The long U.S. holiday, that coincides with the release of episode 182, was good for the BBQ Crew as we return refreshed and renewed. Proof is in the recordings they say, okay we're the only ones who say that really, as we come to you with actual news. Also, Ricky stops by to talk about new hardware. A listener Oreo follow-up in "Sound Off", a tip plus a "Last Word" that any audio engineer would love rounds out this pre-WWDC show.
Sponsor: AIRA
The Blind Bargains Qast is excited to bring you the new "Game of Words" contest that lets you work with an AIRA Agent to solve puzzles. Tune in, over the next few weeks, to hear if players can claim the Iron Noun for themselves. And congratulations to Desmond who scored an iPhone XR from this week's contest. "Game of Words" is brought to you by Aira, an app that connects people who are blind or have low-vision to highly trained, remotely-located agents for instant access to visual information.
Game of Words is easy to enter! All you need is an Aira account, which you can download at aira.io/app. After the app is installed, you can register for a free account by simply providing your phone number. Once you ve registered, visit aira.io/bbq and fill in your name and phone number in the Game of Words entry form to enter! One contestant will be chosen from the list of entries at the beginning of each week to participate.
Sign up for a chance to be selected to beat the clock and win!
In The News:
Browser vendors win war with W3C over HTML and DOM standards
Google changes how the Escape key is handled in Chrome to fight popup ads
HIMS releases an update to the Polaris featuring smoother Google intergration
TapTapSee Creators Announce Next Generation of On-device Image Recognition; Detailed Descriptions
Complete WebAim s ebook survey and receive a free ebook
In Process Blog for May 24th details a short survey and more
Hardware Impressions: Surface Go tablet
Ricky Enger has been playing with the lower end Surface Go for the past two months and she is thrilled with the device's performance so far. Joe and Ricky discuss the unboxing process, describe the physical appearance of the Surface and the minor pitfalls encountered along the way. Full disclosure, Joe won this tablet at CSUN from Microsoft and their Soundscape promotion. So, the pair approached this segment with the idea that they would try to use the unit with touch only and with whatever hardware they had on hand rather than going out and buying Surface related accessories. What they learned from this approach was that they need more USB C connected things around the house. And you need to check the Microsoft Store for specific Surface Go accessories if you plan to venture down the first party support path. With all that said, from a Screen Reader perspective, the base configuration gives you a good amount of power for a portable Windows machine. You may want to add an SD card, or rely on cloud storage, if you feel confined by the 64 GB on board memory though.
Tip: Receive Apple Support help right in the messages app
Hey, would you look at that! A front page news article that doubles as a tip for getting support on your iPhone via iMessage
Sound Off:
Jim Denham has a few thoughts about Screen Reader aware websites...
Hey guys:
Great discussion on Episode 178 about the new screen reader aware
switches from Apple. I just had a quick question. As this standard is
being developed by a collaboration of numerous companies, is there any
requirement wherein the end user could quickly and easily toggle this
setting on/off with a single keystroke? If I am viewing a site, and it
is behaving in a certain way because I am using assistive technology,
I would want the ability to quickly and easily toggle off this setting
and refresh the page so I can see how the site would function for a
non-assistive tech user. Not only would this be important for those of
us who are blind and regularly train sighted individuals to browse the
web, it would also help eliminate the possible scenarios of price
differences you mentioned on the show. Just like it is important to be
able to quickly turn the SAP feature of television on and off, it
would be important to be able to quickly toggle this setting as well.
Thanks for all the great shows, you guys do a fantastic podcast!
Apple has modified the behavior of the detection since we discussed it on the show. However, even though Apple has relented on this front, others are actively using the practice for various reasons. Joe talked about how the Best Buy app currently detects Voiceover running and forces you to go to their website via Safari browser. Which then prompted him to talk about touch and web access from this excellent article by Leonie Watson.
The difference between keyboard and screen reader navigation
Next, kenny Hitt lets us know that we have more than one subscriber on a service.
Hi. I recently gave up my Google play music subscription and switch to Spotify. When I did that, I also deleted all of the podcast from the new Google podcast app and switch them to Spotify. I don't think I'm the only Spotify subscriber, but just in case, high from your Spotify subscriber.
Jeanne Gallagher writes in with the subject line: "Dark Chocolate Oreos; What Happened To A.T. Guys?"
Dear Blind Bargains,
I disagree with you about the dark chocolate Oreos. I love, love, love them! I love them because 1. One side has all the frosting and the other side is plain, and both sides are equally delicious. 2. They're chocolate both inside and out. 3. Dark chocolate has antioxidents.
On another note: A.T. Guys has not had a podcast in months. What happened to them? I unsubscribed from that podcast, because it's been so long since there has been a podcast.
Enjoy your podcasts.
Jeanne Gallagher
P.S. You got more points on the Mickey Mouse game than I would have.
Joe admits that growing up in a small Texas town, back when there were far fewer over the air television stations than there are now, gives him a bit of an edge when it comes to having some "Wonderful World of Disney" knowledge. He and J.J. then contemplate Carrot Cake Oreos, and their existence, after Joe tried them over the weekend. And... they were not awful, but you may need to already like the sweet treat they are based upon before you take the plunge.
Last Word:
We break the cycle of food related items this week by offering you a mystery and a new superhero.
Audio guy hunts down a mystery beeping in his home with surprising results
Boston man says someone broke into his house, cleaned it, then left
Next week Apple lays out their plans for the upcoming releases of iOS, Mac OS and more. Shelly Brisbin will be on site at WWDC and we hope to get a word with her on episode 184. If you would like to hear from her sooner, take a listen to Parallel 18 where Joe and Shelly talk about MS Build and Google i/o.
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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.
