All Cool Blind Tech Shows

In this podcast, Cory Martin gives an overview of the Expedia app for iOS. He demonstrates how to locate flights, search for hotels and filter based on various preferences. At the time of this podcast, the iOS app from Expedia is extremely easy and accessible to use and highly recommended if you have the travel bug. Click here to download Expedia from the App store in Canada or Click here to download from iTunes in the US. Expedia is available in both the United States and Canada as well as The UK among others. Expedia is one of the largest and most popular online travel companies in the world and incorporates approximately a dozen of the world's most notable travel brands.

VR, or virtual reality, is still in its infant stages of development. Most use head-strapped gear, such as a headset, which track the movement of your body as you walk around. A lot of VR's benefits are visual, or so most would believe. Dolby, however, thinks otherwise. While they are well known for high-end audio systems, they are making an entry into this new market through a multitude of Android apps in partnership with Jaunt Inc. These previews are meant to simulate virtual reality environments, offering an immersive experience even for those who are blind. Join us in this podcast as we explore two of these apps. To download them yourself or any of the other trailers, visit the Google Play developer page for Jaunt Inc. Please note that in order to use them with talkback, you must first suspend speech after starting your desired app. Once this is done, you can tap near the top / center half of the screen in landscape mode to find the start button. Don't worry, going back to your home screen is diff

In this episode, James Oates demonstrates the iOS app “Say Play”. This application allows you to dictate a song or video title, and then the app will find and play it. Here is the description from the developer: Play any song in the world by just saying its name.   Say Play uses a powerful voice search and plays your desired song immediately.   It's easy:   1. Just say a name of a song 2. Say Play will find your song and play it   ****************** "Say Play iOS app makes music streaming as easy as speaking the name of the track" - 9to5mac ******************   Supported languages:   • English • Spanish • German • Arabic • Hebrew • French • Italian • Russian • Czech • Dutch • Norwegian • Portuguese • Romanian • Swedish • Polish  

Dr. Howard Kaplan, the developer of the iOS app, Spotlight Text, sits down with the team at Cool Blind Tech to discuss his amazing eBook reading app for people with low vision problems. Dr. Kaplan tells us the story of why he became a Retina surgeon, and how his concern for his patients led to him becoming an accessibility advocate. Many of his patients are dealing with Macular Degeneration, Retinitis Pigmentosis, or complications resulting from Diabetes. After the launch of Kindle eBook reader, Dr. Kaplan was disturbed to find that most of his patients could not read digital material, and there was no good reason for this to be the case. After fruitlessly trying to get the content providers to make their material accessible, he began the process of trying to do it himself. Spotlight Text works in conjunction with Bookshare, a company that provides more than 250,000 eBooks to persons with vision problems. Here is a description of the app from the App Store: Spotlight Text is the first eBook reader crafted

In this latest episode, Cory Martin takes a look at the latest NVDA 2015.1 and gives an explanation of NVDA Object navigation and how one can use it in a variety of ways. Cory shows using object navigation on the web, to manipulate dialogue boxes, to maneuver between different windows, copying text from on-screen and to check out object navigation in Microsoft Word. He also gives a hint of what is possible with touch screens or a traditional mouse/touchpad. Lastly, Cory gives a brief overview of the new reading mode in Microsoft Word which uses the web-based browse mode to navigate Word documents. If you’ve struggled with understanding how to use object navigation in NVDA before, hopefully this podcast will help clear up some of that mystery.

In this episode, James Oates talks about Amazon Prime Music, which is one of several benefits provided to Amazon Prime members. In addition to free two day shipping, streaming instant video, and the Kindle lending library, Amazon Prime members can also stream free music. James demonstrates this benefit on an iPhone 5, using the Amazon Music app provided in the app store.  

Greg Lopez introduces Speakerphone Ex, a speakerphone automation tool for Android. You can get either the free version here or the pro version for around $1.50 US here.

Here at Cool Blind Tech it’s not just about technology, but also about people and today we had a unique opportunity to speak to a visually impaired entrepreneur, Brent Harbolt from The Harbolt Company, a store which focuses on unique and cool mainstream gadgets we can all use as blind or visually impaired individuals. We speak with Brent about his beginnings and how he started his store, we hear about some of the challenges that Brent has faced as a blind person starting his own business and how he has met and overcome these difficulties. Brent tells us about his business and how his passion for customer service and interaction with people has formed the vision and mission for his store. Brent describes his methods for locating items he sells and how he has fun with his business. Brent also is offering our listeners a discount at his store, so give the podcast a listen to hear how this rather unique business got started and for an exclusive coupon code for Cool Blind Tech listeners should you find a gadget

We have shown you that Levtec Winstaller works with the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9926 from Microsoft, however that demonstration used the Winstaller driver to deploy the Windows image. Winstaller does support loading NVDA with the actual Windows setup. With this option enabled in the Winstaller image, a visually impaired person can use the same setup program that a sighted person would utilize. If you would prefer to use the setup program provided by Microsoft, such as if you were doing an install over a previous installation of Windows or repairing a copy of Windows that was not booting, this might interest you. This is a quick demonstration of what the Windows setup program looks like and how it works. Please remember that we are demonstrating what would be considered to be an advanced topic and you should not attempt this yourself unless you have an understanding of what you are doing. This has the ability to erase data and therefore if you intend to deploy and install Windows in this

In this episode, James Oates demonstrates “NPR One”, a universal app from National Public Radio, available on all Windows devices. He shows how to start playing NPR with just a simple key stroke on a PC, and a voice command on a Windows Phone. If you enjoy National Public Radio, you will love this app. NPR One is also available for iOS and Android.  

