The competition among so called smart speakers is heating up. This is no doubt fueled by Google and other players looking into entering this game; The natural interaction it could provide would result in a huge technological shift across our societies again. Later, its maturity could even embrace a screen-driven design, where you can still use voice but read your feedback visually, for those who are hard of hearing or deaf. I would suspect that others with various disabilities impacting speech could still use a speech-to-text tool and communicate with such devices, though at that point the timeliness of return diminishes a little – couldn’t they just type these same responses directly to the AI?
Gadgets
A Review of the New Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Generation) and Amazon’s Unlimited Music
In this episode, James Oates reviews the new Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Generation). He describes the configuration, and tells the lay-out of the physical buttons, and what they do. If you need help setting up your new Echo device, listen to this podcast from Leonid Prazdnik of Cool Blind Tech. James then talks about Amazon’s new unlimited music subscription which rivals the other major music subscription services already available. He demonstrates how well the Echo works with Amazon’s music subscription.
It’s time to Play with fire: Install the Play Store on the Amazon Fire Tablet
The amazon’s Fire tablet has a lot of content to offer via its app store including games, apps and more. The problem is that not all apps that are on other app stores make it to amazon’s ecosystem. Fortunately, since FireOS is based on Android, it’s possible to get the Google Play Store onto your Fire tablet. In this Podcast, Leo demonstrates how to install the play store using a script from Root Junky. Keep in mind that if you haven’t already, you will need to obtain the Google USB drivers for the tablet.
Have you found the Play store on the Fire tablet useful? Let us know what you think!
Introducing the Amazon Echo
The Amazon Echo is amazon’s Wi-Fi voice controlled speaker. Using just your voice, you can ask the Echo to do a number of things such as play your music library, check the weather, give you news updates, and much more! Additionally, third-party skills allow the Echo to expand its capabilities. In this podcast, Leo covers setting up the echo for the first time, as well as some of the things you can do with the echo, as well as its accompanying Alexa app.
Are there any particular features or skills you would like to be covered in a future podcast? Let us know!
Cool Picks: MAY 3, 2016
Join the Cool Blind Tech team as Alex, Leo and Tomi discuss the latest Cool Picks:
Using Samsung’s S-pen with Talkback: a case for the phablet
No doubt the word phablet has entered every day vocabulary among the general population. The larger screen allows not only for more precise on-screen navigation, but also provides an opportunity for more content and video to be viewed.
A Keyboard Worth Typing on for Android, Designed with Accessibility in mind
If you are a fan of Android, you might be aware of how different the typing experience on most keyboard solutions can be for the platform. Samsung, LG, and even Google all design specific keyboards which differ in the way they present key layouts or even speak some of the names for keys.
Galaxy Talkback on the new Samsung Galaxy S6
In this podcast, Yannick gives us an introduction to the new Samsung Galaxy S6, and its own screen reader named Galaxy Talkback. Feel free to send Yannick any comments or suggestions below or via twitter at @YPlassiard.
Exploring the roots of Nexus Root Toolkit
The Nexus Root Toolkit is a very useful utility which can help you easily root your Google Nexus device. Despite its name however, this utility has much more to offer. It can lock or relock your bootloader, help you flash custom and stock roms, perform a backup and restore of your device among many other things. In this podcast, we walk you through the NRT interface and demonstrate a few of its features. Please keep in mind that NRT relies on ADB and Fastboot in order to work properly.
Apple Watch Accessibility
Building on the strong accessibility support in iOS, Apple Watch offers assistive features like VoiceOver and Zoom. Gain insights into how these accessibility features work on Apple Watch, and how to make sure your app can be accessible to all users.
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