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Fredom Scientific has released the PAC Mate Omni, a combination hardware and software upgrade for the PAC mate BX/QX family of notetakers. This upgrade, now running Windows Mobile 6.0, adds 128MB of flash memory, improved Office Mobile support, and numerous other enhancements. This upgrade costs between $299 and $699, depending on the existance of a product and/or software maintenance agreement.

Amazon.com has the Nokia N75 cell phone for $24.99 profit. TO get this price, establish a new line of service with AT&T. Discounts are also available for extending your contract. This phone includes Bluetooth 2.0 support, 3G data connectivity, and a MicroSD memory slot. It's supported by Code Factory's Mobile Speak software for Symbian phones.

We've been waiting for an announcement from Code Factory regarding their recent partnership with AT&T and it looks like it has now come. AT&T offers licenses for Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier for $89, a significant savings off retail. We assume service with AT&T is required, and a short list of five phones is initially supported including the Nokia E62 and N75. We'll post more as we learn about it, and watch our site for deals on supported phones in the coming days. There isn't a lot of info on the AT&T site yet, but you can contact the National Center for Customers with Disabilities (NCCD) at 1-866-241-6568.

Sendero Group has released version 4.2 of their GPS software for the BrailleNote family of products, which adds at least twenty software improvements and a small number of bug fixes. Of note, route calculations are claimed to be 20 percent faster, audio and text files can be associated with points of interest, and GPS headings are smoothed out. This upgrade costs $149, or the use of one count on a current software maintenance agreement.

Independent Living Aids has this simple talking watch with a male voice for $3.50. With about $7 for shipping, it's one of the cheapest talking watches we've ever seen. It has three alarm sounds and distinguishable buttons for setting the time and alarm. Deal ends December 31.

Once again, Blind Mice Mart has the Talking Cooking Thermometer for $27. With free shipping, it's the lowest price we could find for this item. Stick the long probe into meat or other foods and hear the temperature to the nearest tenth of a degree.

Independent Living Aids has a Silver Tone Talking Watch with Vibrating Alarm for $22 plus about $7 for shipping. That's nearly half off the list price for this item. It includes actual watch hands and uses a female voice. The alarm can either vibrate, make a sound, or play a song. Deal ends December 31.

For a reader, Bargain Bob has found the Franklin Language Master Special Edition for $399.99 at Allheart.com. It includes a talking dictionary and other tools, but I always liked the games like Anagrams and Word Train.

Princeton Watches has the Seiko Ladies Braille Watch for $120. With free shipping, that's $80 off retail and the lowest price we could find. It includes a leather band and carrying case and opens at the 6 o'clock position.

The I.D. Mate handheld bar code reader sells for $1,199 at the Magnifying Aids EBay store. With about $16 for shipping, it's nearly $100 off and the lowest price we could find. This unit will identify nearly a million items and is great for traveling to the grocery store or organizing your cupboards. Several accessories are also included.

TheNerds.net has the Panasonic KXTG6071m Expandable Cordless Phone system with talking caller ID for $63.21. Pay with the simple-to-use Google Checkout system and save an additional $5, making the price $58.21. Shipping adds about $10. In addition to the talking caller ID, this item includes a speakerphone feature and is expandable with the purchase of additional handsets. New to Google Checkout? It allows you to pay for items using a credit card using a very simple form. Your card information is never disclosed to the merchant to protect your privacy. Deal ends December 18.

AFB's AccessWorld is looking for input on your reading habits pertaining to audio and electronic books. Results from the short survey may be used in future articles on the topic. Use the link on this post to fill it out.

Ending today, Independent Living Aids has the TapMemo Personal Organizer for $125.00. With about $8 for shipping, it's the best price we could find for this personal assistant by $25. This voice-activated device includes a phone book, memo recorder holding up to 60 messages, calendar, clock, alarm, autodialer, and a locator feature in case you loose the device. It uses only three buttons for its operations.

Independent Living Aids notes that for items shipped to west of the Mississippi River, orders must be placed by December 17 for standard ground shipping by the holidays. For the rest of the country, place your order by December 19. Additionally, you have until December 21 for overnight shipments.

We've fixed some validation errors with our RSS feed, which especially affected Internet Explorer 7. If you've been having problems with our feed, please try it again. This exercise also reminded us of Feed Validator, a free RSS and Atom validation tool for webmasters. We've linked to it from this post. Thanks to Michael McCarty of the Fred's Head Companion for the heads up.

Through the next few days, we'll be posting shipping deadlines for some of the stores frequently mentioned on our site. There's only a few shopping days until Christmas, and even less if you're ordering products online. Blind Mice Mart says that for adaptive products, order by December 12 for pacific time customers, December 14 for mountain time users, the 16th for central time, and the 18th for eastern time. This'll guarantee you a December 24th or earlier delivery. Watch out for updates from more stores coming soon. Update: link fixed.

As a reminder, you can subscribe for free to our Daily Deals email newsletter. You'll receive a daily message with our latest deals including links to jump directly to the site. We've now moved the list to new software for more stability and improved the format based on user feedback. You can subscribe and unsubscribe at any time. Follow the link on this post to join the list. Of course, if you're reading this in our newsletter, you've got nothing to do except tell your friends.

For a reader, Bargain Bob has found the Lenovo USB 17-key numeric keypad for $21.13 at TheNerds.net. Add about $10 for shipping. This device allows you to have a desktop-style numeric pad on a laptop, and should work great for screen readers or Kurzweil 1000.

These days, blind computer users are gaining more and more options for free access to technology. But in our latest article, we discuss some of the reasons that one should consider paying for a screen reader compared with downloading one for free.

A South Korean company has licensed technology from HP which, it says, will allow them to create a small device to read text aloud. Licensed by a company called Mouscan, Users will be able to waive the Voiscan unit, about the size of a cell phone, over text and hear it read aloud within a few seconds. It will also translate to other languages on the fly, making it a good candidate for international travelers as well as the blind. The closest competition we know of is the KNFB reader, which could make for some interesting competition if this machine works as promised. Expect it some time in 2008. Learn more at Tech Chronicles.