Category: accessible Devices
Just thought people might be interested in this.
Accessible IT update - Taken from RNIB Access IT - October 2008
The talking iPod has arrived
Apple has released the new iPod Nano in a variety of colours and in 8 Gigabyte or 16 Gigabyte guises. The menu structure on the iPod can now be spoken using a synthetic voice, so now if you can't see the iPod screen, you will not be left wondering what tracks you have downloaded or have selected to play.
The model evaluated is the Nano Red, which means that Apple donates some of the purchase cost towards fighting Aids in Africa. The great news is that this is an iPod that anyone can buy and use, not a specialist product or needing an add-on for blind or partially sighted people to use. This is the first talking iPod to come to the market. You can expect other MP3 players to follow suit as Apple is the market leader in this segment. The spoken menu feature is expected to be well received amongst fully sighted people also because the iPod is an audio device and people will find the spoken menu coming through their earbuds.
The spoken interface can be used on a Macintosh or Windows PC but you must use iTunes version 8. When the iPod is plugged in the first time, it will begin to charge up the battery. Eventually a start up screen appears which allows you to choose how you want to set up the iPod. One of the tick box options is "spoken menus". Tick this box if you want iPod menus to be spoken.
The voice used is a synthetic voice (i.e. computer generated voice) so might not be totally clear or understandable. The voice used is the one chosen in Speech in System preferences folder on a Mac and the speech folder in the Control Panel on a Windows PC. These are text to speech voices that are installed on your computers hard drive. The more synthesizers you have installed then the greater the number of voices you have to choose from.
The PC used to trial the iPod Nano had Microsoft Sam installed which was very basic but quite clear and also Voiceware Kate which is a very human sounding voice.
Using the iPod
The iPod has an LCD screen, which is approximately half of the height of the device. The screen can be used to watch movies, or photo albums or even TV shows that are now available to download from iTunes. The screen also shows albums and songs installed on the iPod. Below the screen is a touch wheel. This touch wheel is made up of four buttons that can be pressed - so left side of the wheel is rewind or backwards but also can be volume down, the right side of the wheel when pressed is fast forward or volume up. The top of the wheel is Menu and the bottom of the wheel when pressed toggles between play and pause. The touch wheel can also be used as a touch sensitive scroll wheel. Sliding your finger around the wheel will move backwards or forward through the menus. Finally the inside of the wheel acts as an on and off button.
To listen to tracks simply move through your menu list of tracks and press play on the one you want to hear. If you want to browse for another track whilst listening to a song, the iPod fades the music playing into the background while speaking the menu contents. Once you finish navigating in the menus the song returns to the set volume.
Shuffle the Shuffle
The iPod has an accelerometer built in so it can detect which way it is being held up. This is mainly as a feature for sighted users viewing photos, movies or downloads. However the accelerometer allows the iPod to detect when it is shaken. This shaking is used as the shuffle feature and a track is played randomly from the playlist.
Disable touch wheel mode
When the iPod is your pocket, bag or even on your arm you can set it to play then disable to touch wheel functions so that it does not change songs or stop playing by accident. Its similar to keypad lock on a mobile phone. On the top left of the iPod is a tiny round slide switch. Sliding it to the right puts the iPod into keypad locked. To the left, unlock touch pad.
Display and font sizes
The display is small - after all, the device is called a Nano! However there is some accessibility built in. In the General folder the backlight, brightness, font size can be adjusted. The font adjustment has two settings standard and large. Large is approximately 14 point print size. The colour scheme appears to be set as black text on a white background. There is a lot of adjustment in the Brightness setting if people find the bright white background causes glare however contrast does deteriorate if the brightness is turned down low. A useful feature is the "clicker", which registers movement on the touch wheel by clicking through menu items.
:D It sounds really nice.I had heard about this, now I would like one.
Yes. I'd love one too. I wonder how much it is?
I have one. I got it October tenth. I love it. its great. I strongly recommend it. Its easy to setup and easy to change the voice as well. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask me about it when you see me around.
