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There has been a lot of talk surrounding Comcast's Talking Guide, the first of its kind in the United States. Earlier today, the company gave users a chance to ask questions of Comcast's Tom Wlodkowski, the employee leading the company's accessibility efforts. Among the topics discussed were some features planned for the future of the software, including the ability to adjust speech rate and verbosity, a talking Spanish language interface, and the ability to filter programs by audio described content.

It's time for what has become a bit of an annual tradition around here. Every March when we talk endlessly about CSUN, the largest assistive technology conference for the blind, we hear from people who would love to go, if only it was within their budget. With room rates over $200 a night, a nearly $500 registration fee, plane tickets, meals, and other expenses, the cost often seems prohibitive. With this in mind, we've updated our list of tips for enjoying the conference on a budget.

The Weekly Apple Rundown: Apple Pay It Forward Edition

It is a darn good thing I'm not held to a hard deadline on this series. No really, it is, as putting this week's look at Tim and Jony's exploits into focus was a continuing saga with more happening every day ... y'know, like a little franchise from a galaxy far, far away. More on how that reference fits in this week's stories later on.

The family at Acapela is growing with the addition of Sharon, a new female voice which was debuted recently. Sharon is an expressive female voice which features some rather natural intonations. Here's a sample posted to Soundcloud of Sharon reading part of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. You can try it out for yourself with Acapela's interactive demo. Acapela voices are available in a variety of screen readers and apps including NVDA on Windows where she is available now, as a download on Android, and as an add-on for Voice Dream apps on iOS. No word on when Sharon will make an appearance on other platforms. Thanks to Jason for the tip on NVDA.

A survey has been posted by the accessibility group of the International Game Developers Association to assess the current state of accessible gaming and what can be done to improve this. The results wil be shared at a session during the Game Developers Conference titled "Building a manifesto for game accessibility" panel on March 5. Check the link on this post to take the survey.

As a part of its merger with AI Squared, the phone number to reach the Window-Eyes team, formerly of GW Micro, in Ft. Wayne has changed. The new number is (802) 362-3612. Despite the new area code, the staff is remaining in their Indiana offices.

A new update to the knfbReader app for the iPhone has been posted with several improvements. Version 1.4 includes the ability to perform OCR on images from an Email or the camera roll, vertical tilt guidance, and a redesigned file explorer. It's a free upgrade and available from the iTunes App Store. The complete list of changes is below.

This year, many consumers and companies will need to make some tough decisions when it comes to their summer convention planning. For the past several years, the two major consumer organizations, the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have held their national conventions on separate weeks, a departure from past practices. But this year, likely through sheer coincidence, both conventions are being held the second week of July, posing a particular dilemma for technology companies and the consumers who wish to see their products.

The first major release of 2015 for the free NVDA screen reader is imminent. NV Access has posted a release candidate for version 2015.1, which will basically resemble the final release assuming no major bugs are found. This version includes a browse mode for Microsoft Office and Outlook similar to the one used on web pages, enhanced support for Skype 7 and above including the reviewing of recent messages, a silent install feature from the command-line, and a host of additional changes and bug fixes. Follow the link to read the update post or download the new release. Here's a complete list of changes in this version.

Three Monkeys is a new PC fantasy roll-playing audiogame created by UK-based company Incus Games and they're currently seeking some funding on Kickstarter to see the project through. Currently, they've reached over 10 percent of their 28,000 pound goal. Backers will receive codes for the game upon release, a copy of the game's soundtrack, and early beta access among other perks.

Touchscreens are great for lots of things, but often it is less efficient to type using one, despite a variety of available accessories. A company called Tactus Technology is working to solve this dilemma and has announced a new product called Phorm, which will provide a tactile keyboard experience for the iPad Mini. The $99 accessory uses a lever that when pressed, exposes a physical keyboard on the iPad's screen. This is done using microfluidic technology to raise and lower buttons on demand. The product is targeted for a summer release, with iPhone and other models to follow.

Valentine's day is right around the corner, as in this Saturday. And if you haven't found a gift yet, you better get to it! Looking for a last minute Valentine's day gift to let your sweetheart know just how you feel about them? Satisfy your lover's sweet tooth with some yummy chocolate goodies! Here are our favorite picks of the finest Valentine's day chocolate gifts that can be ordered from Amazon and shipped straight to your door within a matter of days.

Another week and another round of wild rumor and barely sourced speculation awaits you in this week's Rundown. Let us begin with the stories that may, or may not, have anything to do with that strange camera-laden car mentioned last week.

Having affordable and reliable transportation can be a very liberating experience. Though ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft still have some accessibility challenges to overcome, we've found a lot of creative ways to use the services. Here's five potential uses you may not have thought of. And if you're new to Uber, you can sign up and get a free ride, which is up to $30 as of the time of this post.

The American Printing House for the Blind is researching the possibility of bringing its Nearby Explorer GPS software to iOS devices including the iPhone. This detail is one of many included in its annual report, published to its website each fiscal year. In addition to this possibility, the release of a demo version and international expansion are also on the roadmap. Nearby Explorer is currently available for Android devices for $99 and is also included on the BraillePlus 18 notetaker. We've linked to the entire annual report which includes info on this and many other APH projects.

MIPsoft, the company behind the popular Blindsquare GPS app for the iPhone, Comcast, and Odin Mobile were among this year's winners for the American Foundation for the Blind's Access Awards. The AFB the Blind annually recognizes companies, organizations, and people who have broken down barriers to accessibility in extraordinary ways.

Users of the free NVDA screen reader now have another option for obtaining enhanced voices. Acapela Group is now offering two voice packages, which both include a variety of voice styles and languages and work on up to three computers.

Cambium Learning Group has released version 14 of its popular Kurzweil 1000 OCR program. The popular Windows-based scanning and optical character recognition tool now can create PDF files from extracted images and includes a host of additional improvements which we've listed below. Upgrades from any previous version remain at $125 and are available now.

A team of researchers has recently raised over $10,000 to create an alpha prototype for BLITAB, a full-page braille display project which has been in development for three years. The claim on the project's page as the "world's first tablet for blind people" is perhaps a bit misleading, but the project itself has some lofty goals. The BLITAB would include braille translation features as well as a GPS and support for obtaining information from NFC tags.

Welcome back everyone to the news that was, and wasn't in some cases, for that little 'ol company that has most of the money on the planet. More on that in a moment.