all categories Deals, Sales, and News

For a reader, here's a link to the Chocolate Experience, the longest-running company providing braille chocolate gifts. Bars start at $5, though unfortunately, a $50 minimum order now applies.

Blind Mice Mart has their Too Much Sex Causes Blindness T-shirt for $17. Add it to your cart and the price falls further to $14.45. With about $8 for shipping, it's the lowest price we've seen for this novelty shirt. Several sizes are available.

Although other colors are out of stock, WalMart.com has the Hamilton Beach Talking Microwave, in black, for $79.96. You can have it shipped for free to your local store or pay for shipping to your home. These usually sell out within a few days. It features 10 power levels, 8 presets for common foods, and English and Spanish operation. According to reports, most features are accessible and usable without sighted assistance.

Up on EBay currently is a PowerbBraille 40 with a starting bid price of $14.99. Add about $11 for shipping. It's untested, but may be worth a look at this price. Freedom Scientific charges roughly $700 to repair similar units. Auction ends December 10.

An EBay seller has listed a copy of Kurzweil 1000 version 11 with a starting bid price of $775.85. With about $15 for shipping, it's about $200 off list price for this software, which is the latest version of Kurzweil's OCR product. Auction ends December 8.

It's not often that newer hardware ends up on EBay, but here we have a Braille Star 40-cell braille display with a bid of $200. It connects via USB and is advertised as working, though you will need to purchase a power supply. In addition to being a braille display, it can act as a scratch pad, storing up to 4,000 pages of text. Auction ends December 7.

A Braille Lite 40 is listed on EBay with a BuyItNow price of $300, plus $15 for shipping. It also comes with the doublespeed chip. Read the description to learn more about it. Auction ends December 6 if not sold sooner.

An EBay seller has listed a working Braille Lite 18 notetaker with a current bid of $153.49. Add $10 for shipping. The seller claims it was never used and that all cells work. Auction ends December 8.

Buy.com has Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9.0, the standard edition, for $42.99 after a $40 mail-in rebate. With free shipping, we haven't seen this price for this voice recognition software since last year. Rebate ends December 16.

TigerDirect.com has the OQO02 ultraportable PC for $1,199.99. Add about $10 for shipping. This is the machine used for the latest version of GW Micro's Smalltalk Ultra. This tiny machine includes a 1.5GHZ processor, 60GB hard drive, 1GB of memory, EVDO broadband support, and a one year warranty.

7-128 wrote in to tell us about their latest word game, their 10th accessible title. The game speaks either Synonym or Antonym and a word, and then speaks a list of words. You pick the synonym or antonym from the menu.
It's surprisingly challenging, given that you never know whether you're going to be asked for a synonym or an antonym, and you're working against the clock. The game was developed by a college professor, and has several difficulty levels. You need the 7-128 Game Book ($25) to use any of their games, which includes a few accessible games to get you going.

CellHut.com has the unlocked Nokia 6120 Classic cell phone, compatible by Mobile Speak, for $267.98. Plus, shipping is free. This model has a standard phone keypad, 2 megapixel camera, FM radio, MicroSD memory card slot, and 3 hours of talk time. It's a Symbian 3rd edition phone.

As expected, GW Micro has released its GPS software for the Voice Sense accessible PDA. Called GW Sense Navigation or SenseNav for short, it was developed by Sendero Group, the same company that programs the GPS software for the BrailleNote family of PDAs. The price is also similar to the BrailleNote offering at $1,549. The Voice Sense itself costs $1,895 through December 21. In January, the price will balloon to $2,395.

As a follow-up to the posted feature list for the next version of Wayfinder Access, the newest version is now available. It's actually not version 2, but version 1.24, though the list of new features remains the same. It's available in many languages and is a free update for current Wayfinder Access users.

GW Micro has just released the version 1.1 firmware for the Voice Sense. The major update for version 1.1 is support for the Voice Sense GPS product, based on Sendero's popular GPS for the BrailleNote and VoiceNote. Additional features include support for SDHC memory cards and SSL email support among numerous other enhancements and bug fixes.

If you missed out on the braille cookbooks sale, you have just been given a reprieve. Blind Mice Mart has extended their sale on braille cookbooks for a few more days. They take 20 percent off their selection of more than 100 recipe collections. Plus, shipping is free via free matter. Sale now ends December 9.

We've received several requests for a card reader that will read the SD high-capacity cards supported by the Victor Reader Stream. Try out the 8-in-1 card reader from MeritLine.com for $4.99, shipped free. It reads many forms of secure digital and MMC cards including the newer 8GB cards for the stream.

As a reader notes,, the Kelvin Talking Programmable Thermostat is available for $99.95 at Independent Living Aids.
With about $8 for shipping, it's about $6 off our last mention and the lowest price we could find for a new unit. This thermostat gives voice feedback with every button and adjusts the temperature with with voice commands. Program the unit to automatically adjust the temperature for certain days of the week or times of the day. Override these settings if you go on vacation. Many other features are included.

BlindMiceMart.com still has the American Standard Solar-powered Talking Bible for $89.95. Plus, shipping is free. It includes the entire old and new testament and allows you to jump between chapters or books. Plus, it's completely solar-powered, requiring no batteries.

Independent Living Aids has a talking atomic clock with a wireless temperature sensor for $31.50. With about $8 for shipping, we couldn't find this item for less elsewhere. It clearly announces the time, temperature, date, and alarm setting. The alarm beeps for two minutes and includes a snooze feature. Voice guidance is included to allow you to set up the unit independently. Deal ends November 30.