Prizmo 3 Adds New Features and iOS 7 Optimization

Pizmo 3 has just been released with a new design which is perfect for iOS 7,  and has some helpful new features. After updating, you will notice a new app icon and a redesigned interface, but the changes go deeper than just a new design. The updated app is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touches running iOS 7. Click here to download Prizmo. Similar to previous versions, Prizmo 3 still allows you to take pictures of text and have the text extracted using optical character recognition (OCR) in order to have the text read aloud using text-to-speech. In other words, you can take a picture of a document and then Prizmo will read it back to you using text-to-speech. Amazingly, whole process takes less than a minute per page. Prizmo 3 also includes PDF exporting and business card scanning.

Prizmo 3 adds a handful of helpful new features including support for dynamic text size, optional faster text-to-speech rate, and one touch multiple page scanning. Dynamic text is a new feature of iOS 7 that allows users to specify a text size that  is easier for them to read.  This text size can be larger or smaller than the default text size. After choosing a text size, all compatible apps, such as Prizmo, will display text in your preferred size. Prizmo 3 also allows users to speed up the text-to-speech rate up to 400% for people who can understand faster speech. Another new time saving feature allows users to scan multi-page documents with a single button press instead of scanning one page at a time. Prizmo 3 is definitely a worthwhile update for all iOS 7 users.

To learn more about the features of Prizmo 3 click here. Click here to view screen shots of Prizmo 3 in action.

NaviDys Browser for iPad Makes Reading the Web Easier

NaviDys is a web browser for the iPad. The app allows full customization of a website's font, line spacing, letter spacing, and text size. Currently it is only available on the iPad not the iPhone or iPod Touch. While it feels very much like the built in Safari browser that comes with the iPad, NaviDys has features that make it easier to read the web. For people with low vision the ability to enlarge fonts and increase spacing is beneficial. Also, for dyslexics NaviDys includes the Dyslexie font. But using a third party browser does not come without trade offs. You cannot open links from other apps directly into NaviDys. Unlike Safari NaviDys does not include a reader mode to remove distractions from web pages. NaviDys costs $2.99 from the App Store.

Click read more below to view screenshots of NaviDys.

Quizlet Flashcard App: Create, Share, and Study

Quizlet is a website where users can create, share, and study flashcards. Users can make a study set on the internet and then study them on a computer or using the free Quizlet iOS app. The app is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Teachers can also make a study sets for their classes. Quizlet also offers pre-made flashcard sets for popular vocabulary books, SAT vocabulary, and more. Flashcards can also include images to aid in studying. Once the study set is open you can view the terms in list mode or in flashcard mode. Watch the video above to learn more. Both modes include speak buttons which speak the terms in a high quality text-to-speech voice. Quizlet is compatible with Apple's VoiceOver. Click here to download the free app.

Click read more below to view screenshots of the app in action.

Learning Ally Adds Text To Select Audiobooks

Learning Ally has started to add text  to a handfull of audiobooks in its collection. Learning Ally is an audio book library for people with print disabilities. The audio books with intergrated text download and opparate just like any other Learning Ally audiobook. If you prefer to just listen to the book and not read along you can do so. The book is read aloud with human narration and each paragraph is highlighted as it is being read. The text and highlighting help users follow the words as the text is being read which can help with comprehension. Some people might find it easier to follow the text if it highlighted word by-word or line- by-line instead of  paragraph-by-paragraph, but including text is a great new feature.

The app on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch still does not allow for background download or reading which means that when you close the app the audiobook will stop. Even with these shortcomings it is exciting to see  human audio and text in one easy to use app.

One title I found with the new feature is "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Learning Ally will begin offering more titles with text and audio in the future. To download the free Learing Ally app click here.

Click read more below to view screenshots of the app in action.

