Vispero Connect

This month, we continue to profile the new features in Freedom Scientific's JAWS® 11 screen reading software. Eric Damery, Vice President of Software Product Management, updates us on the beta process as we move towards release.

Jonathan Mosen demonstrates some changes to Research It in JAWS 11 that have been implemented as a result of your feedback.

Glen Gordon, Freedom Scientific's Chief Technology officer, discusses the secure and compatible braille display driver initiative introduced in JAWS 11 to improve the experience of braille display users with JAWS. He is followed by Dirk Kochanek of Papenmeier, a German manufacturer of braille displays, who discusses the signed driver initiative from the perspective of a braille display manufacturer.

We round off FSCast this month with a voice familiar to many. Jim Ellsworth from our technical support department discusses his background and his work, so you can learn more about the man behind the voice.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (September - 2009)

This month, Jonathan Mosen is joined by Eric Damery, our Vice President of Software Product Management, to unveil what's new in our JAWS® 11 screen reading software. JAWS 11 will be in public beta starting the week of August 31.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (August - 2009)

This month's FSCast introduces three new products from Freedom Scientific.

Charlie Madsen joins us to describe our RUBY™ handheld video magnifier.

Ron Miller introduces Focus 40 Blue, our portable 40-cell braille display with Bluetooth® technology.

And Ron also demonstrates StreetTalk™ VIP, our powerful GPS solution for PAC Mate Omni™

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (July - 2009)

This month, we invite you to visit Freedom Scientific at the conventions of the American Council of the Blind, the National Federation of the Blind, and Sight Village in the UK.

Jonathan Mosen then speaks with award winning science fiction author Robert J Sawyer. The first of his WWW Trilogy was released in April. Its main character is a JAWS® user who spends plenty of time on the Web. Rob talks about the trilogy, its characters, and some important philosophical questions raised in the books.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (June - 2009)

This month's FSCast discusses the use of the social networking site Twitter in conjunction with JAWS® screen reading software and PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PC.

Jonathan Mosen speaks with Shannon Reece, Pratik Patel, and Mika Pyyhkala, who actively use Twitter with Freedom Scientific products. They discuss what Twitter is, how to sign up, and some third party applications and services they use to make the most of it.

Jonathan then speaks with Sean Randall, the author of Jawter, a set of JAWS scripts that give you access to Twitter from within any application while JAWS is running.

We're then joined by Jamal Mazrui, author of McTwit. This is a powerful application written specifically for blind Twitter users, with functions accessible using a series of keyboard commands.

If you use Microsoft Outlook®, you can send and receive tweets, and run Twitter searches, right from within your inbox. The Chief Executive of TechHit, Alex Kovalchuk, tells us about TWInbox, formerly known as OutTwit.

While the main Twitter site works very well with JAWS, Accessible Twitter offers a number of enhancements that makes the Twitter experience easier. It's creator, Dennis Lembree, tells us all about it.

During our discussions, we mention a number of other Twitter tools. Here are links to a few.

Twikini is a Windows Mobile Twitter client that's easy to use, and works well with PAC Mate Omni.

Twittermail facilitates the sending of tweets via e-mail, as well as scheduling tweets to be sent in the future.

Twimailer provides detailed follow notifications, so you can see some recent tweets from people who are following you.

Tweetlater offers many powerful enhancements to Twitter, including automatic sending of welcome messages and e-mailing a digest of replies.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (May - 2009)

This month, Jonathan Mosen speaks with Dusty Vorhees about new features in Freedom Scientific's MAGic® screen magnification software version 11. Find out about the many enhancements in the recently released MAGic update, and how you can apply to test the next release. Dusty also tells us about new features in our OpenBook™ scanning and reading software.

T&T Consultancy have released Say MAGic, a powerful interface between MAGic and Dragon Naturally speaking. Brian Hartgen tells us all about it.

Skype™ is a popular way to make high quality calls over the Internet. Version 4 of Skype was recently released, offering improved audio quality. It has a completely new user interface. Doug Lee has written popular scripts for Skype for use with Freedom Scientific's JAWS® screen reading software. He joins us to talk about the pros and cons of upgrading to this new version of Skype.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (April - 2009)

This month's FSCast begins with a summary of Freedom Scientific-related activities you can enjoy at the 24th Annual CSUN International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference.

We then speak with Tom Wlodkowski, Director of Accessibility at AOL™. Tom talks about his role at AOL and invites feedback from FSCast listeners regarding the accessibility of AOL software and services. Following the positive response from listeners to our January FSCast on accessible Web 2.0 applications with Aria and Freedom Scientific's JAWS for Windows screen reading software, Tom describes the DHTML Style Guide. He shows how it helps to make Web 2.0 applications keyboard friendly, by demonstrating an accessible version of AOL Mail.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (March - 2009)

In this month's FSCast, learn about new Freedom Scientific Training workshops to assist you in using JAWS® screen reading software, MAGic® screen magnification software, and other Freedom Scientific products and get information on new interactive Webinars for online training from your home or office.

Guest: Dan Clark, Senior Trainer

We also speak to Henry Oliu, a blind Tampa Bay Rays baseball color commentator and Freedom Scientific access technology user.

Show Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (February - 2009)

This month's FSCast focuses on Web 2.0. Thanks to Freedom Scientific's JAWS® for Windows® and an emerging technology known as ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Application), Web sites using the latest technologies are becoming more accessible.

Freedom Scientific's Chief Technical Officer Glen Gordon explains ARIA and its benefits. Jonathan Mosen then demonstrates some applications with ARIA enabled for improved accessibility.

Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (January - 2009)

On this month's FSCast, a beta version of our JAWS® for Windows® screen reading software is announced for the 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Vista®. Guest: Eric Damery, Vice President of Software Product Management

International Product Specialist Oleg Shevkun talks about growing up in the Soviet Union and the remarkable story that led him to Freedom Scientific.

Host: Jonathan Mosen

Play Blindness and Low Vision Product Podcast (MP3 audio) - (December - 2008)