Category: Cell Phone Talk
Good morning! I am posting this topic to let you all know who do not know, code factery is working on what seems to bee a screenreader fore android, and the new sinbeon oS. Fore me this is geat news! hopefully a screenreader that is at the level of mobelspeak on android I would jump ship then to android :). Hmm wonder if I could load a android OS on my HD2 :).
LOL, sorry but even mobilespeak can't keep up with technology. I'm going to the Iphone. Accessability right out of the box? Blind technology that will never keep up? The choice seems pretty clear to me.
True but to deal with A T and T hell no!!!, VZ is out of my leag because of my ignorant mistake when I was younger. So unless t-mobile gets an Iphone I am still left to work with moblespeak. Say wait you will but I will never go to A T and T, keep them!!.
Hmmm, well I have VZW so I guess I'm in luck.
yap you are in luck!, I still like my HTC HD2 all though its not a Iphone.
WEll guess what!! code factery has done it again. You guest it they have put out a screenreader and 10 apps that come wtih this screenreader that make the android accessible. the following is an article I got in my email:
Caroline Ragot - Marketing
marketing@codefactory.es
Mobile Accessibility for Android
Mobile Accessibility: Code Factory Goes Android!
Features Touchscreen Navigation, Speech Recognition, Web and Email Access, and Nuance’s Vocalizer® Text-to-Speech
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain, March 2nd, 2011
Today, Code Factory is delighted to introduce Mobile Accessibility, a screen-access application that allows people who are blind or have low vision to use an Android phone in an intuitive, easy and simple way. Mobile Accessibility is the first accessible Android application that permits intuitive touchscreen navigation of Android phones, featuring text readback via natural sounding voices powered by Nuance’s Vocalizer® text-to-speech technology.
“Mobile phones have proved to be among the fastest-changing consumer technologies in the world – particularly with the advent of the Android platform. So making mobile phones accessible to the blind and visually impaired is therefore challenging, fascinating, thrilling and totally exciting all at the same time,” explained Eduard Sánchez, Code Factory’s CEO. “There was no doubt that we would target the Android platform, as we very quickly realized that there was a real need in this specific market for an accessible solution that can provide a user-friendly experience for all blind and low-vision consumers. Mobile Accessibility allows everyone, from beginners to the most tech-savvy, to use an Android phone, no matter if it has physical keys or is touchscreen-only.”
Mobile Accessibility is two products in one:
• A suite of 10 accessible applications (Phone, Contacts, SMS, Alarm, Calendar, Email, Web, Where am I, Apps and Settings) that have been specially designed for the blind and visually impaired. They all have a simplified interface whose textual information is spoken using Nuance Vocalizer® voice synthesis.
• A screen reader that allows users to get out of the suite and navigate the standard interface of their phone.
“Mobile Accessibility provides both access to the mainstream apps of the phone and access to special apps for blind people. Why? Because our philosophy has always been to allow our users to use the phone the same way as everyone else. However, we also believe that having some special apps for the most common tasks can be extremely useful if it means gaining in productivity,” added Eduard Sánchez.
The major features of Mobile Accessibility are the following:
• Touch navigation: You can use Mobile Accessibility not only with the trackball or the physical keyboard of your phone, but also with its touchscreen! Simply move your finger around the screen and the voice synthesis will read the text located under your finger. Or if you prefer, you can also swipe up/down/right/left and tap on the screen to navigate through the interface. And if you wish you can enable sound and vibration feedback.
• Easy to input text: In or outside the Mobile Accessibility suite you can use the touch QWERTY keyboard as well as the speech recognition to write text quickly and easily. Imagine writing an SMS or an Email using your voice only.
• Voice synthesis: Code Factory has been making mobile phones accessible to the blind and visually impaired for many years now, and they know that the voice matters... and a lot! For Mobile Accessibility, Code Factory has partnered with Nuance® to leverage its trusted Vocalizer text-to-speech technology, providing consumers with natural sounding voice readback.
•
Mobile Accessibility supports all Android phones from version 2.1 and above. Please note that voice recognition is only supported with version 2.2 and above. Note also that if you want to use the screen reader functionality of Mobile Accessibility you will need a phone with physical navigational controls such as a trackball or trackpad. You can find more information about Android phones at http://www.google.com/phone/#manufacturer=all&category=all&carrier=all&country=all&reset_filters=1
At the time of this release Mobile Accessibility is only available in English, but soon Code Factory will release other versions of Mobile Accessibility for Spanish, Italian, German, French and Portuguese. Note that Mobile Accessibility doesn’t support multiple languages at one time. If you buy the English version of Mobile Accessibility you will not be able to use it in another language like French or Spanish. There will be a specific version of Mobile Accessibility for each language and each version will have to be purchased separately.
You can now get a Mobile Accessibility Demo from the Android Market and try the product for free for 30 days:
• Mobile Accessibility Demo US: https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerenudemo&feature=search_result
• Mobile Accessibility Demo UK: https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerengdemo&feature=search_result
Soon Mobile Accessibility will be available for purchase through the Android Market at the price of 69 EUROS. You can purchase the application directly from the Market application of your Android phone, or from the web page https://market.android.com . Before buying the app make sure to check out our website at http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415 to see what carriers offer the product for free to their customers.
