all categories Deals, Sales, and News

A new kind of checking generic valium 5mg has been introduced that provides unlimited refunds
of surcharges from automatic teller machines, allowing blind people to use any talking
ATM free without fee or extra charges. Kelly Pierce explains how to do it and which banks offer this very useful service.

Gerry Chevalier, Victor Reader Product Manager for HumanWare was featured tonight at AccessibleWorld.org and discussed the upcoming version 1.2 software for the Victor Reader Stream. As announced previously, there is now a built-in SD card format utility, support for NIMAS textbooks and content from the Serotek System Access Mobile Network, improved transfer speeds directly with the stream, increased volume of the built-in speaker, and a pitch control for the Vocalizer voice. Regarding the music bookshelf, there are now separate bass and treble controls, file and folder names are only announced when the player is stopped, and a go-to-time feature has been implemented. Windows Media Audio and BRF support is forthcoming, possibly in two to three months. Version 1.2 of the Victor Reader Stream firmware is expected to be shipped by the 21st of February, however this release has already been pushed back once.

The variety of accessible phone choices has exploded in the past year, and we'll be highlighting the current options for several U.S. carriers over the coming days. Today, check our new Amazon page of accessible phones available for Verizon. Eight phones are included ranging from low-end LG phones that talk out of the box to smart phone solutions that run Mobile Speak Smart Phone or Mobile Speak Pocket. Most are quite reasonably priced with a new contract. Watch for new pages for other providers in the coming days.

If you're going to the CSUN technology conference this March and are interested in helping us cover the proceedings, please send us a note. No prior experience is necessary. Write us for details.

An EBay seller has listed a Braille 'n Speak notetaker, model BS2, with a current bid of $50. Add about $7 for shipping. This item worked the last time it was used but is untested and does not come with cables. We still think the Braille 'n Speak is a great first notetaker for a child or a good backup. Auction ends late on February 24.

Amazon.com has Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional version 9 for $759.99. Plus, shipping is free. This is Nuance's high-end voice recognition software. It also works with the J-Say script package which enhances functionality with JAWS.

We're posting more and more bargains and news items to our site, so you may have missed something, especially if you haven't stopped by in awhile. Now, look for the page 2 link at the bottom of the deals on the home page. It's right above the "Most Popular" heading. It'll take you to another page with the next 50 news items so you can catch up. Also, don't forget about our RSS feed and Email newsletter, both available under the "Other Features" heading on the home page.

There's some new goodies on the KNFB Reader website. They'll all require you to create an account, which you can do by following the link on this post. Once you've done that, you can get an MP3 tutorial for the KNFB Reader Mobile, manuals and fact sheets in both TXT and PDF format, and a download of the software. Don't get too excited about the download, though, since you'll need to activate it to get any real functionality out of it. But the posting of the software on this site should mean that dealers will be able to activate it very soon.

Two new articles have been posted to the AFB AccessWorld page. First up is a review of Zoom-Ex and Zoom-Twix, one of the fastest and portable OCR products available. Also, AccessWorld offers their take on the much-publicized KNFB Reader Mobile.

There's another batch of I.D. Mate II portable bar code readers on EBay, again for $450 plus $25 for shipping. Or, use EBay's best offer feature and see if they'll take a bit less. They're actually sold by En-Vision America, makers of the handheld item identification devices. Listing ends February 20.

We've received some reports of possible issues using high-capacity SD cards with the Victor Reader Stream. This may be related to an incorrectly formatted card. Version 1.2 of the stream firmware, released within the next week, should fix this with an on-board format utility. Alternatively, check the link on this post for an SD format utility. Download sdfv2000.exe from the page to properly format your memory card.

Buy.com has the SanDisk 4GB Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 Flash Drive for $24.95. Plus, shipping is free. This drive includes U3 support, meaning you can run many popular applications directly from the drive. This is especially useful because U3 is the technology used by Serotek's System Access, meaning you could use this drive to run their screen reader.

We are still hearing from people who are either having trouble subscribing or receiving our Daily Deals newsletter. If you fall into either of these categories, please send us a note so we can see what's going on.

IndependentLiving.com has the Speechmaster Talking Color Identifier for $109.95. With about $7 for shipping, that's $30 off retail and the lowest price we could find. It identifies the name and intensity of many common colors and comes with instructions on cassette and headphones. A 9-volt battery is required, but not included. Deal ends February 29.

An EBay seller has listed a used Braille Blazer embosser for $99. Add about $14 for shipping. Not much is said about the printer, but you could ask the seller questions to find out more and perhaps get a steal of a deal. Auction ends early on February 13.

When it comes to mainstream video games, many titles are quite playable if it wasn't for those pesky menus and setup screens. Enter We Can Play, a new wiki-based website that allows users to share tips for getting around these screens, game reviews, audio demos, and other information to allow for the playing of more mainstream games. Created by L-Works programmer Liam Erven, the site accepts reviews and tips for virtually any platform from Playstation to Nintendo and relies primarily on user contributions. It has quite a bit of potential to open up accessibility to many more game titles, and it'll be interesting to watch the site as it develops.

Humanware has released version 2.1 of Maestro and 3.02 of their Trekkor applications. The new update to Maestro adds a web browser, file explorer, improved power management on the HP HP hx2490b platform, among other enhancements. Version 3.0.2 of Trekkor adds support for the Holux m1000 bluetooth GPS receiver. Note that their is now only one setup file, which runs on all platforms of Maestro and Trekkor.

J.J. and Matt from Blind Bargains were guests on this week's Main Menu Live, which focused on the 2008 ATIA conference in Orlando. Listen to this two hour show to hear replays of some of the audio interviews from the conference, listener questions, and discussions of what we saw at the conference. Main Menu is a weekly technology show heard on ACB Radio Mainstream.

In case you missed it, Top Tech Tidbits is back for 2008, now with a partnership with Flying Blind, LLC who is now distributing the weekly technology newsletter. Dean Martineau still compiles this useful list of technology news links which is available via Email or on the web. Look at this issue and see why it was voted website of the year in the 2007 Blind Bargains Access Awards.

An Ebay seller has listed a tested Freedom Scientific Blazer Inferno braille embosser with a starting bid of $99.95. This was the upgrade model to the Braille Blazer which prints at up to 50 characters per second. It also prints on wider 11.5 inch paper and weighs 17 pounds. The unit powers on, talks, and feeds paper though no further testing was done, according to the listing. Auction ends early on February 6.