COOL BLIND TECH

YOUR SOURCE FOR THE BEST ASSISTIVE TECH NEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS FROM TOP BLIND AND LOW VISION EXPERTS. AN ENTERTAINING AND TRUSTWORTHY DISCUSSION ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

All content is submitted by CBT community members.

CBT has opened up the gates to our legion of subscribers with the opportunity to give back and create content for the CBT community. All content is submitted by CBT community members.

Former CBT Team Member Remembers Broncos Hockey Player as Humble, Honest, Hard-Working

Justin was with Cool Blind Tech when CBT launched in 2013. Our nickname for Justin was ‘Boy Genius’ because of his advance knowledge of technology at such a young age. On behalf of the CBT Team, we would like to offer our condolences to Justin and the family’s for the loss of their loved ones who are no longer with us.

Justin recently gave an interview to The Canadian Press with heartwarming memories of his older brother.

Playing with mini-sticks in the basement is a common activity for many hockey-loving families. For the Wack brothers, who grew up in St. Albert, Alberta, it was a little different. read more

APH Needs Field Evaluators for the UEB Math Tutorial

The tutorial is designed for visually impaired and sighted users, and can be used with or without a braille display. The topics covered in the tutorial begin with learning numbers and continue through to advanced mathematical concepts. The tutorial can be used with any major browser and is available on Windows®, Mac®, iOS®, and Android™ platforms.

The field test is open to expert reviewers and/or students who are interested in learning about UEB math.

Testing is scheduled to begin February 19th, 2018. Interested testers should complete an APH Field Test Form, and indicate your interest in testing for the UEB Math Tutorial. read more

Introducing EyeSense, A Mobile App That Will Help the Blind and Visually Impaired to be Independent

EyeSense is building a similar application to SeeingAI by Microsoft, but with much simpler user interaction and more features, incorporating state-of-the-art image recognition algorithms that not only recognises and records different faces but also describes if the person is smiling back to you.

The possibilities of visual emotion recognition are limitless, but EyeSense needs your help. Their blind and visually impaired co-creators have given them tons of feedback but they need a more diverse perspective. EyeSense is inviting you to try out their free beta version of the EyeSense iPhone app and give some feedback on what you think of the application. You can follow this link and fill a short form with your Apple email ID so that EyeSense can send you the app. Your help is appreciated. read more

Dining Habits Survey for Blind and Visually Impaired

My name is Prasad Pradhan and I am a Student of the University of Toronto. I am studying Brand Management and the course I am taking this semester is ‘The Finance of Brand Management’.

As a part of this course I am doing a project on a new App mainly in iOs or Android format for Visually Impaired Persons within Canada (primarily the Greater Toronto Area).

I have developed a survey of ten questions that will take 5-10 minutes to complete and am looking for help in reaching out mainly to Visually Impaired and Blind Persons to help fill in this questionnaire, either through the Internet on Survey Monkey, on the phone or in person (not through a Care Giver). read more

First Impressions of the LG G6

Today, I had the new LG G6 in my hands for a few minutes. Since I work in a cellphone store, I can test new phones when we receive them. Here are my first impressions about it.

There are different models of the Lg G6. Depending where you live in the world, you might be restricted in your choice. For example, here in Canada, the G6 is only offered in 32GB storage capacity. Certain models also include wireless charging. Fortunately, you can add a micro Sd card up to 256GB to extend the storage capacity. Depending where you live, you may have a 64/128GB Lg G6 model available. Wireless charging may or may not be available as well. read more

Expanding on payment methods, apple starts rolling out the “Pay with Paypal” feature

