Blind Bargains

Blind Bargains Qast 181: Lego My Braigo


We have a treat in store this week. Sure there is Joe and J.J. saying blah, blah, blah news and silly things per the usual. And you would think that this is just your run of the mill episode. How about we tell you that Patrick is on board with some talk about Bluetooth devices? Yeah, now we piqued some interest. Of course we still have a tip featuring a Tile demo, "Sound Off", "Last Word" and a bit of a tease about an upcoming event to round things out too. C'mon and fire up those devices and connect to the loudest speakers you can find for the best enjoyment of BBQ 181.

Sponsor: AIRA

Aira is a service which connects a low vision or blind user with a highly trained live agent to provide real time access to any visual information, when and where it is needed. In this episode J.J. explains how he uses the AIRA for Small Business service and Joe discusses how he, and Ricky, use the service at airports or with ride hailing options.

For more information please visit www.aira.io.

In The News:

Freedom Scientific created a blog post to give information about the changes coming to Microsoft Edge

May's Access World contains articles about employment and reviews the awsome new VoiceDream Scanner

Stay up to date with some of the new content from hadley through their just announced "Hadley Presents" podcast feed

[NVDACon 2019 planning is well underway, and we are thrilled to call all presenters to submit topics for our conference in August!](https://www.nvdacon.org/ @nvaccess 2 days ago, Twitter Web Client)

Microsoft Patented an Xbox Controller With a Braille Display

The LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group team up with blind associations to pilot LEGO Braille Bricks and develop children s breadth of skills

Demonstration: Where Does Patrick Get All Those Wonderful Bluetooth Toys?

It isn't very often we get the man out of the box and in front of the microphone. So it really is one of those times we can say "on this very special episode of the BBQ...". The topic that brought this all about is low latency and Bluetooth things. Patrick has been in the lab experimenting and he will tell us what he has discovered. Visit the product links below to learn more about the devices mentioned in this segment.

Qualcomm's Apt-X Low Latency bluetooth page, including explanation and a list of all supported productsAnker Soundsync A3341 2-in-one bluetooth transmitter/receiver
Avantree Clipper Pro receiver

Tip: Find It With Tile

You could place one of those old-fashioned rooster alarm clocks in your luggage, set it for when you land at the airport and then hang out listening for that familiar sound. Or, you could use Tile instead to find your luggage and so much more. You simply need the Tile app and some of the actual Tiles themselves to communicate back and forth from your phone to whatever you have attached to the Tile on the other end. J.J. gives us a short demonstration and you can learn more by visiting the Tile website
You can get a two-pack of the Tile Pro from Amazon.

Sound Off:

kathy blackburn , long time listener of the show, wrote in to talk to us about Movie Times and Virtual Assistants.

I'm listening to BBQ 180. Wouldn't it be nice if all the voice
virtual assistants could tell us which movies have audio
description or closed captions? I like the Fandango iPhone app,
but I would really like to be able to query my devices by voice.

We agree and we hope that there may one day be an ACB Alexa Skill or Google Action for the Audio Description database. Many of the U.S. based theater chains will note if a particular theater supports AD or not. However, that doesn't take into account things like Actiview. Searching iTunes to verify if a movie has audio description, and the ACB database mentioned above, is still one of the easiest ways to access that kind of information. For movies at any rate, TV shows are another thing entirely.

Beth Taurasi writes in with the interesting subject line "gender misidentification story, warning: hilarious but jarring".

Hi all.
My name is Beth Taurasi, and I m a female who takes pictures with Seeing AI or browses my photos with it. When I went to browse my big album of photos, guess what I became? ... Oh no!!!!!! The photo algorithm said I was a male!!!!!!! Well? I m a born and raised and forever female and don t plan to get a glorified gender switch, but the gender bending algorithm is a bit jarring. I know this is an experimental thing, but I d suggest correctly identifying genders of people, or if that doesn t work and it gets funnier, I d use the nonbinary identification of a simple person or child or baby in photo algorithms. Just my thought. I m copying Blind Bargains feedback here so they can be in the loop about this funny occurrence and it has happened to more than twenty of my photos. They recently aired a demonstration of your app, which other than the gender bender algorithm in the photos, it is awesome. I can read mail in a pinch. I can organize stuff in a pinch if I must. It s a great concept, but improvement could be made in gender ID and personal identification. It can be a bit jarring for some people.
Sincerely,
Beth

Greg Portch had a sighting of something familiar for "Our Littlest Astros".

Hi guys, I encountered Joe's trough urinal when I landed at Shannon Airport in Ireland a couple of years ago. I was lucky to have some sighted folks guide me as I was quite confused. Encountered several interesting restrooms throughout Europe. take care

Last Word:

Just when you think that the movie going and home cleaning experience isn't modern enough...
New Cinema Has Double Beds Instead Of Sheets
Some guy modified his Roomba to swear when it bumps into sh*t

We are already making plans for our WWDC, E3 and Summer Convention coverage. But it is all that stuff in between we haven't worked out yet. Next week is going to be one of those shows where anything could happen. Tune in to 182 to hear what we come up with for content. You, however more likely we, might be surprised on what that actually entails.

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File size: 79.9MB
Length: 71:57

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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.


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