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the author of iPads for Special Needs Sami Rahman, has designed a new online course that covers the accessibility of iOS. The three topics that are covered are voiceover, guided access, and assistive touch. The videos in the course will teach you how to setup each accessibility option, how to use them, and their features.

During Google's press conference Wednesday, there were a number of new things to talk about. First, there will be a new Nexus 7 coming out soon. The prices are a little bit higher, but the screen resolution is better and so is the battery life. According to an article from Redmond Pie here are some of the specs of the new tablet. The display will be 1900 X 1200 and be able to produce 1080P when watching Netflix and other videos, a set of stereo speakers are included, the weight is 50 grams less then the previous model, and the battery life is 9 hours.

The company also announced the latest version of Android 4.3, still called Jellybean. This article in Arstechnica has an overview of what the new features of the OS will include. Tablet users will now be able to create multi-user restricted profiles. This allows multiple members of a family to use the device without changing anything on a different profile. There is also better support for bluetooth 4.0, predictive phone number dialing, and n emoji keyboard.

The final announcement was about their new gadget called ChromeCast, which will allow you to stream media from your cell phone or tablet to your TV. This article from CNet provides a review of the new device. The $35 price tag will give you access to Netflix, Youtube, Google Play movies and TV, and Google Play music. They also hope to come out with access to Pandora soon.

For the past two weeks, students from the Carol Center for the Blind have had the opportunity to test out the new Visus Visual Assistant System from Visus Technology. The system uses a Galaxy S4 Android smartphone paired with a bluetooth headset to convey a variety of information that would be useful to the blind. According to this article in the Boston Globe the these are some of the features of the new system, "The Visus program can be trained to identify faces, so a blind person who encounters a friend or colleague won’t have to guess at a name. Instead, he can scan the face with his phone. An electronic voice can announce the person’s name through a wireless Bluetooth earpiece. Another Visus feature lets the user scan a large area with the camera to pinpoint objects containing text, such as signs or bulletin boards. The software can translate the text to speech and read it aloud. The phone also makes it easier for a blind person to find a restroom. It is programmed to recognize the standard symbols indicating a men’s room or women’s room and point them out to the user. The software can even generate a map of the inside of a building. Using software licensed from a defense contractor, Visus can shoot a video as the user is guided through the building."

The company hopes to have the system available for sale early next year for $999. The price will include the phone, bluetooth headset, and a 4G hotspot. The company is also working on developing for the iOS platform. To learn more about the company, visit the <a href= "http://www.visustech.com" Visus Technology website.

We announced earlier this month that KeySoft 9.3 was coming soon, and today Humanware says that it's available to be downloaded for free. Here's a link to our original post to remind you what new features are included in the upgrade.

Many small business owners are choosing to use square instead of a traditional credit card machine because the fees are lower and the square reader can be used with an iOS or Android device. The NFB of Massachusetts has decided to partner with Square to make their apps fully accessible to the blind community so that blind business owners can use Square with ease. Pasted below is the press release.

In this short video, Marco Zehe demonstrates how Mozilla is working towards making their mobile OS accessible. In the demonstration, we are shown that the device does have speech and that the basic gestures are the same as Android 4.1 and IOS. The company hopes to role out these features in the months to come.

One of the benefits of traveling by plane today is that you can often use in flight WyFy on your mobile device or computer. Unfortunately, not all flights have this option and the WyFy is almost never free. Lifehacker has provided a good list of airlines detailing how many flights have in flight WyFy and how much it may cost you.

A new podcast is available which describes Serotek's new Socializer system, a platform for communicating with friends and family on a wide variety of messaging platforms.
According to their website: "The socializer allows you to communicate with family members, friends, fellow-students, coworkers, and other SAMNet users. You can send and receive instant messages through Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, (also referred to as AIM), Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, GoogleTalk, and Jabber. In addition, you can send and receive both text and voice messages through Skype, as well as with any other user of the system Access Mobile Network; subject to their approval, of course. You can read and respond to messages in the Serotek Users Forum.. Socializer also provides access to Facebook and Twitter.