Have you been curious about Linux and were not sure how to start using it? Are you looking for a free alternative to traditional operating systems such as Mac or Windows with some great built-in productivity? This podcast is going to give a brief overview of one of the simplest ways to explore a complete free and open-source operating system, Linux. Vinux from Vinux Project is a great way to take Linux for a test drive without selling out on your current operating system. It offers everything under the hood you need to get started and has a pretty easy learning curve. Be warned that this is an operating system and therefore can be installed on to your own physical hardware. It does have the ability to erase your drives or data and you should only install this if you understand the risks of doing so and know what you are doing. We demonstrate the use of this software in a Virtual Machine and would recommend this as an initial approach. If you do decide to install the software please exercise appropriate

In this episode, James Oates updates us on the status of Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9926. In this build, Microsoft has added Cortana, an interactive personal assistant, to their operating system. It is currently limited and in its early stages, but it still is very impressive. He also uses Narrator as the primary screen reader, since NVDA and JAWS are still not currently able to work with Universal apps.  

Brandon Cross demonstrates the Vocalizer voices for Android in this edition of Cool Blind Tech. He shows off the performance of the Ava US English voice by moving through the home screen. Then, he demonstrates the voice by typing in an edit box on the Google Play store, opens the page for the Vocalizer app and allows the voice to read a short excerpt from the page. Brandon then arranges a display of various samples in the Vocalizer app. Click here to go to the Vocalizer app in the Play Store.

Amazon Prime members receive access to: Free Two-Day Shipping, Instant Videos & the Kindle Lending Library In this episode, James Oates demonstrates how to use the Amazon Instant Video app for iOS. This is one of the benefits listed above for Amazon Prime members. He shows us that it is completely accessible for Voice Over users, and how easy it is to find and play your favorite movies and television shows on an iOS device.  

In this edition of CBT, Brandon Cross shows new users of the NVDA screen reader how to navigate the basic elements of a web page. He describes the different ways one can move around, and demonstrates the feedback users can expect. Click here to navigate to NVDA’s home page.

With a piece of software called Winstaller from Levtec, one no longer needs to use an answer file for unattended deployment of Windows operating system. This opens up huge opportunities for those of us who cannot see and wish to work in a professional IT setting, or just for fixing our home computers. While Winstaller has existed for some time, there have been a number of advancements in the software. One of the biggest of these is that Winstaller is able to deploy the latest version of Windows 10 Technical Preview which at the time of this demonstration is build 9926. In this podcast I will show you how this can be done and I will provide all the links to the tools you will need to install your own copy of the latest technical preview from Microsoft. Firstly, you will want to visit this page to download the technical preview. You may also visit your favorite search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo to search for "Download Windows 10 technical preview". You can obtain Winstaller from Clicking here to vis

In this episode, James Oates demonstrates LookTel Money Reader on an iPhone5 running iOS8.1.2. LookTel Money Reader instantly recognizes currency and speaks the denomination, enabling people experiencing visual impairments or blindness to quickly and easily identify and count bills. Point the camera of your iOS device at a bill and the application will tell you the denomination in real-time. Twenty one currencies are supported: the US Dollar, Australian Dollar, Bahraini Dinar, Brazilian Real, Belarusian Ruble, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Hungarian Forint, Israeli Shekel, Indian Rupee, Japanese Yen, Kuwaiti Dinar, Mexican Peso, New Zealand Dollar, Polish Zloty, Russian Ruble, Saudi Arabian Riyal, Singapore Dollar, and United Arab Emirates Dirham.

In his first ever podcast with Cool Blind Tech, Brandon Cross informs Android users about a popular Twitter client called Tweetings. Though it is a mainstream client with images and video content, Tweetings is accessible to Talkback users. With Tweetings any Android user can enjoy all the facets of Twitter, and elements like lists, direct messages and mentions are separated into categories which can either be accessed through the navigation drawer or by swiping right or left with two fingers. Grab Tweetings from the Play Store

Greg Lopez gives us a basic introduction to Talkback, the built-in screen reader for Android devices. Download Talkback for your Android device via the Play Store by clicking here.

While Apple is definitely making strides toward squashing those pesky bugs in Voiceover for iOS8, the infestation around Safari still remains rather strong, especially when it comes to focus issues. This gave me a mission, to find another alternative. Let's face it, a mobile device needs to be able to browse the web. What kind of a mobile device can't these days? Even though Safari works most of the time, there had to be another option for those situations when it didn't. I explored several options and discovered that the Google Chrome app for iOS is extremely accessible and actually very nice to use. The accessibility is amazing! Not only does Voiceover tend to read everything, but the browser is fast and page element navigation works fully. HTML5 multimedia content such as Youtube videos and audio content from our own podcasts play right inside the browser. Add in the Google voice search feature and you have a really nice alternative to Safari. Check out his quick overview of a few things you can acco