Now, when it comes to modern smartphones, users have a choice, which is always a good thing. Only question I have is how future updates will be handeled, and how much you'd be paying to upgrade each time.
With the iPhone updates are free (at lesat accessibility specific updates).
I am happy enough with that, no need for Android for now. At lesat $95 is, well, better than the current price people pay for MobileSpeak.
I always like seeing compitition also fore those who are not on VZ and A T and T we have a sulution fore android we can always purchase and use. :)
all updates for the IPhone are free, and voiceover has been worked on in all releases. i won't turst Code Factory again, they never answered the question i had, and now are just booting the mobileSpeak users and won't fix their problems. IPhone is for me and i don't care if i have to go to AT&T for it.
That's how I'm feeling. I don't trust code factory and WILL not touch their products again. Sorry! Hopefully this piece of software won't be like Oratio. LOL, what a joke that was.
It's not code factory I don't trust, it's the poor accessibility emplomentation that google has decided upon that bothers me. I'm all for consumer choice, but I'm a bit annoyed, that google never took accessibility seriously. Unfortunate, that android, which I'll admit is a nice platform, offers no real access to visually impaired consumers...
actually we are not beeing booted, I have a serious issue with my HD2 and i was told it will bee fixed in the next release of Moble speak. Hmm... speaking of which thanks you all just reminded me I need to go report to them moble speak is sometimes cashing my HD2 because I reads the HTC sense overlay that says the time, weather its locked or not. This is just me, 1. I like vz but I admit its reallly nice to serf the web when someone puts me on hold so no VZ fore me. Second while it seems to bee a hand full of zoners who do nt mind A T and T, its going to bee a cold day in hell before you see me using their network.
I to find it hard to trust CodeFactory, and I like the fact my iOS updates are free. That being said, again choice is always a good thing.
and when will code Factory make the next MS upgrade? they claimed all updates would be free too, look what happen between 2 and 4, a love 150 buck upgrade cost. they lie, and never fix problems that are known to be in the phones. Apple has fixed issues, and gasp, added new features which code Factory hasn't really done even though they claim too
Well, I understand the 150 upgrade charge. MS 4 did do a lot of new things. Having said that, how are they going to make all droids accessible? Each droid is different.:( UG! Not me! As for the comment about wanting to surf the web while on the phone, that's what a computer is for. LOL
I have another comment to make. I don't think there will be a MS 5 because there's no reason really because all WM 7.0 phones no longer have the accessible APIS. I'm glad to see some assistive tech companies scrambling. It's high time they did. I think blind people are finally starting to demand more "equal" products. We're tired of 2-year-old technology. I just think it's funny seeing codefactory scramble, but they really have no choice. Mobile speak won't be around much longer, so they have to do something, and not too many people are willing to plunk 300 dollars down on phone software anymore which I think explains the reduced price of the droid accessibility software.
Honestly, for many users, that additional charge could mean no phone, as was my case for a while. At the time, I just couldn't afford it. What I ended up doing was buying my phone used, and running ms for the 30 day trial until that ran out, then i'd reboot the phone any time I had to check exts or what ever after the ten minute mode expired. Thus, I didn't really text much. And even if I reallywanted to, the phone was sluggish as hell, and would often overheat when MS was running. But that ace got me threw somehow, though it did die after about a year. The previous owner used it once or twice, so I got it pritty much new.
Moral is, I was glad I could buy a high end device with out paying for the screen reader as well.
Though their needs to be more mittle and low end options with access, for those who arn't in a position to afford data and the like.
that i do agree with, there are some options out there, just not great ones
What I would do if I could afford data would be get the Android phone, teher it to my iPod and use that for most things, the phone for calls, contacts, and SMS.
With the built-in reader, I could do those things on an Android. My iPod const me $300 so that's reasonably competitive considering what it offers.
The Code factory solution looks like there's some specific apps they have written: that's not a criticism, but in my house, I have to learn all the devices whether I can use them or not, so as to help all the other users. So would rather just use what's in the phone.
Again, not a criticism, but just how I'd be managing things at this point.
Hmm I do a lot of tethering with my HD2 so I am not sure how the Iphone could acomplish what I can do with out paying extra every month.
Good point, It requires jailbreaking, which sucks. You're lucky you're not paying extra to tether with that HD2.
Then again, jailbreaking is worth it, just to prevent them getting your cash when it comes to surtain features. the carriors are greedy enough to force themselves into everything, So, when possible I try to encourage people to deny them their "fair cut."
More because of the extreme markup of every service.They're already upcharging text messages by the thousands of percent.
OK, question, what is tethering? I've heard the term, but I'm not sure what it is, does, Etc.
It allows you to use your phones internet connection with your laptop. Fore the tablit devices I am not sure about that someone will have to answer that question.
Tethering allows you to use the 3G device like the phone as a hot spot for any device that uses wi fi be it laptop, iPod or whatever. Carriers charge for it because of the perceived increase in data usage. In principle at least, I tend to agree with Striker. Text messaging is one of the greatest rip-offs in the telecom business and I'm sure historians will have fun with the way carriers handle it.
Oh OK, I see.:)