Before we begin, we would like to thank our sponsor HIMS for their wonderful support of BBQ. To learn more about the lifestyle Innovations, from low vision to Braille, visit the HIMS Inc. website.
This week Ricky and Joe provide a review of the I.D. mate Galaxy, the newest model in the popular I.D. mate Bar code Scanner line, from En-Vision America. We also have a Twitter tip, "Sound Off" and the opposite of "Inbox 0" in the "Last Word". So get ready to separate your tuna from your cat's can of tuna with BBQ 60!
In The News:
Harriet Tubman Isn't the Only New Feature of the Next $20 Bill
Dictation Bridge Seeks $20,000 to Launch Free and Open Source Voice Recognition
Hundreds of Items Available in the Seeing Eye's 8th Annual Online Auction
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Talks Accessibility with Blind Engineer in New Video
Ana Drezner has updated her iOS book to reflect the newer versions of iOS 9.
VORail wants to be the latest app you can't live without for social networking.
And check out the Apple Vis interview with the developers
Audio Game Hub, for IOS, offers several games in one easy to use app
Hardware Review: I.D. Mate Galaxy
Does the community need a dedicated bar code scanner these days? There is an app for everything it seems. With that said, Ricky and joe show off the I.D. Mate Galaxy to demonstrate why you might want to consider not using your phone/tablet for tasks like scanning and sorting. The unit is rugged, it is light, but more than that... it is fast. There are more than 3.5 million items in the unit's database. it can even go to the internet to get more if an item isn't already on board. Better yet, if someone else has scanned the item, the Galaxy has a shared library from other users which might be a good thing for those limited edition M&Ms we mentioned last week. En-Vision America offers a payment plan option for the I.D. Mate Galaxy and you can learn more about the device by visiting the Galaxy's product page.
Tip: Twitter Timelines for the official iOS app
The latest versions of the official Twitter app follow the Facebook trend of organizing posts according to what some computer algorithm thinks you should see first. To get Twitter back to the way you know it, open the app and head to the "Me" tab at the bottom. Then select Settings and choose the Timeline option. Change the status of the button in this area in order to restore time and space back to their linear chronological, okay just logical, layout. Note, you may have to close the app and even reboot your device for the changes to take effect.
Sound off:
This week we throw the spotlight on a couple of comments from previous shows. Up first, from Ep 58, here s nycki96.
"Hi. I need to respectfully disagree with JJ on one thing. he said that Windows 10 is the only operating system where you can't take a computer out of the box and totally set it up independently without sight. while I'm sure that would be the case if you built your own computer and had to totally install windows on it yourself, I have to tell you that it is not the case if you buy a computer from a manufacturer, such as Dell or Lenovo. I bought a Lenovo laptop from Amazon about a month ago. Neither my husband or I have enough sight to be able to see a computer screen. I turned on the computer, and after what I thought was an appropriate length of time, I pressed windows-enter to bring up narrator. narrator did come up talking, and I was able to go through all of the registration and setup of the machine without any sighted assistance whatsoever. I used narrator up until I got JAWS installed and talking. one thing I did do ahead of time was copy the JAWS installation file to a thumb drive so that I could easily access and start the installer, as I didn't want to try downloading it with narrator. other than that, however, I really have to say that I had absolutely no trouble setting up a new machine with Windows 10 totally independently without any sight.
We were talking mostly about a formatted system, or even one purchased without an OS installed, but we agree that most of the newer systems from an OEM probably won't run into the issue of no speech on a Windows install. Perhaps one day USB C audio, or other plug and play hardware options, will help those who want the ability to slash and burn the old and start a new with a clean install of Windows. Next, from Episode 59, MattFromFlorida.
