All News and Views

We posted earlier about the array of new gestures and commands available in Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. While the phones aren't scheduled to be available until April 10, some T-Mobile stores, including a local store we contacted, have the devices on display currently, meaning you can try out the new accessibility features before you buy. If you go to a store and find a phone, you can go to Settings, Accessibility, Vision and enable Galaxy TalkBack. Be sure to enable Galaxy TalkBack as opposed to the Google version. Our previous post lists the gestures that should be available. The Galaxy S6 on T-Mobile should contain the same accessibility features as other carriers. If you're able to try out the phone, let us know what you think in the comments.

How many medium bananas does it take to equal one cup? Or how many teaspoons will you get from one small clove of garlic? A page on About.com includes this information and more for over 600 common and not so common foods in one simple table. It's sorted alphabetically and very easy to navigate. Select the link on this post to visit the page.

Amazon wants to make ordering every day necessities from its website as easy as clicking a button. We're not talking about the Buy Now button on the Amazon website here. This new device is an actual Bluetooth button, known as the Dash.

Dash.

A Dash is a small Wi-Fi button for different items that you hang in your house. When you are ready to buy an item, like detergent, you just click the button and the product order goes straight to your Amazon shopping cart. Several brand-name products already have their own buttons, including Bounty paper towels, Clorox disinfecting wipes, Gatorade and Kraft mac and cheese.

No word on how much it will cost, but it's now available for Prime members. Non-Prime subscribers will eventually be able to sign up for the device as well. If you're interested, click the provided link and let us know what you think.

If you need a book, cheap phone case or just about any household item, Amazon has you covered. But if you need a gardener, electrician or a private tutor to help you brush up on your Spanish, then before now, you’d need to look elsewhere. Thanks to Amazon Home Services, you’ll be able to easily and efficiently find the right person for the job.

There are a number of sites that simply advertise the services of others, but Amazon assumes responsibility for the entire process of matching the right professional with the job.

At this time, Amazon Home Services is quite limited. It’s a US-only enterprise for now, and whether you’ll be able to find a suitable candidate to complete the required job depends largely on where you live. For Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, you’ll probably be able to find somebody to help with any task, from mowing the lawn to ridding your computer of viruses, although in most areas, coverage is described either as Light or Coming Soon.

If you do live in an area selling services, then for a limited time, Amazon is offering a $20 Amazon.com gift card to anybody buying a service costing more than $99.

Amazon is not the first to create a marketplace for professionals to link up with those who require their assistance, but given the company’s experience and general reputation, one can assume both professionals and consumers will go with the Amazon brand.

To learn more about Amazon Home Services, click the provided link and let us know what you think.

According to Media Access Australia, Samsung has introduced several new accessibility features with the pending release of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Active. The phones, which will be introduced on April 10, include an enhanced version of the TalkBack screen reader called Galaxy TalkBack, which feature a laundry list of additional gestures. For example, swiping up or down, which previously performed the same action as swiping left or right, will use the "most recent contextual menu option" according to the user guide - PDF. We're not exactly sure how this will work in practice, but the duplicated gestures were seen as a waste to many.

Several of the new gestures center around a new text selection mode which includes ways to select, cut, and paste text. Users can also pause and resume speech using a gesture as well as media playback. A two finger triple tap will speak the current date and time, battery status, and mode, with the exact information that is spoken configurable from the settings menu.

In my last column, I showed you how to find inexpensive clothes for a good price. Now, I will discuss two basic fashion guidelines and one basic thing we all should know about our skin.

Another big assistive technology merger appears to be in the works. ABiSee, well-known for its line of scanning and reading machines including the Eye-Pal Ace, and Freedom Scientific, makers of the JAWS for Windows screen reader, video magnifiers, and the Focus braille displays has joined forces according to a press release. According to the release, Freedom Scientific will begin distributing ABiSe's line of reading products and ABISee founder Leon Reznik will become a member of the Freedom Scientific team. We've reached out in an attempt to get more details on this developing story and included the full press release below.

It's been a little more than a week since we last dove into the whirlpool of Apple news and events. And you would think, with pre orders for the Apple Watch still weeks away, it would have been quiet during that time. Well, um, not so much it seems.

Following on the heels of their Newsline app, the National Federation of the Blind has released their second app into the iOS App Store. NFB Connect provides access to commonly requested information such as publications like the Braille Monitor and Future Reflections, a search tool to find a local chapter, and notifications for breaking news items among other features. Browse upcoming events, and read posts from NFB blogs. The free app is available now from the App Store.