I currently own one of these too. It took me a bit to understand it all, but now love it. I have an eight gig one, and getting through Itunes now with the latest JAWS is easy too.
Oh yes, my eight gig cost me $154 right from Apple.
They are $129 or so for the 8GB unit at Sam's club. I almost bought one last weekend but wasn't sure if 8GB was enough...
I bought my Ipod back in July. I would've waited for this one had I known. It sounds really cool.
I would love to have one, but I need to update my screen reader as well to work with the latest version of itunes. Quite the total expense for a talking music player.
*Grin,* someday though.
I saw the 8GB blue Nano Generation 4 iPod on Amazon for $139.99. There was a used one for $135.00, too. I want one for Christmas, and Louis said he'd get it for me. Yay! Lol.
hmmm, i'll stick with my thirty gig ipod video with rock box. it works awesome. and don't even hav to bother with i tunes, just copy and paste. mmmm.
it sounds good, maybe i'll start saving up
I use jaws eight. and I can root jaws to PC and do what I need to do just fine in itunes. I Only use Itunes to put the speach on it, and update the speach when I put new songs on. I use Xplay to put the actual music on it. I have a 16 gig one, but not sure how much it was. my mom baught it.
I've checked this out on the UK apple store, and it's way over priced for the storage size to be perfectly honest. It's I think £110 for the 8 gb, and £150 for the 16 gb. I mean you can get 80 gb and more size players for the same kind of money, and in some cases install rockbox. it's also got no more storage than some mobile phones now, for example the n95 has 2 vertions both capable of 8 gb storage, the n96 has a capacity of 16 gb flash, and a 16 gb sd card slot, so how can they honestly justify the kind of prices they are asking? it's nice, but not worth that kind of outlay.
I want a talking IPod. But I don't think 16 gigs is enough for me. Classical/Mediation music takes up more space. And add auido books and your music library - you pretty much used up a 4th of your space. And I'm always adding stuff to my IPod. Parents would purchase me one, but I'd have to give up my 30 gig IPod.
So when they can do different generations and larger gig devices then I'll convert. But for now, what I have is ok. I'd also like voice options (No Drunken Sam Please.)
I have artists/bands I listen to frequently on a playlist, and the others I listen to once in a while in another folder.
Yes this is great for the IPod Fan who can barely/can't see.
oi, I want one!
It sounds really good. Only thing now is, I don't know if I want to get the talking ipod, or the vi player. The vi player is more expensive, but the talking ipod sounds just as good and anyone can buy it.
Wow! It does sound awesome! If I'd have known they'd come out with something like this maybe I wouldn't have waisted money on this stupid mp3 player I have and finally officially gave up on! i use itunes a lot anyway, and it works ok with jaws, still not the best though, and I have 9. I also dont like the clicker thing, and my sapy5 voices dont work so I'd have nothing to choose from unless you can put jaws voice on there, which I doubt! But sounds cool though, but a little out of my range, and not money wise either! And 16 or even 8 gigs sounds awesome! Oh well...
I don't use sam. I use realspeak voices.
I prefer the realspeak voices, so might get one of those on there if I get the ipod. It sounds so cool.
I can't find the exact product again, but... Have you all heard of this device that you plug in to your ipod and it'll speak to you? I found it on maxiaids. It was somewhere around $130 or something.
My first thought was I wonder how much battery power this takes away? An alternative to a talking new ipod though.
yeah I can't wait to get one of thoughs nanos. My brother has one that i did put rockbox on just to test it out to see how good rockbox worked. I am not one for blind apps so i wasn't to thrilled with it but now that apple has provided pplz with the accessiblity we need then i'm all for it! i've had the welfair iPod witch is the shuffle. I like it but i have ran out of space. lol. btw i tested rockbox a while ago and my brothers iPod is oe of the older nanos. so yeah. all in all, i can't wait to go and even test this thing out in the apple store or when i get one for xmas. its gonna be my number one gift wanting cause i'm a major fan of apple. omg there so awesome!!!
ooo Shea. Is yours easy to use? I want one that holds 30 gb as well and I've never used itunes before so yeah. I'm still window shopping for the best ipod out there. Question. Why can't one listen to mp3 books on an ipod? Why must it be m4b? That has always confused me...
