?Dallas, Texas August 19, 2010

Digital Miracles, L. L. C., announced today that washable audio labels are now available for sale on its website.  The labels are read by the Digit-Eyes app for the iPhone and enable people without vision to permanently label clothing and to record detailed information about the garment that is played back when they scan the label again with the app on their iPhone.

The company announced that it also now offers pre-printed audio labels as a convenience for customers who don‚t have access to a printer or who just prefer that someone else do the printing.

“Our customers let us know that identifying clothing is one of their most important labeling needs,” reports Nancy Miracle, President. “With the introduction of our soft, washable, bleachable and dryable labels, laundry becomes a snap and confusion in the closet a thing of the past.  A number of our customers also told us that they don‚t have access to a printer or simply prefer the convenience of buying pre-printed labels.  Now, we have both types of labels available for sale.”

The standard self-adhesive QR (Quick Response) Digit-Eyes barcode labels are perfect for temporary labels, or labeling items that will stay dry such as folders, CDs, and containers. The sturdy washable QR Digit-Eyes barcode labels were specifically created for garments and can be permanently attached to clothing.

“I‚ve been waiting for these, too,” says Davey Hulse, VP of Marketing.  „Ever since I heard about the Digit-Eyes concept and got my iPhone, I‚ve been chomping at the bit to get these labels figured out. I can‚t wait to grab my iPhone and my clothes and ask my wife to help me record audio notes about them. No more chasing around in the morning, asking: ŒDoes this shirt go with these pants?‚ From now on it‚s going to be really cool to be independent!‰

More information:  www.digit-eyes.com.

About Digit-Eyes:

Digit-Eyes is a project of Digital Miracles, L.L.C.  The project focuses on developing inexpensive solutions for the visually-impaired that employ mainstream products and mainstream platforms.  The Digit-Eyes software application for the iPhone is available at the Apple App Store.

About Digital Miracles, L.L.C.

Digital Miracles provides intellectual property design and analysis services, focusing on the design, development and deployment of custom software.

Contact:  Davey Hulse

(503) 559-3787

?marketing@digit-eyes.com

www.digit-eyes.com

Dragon Dictation provides voice recognition for iOS devices. Text generated can be copied to the clipboard, sent via SMS or email, posted to Twitter or Facebook, etc.

Hopefully, this newly implemented accessibility will find its way into Nuance’s other iOS products.

Dragon Dictation is available from the iTunes AppStore for free.

Contact Person: Davey Hulse

Cell: (503) 559-3787

Email: PressRelations@digitalmiracles.com

Website: www.digit-eyes.com

Support: support@digitalmiracles.com

Digit-Eyes Lite Is Free

Digital Miracles, LLC, announced on July 13, 2010, that its Digit-Eyes Lite is now ready on the iTunes Store. Digit-Eyes Lite gives users the full power of the text-labeling portion of the revolutionary Digit-Eyes Audio Labeling System. And it’s FREE!

“The welcome we have received from the blind and visually impaired community has been incredible,” says Nancy Miracle, President, “and we wanted to give something back.”

Users can type up to 100 characters into a label field on our website, creating as many different ones as they wish, print them and put them on anything and everything they can think of to label.

“Later this summer when we make our blackberry jam,” says Davey Hulse, “I can make labels like crazy and be able to find the jam I want this winter.”

Since the iPhone app is free, other friends and family who don’t need the full power of the Audio Labeling System can download the Lite version and read the labels.

Hulse has other ideas for the Lite’s use: “Now my daughter can expect to get a mushy one-of-a-kind text label in a birthday card from me and read it with Digit-Eyes Lite on her iPhone.”

To read more about Digit-Eyes text labels, go to http://www.digit-eyes.com/textLabels.html.

While you’re at it, create your free account and become part of the Digit-Eyes community.