I love finding a bargain. Who doesn’t? If you shop wisely, you don’t have to break the bank to feel and look marvelous!! Before I go on, let me tell you the difference between cheap and Inexpensive clothes. To me, cheap clothes are poor quality. They typically fade, shrink, pill up and don't last. However, Inexpensive clothes are good quality clothes that will last. Please don’t be fooled….. There are some designer brands that make cheap clothes. My clothes are relatively Inexpensive. I can't afford to buy cheap clothes.

Blind musician Kevin Reeves is looking to raise $300 to add audio description to his soon to be released documentary detailing the making of his latest full-length album “Remember to Forget.” Several rewards are offered including documentary and album downloads, as well as signed CD’s and DVD’s. If you are interested in helping out, check out his GoFundMe page.

LoganTech is now taking preorders for the second generation of the 6dot label maker. Those who visit the link on this post and sign up to their Email list will receive a $100 off coupon, making the price $499 before shipping. Preorders are anticipated to last through April. You can learn more about the 6dot from our CSUN interview podcast.

A study posted by Shaun Kane, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado, seeks to gain insights on how to best create accessible comic books. The survey examines various prototypes and will help them in their research to create more accessible comic books in the future. Check the link to complete the free survey.

Yes, I'm one of those people. Leave me a message in my voicemail box and I might check it once or twice a day. Send me an Email message however, and it's quite possible I'll read and reply to you within 5 minutes. I'm definitely not the world's most organized person, and yes, sometimes messages and requests do slip through the cracks. But over time, I've developed a few strategies for managing the pile of messages that end up in my in-box. Here are a few of these.

A new product is available which offers an affordable way to place labels on food, bathroom products, and other items. Visus Labels use tactile patterns to distinguish items from each other, and are designed especially for those who do not have the time or inclination to learn braille. Kits, which include 90 labels and audio instructions, are available for $34.99 for paper labels or $39.99 for a more rigid plastic. For more information or to place an order, visit the Visus Labels website

Hello, my name is Jywanza and I have been blind since the age of 15. I was born and raised in New York City but currently reside in Indianapolis, Indiana. My interests lie in reading, traveling, dining out and I especially love clothes and beauty products and learning about them. I own over 500 tops, over 200 pair of pants, over 90 pairs of shoes, 15 sport jacket/blazers, 8 suits, over 100 pair of socks and underwear and countless beauty products. When I moved from NYC in January 2006, all of my clothes weighed almost 1800 pounds, Yes, almost 1800 pounds..... That's equivalent to moving 6 new-born baby elephants. I always care about what I am wearing and how I look no matter where I am going and always look put together.

It's a post Apple event week and we're going to examine how the Kool Aid buzz wore off faster than expected in the press. So I'm warning everyone upfront that this week's links will be more negative than positive, as the stock market analogy of buying and selling on hype applies to what gets clicks for Apple news stories. Except in the rumor department that is... Pink iPhones anyone? Yeah, that might be a thing now that gold is starting to lose its luster.

A new app suite is now available for Verizon Wireless customers which provides a customized home screen and a variety of additional tools such as OCR, GPS navigation, and object recognition. VelaSense by Visus Technology runs on Android devices with version 4.3 or higher and is available exclusively on Verizon at the moment. It offers a variety of built-in apps including Contacts, a phone dialer, and currency recognition and features as well as a simplified home screen and voice recognition. Verizon customers can get a 30-day free trial of the app before paying the $14.99 monthly fee.

July 1 is a big day when it comes to video description on television, as stations in 35 additional markets will now be required to carry described programs. NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX stations in the top 60 television markets are required by law to carry at least 50 hours of described programming each quarter, or roughly 4 hours per week. In addition, the top five cable television networks are also bound by this requirement, meaning most cable systems, regardless of location, are also required to carry described programs. An FCC order released today outlines changes that will take effect in July, including the addition of the History Channel and the removal of Nickelodeon from the top five cable networks. This all means that in addition to new described programming, 35 additional television markets will now receive the described feed. We've included a list of the top 60 television markets as of 2014 below, so you can see if yours made the cut.

Microsoft has posted a survey to gauge opinions of blind users of Twitter and how they interact with posted images. As explained on the survey page, "This survey is part of a Microsoft Research project that aims to improve the social media usage experiences of people who are blind by gathering data about the extent to which people who are blind use various social media, the purposes for which they use it, and the challenges they face in participating in this increasingly important aspect of modern social life." The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete with roughly 25 questions total. Upon completion, $1 will be donated to one of several blindness organizations. The survey is available through March 31 or until 1,000 responses have been received. Check the source link to take the survey.
Update: The survey has now closed.