It'll be interesting to hear someone who has tried out the new talking ipod and has experience with rockbox.
Personally, I could never figure out how to download and install rockbox. It seemed so complicated.
woot, new christmas present!! yeayh!! hm, if two gigs holds 500 then eight holds what, 2000 then! sweet!
I believe you're talking of the I-Tel, which is £59.99 from Cobolt in the UK, discription follows.
I-Tell
A unique, innovative and exciting product, which enables your existing iPod to announce your stored artists, album titles, song titles and audio books. The I-Tell simply plugs into your iPod and your earphones plug into the I-Tell; you then control your
iPod through the controls on the I-Tell. The unit also includes a removable belt
clip. You can connect other devices such as a radio transmitter or charger to your
iPod whilst using the I-Tell. The I-Tell has 5 main control buttons which work in
a similar way to an iPod, with 2 additional buttons to control the volume. The unit
has an additional setup menu, which enables you to choose the voice style, voice
speed and the gaps between words. The unit requires no batteries as it is powered
by the iPod. Compatible with most iPod’s which have a docking connector.
let's try this again. I guess i am used to sending emails and hit alt s. grrrr. bye bye went post. hehehe anyway, I was saying. Michelle, ipods do play mp3 books and music. it plays lots of other extensions to. But mp3 is what I use the most. it is also really easy to use with rock box. it reads everything, just like jaws. I also like it because you just copy and paste like you would to an external hard drive. you odn't have to use i tunes or any of that crap. Dan and I both have the thirty gig ipod video And we both really like it with rock box. We used them before we got rock box. just had to remember the different menus and keys. but rock box has made it so we can use it alot easier and use all of it, like make different folders for different play lists and movies and yeah, whatever we want to make a different foldr for. like i said it works a lot like an external hard drive. We have used it for several parties, just hooked it up to the stereo and played it from there. Rock box works on most ipods, you just have to look it up first and make sure it supports it . Like i said we have the thirty gig and i would much rather have the bigger hard drive, than pay for a voice thingy that you can get for free. if you have any more questions michelle you know where i am. hehehe
I think that its cool because it talks but I'm like my mp3 player i just shuffle my tunes and go on about my day but I don't no. It just sync with windows media player its so easy
you can get an 8 gig for about 130 dollars its a sandisk and there is a flash card slot I think that is the better vallue plus you can play more than just mp3's I think with the ipod your limited as to the types of files
Wow Shea! Thanks so much for your awesome explanation. I agree with you about the more space you have, the better it is. Especially when rockbox works for you guys. I'm going to have to check it out. lol And you know for sure I'll hit you up with questions when I come across them. :p I'm off to look at yummy ipods now. lol Maybe if I'm lucky, Thanh will buy me one. haha
The reason why it has to be in mphorae format is because it's made by Apple company and they don't do mp3.
hmmm, i'm not sure what your on about. but my i pod supports mp3 just fine. actually that's about all i have on it at the moment.
Every mp3 player I know of supports mp3's including IPods. Where they differ is the specific company's files. IPods play ITunes files but not wma, as I suspect Microsoft's Zune player will play wma's but not ITunes files.
I may stick with my current player until it breaks, but this is exciting news. I'm sure it's an appealing option for some people.
damn, gotta get my hands on one of these
Well, I got my new iPod Nano 4, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed in iTunes. I synced my iPod to my husband's computer, well actually my husband did it, wich i'm discovering was a big mistake. Anyway, he synced it so that the music on my SD card went on my iPod. He synced it using iTunes, but now he can't remember how he did it. This is crucial information for me, because I hooked my iPod up to my desktop thinking I could just hook it up and delete the songs I didn't want. Well, itunes told me that because I was using a different computer, I would have to redo my whole library. I ended up having to restore it, but instead of having nothing on my iPod, I now have some bizzarre music that I did not put on my iPod, but I think iTunes put some obscure stuff on there. Anyway, if anyone can help, I would appreciate it. By the way, do you need sighted assistance to change your settings on the iPod? iTunes is telling me that my synthesizer won't work on my iPod because somehow the language is Russian. I don't know if that has anything to do with my iTunes settings or my iPod settings. Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing, so if anyone could help, maybe I won't regret getting this damn thing. Lol.
