Once again, Jamie Pauls, Ricky Enger and Joe Steinkamp settle in for a discussion of what was by all accounts a slow news week. Never fear, though. The gang found plenty to talk about, anyway. The topics discussed in this week’s podcast include the following:

Tablet Computing

An Accessibility Review of the Amazon Kindle 3 by Ricky Enger

For Windows 8 tablets, a weak forecast

Target will yank Kindles–why?

20 improvements I’d like to see in iOS 6

Smartphones

BlackBerry 10: Best feature nobody’s talking about

Samsung leapfrogs Apple as top smartphone vendor worldwide

iPhone 5 launching with 4-inch screen, new Dock connector?

Security

iTunes users griping about Apple’s security questions

General Tech

Hulu’s possible future: A playground for cable subscribers

AT

Skype 4.0 released and claims improved accessibility

EyeRing: Wearable Camera That Detects Objects For The Visually Impaired

Robot sensing and smartphones help blind navigate                                                      

Mushroom Escape – For the Best in Radio Drama and Comedy

Take the WebAIM screen reader user survey

Technology for Blind & Visually Impaired Viewers Debuts in UK

Mailbag

Roundabout

 ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Rick Harmon manages various email lists related to blindness and technology. He also runs the Blind Geek Zone website and Podcast. Since their launch in 2006, the site and podcast have served as portals to hundreds of free tutorials and demonstrations for  the blind community. While he did the majority of these, he has selected high-quality submissions by others for inclusion as well. In 2007, Rick began offering paid training and support services, both in person in his local area, and by phone.

Pratik Patel is the President and CEO of EZFire, a firm dedicated to promoting usability and accessibility to devices, web sites, software, and other electronic material. He is the current chair of the Information Access committee for the American Council of the Blind and serves as the President of ACB’s New York affiliate. His background includes legislation, access to assistive technologies, accessible books and other instructional material as well as many different forms of new devices. His Recent efforts include the implementation of the 21^st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which includes accessibility to videos, interfaces to televisions, DVR’s, and other mobile software and devices.

Randy Rusnak is probably best known in the community for his work on the Accessible Devices Website and Podcast. He is the producer of that podcast, and is one of four co-hosts. Randy works as a tech trainer at the Lighthouse Center for Blind and Low vision in Duluth, MN, and Enjoys communicating – with people, his five dogs, and parrots. Other hobbies include playing with all manner of Tech devices. And old and new time radio

KIDS

Twitter gets an A+ in kindergarten classroom

Meet the Fifth-Grader Who Made a Video Game for His Blind Grandmother

COMMUNITY

Are Internet Friends Real Friends?

APPLE

New iPad ranked top tablet by Consumer Reports

AT&T’s iPhones: Free at last

Getting Started with the iPhone and iOs5 for Blind Users

Top 10 iPhone Apps for the Visually Impaired

Next iPhone said to ditch glass for Liquidmetal, arrive in June

SECURITY

What the Cloud Means for Data Security

 Does Your Password Pass the Test?

With 600,000 Macs Worldwide Reportedly Infected by Flashback Trojan, here’s how to check if your machine is one of them

WINDOWS

 Computer Maintenance Tools Available In Windows 7

Windows 8 Release Preview to Become Available First Week of June

Accessibility

American Cancer Society Continues Information Accessibility Initiative

Publishers Call for Industry Cohesion on Accessible e-Books

With Ricky Enger enjoying a well-deserved week’s vacation, Lisa Salinger joins Jamie Pauls and Joe Steinkamp as they explore the top news stories of the week.

Privacy and Security

Living in Public: What Happens When You Throw Privacy Out the Window

Microsoft Security Essentials 4.0

Windows 8 Release Preview in June

Cloud Storage

How to use Google Drive with keyboard shortcuts

Dropbox Sharing Gets Easier with Direct Links to Anything in Your Dropbox Folders

General Tech

Stage set for Windows 8 hybrid, iPad showdown

Apple

Tim Cook Prefers Settling To Suing and Has a Huge Quarter

 Apple may unveil new MacBook hybrid this year, says analyst

Why we shouldn’t get too excited about a ‘Liquidmetal’ iPhone 5

AT

Top 10 iPhone Apps for the Visually Impaired

Braille Reference

Formerly Recording for the Blind, Serving Veterans Since 1948

Introducing DBT 11.1sr4

Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2011.

Feature Writer Alena Roberts – Paying For a Taxi in New York Just Became More Accessible

Descriptive Camera, 2012

Mailbag

Oh yeah, I remember those Talking Book records in the boxes with straps.

They had a unique smell too, musty library basement, but somehow really comforting.

And I thought I was hot stuff at age 7 when I could replace a record player needle with the new one they sent me from the Cleveland Public Library.