Earlier this month, T-Mobile announced it's no contract options and committed to changing the cell phone industry. To avoid being one uped by T-Mobile, the other major carriers also have decided to make changes. A few days after the announcement, Sprint came out with new pricing on their plans and unlimited data for life. And now AT&T has come out with no contract options that look very similar to T-Mobile, but of course are slightly different.

According to an article in CNet, AT&T customers will have the option to pay an installment plan for 20 months rather then an upfront fee with a two year contract. They will then have the option to leave the carrier as long as they finish paying their installment plan. The plans range from $15 to $50 depending on the device. An iPhone 5 would cost someone $32.50 per month and a Galaxy S4 would cost $32. Along with the no contract option, customers will have the option of upgrading their device after one year instead of 24 months. The biggest difference between T-Mobile's plan and AT&T's is that the monthly plans for AT&T have not changed. If you don't think that you have extra money to tack on your already high cell phone bill then a no contract option may not be for you, but if you want the freedom of no contract then you now have another carrier option.

Humanware has announced a new line of magnification products for low vision users. The Prodigi magnifiers will be a new way for low vision users to interact with text. According to the press release: "Prodigi allows low vision users to benefit from a big-screen desktop device and a go-anywhere tablet magnifier at a lower cost than any similar system available. The portable Tablet fits into a patented docking station in the base and becomes both the camera and processor of the desktop system. Unlike other magnifiers, Prodigi captures the image of an entire letter- or A4-sized page and allows the user to magnify and read documents with a comfortable touchpad instead of moving an XY table. Pages are displayed in HumanWare's innovative Diamond Edge TextTM format, which can be magnified up to 80 times with perfect text quality. Text can be presented to the user in smooth-scrolling column or line modes, and can even read aloud, reducing fatigue caused by moving documents under a CCTV camera."
The new devices also come with their own tutorial to help customers learn how to use the product. The tutorial will set up magnification, color contrast, and demonstrate the features of the device. There will be three different models: the duo which includes a desktop model with a removable tablet, the hand held tablet alone, or the desktop model alone. Look for the product to be available next month.

The American Council of the Blind has announced there locations and dates for the next two conferences. Next year will be in Las Vegas. Pre registration starts on the 10th of July with the opening session on the 13th and the final day being the 18th.

If you're not up for Vegas, or need to wait a couple of years before going to conference again, then you can choose to attend in 2015 in Dallas Texas. Pre-registration will start on July 2nd, the opening session will be on July 5th, and and the conference will end on July 10th.

Happy planning.

Wearable computing seems to be the next frontier. The Pebble watch and Google Glass are being raved about, but wearable technology doesn't jus have to be for humans. Researchers at Georgia Tech are working on a system called FIDO, or Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations. The idea is that the dog could activate a sensor that would then transmit either a verbal command into a headset or a visual command onto a screen. For example, a bomb sniffer dog could tell his handler what kind of bomb it is, or a rescue dog could alert someone that he found an injured person. A guide dog could tell us that there is an obstruction to our right or in front of us. According to the article in technology review, "In an early study, the researchers equipped a dog vest with an Arduino microprocessor and tested four different sensors that dogs could activate by biting, tugging, or putting their mouth nearby. The three service dogs participating in the test quickly learned to activate the sensors to set off a tone." Tell us in the comments what you would want your service animal to be able to communicate.

Sendero is very interested in hearing from it's customers. They have set up a page where you can vote on what features you want to see in upcoming versions of their new Seeing Eye GpS app. The features that you can vote on include:

Ability to add your own public and private POIs
Announcing of Sendero's existing User POI database
Increasing the number of items in the route history list
Favorite's list
Ability to add a route from your contact's list
Ability to run the app in the background
Announce intersections at more then 15 MPH
Vibrate alerts on upcoming turns and arrived at destination

You may vote for two of these 8 features. You can also submit one feature that is not on the list that you would also like to see.

If you're planning a trip to a federal recreation site or one of our many National Parks, then you can get your free pass for life with proof of your disability. According to a post in Positively Naperville, "When you visit a federal recreation site or national park, just present some documentation of disability status and ask for the free Access Pass. Documentation includes a physician’s statement, or a document issued by a state or federal agency like the Veteran’s Administration, proof of Social Security Disability Income or Supplemental Security Income, or a letter from a vocational rehabilitation agency. The pass gives you and three adults free admission to national parks around the country."