I have a friend that got one of the new nanoes but she doesn't have any clue how to use and how to get it to talk to her so if you could help so I can pass on the info to her that wood be great. she was so excited to get one and now she is like um I don't no hwo to use it
To post 35, don't worry about that, just say continue about the speech. I am using a brittish voice and it works fine. FOr post 36 go to the ipod in the source list, and check the checkbox in their that says something like activate spokem menus. Then wait for it to sync the speech on, and enjoy.
x play works awesome with i pods instead of i tunes.
I just bought my daughter the iPod Nano 4th generation for christmas...then I learned it was able to talk, which I thought was totally awesome. I paid a total of $147.88 at walmart everyday low prices! I'm currently saving money up for my own...I can't wait!
A thought about file formats. Remember the following. As long as the music is not protected mostlikely you can convert it to MP3. Example, Apple likes the AAC format and it's been said that you can only play that on an ipod. a program called switch will happily convert aac or a variety of other formats to MP3 so don't let the format stop you. Switch is free software and works great on mac and PC.
Do you think it'll be possible to make the ipod talk with a different program? I don't mean rockbox, but eventually using anipod or something. To still enable the speech feature.
I need something that I can convert my wma's to mp3's any help wood be great I use jfw 9 just so you no
Import them into itunes, let it do all the work for u.
Yep, or use Switch Sound File Converter to do it.
Don't have the website for it.
I got one of the iPod Nanos mentioned here. It is the 8 Gig one.
It was easy to set up and it is easy to use. And, syncing the speech is as seimple as checking a checkbox in iTunes. And oh eyah, I got it for Christmas.
And, oh BTW, the battery life of it is great!
Jeff, u using itunes or XPlay? Cody's got one, he's using itunes, not happy with it, but I think he's got the hang of it now, but I don't know if XPlay will work with synching speech or not.
I'm using iTunes with JAWS 9 and 10 even though 10 is a demo.
I don't think XPlay will sync the speech across, I haven't seen anything about it on the XPlay site.
That's not unusual for Cody to not like something, so I'm not supprised.
But iTunes and jfw play so nicely together now! Ah well, ya can't please everyone I suppose, and would like to toss in my opinion as well that the new iPods are fantastic! I have the 16 GB green one, and it's my right arm. lol
Click wheel is kinda sensitive though. Was listening to a JRock song, and sudenly it was about 3 times as loud. Not too kind on the ears.
I got a 16 gig sansa player for christmas. I had to take it back to the store twice because the battery kept kieing. After the second time I went ahead and got an instore credit and got an Ipod. Omg i love it!! xplay is so awesome and I can still sinc with windowsmedia which makes things so easy. Its so nice to be able to use something with speach and not have to pay extra for the speach. If anyone is conciddering getting one of the new ipods you should do it. Next to my blackjack2 this is the best thing eber. Now i want jfw10 so I can use itunes lol
Y JFW10? I've got 8 and itunes works just fine with it.
I've got JAWS 9 as the primary thing here, and I can use all fo iTunes, including the store, thanks to the JDF file FS made.
And what's so great about XPlay anyway?
I finally found some time to actually put music on my ipod I got for christmas. I really like it a lot the new itunes works really nice with jaws I am really impressed. For someone that used windows media player all the time, I have to say that itunes is way better... And the talking feature on the ipod is great you can't get any better than this. Itunes does pretty much all the work for you....
Has anyone used system access with itunes 8 yet?
A side question that I may post in geeks r us as well... How do I find more voices under my xp speech settings? Why isn't my eloquence in that list?