Ok, down the old tech road, does anyone remember the Type and Talk external synthesizer? It was one of the first external synths and the fun thing about it was that you could turn the little speed wheel to the point where you could hear each little electronic blip it made to make one sound.

As for the whole employer checking you out on Facebook thread, it should scare some people. I know I pay more attention to my Facebook posts and tweets but also make sure my grammar and spelling are as good as I can make them.

From my Old Fogey side, I read some posts from blind people on Facebook who also say, there and in other forums, that they are seeking jobs, and I just shake my head. Horrific grammar, bad spelling, which I’m as guilty of as anyone, but with bad grammar it’s a double whammy, inane feuds with other people on Facebook and generally immature posts add up to someone I wouldn’t hire, blind or sighted.

I got unfriended by someone at work because she had trouble posting personal stuff to her Facebook page then those of us from work she’d friended calling her on some of it. I felt badly because I like her and enjoy some of her non-work stuff, but whew, she’

S young enough to be my daughter, which is depressing in and of itself, but she also doesn’t have many boundaries.

The other weird thing about Facebook is that people are starting to use it like email and I doubt they realize that everything, even their emails to each other that land on Facebook pages, is archived, by the Library of Congress no less.

My husband was involved with a non-profit organization for rare diseases. It was for one specific condition and much talk had moved from its email list to its Facebook pages. He tried a Facebook account and freaked at the public nature of it and what people posted about their medical conditions. Being a good conspiracy theorist, he said he bet the insurance companies just loved it.

He said this loudly and often to the organization executive director, seeing it as irresponsible to promote the sharing of pretty sensitive medical info in an open forum like that. Things have shifted a bit since he’s been complaining but still …

Sadly too I see it with guide dog handlers. They’ll put out on Facebook that they have this or that issue with their dogs, never contact the school for help or anything. I know sometimes people have issues with their guide dog schools, but we can’t help you if we don’t know you’re having problems and we won’t know that probably because we don’t friend every grad or ask them to friend us. Whew.

Great show as always. Keep it up!

Jenine Stanley

From the blog:

Tim Sniffen writes:

As promised, here is a link to the Main Menu show featuring a demonstration of SkyDrive.

Roundabout

Join the event live via Accessible Event this Thursday beginning at 9:00 p.m. Eastern in the U.S.

Replay the Accessible Event archive of the program

 ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS:

Dr. Robert Carter is a 56-year-old psychologist at Texas A&M University. Before coming to Texas in 1989, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Florida.

As a graduate assistant, Dr. Carter ran an accessible computer lab where he taught blind people to use the Apple II. In his doctoral dissertation, he studied the decision making process that rehabilitation counselors go through when they select access technology for their clients.

Since 1975, Dr. Carter has been involved in the testing and development of dozens of access technology products. He frequently speaks publicly about access technology.

At present, Dr. Carter is the host of “The Tech Doctor” podcast where he helps his listeners make sense of the ever-changing and complex landscape of accessible technology. You can keep up with him by following him on Twitter.

Erin Edgar is a lawyer working for a non-profit legal aid organization in North Carolina. She and her husband co-host a podcast called Tech Access Weekly, in which they discuss the latest developments in mainstream and assistive technology. Additionally, she also co-hosts a podcast called Book Hoarders Annonymous, which is dedicated to book-related discussion of all kinds. She can also be reached on Twitter.

Darrell Shandrow is a blind accessibility evangelist, Internet radio

broadcaster, assistive technology instructor, and technical writer living

in Tempe, Arizona. As the publisher of the Blind Access Journal blog and

podcast, he is part of a team of advocates, assistive technology

instructors, and reporters including Karen Shandrow, Allison Hilliker,

Jeff Bishop, and special guest contributors exploring accessibility and demonstrating revolutionary new technologies for the blind.

He also co-hosts the Desert Cafe radio show on ACB Radio

Interactive every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Arizona and Pacific Time, where all

listeners may enjoy good music and great conversation with friends.

Keep up with the latest happenings by following him on Twitter.

IN THE COMMUNITY

CSUN12 Window-Eyes and Windows 8 Presentation now available online.

HumanWare Brailliant Braille Display now supported with iOS 5.1

A T Guys has released a free iOS app for BlindBargains. An Android app is also out. Early eBook Pioneer Bookshare Marks Decade of Innovations k

ON THE NET

AOL KILLS Off AIM

Privacy

Thank you, Facebook: A way to demote annoying ‘friends’ on the sly

ACLU: Employers demanding Facebook passwords is privacy invasion

What Happens to My Gmail Account When I Die

GOOGLE

Five ways Google’s unified privacy policy affects you

APPLE

iPad 3: What we didn’t get

Apple iOS 5.1: First Take

iOS 5.1 Battery Life is Significantly Improved

Apple TV’s new user interface: Hands-on

MICROSOFT

Windows 8 Release Candidate rumored for June, retail release in October

Thank you for joining us for SeroSpectives. If you’d like to continue the discussion of this topic, please join us in the SAMNet Tech Chat Room. If you are not a member, you can obtain a free, seven-day trial by visiting http://www.satogo.com.

