I have been an advocate of the wearable market within my own life, even though market trends would indicate otherwise as of late. Recently, some wearable companies have gone under; Many would say that at the present time, The Apple Watch has created its own category and largely became a device which is to rival others such as Fitbit, although not quite in the same category as these other devices currently are. As an example, the Apple Watch acts more as an “iPhone-only companion” whereas Fitbit generally works better on Android, where the platform suffers from less restricted functionalities to developers.
Now Available In Narrator! AI-tagged Image Descriptions
If there was a word which is to define the era that dominates this early 21st century, it no doubt would be the cloud. Everything has moved to incorporating some cloud-based feature or another. Whilst screen reading has done OCR and other image recognition prior, this too was relegated to locally performed magic, rather than anything that used the cloud to process data. The rise of huge AI clusters which now can process trillions of calculations a second has created a better opportunity for so much more to be off-loaded to these systems.
The 6-dot Braille Label Maker makes labeling for everyone fun!
There are only a few ways people can create Braille labels these days. One could use a $500-1000 Perkins Brailler and feed the tape into it, after which you cut it yourself per label. There are other handheld labeling devices sold which provide a stamping mechanism for labels; These take time and require rotating the disc after each strike. Not convenient.
Window-eyes users, you have another choice with NVDA
The conversation solidifies. As reported previously, Window-Eyes, perhaps the third-most popular screen reader in the blindness community, is no more. At the time, Freedom Scientific (now part of the VFO group) published their guide to switching to JAWS as part of their offer.
Companies highlight efforts in new Global Accessibility Awareness day commitments
There’s a new movement which is taking hold across many disability communities, one which has existed for about 6 years now. Their main website highlights the background and motive for its creation. Checking the website out is highly recommended as it will provide a good overview and interviews for understanding a present-need for such an event. Although opponents of GAAD would argue that there is no need to create a special day just to place disabilities on a high-horse, with the rapid and transforming state of technology, companies need to know that accessibility has to be a part in every aspect of their design cycle.
Breaking: Window-eyes discontinued, in the hands of the VFO Group
Today may be a pretty historic day when it concerns innovation and partnerships. Window-eyes might not be a household name among screen readers, but it’s discontinuation means that many especially within the international blind community may be impacted. For anyone who has used the offer whereby a free copy of Window-eyes could be used with Office licenses, you will now be running an unsupported screen reader, and we know how quickly Microsoft has been changing their framework with newer, more modern Windows 10 releases. I am for one doubtful that Window-eyes users will ever experience the new audio ducking behavior changes which will be coming in releases such as NVDA 2017.2. Alas, updates will come no more.
The new focus and features of the Windows 10 creators update: Further Unifying experiences
As the new Creators Windows 10 update keeps rolling out, many will find themselves wondering: Is it worth upgrading anyway? What am I getting? Will I lose functionality I’ve had? The answer is yes, yes you possibly might. However, what you do lose is replaced and in a way that can help you transition seamlessly to this new Windows 10 version without feeling overwhelmed.
An introduction and installation guide to the Windows 10 Creators update
Note: This is the first part of two in a series detailing what is to come in Microsoft’s new Creators update. Part 2 details new features and experiences.
TalkBack 5.2 Gets Major Changes in Beta Release
Version numbers are not always what they are cracked to be. Windows 10, for example, has kept the version at 10.0, with only incremental build numbers which are prefixed by the month and year.
A future option in computer memory might be Optane, and it’s here today
Do you ever wonder what the next big speed boost to computers might be? Ask any person today, and they will tell you that using an SSD is one of the biggest and as of 2017, cost-effective ways of speeding up system performance. While processors have increased in speed and decreased in power usage, the relative need for performance has gone down – and thus we accept computers with lower clock rates. This has placed more diversity in the CPU world. A few years back, ram capacity exploded, and it, too, has stabilized since to have a projectable curve of growth. We have finally moved past 1 GB devices to consider 2 GB at the low end,, with 4, 8, and 16 dominating the mid to high-performance systems. And 32 is becoming more and more common for some enthusiasts.
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