Contact person: Davey Hulse
Cell: 503-559-3787
Email: PressRelations@digitalmiracles.com

DIGIT-EYES AUDIO LABELING SYSTEM ADVANCES INDEPENDENCE FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Digital Miracles, LLC, is pleased to announce a major advancement in assistive technology for people who are blind and visually impaired. The Digit-Eyes Audio Labeling System has been approved for sale on the Apple Apps Store. As of June 23rd, the millions of people worldwide with substantial vision loss can begin downloading the iPhone application to recognize and label the important items in their lives.

Reasonably priced at $29.99, the Digit-Eyes phone app is a powerful tool that fits into any budget and life- style, turning challenging tasks into easy, safe activities. The Digit-Eyes system gives users a simple way to make custom labels for everyday items and it identifies packaged goods-joining advanced software with the iPhone, the Internet, home computers, printers, and inexpensive off-the-shelf labels. People of almost any visual ability can now put groceries away and grab the right prescription bottle independently.

“This is the most exciting product I’ve worked on,” says Nancy Miracle, president of Digital Miracles and software engineer with 40 years experience. “The limited functions and high cost of existing assistive devices just seemed wrong, so our objective was to develop a product that performed better than any comparable technology and offer it at about 10% of the price. Combining the need for identification with a natural, powerful and robust tool like the iPhone made the project irresistible.”

With Digit-Eyes, users can print custom text labels or record audio labels that they make by scanning specially coded labels and speaking into their phones. They attach the labels to household items, and the messages are played back whenever the codes are rescanned with their iPhones. This Digit-Eyes app can also scan manufacturer codes (UPC, EAN, ISBN) and say what’s inside the package after checking the vast Digit-Eyes product database. Each iPhone stores over five hundred hours of information and can be used just about anywhere.

“This product is amazing! By labeling leftovers with their contents and date refrigerated, I can determine if my dinner will be edible or not. Next, I’ll be labeling my jungle of AC adapters so I’ll never again have to guess what they all go to. The ease of use and flexibility of the process make it an invaluable tool!”
Randy Builder, Seattle, Washington.

The first public display of Digit-Eyes is at the National Federation of the Blind convention in Dallas, Texas, July 4 – 7, booth B113. The exhibit then moves to the American Council of the Blind convention July 10 – 15 in Phoenix, Arizona, booth #41. Attendees can experience the use and capability of the system with hands-on demonstrations. Details, explanations, and examples will be available at both conventions, or immediately on-line at www.DIGIT-EYES.com.

Digital Miracles, LLC, the parent company of Digit-Eyes, is a Texas-based corporation that develops customized software solutions. The Digit-Eyes Audio Labeling System was created by a team of engineers, software designers and members of the visually impaired community.

Product Reviewers can get a review copy at: reviewcopy@digitalmiracles.com or by calling: (817) 571-3083.

Fortunately, a workaround has been posted which gives VoiceOver users the ability to install the latest version of the Flash plugin. Here are the steps:

• Download FlashPlayer version 10.1 from Adobe Systems
• Mount the disk image (.DMG) which was downloaded.
• Open the context menu on the installation application included on the disk image – "Install Adobe Flash Player.app" (VO-Shift-M)
• Select the option to "Show Package Contents".
• The contents of the app file will be displayed in a new Finder window. Navigate through the folders to Contents/Resources/
• At that location, you will find an installation package called "Adobe Flash Player.pkg". Open this package with Command-O

At this point, you can follow the normal installation steps, presented as a traditional Mac OS X installer, which is, of course, accessible.

Given the eighteen months to two years we can expect to wait for Flash accessibility, as well as the fact that, had Apple allowed Flash-based apps on the AppStore, VoiceOver users would have been subjected to far greater risks of inaccessibility when purchasing apps on their iOS devices, it is not surprising that users are taking Adobe’s assurances of a commitment to accessibility with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Thanks to John C. Welch and DaringFireball for bringing this workaround to our attention.