To learn more about this program, or to find out where National Parks are located, visit the National Park Service website.

Byron Lee, who works for Horizons for the Blind, describes a new Directions for Me app that should be coming to the android platform soon on this week's Serotalk podcast. He starts by describing the main screen which includes the buttons: scan, search, browse, and info. The scan button will allow you to scan bar codes with your phone's camera. Since it can be difficult to find the bar code, the scan mode is continuous allowing you to rotate the product until the camera finds the bar code. Once the bar code is found, you get the product name, description of the product, directions for how to use the product, ingrediants, wanrings and manufacture information. You can also search for a specific product or browse using the directions for me website.

Sendero announced today that the Seeing Eye GPS app has been submitted to the app store and is now available. The app can be downloaded for free, but you must have a subscription in order to use it. A one year subscription will cost you $69.95 and for three years the cost is $129.95.

According to the description of the app, some of the features that make this app particularly useful for blind users include:

Route, POI's, and Location are available at any time
At intersections the cross street and it's orientation are announced
Intersections are described such as four way or two way
Routes are available for both vehicle and pedestrian mode
To hear what is around you, point your phone in a direction and the LookAround Wand tells you nearby POI's
POI's and intersections are automatically announced as you get close to them.

GW Micro announced today a new app for the PC called SocialEyes. If you wish that you could interact with facebook better but you find the website too difficult and inaccessible, then SocialEyes is for you. According to the press release: "
SocialEyes offers Facebook users the ability to access their newsfeed, read comments, create comments, like posts, search for events, pages, friends, groups, and more. Users can also read notifications, messages, chat with their friends, write on timelines, manage friend requests, and access event information."

The app will be compatible with most PC screen readers and magnification software. For a limited time, a one year subscription can be purchased for $25. You can preorder SocialEyes today by calling 260) 489-3671. Once the promotional period is up, the yearly subscription will go up to $50.

To see SocialEyes in action, visit <a target="_blank" href== "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULm6DW4zAmw&feature=youtu.be"> GW Micro's You Tube Page .

If you haven't tried out Blind Square yet and you're going to either the NFB or ACB national conventions, then now is your chance. The makers of BlindSquare have come out with BS Event. This app will allow you to use the app in demo mode if you are attending events that are important to the blind. Some of the features include: learning about interesting places around you, access to phone numbers and addresses, ability to search for specific places, ability to input a destination into your favorite turn by turn app, and ability to checkin at your location using foursquare. This app is only intended for those who do not own the full BlindSquare app. If you're not attending a convention, a virtual mode is also available. The full BlindSquare App is available for $19.99.

There are a number of braille typing apps already available for IOS devices. Some may wonder then do we need another one. For me, MBraille is my favorite so far. Some of the benefits include: contracted braille, ability to type with the device on a table or facing away from you, free access to twitter and the clipboard, and a tutorial mode.

The app is very similar to Fleksy because it uses gestures to add spaces, new lines, and deleting of text. The help section of the app reviews all of the gestures and the other features that the app has available. One feature that speeds up the posting process are commands. For example, to tweet, write your message followed by a new line. Then write .twitter and the message will be sent.

The free version only gives you access to sending tweets and adding text to the clipboard. If you want the full list of features including email, Facebook, text messaging, and editing capability, the app will cost $30. The benefit of course is that you get to try out the app before spending any money.

It is important to note that the voice that you use for voiceover will determine your braille table. If you are using the Australian voice for example, you can only write contractions that exist in UEB.

For blind golfers, the need for their caddy to tell them everything from how far the hole is to where their ball landed can be frustrating. A new device can increase a blind golfers independence through the use of GPS and text to speech. The Golf Buddy Voice is a device that will tell you the distance to the center of the green, front of the green, or back of the green. The device can be purchased from Amazon for $122.79 with free shipping. The Golf Buddy Voice can be clipped to a pocket or be worn like a watch, it has 36,000 golf courses already loaded, and it just needs to be connected to a computer to be upgraded. Though we have reports of blind golfers using the device, we're not sure if it's completely accessible without sighted assistance. If you've tried or seen one of these units, let us know what you think in the comments.