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Tech News & Commentary
Jamie in Tampa, FL listening on Zeno Radio asked us: “I’m looking for an accessible smartphone for the blind.”
Jamie, The standard in touchscreen smartphones for the blind or visually impaired user is a specialized interface known as Project RAY.
The Huawei Y300 with this Ray system on it offers all the basic features a regular smartphone can do like calling, texting, contact management, calendar, and ability to browse the internet. It also gives you access to voice recorder, GPS, money and color identifier and access to loads of audio books. It sells for around $450.The Huawei G510 with Ray offers the same features but with faster speed and higher 
camera resolution and costs about $650.
There are actually more Project RAY phones coming than just those two Huawei models. For $800, there will be a version of the Nexus 5 phone using the Project RAY interface. Project RAY is a complete user interface replacement for Android phones, although it isn’t something you can add to just any Android phone, it comes baked in to special versions of existing hardware.
There are two main components to the Project RAY system that make it so powerful for the blind or visually impaired user. First is the ability to load the phone with contacts, speed dial entries, books, music, and so forth, remotely using a web site. This allows friends or family members to help you load your phone, or you can do it yourself using screen reader software. The website screens are designed to be screen reader friendly, with plain text screens and simple prompts to make navigation easy.
The second part of RAY is the phone interface. Everything is presented with a consistent menu design. You touch the screen anywhere and that immediately becomes the center of the menu. Slide your finger in one direction or another and RAY will speak the menu command you’re touching. Remove your finger to select that menu option. When you see it in operation, it truly is an impressive design and it genuinely makes a touchscreen smartphone usable by someone who does not have sight.
So while Project RAY phones are pricey, they are a solution that is available right now and one that really works. That has been our experience with many tech adaptations that enable visually impaired or blind users to operate them. None of them are cheap, and you generally get what you pay for. If it costs $5, your expectations shouldn’t be too high. That’s a reality of the costs in developing solid technology for a relatively small audience. We’re glad the solutions are available, but we understand they may be priced out of reach for some users.
We should mention that both stock Android and iPhone phones have included accessibility options for both low vision and fully blind users. We don’t mean Siri and Google Now, which probably help, but audible feedback to touch.
Many blind users seem to get by with that, but we can’t really tell you first hand whether or not it’s a good experience compared to the options that you may be used to. We are all sighted here and navigate our smartphones mainly by sight, but if you have any friends at all that have smartphones, they should be able to turn on the accessibility features and let you play around with them. If you’re lucky, any regular smartphone may end up being enough for you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Group Discussion: Google I/O 2014
The team discussed the annoucements at Google I/O and gave their impression of the various new and updated technologies.
Guest Segment:
Mike Zammuto, COO – Reputation Changer
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
In 1936 at the Olympic Games in Berlin, the first electronic camera was tested, named “television cannon”. The cameraman was Dr. Walter Bruch himself, who had co-developed the giant machine. The lens alone weight about 100 pounds, and the whole camera was 2 ½ yards long. The images were received in 28 “television parlors”. As this was deemed insufficient, another technology during the games saw a world’s first: the projection onto big screens. Two halls were equipped with TV projection. More than 100.000 people watched the Olympics on the big screens, and another 50.000 in the TV parlors.
Tim in Miami Lakes, Florida asked us: “Dave, I need to buy an Ipad for my daughter for school. Any ideas on deals out there?”
Tim, It’s hard to find deals on them, as Apple doesn’t generally allow retailers to offer coupons or sales on them. However, some retailers have gotten around it by offering Gift Cards with the purchase.
You can also look for someone who is still selling the older iPad 2. Those will be less expensive than the latest models. We’d also recommend, unless she plans on storing a lot of music or video on it, getting one of the smaller capacities.
My daughter and I both have the wi-fi only, 16GB models and that works just fine for both of us. If we need to go online when we are not near wi-fi, we have a hotspot on our phones.
Of course, if you will need to get online with it when you are out of wi-fi range and you don’t have a wi-fi hotspot on your phone, you may need to look at one of the 3G or LTE iPads. But they will be more expensive and obviously, come with a monthly cost for a data plan. Hope that helps and wasn’t too much info to confuse you!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Denise asked us: “Bought windows 7 from fry’s and was told that if it crashed due to oem, I would have to buy another copy. Is there a version of windows 7 that doesn’t have oem problems? I can’t find the disks that came with the computer. If I paid fry’s to load it, would it still have an oem problem? Someone said the software had to be compatible with the mother board. Help! Thanks and blessings.”
Denise, OEM means “Original Equipment Manufacturer” and it’s meant to indicate that it’s a cheaper copy because it’s made for someone who buys not as the end user, but as the computer’s builder, and that as a professional computer builder they will not be getting free phone support from Microsoft if they need it, and they will not have the option to upgrade a system, only to do a full installation, since they’re supposed to be installing system on a NEW computer that they’re building.
That means that if you’re upgrading a computer you shouldn’t buy an OEM version of Windows because you will have to wipe your hard drive and do a full installation, other than that and the access to phone support, you’re buying the same Windows.
All that technical stuff aside, OEM means “manufacturer” and “OEM Windows Disc” means “Manufacturer’s Windows Disc.” It may come with all the drivers you should need for your computer if the manufacturer decided to include them, but other than that it’s just a copy of Windows, just as OEM brake pads would mean “the brake pads that were sold to your car’s manufacturer to install on brand new cars” but they’re just brake pads.
Like we said, OEM discs may come with extra drivers that you will need to make sure that every component on your computer works, that may be your problem. You may need to download drivers to make certain components work, if your copy of Windows wasn’t specifically tweaked for your computer, but OEM is not crashing your computer, OEM just means “sold at a discount to a computer builder.”
Frankly, if Fry’s told you that the OEM is crashing your computer, they’re either trying to take advantage of you, or they don’t know what they’re talking about, they might as well have said that the Gandalf in the Flux Capacitor of Windows crashed your system, they’re words, but they mean nothing that bears any relation to Windows crashing.
If you can find someone more reputable and see what they think, or even go to a different Fry’s branch with more competent workers, but odds are you’re looking at a driver issue or a faulty component, and not a case of the intended buyer of that copy of Windows causing it to crash.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Ben in Delta Junction, Alaska listening on 970 AM KFBX asked us: “I want to get a new digital camera with a high powered zoom and wondering which you think is the best.”
Ben, You have many, many options, and they mainly depend on your budget.
If you’re interested in top quality, you can get a nice SLR, a multi-thousand dollar lens and you’ll be very happy with the quality of the pictures you’ll get, and unburdened by an excess of money, but assuming you want something a little more on the affordable size, you can also look at point and shoot large zoom cameras.
The Nikon Coolpix S9500 sports a nice 22x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom, and the Nikon name pretty much ensures that you’re getting quality optics for the $300 you’ll be paying for it.
The Canon Powershot SX510 should match the quality of the lens, but with a 30x optical zoom, and a 4x digital zoom for about $50 less.
If that’s not enough for you, for $400 you can buy a Sony DSC-HX300 with a 50x optical and 100x digital zoom, that should be plenty for most people’s needs.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Kanex: GoPower Pack – 6,000 mAh and 11,000 mAh battery packs with built-in stands for smartphones
Other World Computing (OWC): NUGUARD KX – Kinectic Energy X-Orbing Case for iPad Air
Bits Limited: Mini Squids — Travel-Sized surge protected power strips
Tylt: ENERGI Sliding Power Cases for iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4.
“Into Tomorrow”: Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths with Dave’s cartoon on them, for all your smartphones, tablets, TVs, camera lenses and computer screens!