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2009 Tech Chat Highlights, Resource Updates and Questions from Participants

    The biggest change in 2009 was the mass adoption of Twitter, by blind and sighted users alike.

  1. Follow SeroTalk on Twitter
  2. Some recent and interesting posts include:
  3. Winamp 5.57 Released
  4. Listen to All Things Radio Podcast 39 for December 17, 2009
  5. surprising reason men said they chose their wife
  6. Text-to-speech Plugin Lets You Play Texts and Books in Winamp
  7. Booksense 2.0 Firmware to be Released December 21st
  8. Ten New Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
  9. Obama sides with blind in copyright-treaty debate
  10. Tips, Tricks & Hacks to Make Windows 7 More Awesome
  11. Quadriplegic Gets License to Fire Shotgun with his Mouth, whole new meaning to shooting off at the mouth
  12. Recordings of Blind Citizens Australia National 2009 convention now available
  13. iPod Touch 32GB for $269.99 Shipped
  14. RIAA, MPAA and US Chamber of Commerce declare war on blind and disabled people
  15. OmniPage 17 Accessible OCR Software Standard for $103.49 shipped
  16. Updated Link for Bill Sparks Your Golden Oldies, 1956-1966
  17. MOBI Digital Ultra Talking Forehead Thermometer for $25.59 Shipped
  18. New Apple universal iPhone, iPod dock will mold to the shape of your device
  19. Watch your Favorite TV Shows via Favorite-TVShows.com
  20. Skype 4.2, Accessible and Lets You Transfer Calls to Another Phone
  21. Dragon Dictation mostly delivers hands-free typing on iPhone
  22. So follow SeroTalk on Twitter today to stay up on what's happening in technology and blindness.

    Top Six Music Sites for 2009

    the trend is to build your own music playlists. system Access is the only screenreading solution giving access to these web sites:

  23. Slacker.com, a Favorite of both Mike Calfo and Michael Lauf
  24. Pandora.com, the First and Most Popular U.S. Only Music Listening Site
  25. Last.FM, Build Stations Based On Your Favorite Groups or Artists
  26. Lala.com, Buy songs for as Low as 79 Cents, or Listen Online Once for Free
  27. Amazon MP3, Buy Unprotected songs encoded at 256K for only 99 Cents
  28. iTunes, Buy Music, TV Shows, Rent or Buy Movies, some With Described audio
  29. Top Radio Sites in 2009

  30. RadioTime 30,000 Streaming Stations, Sorting Based On Your Location
  31. BillSparks.org, 8,000 Stations with direct Links for Smart Phones, Bypassing Browser-Based Flash Players
  32. ooTunes iPhone App, 15,000 Stations, Ability to Record, Sleep Timer and Alarm Clock
  33. SAMobile.net, thousands of Radio Stations, Web-Based Email and Much More from Any Browser
  34. Top Ten Tech Chats for 2009

    The following ten Tech Chats received the greatest response from users in terms of emails and calls to the BlabLine at 866-997-2522. Note: these are direct downloads of the MP3 files, so save them, but don't open them unless you wish to leave this event.

  35. 1st Tech Chat - Discussing Netbooks - January 15, 2009 - 42 Minutes
  36. Identifying and Labeling Our Belongings
  37. Digital Servants to Help Us Be More Independent
  38. Audio Recording and Editing on Your Computer
  39. Mike Calvo Explains Mobile Data Plans, Prices, Hardware and Costs
  40. Sleep Quality, Energy and Productivity
  41. 30 Minute Demo of the iPhone and Many Questions Answered
  42. BookSense from GW Micro
  43. Buying Food Online
  44. i-blink Radio for the iPhone
  45. Ten Great Apps for the iPhone

    The definitive 2009 accessibility news was the launch of the iPhone, giving us access for the same price as everyone else. Here are ten of our favorites. Who's to say which are the best, as that's a matter of personal preference. Note: These are direct links and will launch iTunes and take you directly to the store.

