Software Deals, Sales, and News

From now to December 28, buy all Voice Dream apps, reader, writer, and scanner, for 50 percent off or more.

Accessible Apps offers QRead for $20. Use code SPRING2016 to get the deal. That's $10 off and the lowest price we've seen. QRead is a Windows-based book reading program which offers simple access to a variety of formats including PDF, Epub, and BookShare downloaded titles. Deal ends January 31.

The KNFB Reader app is currently on sale for $74.99. That's $25 off list and the lowest price we've seen in several months. The KNFB Reader app is available for iOS and Android and reads printed materials captured with the camera. Deal ends January 4, 2016.

The iTunes App Store offers A Dark Room for iPhone and iPad for free. That's a $1 drop and the best deal we've seen for this accessible game.

The KNFB Reader app is now available for Android, and to celebrate, it will soon be on sale for 25 percent off. Starting Friday and continuing through November 1, you can purchase the new Android or iOS version for $74.99. That's the best deal we've seen on the app since the 50 percent off sale several months ago. The versions are nearly identical and allow for the reading of printed documents within a few seconds along with tilt detection, a field of view report, and document sharing.

Amazon offers a selection of downloads for Android for free via its new Amazon Underground app. (Follow the instructions on the provided link to download the app.) Choose from games, photography apps, and productivity apps. Note that not all apps will be accessible.

E-Techgalaxy via eBay offers a Microsoft Office 365 Personal 1-User 1-Year Subscription for Windows and Mac for $29.99 with free shipping. That's the lowest total price we could find by $19. It includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, along with OneDrive cloud storage.

Tech Group Online via Amazon offers the Office 365 Home Premium 5-User 1-Year Subscription Key Card for Windows or Mac for $69.98 with free shipping. (No disc included; you'll need to download the software from office.com.) That's the best deal we could find by $19. It allows access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher and 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage.

Ending today, get the KNFBReader app for the iPhone for $25 off. Normally $99.99, it's available today on the app store for $74.99. If you happen to have purchased an iTunes gift card at a discount, it's potentially an even better deal. The OCR app now works on the iPhone 4S and above as well as the 5th generation iPod Touch.

Today only, PayPal Digital Gifts via eBay offers $100 iTunes gift certificates for $75. It's the best deal we've seen for a $100 gift code this year. The codes will be delivered via Email. Of Note, this could be used to purchase the KNFB Reader App for the iPhone at a roughly 25 percent savings.

One of my favorite apps on my iPhone is TapTapSee. This app allows me to take pictures of objects, and have them identified. I can even identify what's in my pictures that I have on my camera roll. Yesterday, the makers of TapTapSee announced on twitter that their app is now compatible with Android as well as iOS. Features in the Android version are the same as they are in iOS.

If you're a fan of the Papa Sangre games and the Knight Jar, consider donating to the KickStarter Campaign from Somethin Else. The team wants to release their newest game, but they need more funds in order to finish the project. Their newest offering is called Audio Arena: Zombie Defense. In the game, your job is to fight zombies as a blind warrior. According to the KickStarter page, what sets this game apart is the audio engine. Unlike other first person shooters, not only are there no visuals, the audio experience is like none other.

Reading regular sheet music can be a challenge for people with low vision. A new app for the iPad aims to solve this problem. Music Zoom is a sheet music app that allows users to enlarge their sheet music easily. Users are also able to scroll through the music using wired/wireless foot switches, or gestures on the screen. Other features of the app include: in app highlighting to draw the eyes to important sections of the music, inverting colors to white on black, and importing music from scanned images or the photo library. Music Zoom can be purchased for $19.99.

A new version of NVDA has just been released as a beta. Some of the new features in NVDA 2014.1 include: support for Powerpoint 2013, support for braille displays that are connected using the Widcomm Bluetooth software, and readable labels for attachments or flagged emails in outlook or windows live mail.

Today I came across an app that makes me very excited as a future teacher of the visually impaired. Everyware Technologies, makers of iMove and other apps has just released a new app for the iPad called Math Melodies. It teaches math concepts using stories and music. The app is compatible with both Zoom and VoiceOver so it's a great option for both blind and low vision students. It also works with a braille display for kids that want to practice their braille while they play.

Math Melodies teaches math concepts that range from first to third grade. Users will practice counting, adding, subtracting, and patterns. They will also learn how to explore a table, a concept that is an important skill that can be quite challenging for blind children. The music and sounds are fun and engaging.

The developers are always appreciative of feedback. If you have any suggestions for how to make the app better, or you just want to thank them for the app, send and email to: accessibility@ew-tech.it!

Fleksyy has had a number of changes since it's release. Some of these changes have been positive, and for some of us, the changes have been confusing. Now that Fleksy has opened it's SDK to other app developers, they want to make sure that the app is consistent and easy to use for it's users. For this reason, they've just released a new version of the app called Fleksy VO. According to the Fleksy blog: here are some of the changes that you'll notice in Fleksy VO. You can now tap and hold the top of the screen to bring back the menu, manual typing has been fixed, and you can use long presses for punctuation. In addition, your dictionary from other versions of Fleksy will be ported over, and it will always be free.

Last year's announcement from AOL that WinAmp was going away was unwelcome news from users who really like the software. For the blind community, WinAmp was a favorite app to use while hosting online radio programs or as an accessible alternative to iTunes or Windows Media Player. These users may be in luck though. WinAmp has just been acquired by a company in Belgium called Radionomy . According to the press release, Radionomy plans to bring Winamp back and to offer it on more platforms including mobile.

For those who are not familiar with Radionomy, it's a place where people can design their own radio stations and share them world wide. Since they offer a mobile app, I decided to check out the iOS version. I'm happy to report that the app is very VoiceOver friendly, and it is my hope that their radio station design tools will be just as friendly.

BrailleNote and VoiceNote users now have a new version of KeySoft. The main highlight of this upgrade is that users can write in Nemeth code and have it translated into print. This will make doing math much easier for users of these products. Students can write out their math using the Nemeth code and than provide it to their teachers in a printed format. The upgrade also comes with a tutorial for the Nemeth code for those who need a refresher or for those that are just learning it. The other major improvement in this upgrade is the ability to open and read Power Point 2007 or 2010 files. The upgrade is free and available now for download.

Sendero continues to make changes to their Seeing Eye GPS app, and the third update should be coming out soon. This update comes with many features that users have been asking for since it's release. Some of the highlights include the ability to run the app in the background or with the screen locked, the ability to play music and still get turn by turn updates, getting warmer routes no longer requiring a cell connection, and reduced calls to the server which uses less data and should improve battery life. The app will now also have a $9.95 monthly subscription option for those who want to test out the app, or for those who are unable to pay the larger up front cost of the yearly subscription.

If you're a premium subscriber to Spotify and have trouble accessing Spotify content on your PC, you now have a solution. A new app called Blindspot has been released. The app gives screen reader users access to their Spotify account and more. The app can be used in five languages including English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish. The app uses a set of hot keys for navigation which users can learn about by visiting the documentation section of the website. At this time, the app only works with premium accounts, but the developer hopes that at some point, people who only want to use the free features in Spotify will be able to use Blindspot. Spotify currently only allows the use of their API for premium accounts, thus the limitation. Spotify Premium costs $9.95 a month and also gives you offline playlists and full access to their mobile apps.