SeroSpectives is made possible through technology from Serotek Corporation.

Visit the SeroTalk.com Blog and Podcast for the Latest Access Technology Information

Email Resources@SeroTalk.com Your Comments, Suggestions, and Ideas for Future Podcast Segments

Download iBlink Radio, Free App for Android and the iPhone, with Radio Stations and Podcasts Created by

the blind, Radio Information Service and audio Tutorials!

DocuScan Plus Afordable and Powerful OCR Solution

Serotek Corporation – System Access Screen reader, SAMNet, docuScan Plus, Remote Incident

Manager, iBlink for the iPhone, and Accessible Event

Try a Free Fully Functional Seven Day Trial of System Access and SAMNet Today by going to

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AccessibleEvent Makes Meetings and Webinars Accessible to the blind, Deaf, and Deaf-Blind

© 2012 Serotek Corporation – All Rights Reserved.

This week, while Ricky and Joe are off to CSUN, Jamie Pauls, Buddy Brannan and Lisa Salinger discuss the news of the week. Here are the stories they discuss:

Privacy

Five ways Google’s unified privacy policy affects you

iPad Rumor Roundup

iPad 3 rumor roundup

Apple iPad 3: What to expect

The curious case of the missing iPad 3 home button

iPad 3: Apple’s Biggest Test

AT

Window-Eyes and Windows 8 Presentation now available online

Listen to SPN coverage and Blind Bargains coverage on iBlink Radio.

App will help blind, visually impaired navigate streets

Blind Bargains: IPPLEX Rleases LookTel Recognizer Ap for iOS

Blind Bargains: Code Factory Announces Braille Support for Android with Mobile Accessibility V1.9

Blind Bargains: Free Mobile Accessibility App Now Available for Sprint, Boost, Virgin Mobile

Introducing ChromeVox (with audio description) – YouTube

Just Another Checkbox by Mike Calvo

Windows 8 Roundup

Windows 8 beta folds in 100,000 code changes (live blog)

Windows 8 Beta: Hands-on with Microsoft’s tablet-friendly OS

Is Microsoft hoping for the best but preparing for the worst with Windows 8?

Is Windows too expensive?

Apple

General Tech

Roundabout

Blind attorney teaches self-defense and overcomes fear

Playing Video Games Can Help Improve Your Vision

As with all good things, CSUN 2012 has come to an end—except that it doesn’t really have to end quite yet. Perhaps you attended this year’s CSUN conference and didn’t get to do quite everything you wanted, or maybe you didn’t get to go at all and would like to experience some of the excitement from the comfort of your own home. With over three hours of interviews conducted by Joe Steinkamp and Ricky Enger now available on SPN Radio, you can immerse yourself into the world of CSUN 2012 any time you like. Feel free to write to us at resources@serotalk.com and give us your thoughts on this year’s convention.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Calvo joins Jamie Pauls, Joe Steinkamp and Ricky Enger live from the Road To CSUN.

Be sure and listen to all of our CSUN coverage on SPN Radio.

You can also listen to Triple Click Home Episode 4: Beefed Up Book Reader Thing and an upcoming episode of That Android Show coming very soon.

After their visit with Mike, Jamie, Joe and Ricky tackle the news of the week.

AT

Extra Extra Read All About It: Exciting Sendero Announcements

Blind Bargains: Ask the Readers: What Would You Pay for a Truly Accessible Phone-based GPS System

@ariadneGPS: Version 2.0 is on the store. Podcast on the web site at http://www.ariadnegps.eu

Georgia Tech’s BrailleTouch is a Braille writer for iPhone

Apple

Apple’s latest sandboxing deadline delay signals moving goalpost for devs

Rumor Mill

Smaller iPad in ‘testing stage,’ says research firm

Don’t discount Apple’s interest in a smaller iPad, says analyst

iPhone 5 rumoured for autumn, not summer

iPhone and Android apps now required to have privacy policies

Mailbag

Round About

@AccessSanDiego: San Diego Zoo has an Accessibility Guide in Braille! Get it at Guest Relations.

Is Skype a social network? Microsoft’s dark horse has legs…

‘Smart cows’ can text owners when mooood strikes

Contact The Show

Follow the SeroTalk Podcast on Twitter

Did you know that if a company built accessibility into its foundational methods of developing products and services, it would only be 2% of the total cost? Bolting on accessibility after the fact can easily cost 100%, because often the way a website, application, or device was built requires an overhaul of the system to make accessibility a seamless addition. Why then do companies refuse to embrace resource and monetary efficiency?