"Well, I was one of them holding out for a smaller form factor of the iPhone. I had the iPhone5s which I really love. So when the iPhone SE came out I jumped on it. I have had my for several weeks known. I really like it. As for the battery life I have got an increase in battery life going from the iPhone5s to the iPhone SE. Now the differences: 3D touch is not there or could I care less, finger print reader is the old version well don t know the difference since that is what I had on the iPhone5s, Now the front facing camera is not as good , but not a deal breaker with me!, the display resolution is not as good but here again not really deal breaker with me since I don t use the screen to look at!, The size of the phone is a big deal as this is almost the perfect size for me, Also the back facing camera is much better I think in what I use it for, The processer power and memory increase is a big thing as this thing is much more responsive, Also storage I went from 32 to 64 GB which is huge, As well as this is my first unlock phone and it was affordable enough to buy it straight out as a unlock phone from Apple !, At only 536 bucks out the door for a 64 GB unlocked iPhone is a very good deal I think! So this is some of my thoughts. Loving my iPhone SE BTW: for the most part this is a iPhone6s shrunk down to the iPhone5s size. I m sure there will be great improvements on it next year!
Finally, from the Emails, a message from Adam about a topic that seems to keep coming back.
> I was going through my Facebook, ha ha, and came across another article of what I'd like to refer to as inspirational porn as that was a term that I heard here on blind bargains. LOL several people that I have been in Band with in high school had commented and gushed about how amazing and talented this young man was. The first thing that the reporter asked about was his disabilities to which the young man replied that they were abilities. Good for him. LOL here is the link to that story and hope you have your box of tissues ready as it has caused many a tear to fall. I am not bitter in any way shape or form, but I am just tired of so called ordinary people under estimating the blind or anyone else with disabilities. It's just funny to me that when they see articles like this, people come up to me and ask if I can play like Stevie wonder or Ray Charles or any other famous blind musician. LOL I have been playing many musical instruments as well as DJ turntables for more than 20 years. This year will be 21 years that I have been playing music and still do not have my own story on TV. Anyway, here is the link and again, hope you enjoy. Thank you for all you do in the technology field to bring us the newest and greatest and sometimes even the worst in accessible technologies.Here's the story Adam was talking about
Last Word:
Music and messages make up our final stories ...
An electrifying rendition of "The Final Countdown"
BT funnels all customers' sent email into one poor sod's inbox
Can you believe we are less than two months away from the Summer Conventions? Well, before we get there we have to get through Google i/o, Apple's WWDC and a whole lot of talk about Microsoft's Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. Be sure to stay with us as the news should prove to be hotter than the summer temps.
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Category: ArticlesAbout the ID mate: well I have own two so far the Id mate 2 and now the ID mate Quest. When you scan something and it is not in the data base or on the net when it goes out to search for it on the net. When you record your message and then you push the select button to share it you don’t share it with the world. What you do is share this with Envision America! Then they put it in the data base and when they send out a update to the data base and if you have a ID mate then it will read it the next time. That is if you updated your data base! You are not sharing this with the world and they scan this and it goes out and hear your voice saying it. Till Envision America puts it in their data base it is not available to others. Also what it goes out and looks for on the net is not someone recording but data base of barcodes. Then it will if found that bar code in a data base it will tell you. But it has to be a data base that is written for that bar code. Not spoken. There is several reason for this one lots of people does not just speak one certain language and also you might not be able to understand these people as well as a privacy thing not everyone wants there voice to be heard all over the world. So in a nut shell what you have said about the sharing of the data base is wrong! It don’t work like that! Also Schwan’s products even though they are in the data base for some reason the scanners cannot hardly find and scan Schwan’s product. This goes for the Quest and the summit and I think the galaxy is having problems with Schwan’s as well from what I can tell from the ID mate email list as Envision America has come on the list asking about Schwan’s products. Now for some reason the ID mate 2 does scan these bar codes from Schwan’s but of course they are not in the ID mate2 data base so you need to know what it is to record it. but with the Old ID mate 2 there is no way to share with Envision America. Now Envision America is saying it is the size and color of the barcodes from Schwan’s. That is the problem. I would say it is more than that. That is just part of the problem as in that case the ID mate 2 would not scan the bar codes as well. but it does just fine with them! So I think it is a problem with the scanning part of the unit and maybe color as well but it is not all just Schwan’s. If it was then the ID mate 2 would not work on them either! Now don’t get me wrong I love my ID mate both the ID mate 2 and the Quest! Both works just as good as the day I got them. Nothing is perfect ! The ID mate units all them is amazing ! I don’t know what I would do without mine! So just thought I would share a little! Matt From Florida
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
