Audio Player Blind Bargains Qast 140: Perky Duck Marble Slides
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- Blind Bargains Qast 140: Perky Duck Marble Slides
Our first show back in the various studios around the U.S. and we even have a guest joining us for valium medicine the whole episode. Steve Clower of Desmos joins us to talk about Screen Reader friendly math, equations, graphs and more. He even throws in a tip as well. "Sound Off" and the "Last Word" are back after a long absence during our CSUN audio adventures. So plot the X and the Y as the BBQ Crew has returned.
Sponsor: HIMS
Braille sense Polaris is shipping! The future is now. Check out the first Google certified futureproof notetaker with no touchscreen required. Visit us on the web at https://hims-inc.com to learn more.
Also, [read more about the recently announced Braille Sense Polaris Mini by visiting the new product page
In Memorium
Our condolences this week with the family of Stephen Wack, one of the people killed in the recent Humboldt Broncos bus crash. Stephen was a junior hockey league player and also influenced his brother Justin who is blind and plays blind hockey in Canada and beyond. Our thoughts are with the family and team during this time.
Program Note:
Shout out to BBQ Regular Shelly Brisbin for once again being on the Daily Tech News Show to talk about CSUN and the news of the day.
In The News:
Some of the minds behind Fleksy are back with a new Voiceover friendly typing aid called FlickType
Windows 10 Accessibility: What to expect in the year ahead
To learn more about the Narrator changes, listen to Joe on Main Menu speaking about them with the Narrator and Main Menu teams
AIRA Coming Soon to the UK, Australia, New Zealand
Review: You're Writer's toolbox - Scrivener for iOS
Interview: Steve Clower From Desmos
Steve states that his days as a student fuels the fire for his desire to make many more forms of math accessible to all. This is why he joined the team at Desmos
and he gives us some insight on what the company is doing to improve the math experience. The tools mentioned in this segment are free, and depending how you feel about math, enjoyable. They can also be quite musical as you will hear towards the end of this interview.
Tip: Apple Watch Chargers Are A Traveler's Best Friend
Steve reminds us that you can charge your Apple Watch on the go pretty cheaply these days. and the wires that come with these chargers feel better than the one Apple packs in the box. While the one Steve spoke about is hard to find on Amazon now, check out this iMore article on their opinions on the best portable Apple Watch chargers out there.
Sound Off:
Stan Littrell is fast becoming our field reporter on updates. Here's an example of one he sent in during our California convalescence.
"A new update is available for the victor reader treck unit. I know
that it was available as of this morning pacific time."
He's right. Best we could tell at the time of the episode's recording is the update assists with the downloading of podcasts from redirecting URLs and the like. A recent update also added Audible support.
Juan Avila writes in with his highlights of our CSUN 2018 coverage.
"Hello Blind Bargains,
Really interesting shows this year. I really enjoyed hearing about the different assistive technologies. I am glad that some like the Canute and the windows braille tablet are now ready to sell. I really would have liked to hear how the APH graphiti Tablet is progressing, as I m attending Sacramento State University, and accessing braille graphs is a must. Right now I carry multiple volumes of braille economics books, and I would love to have them in digital braille, on a full page display. And maybe even to have a display at home, and another at school. I understand that the APH Tablet will soon help for this very thing, but I feel they have not mastered to put braille on the device, only tactile print. Please tell me otherwise.
Also, it was interesting to hear about the braille chocolate, and the different glasses that could help blind and low vision persons . I could tell which ones were Shelly s favorites and which ones weren t, based on the interviews, and how the conversations were going.
I also got a little chuckle when I heard JJ say that he got there first to the ID Mate booth.
I really wanted to hear about more software improvements to the braille note takers, and an update to the Dot Watch people, because they had promised a braille tablet.
Overall, good work you guys!Sincerely,
Juan Manuel Avila "
Thanks Juan! If we didn't catch a particular company at the show it was possibly due to a scheduling conflict or they may not have had anything new to say to us about their products yet. or, and as you hear in this episode, it is because we wanted to feature them in an episode all their own. Keep sending in those requests though. It helps us know who to book on the show.
Roger Behm sends along this feedback from episode 137.
"Hi Joe and JJ:
I listened to podcast 137 and the remarks you made about devices only grabbing the first 3 podcasts and that people might miss your many C-Sun reports is incorrect dealing with the victor stream 2 and the vr trek.
If you would do your homework and not speak fake news or alternative news about these devices they can be set to save the first 10 podcasts the default is set by HumanWare to save the first 3 podcasts. Look at the menus on the devices under podcasts and you might learn something!
please, please , please do your homework!!!!!
Regards,
Roger"
As J.J. said in his spoken response "We're both right". Roger is right in that you can set this feature to nab more than three episodes of a given podcast. Joe and .J.J. were right in that we are careful to schedule only three at a time because years of doing this has taught us that a number of podcasting apps and players tend to lose or ignore things when we've posted more than three in a row at one time or another. Then Steve gave us a crash course on memory usage and low hardware thresholds. Good stuff to know honestly.
Tweets from the recent past:
maria6289: The audio transcripts are great! Even though I don't have a hearing impairment and do listen to the audio, the transcripts add versatility--say, to consume the content with a Braille display on a loud bus. Great addition! Enjoying your coverage! Thanks!
DeanTopdot: Let me join the chorus of those who appreciate the text transcripts from CSUN. More efficient.
Grecia2009: Feels super weird not to have pending transcripts to do. I kinda got used to it. LOL. Thanks tons to @blindbargains for allowing me to be a part of your #CSUN2018 team.BostonPackerFan: This episode was hilarious, thanks for the April 1st laugh! I think JJ has earned a new nickname, the Parrott!
ms_denverqueen: While listening to the latest @blindbargains cast, I had to wonder if @rangerstation had gotten changed to a girl, and so did JJ. Oh no! What a big joke! lol That was hilarious!
SnowspriteGirl: Best Easter episode ever!
jeninems: Priceless! Oh, and buy @Shelly s book. Please!
Last Word:
Old Windows tools and an old travel ban makes up our return to the odder parts of the internet.
Relive the 1990s on Windows 10 with the newly open sourced File Manager
GUEST BANNED FROM HOTEL FOR 17 YEARS AFTER PEPPERONI-FILLED SUITCASE LED TO SEAGULL INFESTATION
Next week is still a bit of a blur. But follow us on Twitter to learn just what we have coming around the corner.
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