  46. Twittelator Pro for Twitter
  47. FaceBook
  48. Around Me, Tells You What's Nearby Based on Distance and Category
  49. Urban Spoon, Restaurant Finder Based on Your Current Location
  50. Mobile Navigator North America GPS $89 U.S.
  51. Book Player, 2,500 Audio Books from Librivox
  52. Tune In Radio, 30,000 Radio Stations, Powered by RadioTime
  53. AP Mobile, News from Associated Press
  54. Midomi, Find the Name of a Song based on your music collection, or Sing it Yourself
  55. Local Concerts
  56. Tweaking and Optimizing Windows XP by Mike Arrigo

  57. Tech Chat 14, Optimizing Windows XP
  58. Tech Chat 19, XP Tweaks for Geeks
  59. SeroTalk Podcast Highlights

  60. ATIA 2009 Highlights, Including Serotek's Announcement of the Death of the software Maintenance Agreement, (SMA)
  61. CSUN 2009 Highlights
  62. 2009 ACB Convention Interviews
  63. $69 GPS Solution and 10 Radio Apps for the iPhone
  64. NFL Field Pass, Building Homes and New SnowLeopard for the Mac
  65. Interview with the Late Michael Breyer, Blind Mechanic and Entrepeneur
  66. Windows 7 Resources

    2009 Also brought us Windows 7, the best operating system yet from Microsoft.

  67. Tech Chat 38, Upgrading to Windows 7
  68. Tech Chat 31, Windows7 - The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
  69. Ignore comments in Tech Chat 31 about using U3 drives under Windows 7 as those issues have been resolved. Here are some ore useful keyboard shortcuts for windows 7.

    pressing the Windows key (Win) opens the Start menu. But now, holding the Win key in combination with other keys does a lot more. Win7's Windows-key combinations speed up opening system tools, navigating between files and apps, and performing other common tasks. (Note that many of these shortcuts work in XP and Vista as well.)

    Win+Pause: Displays the System Control Panel applet.
    Win+D: Shows the desktop.
    Win+Spacebar: Shows the desktop without minimizing open windows (Aero Peek).
    Win+E: Opens Windows Explorer with Computer selected.
    Win+F: Opens a Search window for finding files or folders.
    Win+Ctrl+F: Opens a Search window for finding computers on a network.
    Win+G: Cycles through Gadgets (if any are installed).
    Win+L: Locks your computer or switches users.
    Win+M: Minimizes all windows.
    Win+Shift+M: Restores minimized windows.
    Win+P: Chooses a presentation display mode.
    Win+R: Opens the Run dialog box.
    Win+T: Cycles through and previews programs on the taskbar.
    Win+U: Opens the Ease of Access Center (Utility Manager in XP).
    Win+X: Opens the Windows Mobility Center (which isn't installed by default on desktop PCs).
    Win+(numbers 1 to 5): Starts the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. If program is already running, switches to program.
    Win+Shift+(numbers 1 to 5): Starts a new instance of the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
    Win+Ctrl+(numbers 1 to 5): Switches to the last active window of the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
    Win+Alt+(numbers 1 to 5): Opens the Jump List of recently accessed items for the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
    Win+Tab: Cycles through open programs by using Aero Flip 3-D. (You must have Aero working; Win7 Home Basic and Starter don't use Aero.)
    Win+Ctrl+Tab and then Left or Right Arrow: Opens Aero Flip 3-D to cycle through open programs.
    Win+Ctrl+B: Switches to the program that displayed a message in the notification area.
    Ctrl+click: Pressing Ctrl while clicking a taskbar icon will scroll through multiple windows of that icon's application.
    Win+Up Arrow: Maximizes the window.
    Win+Left Arrow: Docks the active window to the left half of the screen.
    Win+Right Arrow: Docks the active window to the right half of the screen.
    Win+Down Arrow: Minimizes the window.
    Win+Shift+Up Arrow: Stretches the window to the top and bottom of the screen.
    Win+Shift+Left or Right Arrow: Moves the window from one monitor to another.
    Win+Home: Minimizes all but the active window.