SeroTalk Podcast 174: There’s Gold in Them Thar App Stores

Listen to SeroTalk Podcast 174: There’s Gold in Them Thar App Stores

Jamie, Ricky and Joe have a lot to discuss in this week’s SeroTalk podcast. Topics covered include:

Blind Bargains: President Obama Declares October 15 Blind Americans Equality Day

HumanWare sees its global development expand through a partnership with Essilor

Lease to Own Option Now available for Adaptive Technology solutions costing over $1,700 from Triumph Technology

Reader’s view: Drive safely, pay attention and watch for the blind

There’s No Such Thing as a “blind Ghetto” Product

Why Can Some Blind People Process Speech Far Faster Than Sighted Persons?: Scientific American

Blind, Yet Now I See

Windows 8.1: What a difference a year makes

Microsoft pulls botched Windows RT 8.1 update, tolerates mediocre Surface 2 review (Updated)

Review: The Kindle Fire HDX Is the Amazon-centric Tablet Finally Done Right

Do I Need to Stop Using Microsoft Security Essentials?

Windows XP users get a year of Chrome support after OS retires

Nexus 5 quietly appears at Google Play for $349

Android 4.4 KitKat tweets hint at Oct. 28 launch

Google Maps for iOS updates with faster navigation, more languages

Tim Cook talks hiring of Angela Ahrendts as Retail chief, says she is ‘best person in the world for this role’

Amazon listing may be hinting at new Apple TV at 22nd Oct event

Mailbag

Jesse writes:

Hey guys. You do a very awesome job with the podcast. I love it! I was just thinking if Ricky did record a voice professionally, Serotek could make it one of the standard voices for system access and it would be your own trademarked voice. Just a thought. Keep doing an awesome job. Jesse

From Mike Arrigo Regarding the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, unless Amazon has changed their position, the device will be fairly locked down. You will not be able to side load apps, which means you could not install braille back or even the google play store. Also, the boot loader is locked with no way to officially unlock it, so installing a different rom would be difficult if not imposible. And, as stated, no access to the google play store. Because of these reasons, it’s not a tablet I would consider. If you want an android tablet, go with the nexus 7. Regarding mobile accessibility on Windows Phone 8, unfortunately this is not a screen reader. It’s a suite of applications, similar to what mobile accessibility is on android. However, on windows phone 8, you don’t have access to the native phone interface or any third party apps. If this is Microsoft’s idea of accessibility on this platform, I suggest they try again. This is not even true accessibility, and considering that IOS and Android provide accessibility for the native interface including third party apps, there’s no reason to go with a platform that only provides this limited functionality. Microsoft needs to do what Google and Apple have done, provide a built in screen reader that works with the native platform interface and built in applications, as well as third party applications that conform to the platform standards.

Here is a link to Windows Weekly episode 333 referenced by Joe

Roundabout

Steve Jobs ‘believed he was a World War II pilot’

19-year-old Dairy Queen manager does good deed for blind man

Thomas Edison’s Talking Dolls Sound Like They’re Possessed By Satan

Recommended Reading

Here is a list of the books which were mentioned in this week’s podcast:

Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

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