Mystic Access Podcast

We begin this episode with a reminder about our July free event, which will be held on Thursday, July 30. If you want to make sure you keep safe this summer while still having some fun during this difficult time, you may find this discussion useful. We’ll share a little about our experiences being out and about during Covid, some things to possibly expect, and a check list of items you may want to keep handy while you’re out. We’ll also be making product recommendations, and sharing a few ways to reduce your stress while staying home. Here’s all the info you’ll need to join us:

Topic: Accessible Safety While Having Fun In The Summer Of Covid-19

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 852 6671 1976

Dial by your location

Feel free to share this event with others whom you feel would be interested. Everyone is welcome.

We’re also interested in holding another event, this one on the various Readers from Orbit Research. If you have an Orbit already and are considering an upgrade, but want to know more, or if you never bought an Orbit but are curious whether you should get a new model, these situations will be addressed in this class. Learn about the Orbit and how it works, what the new models offer that the original Orbit does not, and much more. This event will run for two sessions of between 75-90 minutes each, and will be recorded for your reference.

Lisa Salinger will be the instructor, as she taught the original Orbit tutorial, which is now retired. If you’d like to learn more and pre-order this two-week event, please click here. You will not be charged until we get at least fifty registrants signed up. If this hasn’t happened by September 15, the event will be canceled and you will not be charged at all.

Next, Chris discusses the VPN he’s using on both his computers and phone. What’s a VPN and why might you want one? Listen to our discussion to find out. The one Chris uses is by AVG — yes, the same AVG that has been bringing us antivirus software for decades. Chris also demonstrates how accessible the antivirus protection is now from AVG. to learn more about the VPN and antivirus protection offered by AVG, you may visit the AVG site here.

Our phone sanitizers have been so wildly popular that we’re currently offering two. One sanitizes your phone in five minutes and offers aroma therapy, along with a larger compartment that will fit your Trek or Stream without a case. The other disinfects in fifteen minutes, has a slightly smaller compartment that won’t fit a Stream or Trek, and it also features wireless charging for supported phones. Note that the BlindShell Classic does not offer wireless charging capabilities. Chris provides a quick demo of the new fifteen minute model. You can learn about both sanitizers on this page. Just select the radio button for the sanitizer of interest and then read below for its full description.

We’re excited to be offering a fun little contest. We’ve enabled a fun new website feature, and the first three people who correctly identify this feature and email or call us with the answer will receiv

Happy July. Today’s episode is all about comfort, tranquility and having more balance in your life. To support you in that, we have a couple timely announcements. On Thursday, July 16, we’re holding an open house between 1-5 PM Eastern Time. This is a fun way to meet us in an informal setting, get your questions answered, chat with other Mystic Access community members, and have some laughs in a relaxed environment. Joining is free, and you’re welcome to come for just a few minutes or stay for the entire party. Please note that this will not be recorded. Please view this page for all the joining details. You’ll also find all of our crazy convention sales there, too, which last through the end of Saturday, July 18.

On Thursday, July 30, we’ll be holding our free monthly event. If you want to make sure you keep safe this summer while still having some fun during this difficult time, you may find this discussion useful. We’ll share a little about our experiences being out and about during Covid, some things to possibly expect, and a check list of items you may want to keep handy while you’re out. We’ll also be making product recommendations, and sharing a few ways to reduce your stress while staying home. Here’s all the info you’ll need to join us:

Feel free to share this event with others whom you feel would be interested. Everyone is welcome.

Chris is feeling particularly comfortable during this episode. [amazon text=He discusses and demos his fancy new AeroBed,&asin=b07smbk55x] which comes with a wealth of options and features. Chris demos some of the functions.

Now that you’re all cozy and tucked in bed, how about something to help you get a good night’s sleep? Kim demos the Slumber app for iOS. The above link is to the Slumber site where you also get on the waiting list for the Android version. She discusses what she loves about this app, demos a few audio tracks, and shares what she feels makes this sleep app special as compared to some others out there. Note that while you can upgrade to premium, there are tracks that can be enjoyed for free.

Finally, what if you want to monitor the quality and length of your sleep? Chris shows the NapBot app, available for iOS. There is a watch app available, and Chris demos the info found in both the watch and phone apps.

We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we’ll look forward to bringing you another one towards the end of July. Until then, happy convention-going, and sweet dreams afterwards.

Today’s episode invites you to get social with us, learn about some new products, and participate in our craziest convention season sales ever. We begin by sharing about our upcoming open house on Thursday, July 16 between 1-5 PM Eastern Time. If you haven’t attended one of these soirees with us before, they’re a great opportunity to chat with us informally, learn more about Mystic Access, meet a lot of very nice people, and have some fun. If you’re subscribed to either of our mailing lists, you’ll receive the joining info when it’s available closer to the 16th. We’ll also be posting an article on our News page with the info included. We’d love to have you drop in to the party.