Because elequents isn't sappy five or four.
is it best to run the battery down or just charge it after your done using it for the day so the battery doesn't completely die?
o yes one more questions how do you use itunes with jfw 9?
I wone a free 16 gig ipod nano at our college christmas party, so, squepals, talking ipod, I just can't set the time or the date or play the games, but I don't care, I have a freaking talking ipod!!!
Quick question here. How many of you guys use XPlay? is it easier than itunes? does it allow you to copy and paste your files directly onto your ipod?
I received that IPod for Christimas and like it a lot. it works very well and is pretty sweet.
Mallory
If you having the ipod 4gen, any idea if the radio would speak as well? If you got the radio transmiter that is.
yes x play allows you to copy and paste. we were using it before we got rock box installed, and it worked awesome. really easy to use too.
xplay and audible.com thats all you need then you have no use for itunes.
why do you need audible.com to use XPlay?
you don't but that is a nice sight to download books. and xplay to drop and drag your items and you have no use for itunes
Sure audible is nice, if you've got money.
Ok, one more question!! I'm debating as to whether I should get the 8 or 16 GB Ipod as a birthday present to myself. I like listening to audio books, but would probably only have one book on my ipod at a time. I'd also have about 1500 songs. Considering all of that, is it necessary, in your opinion, to go with the ipod with the larger capacity? or can an 8 GB hold one or two audio books as well as around 1500 songs?
Thanks for any replies!
I think its well worth it to get the 16 gb that way if you want to keep more than one book and add more songs you can.
Yeah, good point. And it only costs $50 more than the 8 GB. Do you need jaws 10 to use XPlay and the ipod? because apparently you need jaws 10 to successfully use Itunes, and I only have jaws 7 because I'm always at least a few versions behind like that, sadly.
no you should be fine with the jaws you have just get someone that can see download the itunes just so you can put the speach on there
To use ITunes with JAWS 9, go to the FS site, and grab the JCF file and put it in your JAWS user settings folder.
Complete instructions are here:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/BulletinView.asp?QC=1302
I'm successfully using JAWS 9 and 10 with iTunes8.
HTH,
Jeffrey
I didn't have to put any .jcf file in my itunes and jaws 8. Just downloaded and installed itunes no sighted assistance whatsoever, and it worked fine.
Sadly, I have jaws 7 and jaws 8 would basically cost me to sign off my first-born child. Does anyone know if I can use it with jaws 7? can't I just get a sighted person to click the "speak all menus" in Itunes the first time and then use XPlay the rest of the time?
And, thanks to those of you who are replying to my constant questions--it's really helpful!
With the speaking menus on the new ipods, will it speak info for audio books?
Can you use a nano with downloading books from bookshare?
Thanks!
just get a sighted person to set up the ipod then use cplay the rest of the time my boyfriend set it up for me that way. he can see and he doesn't even like itunes. and I'm pretty sure you can download books from bookshare if you want
Hey all, am I understanding this correctly...
Have someone set up the ipod via itunes, with the voices, then use xplay to transfer files and creat playlists?
Yep.
Ok, if anyone is still reading this topic, and is familiar with using the Ipod nano with XPlay, can you please message me? I have questions, but don't want to hog this entire thread. Thanks!
I have a 80G clasic which i will never be able to fill up. I only have settings and now playing showing on the main menu. To shuffle, I just hit the center button 3 times then move the wheel clockwise til there's a click. Just make sure that you are on the now playing screen.
Wow! 80 Gigs! That is amazing.
Dear friends,
Ipod Nano is great, i have got a 16 GB Ipod nano as a gift from my aunt, i am able to download songs and i am using itunes 8 with jaws 10. but i am unable to download video and pictures to my ipod so can some help me? and also i am unable to downloade audio books, and it also have contacts and a notepad. talking menus in ipod nano is great but it does not help in some places like "time", "games", and so on, and i am not very much comfortable in usintg Itunes. so kindly help me. you can also send me mail regarding this question my mail id is
vinbenji@gmail.com
hoping for your reply
thank you.