Listen to SeroTalk Podcast 186: Popcorn, Peanuts, Crackerjack
Join us for another guycast as Jamie, Buddy and Joe discuss the top news stories of the week. Topics covered in this episode include:
A T Talk
HIMS Releases E-bot Portable Video Magnifier Compatible with Tablets and PC’s
The Intro to the Raspberry Pi course from Cavi
Blind Bargains: AI Squared Releases SiteCues: A Simple Way to Add Accessibility To Your Website
Blind Bargains: Review: Chicken Nugget, An Accessible Twitter Interface for the Next Generation
Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad reminds the world why its software matters
Microsoft disability scholarship
Mainstream Matters
Report: Satya Nadella To Be Named Microsoft CEO
Microsoft faces new brand dispute over OneDrive name
UK government plans switch from Microsoft Office to open source | Technology
5 Takeaways From Apple’s First-Quarter Earnings
Apple’s iBeacons hitting a Grand Slam in 2014 with Major League Baseball
iOS 7.0.5 is here… but only for iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in China?!
Angry Birds website defaced following reports it enables government spying
Google warns of bug that might have deleted some of your Gmail messages by mistake
Google Glass finally works with prescription glasses, frames cost $225
Samsung ‘Galaxy Glass’ wearable reportedly set for September reveal
Facebook’s Toying With A Radical New Idea: Letting You Be Anonymous
A Facebook Campaign Simulated Alzheimer’s, and It Will Stop You in Your Tracks
Ready or not, here come the new Internet top-level domain names
Mailbag
From Lyndon Dunbar:
Hi, Here is my response to your request for information for those of us who have taken online course exams with locked down browsers.
I completed my bachelor’s degree online through Western Governors University, an online university based on competency based learning.
When completing exams for online courses through WGU, the testing browser would be locked down, and we would have a separate webcam with a proctor watching us take the exam. If the proctor felt that we were looking away from the screen, possibly at notes, the exam would be shut down until the concern could be resolved.
As a visually impaired student, the accessibility issues that I had with online tests was the small text size of the tests, which could not be enlarged much.
Hope my experience with online testing helps.
Thanks for your time! Lyndon Dunbar
From Ali Moosa
Hello, I enjoy listening to the Serotalk podcasts. You guys do a great job, and you guys provide a good perspective. The topic of digital book players, such as the Book Sense, the Stream, and Plextalk Pocket has been coming up a lot on the podcasts recently. As you guys say, preferences change all the time. My personal opinion is, there are a lot of things I prefer the Book Sense and the Stream for. In the event that you want to create your own folders, and simply copy and paste the files without importing them into iTunes. I like iDevices for applications. You can subscribe to podcast feeds with the Plextalk Pocket. I find it makes it easier to carry a dedicated device to listen to podcasts, books, and music in an event that you need to save battery on your phone. Thank you, Ali Moosa
Blog comment from Jake:
Hello to the Serotalk team. I really enjoyed episode 185. I would like to talk Apple. I am typing this comment on the Mac Book Air that I got on the 27th of December of last year. This is my first experience with Apple products, aside from the AppleIIE back in the day. I also got to borrow a sister’s iPod for not quite half a day while having a tooth pulled. But anyway, I love my Mac Book Air. I think the things which probably influenced me the most here were the 4-part Mac Book Air review done by Mike Calvo some time ago, and hearing Voiceover being put through its paces on a number of podcasts. I applaud Apple for including Voiceover at no additional charge to the customer in all their products. It is an excellent screen reader, and I trust it will only improve over time. I am still learning things, but I’d have to count myself as a satisfied Apple customer. In addition, my 2 experiences at the Apple store in my area were very pleasant. The first time there was of course to try out some of their computers, and then to take this one home. I then went back for a one-on-one session with a very helpful trainer. I haven’t yet had time to look through the stuff on here about Apple’s history due to outside commitments, but I will definitely check it out.
From Pam Francis:
Hello, I heard your interview with the developers of Fleksy. I think you guys let them off the hook. I realize as interviewers of guests, you have to be professional. Yet, there should have been enough of us that were upset enough with their creation of a separate app that it should have come out more so within your interview. I do believe they made their money on the backs of the blind community. Granted, I agree when an app is more widely used it’s price can come down, yet those of us who paid full price for it, should be refunded given the fact that now we no longer can take advantage of the original app we paid for. As I stated in my original email, why should there SDK issues BR problem? Also, per your interview, & per their answer, they specifically stated they made a different prediction engine for those of us who use voiceover. Is our language any different because we’re blind? Does that not segregate us? This was the part where I thought your interview basically said “” it’s okay “”. We are different because we are blind. Doesn’t the Ceretec mission statement talk about unifying us within society by creating adaptive tools that will allow us to integrate successfully within society? If in fact that is the case, you have contradicted your own mission statement. I took their app off of my phone. I will ask them for a refund. I will not patronize a company who claims to be Integral for everyone yet separates the very people they charged the most for their app. They also had the gall on their blog to say their new Fleksy VO app would be free forever. I do think, their initial intentions were good. I also think they figured out that we as a blind community would except something different than what they would create for a sighted community. We as a blind community have had to “” settle “” for whatever we could get for many many years. Most recently, we have made great strides integrating with technology out-of-the-box. I also think Ceretec as a company, given the way the original Fleksy was revered by your team who is in a small way a representative of us as a blind community should forward any email you get To them.
Pam Francis
Roundabout
Skinny Puppy Billed Government For Torture Songs
Burgers with Chocolate Sauce Coming to Japan
The Science Behind Why Diets Just Don’t Work, and What To Do Instead