All Cool Blind Tech Shows

In this episode, James Oates demonstrates “NPR One”, a universal app from National Public Radio, available on all Windows devices. He shows how to start playing NPR with just a simple key stroke on a PC, and a voice command on a Windows Phone. If you enjoy National Public Radio, you will love this app.

NPR One is also available for iOS and Android.

Have you been curious about Linux and were not sure how to start using it? Are you looking for a free alternative to traditional operating systems such as Mac or Windows with some great built-in productivity? This podcast is going to give a brief overview of one of the simplest ways to explore a complete free and open-source operating system, Linux.

Vinux from Vinux Project is a great way to take Linux for a test drive without selling out on your current operating system. It offers everything under the hood you need to get started and has a pretty easy learning curve.

Be warned that this is an operating system and therefore can be installed on to your own physical hardware. It does have the ability to erase your drives or data and you should only install this if you understand the risks of doing so and know what you are doing. We demonstrate the use of this software in a Virtual Machine and would recommend this as an initial approach. If you do decide to install the software please exercise appropriate measures such as a full backup of your data and have a method readily available to restore your computer to a prior state before installation. We will not be held responsible for trouble-shooting failed installations, related issues of usage of the software nor will we be responsible for damage resulting out of the use of or inability to use the software.

With the legal information out of the way, give this podcast a play to hear about the pros and cons of Vinux. Additionally you will hear an overview of setting options and general functions for Orca, the included free screen reader; which gives a rather comprehensive list of features including reading web pages, navigating by page elements such as headings, mouse review and pointer tracking and support for dynamic content on web pages. An overview of the Unity desktop environment will be presented, along with a peek at Mozilla Firefox with Orca, the included text editor, as well as the included LibreOffice word processor.

We plan to present more podcasts on the use of this and other distributions of Linux. For now, this is a very brief overview. We would definitely like to hear your comments, questions and suggestions as we wade in to these relatively uncharted waters of Linux podcasts.

In this episode, James Oates updates us on the status of Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9926. In this build, Microsoft has added Cortana, an interactive personal assistant, to their operating system. It is currently limited and in its early stages, but it still is very impressive. He also uses Narrator as the primary screen reader, since NVDA and JAWS are still not currently able to work with Universal apps.

Brandon Cross demonstrates the Vocalizer voices for Android in this edition of Cool Blind Tech. He shows off the performance of the Ava US English voice by moving through the home screen. Then, he demonstrates the voice by typing in an edit box on the Google Play store, opens the page for the Vocalizer app and allows the voice to read a short excerpt from the page. Brandon then arranges a display of various samples in the Vocalizer app.

Click here to go to the Vocalizer app in the Play Store.

Amazon Prime members receive access to: Free Two-Day Shipping, Instant Videos & the Kindle Lending Library

In this episode, James Oates demonstrates how to use the Amazon Instant Video app for iOS. This is one of the benefits listed above for Amazon Prime members. He shows us that it is completely accessible for Voice Over users, and how easy it is to find and play your favorite movies and television shows on an iOS device.

In this edition of CBT, Brandon Cross shows new users of the NVDA screen reader how to navigate the basic elements of a web page. He describes the different ways one can move around, and demonstrates the feedback users can expect.

Click here to navigate to NVDA’s home page.

With a piece of software called Winstaller from Levtec, one no longer needs to use an answer file for unattended deployment of Windows operating system. This opens up huge opportunities for those of us who cannot see and wish to work in a professional IT setting, or just for fixing our home computers.

While Winstaller has existed for some time, there have been a number of advancements in the software. One of the biggest of these is that Winstaller is able to deploy the latest version of Windows 10 Technical Preview which at the time of this demonstration is build 9926.

In this podcast I will show you how this can be done and I will provide all the links to the tools you will need to install your own copy of the latest technical preview from Microsoft.

Firstly, you will want to visit this page to download the technical preview. You may also visit your favorite search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo to search for “Download Windows 10 technical preview”.

You can obtain Winstaller from Clicking here to visit the Levtec Winstaller page.

Next, you will need a method of mounting .ISO files, which are images of CD or DVD disks. Once you have obtained the .ISO for the technical preview, you may mount it with a free utility called Slysoft Virtual Clone Drive. This software will emulate a virtual DVD drive on your system and can load various image types, one of which happens to be .iso files.

If you wish to install in a Virtual Machine or VM, I highly recommend using VMWare Player at this link.

Give the podcast a listen to hear me create the image, deploy it to .ISO for use or to a USB drive and to install it in a virtual machine.

In this episode, James Oates demonstrates LookTel Money Reader on an iPhone5 running iOS8.1.2.

LookTel Money Reader instantly recognizes currency and speaks the denomination, enabling people experiencing visual impairments or blindness to quickly and easily identify and count bills. Point the camera of your iOS device at a bill and the application will tell you the denomination in real-time. Twenty one currencies are supported: the US Dollar, Australian Dollar, Bahraini Dinar, Brazilian Real, Belarusian Ruble, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Hungarian Forint, Israeli Shekel, Indian Rupee, Japanese Yen, Kuwaiti Dinar, Mexican Peso, New Zealand Dollar, Polish Zloty, Russian Ruble, Saudi Arabian Riyal, Singapore Dollar, and United Arab Emirates Dirham.

In his first ever podcast with Cool Blind Tech, Brandon Cross informs Android users about a popular Twitter client called Tweetings. Though it is a mainstream client with images and video content, Tweetings is accessible to Talkback users. With Tweetings any Android user can enjoy all the facets of Twitter, and elements like lists, direct messages and mentions are separated into categories which can either be accessed through the navigation drawer or by swiping right or left with two fingers.

Grab Tweetings from the Play Store.

Greg Lopez gives us a basic introduction to Talkback, the built-in screen reader for Android devices. Download Talkback for your Android device via the Play Store by clicking here.