Don’t you know this feeling, you have an app that you want to buy and your iTunes account just ran dry but you don’t want to waste 15 dollars on an app which costs just 1 dollar? For those who have a credit card this is no problem. but not everyone has a credit card, so, what to do? Apple just started rolling out the feature to pay with paypal and finally implements the same eas with paying as we know it from the google playstore since over three years. This will make buying apps, books, movies and so on for those who don’t have a credit card easier. All those last years, the only payment method was by credit card, if you got lucky, you could also pay with your phone bill, this feature came around in Germany about a year ago. If you want to enable your paypal account, on your iOS device, go to the settings, Itunes and Appstore, Click on your apple ID and open the payment settings and add your paypal account. For mac OS this feature hasn’t been officially announced for the appstore yet, but you already can set this up in your iTunes app and it will work in the appstore of Mac OS. If you can’t find the paypal option on your device. Go to. appleid.apple.com and try it from there. The feature is currently published in 12 cuntrys, including Mexico, United States, Canada, Singapore and Germany but will be available to more cuntrys in the coming days and weeks. For those who don’t have a credit card, especially outside the USA, this might be a good adition to the iTunes store.. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to mail me under. moritz.grandjean@hotmail.com Kind regards Moritz Grandjean read more

Smart Glasses for the Visually Impaired – How OrCam Changes Lives

The latest innovative technology for the blind and visually impaired, OrCam, is a device that can change everything for those with visual problems. Essentially, it’s a tiny high-tech camera that attaches to reading glasses. They are a pair of smart glasses for the visually impaired and for the blind that can revolutionize reading, and help blind and visually impaired, even those with reading disabilities, to re-gain their confidence and independence. All one has to do is point their finger towards anything that they want to “see”–be it text, a street sign, even the face of a loved one. And with that point of a finger, the device can “read” the text aloud in your ear within seconds. It’s truly cutting-edge technology. This device is life-changing, and this assistive technology for visually impaired people, as well as blind people, has the potential to dramatically change the lives of thousands. read more

Protecting Your Computer from Viruses and Threats

In this podcast, Olivier Danjou shows us Windows Defender, a program built in to Windows 10 Creator’s Update that provides protection against viruses and other threats.

From the Developer

The Windows Defender Security Center includes five pillars that give you control and visibility of your device security, health and online safety experiences.
Virus & threat protection provides a new view of your antivirus protection whether it’s Windows Defender Antivirus that comes free with Windows 10 or AV software from one of our ecosystem partners. If you’ve chosen Windows Defender Antivirus, your scan results and threat history will be displayed here, or you will be able to launch your 3rd party AV protection app directly from this screen.
Device performance & health provides a single view of your latest Windows updates, drivers, battery life and storage capacity. Additionally, you have the option to start fresh with a clean install of Windows using the Refresh Windows feature. This option will keep your personal files and some Windows settings, and remove most of your apps for a fresh start that can help with performance improvements should your device need them.
Firewall & network protection provides information on the network connections and active Windows Firewall settings, as well as links to network troubleshooting information.
App & browser control allows you to adjust settings for SmartScreen for apps and browsers helping you be more informed and stay safer online by warning you of potential malicious sites, downloads and unrecognized apps and files from the Internet.
Family options gives you an easy way to connect to the family options available online. This page can link you to information about parental controls, options for setting up good screen time habits, setting up activity reports of your kids’ online activity and managing controls for purchasing apps and games. You can also view the health and safety of your family’s devices from this centralized location.
Our goal with the new Windows Defender Security Center is to help you become more informed and make safety simple. It is equally important to us that you are protected by default and continuously protected – never giving the bad guys an opportunity to harm you. This new experience naturally supports customer choice in selecting an AV product. In addition, if your subscription or paid antivirus software should expire, Windows Defender Antivirus will kick in to provide protection by default until you take further action. Finally, it is important to ensure that you are in control of your PC. Windows 10 respects your freedom to choose protection software and services that you like best.
We believe the new Windows Defender Security Center lives up to these principles and we are committed to working with you, as well as security experts and organizations throughout the technology industry to create safer experiences for everyone with Windows 10.
*Windows Hello requires specialized hardware, including fingerprint reader, illuminated IR sensor or other biometric sensors and capable devices. read more

Google Assistant on iOS.

In this podcast, Bobby and Jessica Eden show us how to use the Google Assistant on an iPhone. The days in which Siri was the only personal assistant available on iOS are long gone. In addition to Cortana and Alexa, the iPhone now also has the Google Assistant.

Activating Hands-Free Option on Amazon Tap

Amazon recently introduced the ability to activate Alexa’s Always Listening Feature on the Tap. This podcast shows you how to activate this feature, mute and unmute the mic, and conserve power by putting the Tap in sleep mode.

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