3 ways to speak: (1) 100′s of built-in phrases in over a dozen categories (2) Program several buttons to speak your CUSTOM messages such as your name, address, family, etc. (3) Type ANY message and have it spoken using TEXT-TO-SPEECH!

Empower yourself or people with Autism & Non-Verbal patients you care for! One price for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch! Elegant interface, quality recognizable images & customizations allow for quick & easy communication! Very affordable! Don’t pay hundreds out of pocket or worry about Medicare or rationing devices. Everyone can have AutoVerbal! – iPad, iPhone & iPod touch universal support! Pay one price! – Users/caregivers can customize the first row of buttons by touching HELP to enter CUSTOM MODE! – 100′s of buttons use Premium TTS voice, prerecorded, even when the Internet is not available! – Custom TTS phrases use Premium voices when Internet is available, Standard built-in voices otherwise.

The application is currently on sale at a special introductory price of $0.99 in the US iTunes store.

It’s wonderful to continue seeing affordable assistive solutions powered by Apple’s iOS and the devices which run it. Here’s hoping that the days of expensive, dedicated assistive devices are coming to a close.

The DataPlus plan, $15 per month, includes up to 200MB of data in a billing cycle. Users who exceed the 200MB limit during the month will be charged another $15 for each additional 200MB of data thereafter.

The DataPro plan, $25 per month, provides up to 2GB of data in a billing cycle. Users who exceed the 2GB limit during the month will be charged another $10 for each additional 1GB of data thereafter.

Both plans include unlimited usage of Internet access at AT&T WiFi hotspots. AT&T says it will assist users in tracking their data usage via text message alerts and through its MyWireless iPhone app.

AT&T claims that 98% of its customers will be covered under one of these two plans without going over the imposed limits. This statement seems somewhat suspect, however, as the communications giant has blamed its network congestion and other issues on the large volume of data being consumed by iPhone and other devices. If only 2% of users will be effected by this change in plans, it’s hard to imagine it will have any meaningful impact on service quality.

When Apple announced iPhone OS 3.0 last summer, it included a tethering option which has been available in many parts of the world since then. Despite promises to the contrary, AT&T never made the option available. Now, a year later and with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 looming, AT&T is finally offering tethering for iPhone users, but at a premium. Those AT&T customers who wish to allow their notebook or other devices to share their iPhone’s data connection will need to pay an additional $20 per month over and above their monthly data plan cost.

All of these changes go into effect next Monday, 07/June. It’s likely not a coincidence that Steve Jobs is scheduled to deliver his keynote on that day, which will undoubtedly include information on the release of iPhone OS 4.0 and the next iPhone hardware revision.

VoiceOver support enhancements include a significantly improved timeline display. Problems with reviewing tweets word-by-word with VoiceOver, the double reading of tweets, and more have been addressed. The timestamp for tweets, when enabled, is now announced by VoiceOver after the tweet text. A bug that caused VoiceOver to track the selected user in user lists incorrectly has been resolved.

Syrinx now supports Twitter lists, allows for editable retweets, and much more. For the complete list of new features and fixes, you can read the release notes.

In the past, Google has provided fairly good support for accessibility with screen readers, but that reputation has begun to slip in recent years, as the Internet giant has expanded its offerings and let its accessibility efforts slip.

The fact that the rendering engine Google is using offers native support for OS X accessibility, and Google either broke, disabled, or chose to remove that support, does not bode well for the future of accessibility in other Google products, where ensuring access will be inherently more difficult.

This book provides the latest information on the accessible iPods created by Apple – the fourth and fifth generation iPod Nanos and the third generation iPod Shuffle – and the latest version of iTunes. Anna Dresner walks you through getting started with iTunes and using all the accessible features on these iPods. You’ll learn to import music into iTunes; use the iTunes store; sync music, audiobooks, podcasts and video to your iPod; and much more. Appendices provide answers to frequently asked questions and resources for keeping up with new iPod developments.?

