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The Sendero Group has released their Sendero GPS LookAround iOS ap for $3.99. This app announces the current Heading, street, city,
cross street and nearest point of interest to your location. The ap is only compatible with the iPhone 4 and 3gs, and not with the iPod touch.

The first public beta of Jaws 12 has been released. Jaws users can download the beta version of this product and use authorization from jaws 11 until the full SMA upgrade is released later this year. Freedom Scientific recommends checking for updates weekly to insure users have the most up to date software. Features of this new release include: Jaws BrailleIn, contracted braille typing, Settings Center, Virtual Ribbon Menu, and more. visit the link above for more information on the Jaws 12 public Beta and all of its new features.

Buy.com has the Kingston 4GB microSDHC (Class 4) High Capacity micro Secure Digital Card for $10.74. Plus, shipping is free. Note that an SD adapter does not come included with this item. It's great for multimedia and music on your cell phone, or to hold those larger GPS map bundles for Mobile Geo, for example.

Blind Mice Mart has refurbished i.d. mate Omni Barcode Scanners for $699.88. With free shipping, this is at least $500 off the cost of the i.d. Mate Summit. The Omni has the capability to hold the current bar code database and comes with all standard accessories.

According to several sources, Humanware is planning to raise the price for two of their popular notetakers in September. the 32-cell version of the BrailleNote Apex will list for $6,379, a $184 increase over the current price. That's nearly $400 over the price of a Braille Sense Plus and just under $800 over the retail price of a PAC Mate Omni, the latter including 8 more cells.At the same time, the price of the 18-cell version of the Apex will jump to $4,529, a $134 increase. Finally, the price of the VoiceNote Apex, to be released in September, has been set at $2,049. That's just over $50 more than the price of a VoiceSense, but nearly $350 under the price of a PAC Mate Omni without a braille display.

For a reader, OpticsPlanet.com has the Brunton Braille Compass for $57.99. With free shipping, we couldn't find this item for less elsewhere. It includes braille labels at the four cardinal directions and dots for other points.

Handy Tech North America has the Olympus DM-4 Digital Voice Recorder for $299. With about $10 for shipping, we weren't able to find a better deal on this item. The Dm-4 features a 2.2-inch color LCD display, 8GB of built-in storage, the ability to play and record in MP3, WMA and Wav formats, 29 hours of battery life, and support for Daisy, audible and other books. The DM-4 also features voice guidance, which speaks the device's menus and settings, as well as Nuance Vocalizer text-to-speech for reading TXT and Daisy books. To this point, no NLS support has been included in the unit.

The National Federation of the Blind Convention in Dallas was the highlight for nearly 2,500 attendees this past week. And while we could only do and see so much, there were certainly some things we learned from this year's conference. Here's our list for 2010.

Blind Mice Mart has introduced a new talking thermometer with an expanded range, making it ideal for a multitude of situations. This new thermometer has a temperature range from -58 to 572 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Mice asked for it and it was built!
Cook meats to their proper internal temperatures accurately.
In addition to the kitchen, other recommended uses include
checking bath water, pool, or spa temperatures,
the temperature of the air, or soil temperature. The temperature is spoken by a female voice and batteries are included. It's available for $35.95 plus about $8 for shipping.

KNFB Reading Technology, Inc. has released version 6.4 of their KNFB Reader Mobile software. This latest release adds color recognition, glare detection, tilt feedback, the ability to export captured text to the notes application, and various bug fixes. This version is free for all existing KNFB Reader Mobile customers.

We read with excitement of a new service from Openlibrary.org which aims to offer accessible DAISY titles to the blind, low-vision, and print-disabled communities. While services like Bookshare have provided a library of thousands of titles in electronic format for the past decade, the new offering has the potential to put the necessity for accessible books in the forefront of many who may not have realized the need previously. While the site has potential, it will need to expand greatly to become relevant. Luckily, a donation drive is helping to jumpstart the collection.

Nuance has rleased version 5 of their Talks screen-reading application for Symbian phones. Talks 5.0 adds support for touchscreen S60 5th edition phones, improved support for the calendar and email application, and improved audio handling. Talks 5.0 is a free upgrade to existing Talks 4 customers.

GW Micro has anounced an improved version of their SenseView desktop magnifyer. The D650 features a sleek design and improved image quality. The upgraded desktop SenseView will be free to existing desktop SenseView customers in the United States, and new units will be shipping in the next few months. Pricing for new customers has not been anounced.

GW Micro has anounced the Voice Sense QWERTY, a version of their voice Sense notetaker with a qwerty computer keyboard. The device also features a built-in GPS receiver and compass, WiFi and Bluetooth, and more. Pricing and a ship date are still to be determined.

GW Micro has anounced the BookSense DS, a version of their digital book player that features an OLED display. The screen can display what the BookSense is saying, as well as display books and documents. The BookSense DS features 4GB of memory, a SDHC slot, and keys which are more spaced apart than the existing BookSense. A price and ship date have not been anounced.

Freedom Scientific has announced the Pearl, a portable camera OCR solution that works with version 9 of their OpenBook scanning software. The Pearl camera costs $1,195, and OpenBook 9 is priced at $995. Both products will be available in May. A special introductory price for the Pearl camera is available for $600 until July 15. Previous OpenBook customers can upgrade to OpenBook version 9 for $150. Stay tuned to Blind Bargains for a hands-on look at this device from the CSUN 2010 conference.

Blastbay Studios has released version 0.1 of the Blastbay Game Toolkit, software which allows you to design your own audio games. No prior knowledge of computer programming is required. The toolkit features a high-speed game engine, versatile scripting language based on C++, extensive documentation and examples and more. Pricing has not been anounced, though anyone is able to test and give feedback for this beta release.

Talks, one of the leading mobile phone screenreaders will soon be releasing version 5.0 with support for a host of new devices.
In a recent podcast found on BlindMind.net we heard a 40 minute interview discussing some of the new features being offered in the upcoming release. Check out the interview for yourself by navigating to the blog and please let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Are the olympus line of digital audio recorders really accessible? In a recent podcast, done by some wonderful folks in Australia, we find out about the accessibility features built in to the Olympus DM420 and DM520 respectively. These small and sleek digital recorders feature enhanced voice guidance and superior recording quality along with extended battery capabilities and increased built in memory capacity. Please navigate to the link above and have a listen to the demonstration featuring accessibility and let us know what you think.

Humanware has released version 3.1 for their Victor Stream audio book player. This new version adds support for nested folders within the DAISY bookshelf, support for the spanish electronic braile format, and it is now possible to copy DAISY books from USB flash media to the stream. Note that the promised support for books in the EPUB format is not in this release. Version 3.1 is a free update for existing Victor Stream customers.