Remember that we have two new products available for pre-order. One is our audio documentation on the Amazon Fire tablets. If you love ordering from amazon, read a lot of Kindle books, or use Alexa extensively, you may have reason to love owning a Fire tablet. Our other audio documentation up for pre-order is on the Amazon Fire TV and Fire Stick. These provide the ability to stream your favorite TV shows or movies accessibly using your favorite services such as Prime, Netflix, Hulu, and so many others. They also include Alexa for even more fun. Neither of these products will be available until at least the end of August, but we’re allowing you to get your order in right now so that you can be the first to enjoy these upon release. You won’t be charged anything until the products are available.

After selling like hotcakes for the past couple weeks, our little phone sanitizer box appears to have been discontinued. Fortunately, though, we found a new phone sanitizer that has even more benefits. Of course, this one has voice prompts, too. We’ve updated the product audio documentation to reflect the new phone sanitizer. We hope you enjoy it.

The remainder of this episode is devoted to our many convention sales and specials. I’ll attempt to put a complete list here in the show notes within a day or two. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this episode, and thanks, as always, for listening!

We begin this episode by sharing a couple announcements. We’ll be on Tek Talk on Monday, June 22nd, at 8:00 PM ET to discuss the InsideOne Windows 10 braille computer. If you were unable to attend our previous event on the InsideOne, which was so popular that we held it twice, this gives you another chance to ask your questions live. We’d love to have you join us.

Also, while we haven’t announced it yet just due to how busy we’ve been, we will be having a free event in June. Pleased stay tuned to our Events mailing list for all info as soon as we announce it, or if you aren’t on it already, you may subscribe to either of our lists from any page of our site.

We’re happy to share that for those of you with BlindShell Classic phones who have been having no success getting your weather, it appears that problem has been resolved. Chris and Kim can both receive their weather again, both by entering the weather app via the menus, or by voice. If you haven’t heard of the BlindShell, you may learn all about it using the above link.

Did we mention that the UV phone sanitizer we now carry can also fit the BlindShell? It can, but it’s also so much more than a phone sanitizer. We created an eighteen minute demo on the above page where you can listen to it in action, and learn about all its many uses.

Next, Chris explains and demos the Gin Foxi iPhone battery case. This has 5000 mAh of power, and this particular model works with the iPhone 7, 8 and SE 2020 phones. We recommend purchasing it from our friend and colleague, Barry Scheur, from GuideLights and Gadgets, and we thank him for recommending it to us.

Summer is almost officially here, so you may want to be able to make ice cold drinks with ease. Chris demos his new Ninja Professional Plus blender and shares why he’s so happy with this purchase.

Finally, for those who have been repeatedly asking, we’ve heard you, and know that you’re impatiently waiting for a couple tutorials we’ve been promising for a while. We haven’t forgotten you, and have now put of pre-order links for audio documentation on the Amazon Fire TV / Stick, and for the Amazon Fire tablets. Please listen carefully to learn details about how this is going to work. You may pre-order the Fire TV / Stick tutorial here. You may pre-order the Fire tablet tutorial here. Neither tutorial will be released until at least the end of August, and if you pre-order, you won’t be charged for either tutorial until it is released. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for listening!

If you’re interested in cleaning your house, being good to the environment, sterilizing your phone, or learning about a super cool new braille tablet, there’s something in today’s episode for you.

We begin by sharing about the incredible new braille tablet we’re proud to distribute, the InsideOne. created by Insidevision, this is a Windows 10 tablet with both JAWS and NVDA preinstalled, an imbeded tactile braille keyboard, and a gorgeous 32-cell braille display on the front. We include a 10+ minute insert here to share more about it and demo a few features.

Our recent virtual event exploring the InsideOne was so popular that we’re holding it again on Thursday, June 4, at 8:30 PM eastern. Please listen for all the details you’ll need to join, or visit this link.

If you’re interested in getting all your essentials in one convenient place, and keeping your house, body and beauty routine clean while being conscious of the environment, you may enjoy Kim’s site tour of Grove.co. Discover how you can find products with ease, learn about their ingredients and usage instructions, and sign up for free shipping on all your favorites with the VIP program. Kim is excited to try this site herself, and was happy to share about it with all of you.

Finally, Chris demos our new talking ultraviolet phone sanitizer, now available for purchase. The voice prompts allow you to use this neat little device safely and easily. And it will sanitize so much more than your phone — keys, cash, credit cards, jewelry, and more can be cleaned in its compartment. we hope you enjoy the demo.

Thanks, as always, for listening!

This episode is packed with exciting announcements and demos. We begin by discussing a bit about our very exciting free virtual event for May. To learn more and get the joining info, please click here to read this news post. We’re thrilled to be sharing about an innovative product with you, and would love for you to join us live.

Chris has discovered a couple really cool utilities that he demonstrates for you. If you’re a JAWS user in particular, and use a lot of tabs, windows and / or files in your daily computing, you may really enjoying learning about these. Please click here to learn about JumpToWindow,and click here to learn about QuickJump.