The title is available in hard copy braille, electronic braille, print, and dAISY, on disk or as a download from this link.

For more about Anna Dresner, visit her author page at NBP.

More information is available on the Solona.net Enhanced Screen Protector page.

The poll is available on the Solona main page

The Solona Enhanced Screen Protector comes in two variations:  landscape or portrait.  Whether you prefer landscape or portrait, typing emails, text messages, or URL’s will fast and accurate.  Apple’s built-in accessibility paired with the Solona Enhanced Screen Protector make a great combination for your iPhone.

The Solona Enhanced Screen Protector works for the iPhone 3G 2nd Generation (3G / 3GS)

Solona offers to convert screen protectors that you send them via post, as well as enhanced screen protecors for $19 USD.

For more information, check out the full details here.

Last month, Adobe promised Flash and Flex accessibility for Mac OS X in the future, though by all accounts that is at least eighteen months away. Applications currently available for the iPhone that were developed using Adobe’s Flash to iPhone app technology are inaccessible with VoiceOver.

A lot has changed since the introduction of VoiceOver. Here are some highlights:

• The creation of the Mac Visionaries community of visually impaired Mac users
• The birth of the Screenless Switchers podcast
• The introduction of Mac-cessibility
• The release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard with VoiceOver enhancements
• iTunes introduces Closed Captioning in movie downloads
• NFB publishes their first flawed review of VoiceOver in Leopard
• Apple presents at CSUN
• Apple’s access efforts gains mainstream attention on MacWorld
• Apple extends its educational discount to students of Hadley School for the Blind
• AFB erroneously claims users can’t sync music with iTunes and VoiceOver
• OpenOffice gains Mac accessibility
• Full VoiceOver support is announced for iTunes
• iPod nanos gain speaking menus for accessibility
• Apple teams up with GW Micro to improve accessibility of iTunes in Windows
• Apple launches official accessibility site
• Apple and NFB reach agreement on iTunes access
• AccessWorld publishes a more accurate review of VoiceOver
• iWork becomes accessible
• The Mac-cessibility Round Table podcast is launched
• Apple announces and releases the iPhone 3GS with VoiceOver
• The VIPhone community is born
• NFB publishes a highly inaccurate review of VoiceOver, prompting community responses
• The Mac-cessibility Network is launched
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is released with huge improvements to VOiceOver
• iPhone OS 3.1 is released with enhanced access
• Assistiveware releases Proloquo2Go for the iPhone
• Digidesign demonstrates upcoming access to ProTools
• The NFB publishes a more accurate look at VoiceOver
• Apple unveils the iPad, which includes the same access features as the iPhone
• iBooks to include VoiceOver accessibility
• iPad is released with spectacular accessibility

Version 4.0 offers better accessibility, most notably in the identification of controls via labels and help tags. New features include the ability to mount servers in the Finder as volumes, and copy files to and from those volumes at will. Performance improvements are extensively touted, and the application boasts a wide array of new features.

Transmit v4.0 is available for $34, or as an upgrade to users of version 3.x for $19. Customers who purchased Transmit on or before 01/March/2010 can upgrade to version 4.0 for free.

As mentioned previously on this blog, the Access Technology team will be hosting, among other things, a session on Apple products from 9 until 11.30 am on Saturday July 3rd at the NFB’s National Convention in Dallas. Because the number of devices we have available is limited, we will restrict access to this part of the program. There are only 30 spaces available, so please register as soon as you can. You can register by emailing us at access@nfb.org or by calling me at 410-659-9314, extension 2410. Registrations for the Apple session will be processed in the order in which they are received, and must be emailed or called in by June 15th. No registrations are required for any of the other sessions.

Clara Van Gerven

Whether this is a case of widespread mis-reporting by news outlets or if Google let slip something it shouldn’t have remains to be seen. We hope that, in either case, Google does eventually provide this functionality to iPhone users.