re not that interesting.”

Slate: “We could definitely do better than that singing DecTalk choir.”

Dot: “We could splice together some recordings of Nemeth’s barks into Jingle Bells.”

Slate: “I am sure that old DecTalk is still around here somewhere.”

 

Bumps Comic is written and described by BlindGadget.com under the Creative Commons license.

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XKCD Web Comic #959: Caroling (described)

October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

 

A web comic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

 

 

Panel One: Drawing of three stick figures caroling. They are wearing knit caps with tassels and holding sheet music. The one on the left is smaller than the other two.

“Good King Wenceslas looked out on the—”

Panel Two: Drawing of a stick figure wearing a black hat, leaning out of an upper story window.

“King Wenceslas massacred my people.”

Panel Three: The three stick figures have stopped caroling. The smallest one looks up at the other two.

Hover text: For a thousand generations we vowed never to forget how his soldiers feasted on our brother Stephen.

 

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

 

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

 

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