Barry Scheur from GuideLights and Gadgets drops in to chat about the new products from Orbit Research, especially the Orbit Writer. His contact info is at the end of his discussion, and he is a distributor for Orbit products.

We conclude this episode by discussing two companies that may make you smile for different reasons. Kim gives a tour of Boxed.com, where you can buy lots of different food and household products in bulk for reasonable prices. There are apps, as well, but you may want to use the site itself, which Kim discusses as part of her demo.

If you have kids in your life, and / or are a kid at heart, you may enjoy Chris’s quick demo of HappyKids.tv, which works beautifully on the Fire TV / Stick products. It includes a ton of free kid-friendly content, thoughtfully categorized for easy browsing. Kim enjoyed stumbling across this site, and we hope you’ll find it a fun and free way to cut the cord.

Thanks, as always, for listening!

We have a jam-packed episode for you this time around. Chris begins by providing a tour of an incredibly useful Outlook extension called Bells and Whistles. If you’re an Outlook user, or have considered making the switch to Outlook, you’ll enjoy learning about this diverse tool. We especially recommend this one for busy professionals who send lots of group email.

Next, we talk about Chris’s new iPhone SE 2020. How does it differ from his old iPhone 8? What does he like best about it so far? If you’re considering a new phone, we hope our conversation about this one proves helpful.

In a recent podcast episode, we reviewed the Sirius XM app. If you just don’t like it for whatever reason, we received a recommendation for an alternative from a recent event participant. The app is called StarPlayrX, and costs $0.99 on iTunes. It provides a clean, intuitive interface for browsing stations and listening to streams. We show the layout and discuss a couple possible drawbacks.

Finally, Chris is excited to talk about and demo his new Amazon smart oven. He discusses his setup experience, air fries some steak fries, and we end with a few safety tips.

We hope you enjoy today’s episode. Thanks for listening!

Surprise, you get a bonus episode. We were recently delighted to spend a very entertaining hour with the guys from Accessibility Moving Forward. If you aren’t familiar with their informative and hilarious podcast, we highly recommend it for a very fun take on tech, and plenty of other goodies to fascinate listeners. We talked about a lot of technology-related topics, as well as sharing a bit of our behind the scenes creative process.

Our very big thanks to Randy and Bill for having us on the podcast! We had a blast!

We begin today’s episode by thanking a loyal listener for a tip on using the Monkey Taps apps, discussed in our last episode, more successfully via iOS. We highly recommend these wonderful apps to uplift your mood at anytime.

Speaking of thanking people, we’re also grateful to all of those who took advantage of our recent Birthday sale. If you missed out, don’t worry. Subscribe to our News list to be informed about upcoming sales, new products, and much more. This is a one-way mailing list, and we only send updates a couple times a month. You may subscribe from any page of the Mystic Access site.

We wanted to remind you of a cool app which allows you to read in multiple formats via your PC. Chris demos the QRead software, and shows how you can use it to import, search and browse Bookshare books. If you’re seeking a new way to read your favorite books easily, this could be it. QRead is paid software, but a free trial version is available.

Want a free way to watch hundreds of streaming channels and movies? Kim demos two free apps, Tubi and Pluto TV. Both options are highly accessible via Android and iOS, and each offers a wealth of programing for your watching pleasure. To learn more about accessible methods for watching your favorite TV shows and movies, check out our newly designed, 12-hour cord cutting course, available now. We’re so excited to share this content with you.

Thanks so much for listening!

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone on the front lines right now… you’re amazing.

This episode has a similar theme to our last one — staying connected, making sure we’re safe, supplied, and entertained during this difficult time. In that regard, we’ll be devoting our April free event to this very topic, as well. We’ll be sharing some practical tips and suggestions for reaching out during isolation, getting what you need, dealing with stress, staying relaxed, and much more. Some info will be material we’ve previously shared via the podcast, but some will be new. We’d love for you to come, and, of course, bring your questions. This is a public event, so feel free to invite your friends or colleagues. Here’s the info you’ll need to join us:

Topic: Practical Ways to Stay Connected During Corona Virus

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 587 554 623

One tap mobile

Dial by your location

Please copy and paste the above links into your browser of choice to activate them.

In the course of this episode, we discuss a number of currently free and paid resources available to assist you, including JAWS for Windows, Dolphin Computer Access, Bookshare, CBS all Access, and others. Kim provides a demo of Sirius XM via the iOS app, which can be listened to for free through May 15. You’ll need to set up a free account via the above link, then listen using the iOS, Fire OS or Android apps. Hundreds of stations are available in a variety of genres. Kim highly recommends Stay At Home Radio for some uplifting, positive music to keep us all going.

We next visit a couple of the fabulous apps created by Monkey Taps for Android and iOS. We briefly demo the I Am app, which provides daily affirmations, and Laugh My App Off, which is definitely funny. We discussed their Motivation app in this episode. Check out the site above to see all their projects. We highly recommend the premium app upgrades.

Finally, we share our experience using Top Chef Meals, a meal delivery service located just outside New York City. We hope you enjoy our thoughts. Thanks for listening!