Last Thursday, we had the privilege of visiting with the folks at the Yahoo! Accessibility Lab. They were genuinely excited about accessibility to the point that accessibility is now a part of the company’s core product development process. Visitors to their family of services will find that the experience has been made more pleasant for persons with print disabilities. They admitted that part of their rationale is that making the adjustments to a project from Day 1 will result in a more efficient use of time, money, and resources. Thankfully, Yahoo is joining a slow but growing list of companies recognizing the value of universal access in a way that is mutually beneficial for the company and the buyer.

The change in attitude is owed to at least two factors:

First, companies like Yahoo and Microsoft each feature a team that is not ashamed to evangelize the virtues of accessibility. These are people like Alan Brightman, Victor Tsaran and others who coax, cajole and generally encourage the inclusion of accessibility in their companies’ line of products and services. They are people who recognize the inclusion of accessibility as a concrete benefit to specific people and not just another step in someone’s product roadmap. They are people who have, in some cases, moved to different companies and carried with them the same fervor for equal access to their new employers.

Second, companies that have made accessibility part of their core functionality are companies that have made the endeavor more than just a corporate promise. These are companies that have allowed their marketing rhetoric to trickle down to the developer base, or the brains behind the code that make the bells ring and the whistles blow. After all, developers are the ones on top of the evolution of the computer languages they rely on to make our favorite applications so compelling.

Until recently, assistive technology companies were the only ones fully invested in making accessibility a top priority. Now, however, developers working on the ground level are working under an obligatory environment to make accessibility gain equal attention. If companies could begin implementing force checks on accessibility at the development phase rather than struggling to apply a bandage later, accessibility would become commonplace both for the conscious developer and the company for which she works. The obligatory environment is one that would send developers to seminars and take advantage of other training opportunities. The word needs to get to developers that accessibility inclusion is more than just another feel-good ploy.

Often, the executives and product managers steering the boat have little to zero knowledge about product development. They are in charge because they have the business sense to turn the finished products into profitable results. They do not need to stay on top of .NET Framework and other environments to do what they do best, but a language they ought to be able to relate to is budgeting. If left unchecked, the lack of accessibility, also known as universal design, could easily convert to a financial burden.

Companies refusing to incorporate accessibility into their foundational processes are overlooking the potential for litigation in the not-so-distant future. Legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 21^st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act have created a stricter framework by which manufacturers must build to make their products usable by persons with disabilities. These policies are calling attention to equal access so that if a law does not exist today, it might very well exist tomorrow. Companies should not develop products with a fearful eye to public policy. They should develop as a matter of course to serve a growing base of consumers, but if there are evolving rules about the accessibility of products and services, doesn’t it make sense for companies to build things right at the outset rather than risk unnecessary litigation later? The financial burden of defending against lack of accessibility claims detracts from the company’s capacity to create even better products for the consumer base as a whole.

With corporate transparency, we would be able to count on accessible products from conception. Making accessibility a part of the corporate culture will not occur overnight. It’s going to require a lot of noise from dedicated staff inside the companies and even more of a racket from the consumers outside of them. The transition may result in some occasional product delays as gaps are filled to ensure solid performance, but success will result in products like Windows 8 whose core functionality will hopefully be as accessible on the desktop as it is on the mobile platform. It will hopefully result in devices like the Kindle Fire whose second generation will hopefully bring much-needed accessibility to consumers. But to move from hope to fulfillment, companies need to do more than broadcast equality platitudes. They need to do more than just test and roll exercises to gauge the efficacy of the first version before making the second one better. They actually need to make accessibility part of their strategic planning.

If looked at strictly from a business efficiency model, universal design does much more than just make a product work for persons with disabilities. It also allows for better integration with products in the same class. If a company can minimize the amount of time it spends reinventing the wheel, it will be able to focus more on upward mobility and less on status quo improvement. Universal design translates to heightened market competition, because the field becomes level for both the innovative seller and the well-informed buyer. The perceived advantages of companies like Apple can be minimized when faced with platform standards that render accessibility as just another tool in the company’s typical arsenal. Such an outlook is completely independent of technical specifications. A higher level manager ought to be able to see this approach for the long-term vitality strategy that it is.

Persons with disabilities are looking for accessibility to become just another checkbox. The desire is not so removed from the current practice. The difference is that accessibility needs to be given a greater value. It needs to cease being a side project and needs to become an item on the core checklist. Microsoft is doing a great job of tapping into its support base of assistive technology experts to make this come about. Apple has long since understood this concept and has enjoyed a reputation of just getting it. Other equally intelligent companies would benefit from just doing it.