Ask Google Voice Search How To Spell Unfamiliar Words

Google's recently update Google Voice Search is very useful and extremely fast. There are also a few tricks that can make the app even more useful. One trick is to ask Google Voice Search "how do you spell..." Google will quickly return the correct spelling of the word and speak the spelling aloud. Unlike Siri, Google Voice Search speaks the spelling back to you so you do not need to look at the screen. This trick is especially useful for people with dyslexia and people who are struggling spellers.

iOS 6: Do Not Disturb Mode

A new feature in iOS 6 called Do Not Disturb is great for people with ADD or people who just do not want to be disturbed by calls, texts, emails or anything else that pops up on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Do Not Disturb blocks all notifications and calls. To enable Do Not Disturb go to settings and then turn on Do Not Disturb. To scheduled Do No Disturb mode to turn on at a certain time, go to notifications and then Do Not Disturb. It is a great feature for teachers and students so they can use there devices as educational tools without being distracted by notifications or calls. When Do Not Disturb Mode is on, a moon appears next to the time. Do Not Disturb allows users to allow calls from certain contacts or allows repeated calls to come through. Watch the above video to learn more or click read more to view screenshots.

Typ-O App Review

Typo-O is a word prediction, spelling and text-to-speech app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The app costs $14.99 and requires iOS 6. Click here to view the app in the App Store. Typ-O is simple and easy to use. To get started just start typing, Typ-O then predicts the which word you are trying to type. You can touch the word to accept the predicted word or you can press on a speaker button to have the word spoken  using a text-to-speech voice. The word prediction is very good and can help improve spelling. Hearing the sentence read back to you using text-to-speech can also help improve grammar. Once you have finished writing you can send your text via email or text message. Typ-O includes a number of customizable setting to help improve word prediction accuracy. One negative of the app is that it uses text-to-speech voices from the internet which means if you are not connected to the internet you must use low quality text-to-speech voices.

Watch the video above to see Typ-O in action. Click here to download a lite version of Typ-O to try before you buy. Click read more below to view screenshots of Typ-O.

HumanWare Communicator a Great Tool For Deaf-Blind Communication

HumanWare recently released the HumanWare Communicator app for iOS devices. The app is designed to make communication between a deaf-blind person and a sighted person possible.When the conversation is started an introduction is displayed for the sighted user to read. The deaf-blind person uses a Bluetooth braille display to type a message to a sighted person, this message appears on the screen of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.  Then the sighted user can respond using the virtual keyboard and the message will appear on the refreshable braille display. The conversation can then go back and forth with the deaf-blind person typing on the braille display and the sighted user typing on the device's virtual keyboard.

HumanWare describes the app as follows,

"The HumanWare Communicator application is intended to establish a text conversation, through a chat window, between a deaf-blind person and a sighted person. All interaction appears both on the deaf-blind person's refreshable Braille display, as well as visually on the screen of the iOS device."

The HumanWare communicator is available in the App Store for $99.99 for devices running iOS 5.1 or higher. To view screen shots of the HumanWare Communicator app in action click read more below.

IBM Sees Watson As Supper Powered Siri Down the Road

IBM's supper computer Watson who beat human competitors at Jeopardy! may answer your voice questions in a few years. IBM sees Watson powering a smartphone app that would act like a supper smart Siri. The app would answer your complex spoken questions in seconds. Not only would Watson be able to pull up facts quickly but it would be able to offer data driven advice for complex problems. The prospect of a Watson app is very existing but is still many years off. A Watson app would be like having a voice activated supper computer in your pocket. Watch the above video to see Watson playing Jeopardy!

Unfortunately, the technology for such a large scale role out of this system is years away but it is still fun to know whats coming.

Enhanced Google Voice Search Coming To iOS

Google's enhanced voice search that debuted in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is coming to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the coming days. Google announced that the Google Search app for iOS will be updated in "the next couple of day" to include the new feature. You simply tap the microphone and ask a question and the result is spoken back to you. The enhanced voice search is similar to Apple's Siri. Stay tuned to learn more about Google voice search and how it compares to Siri. Google says the following about enhanced voice search,

"Often the most natural way to ask a question is by asking aloud. So we’ve combined our speech recognition expertise, understanding of language and the Knowledge Graph so that Voice Search can better interpret your questions and sometimes speak the answers back as full sentences. This has been available on Android for a few weeks and people love it."

Click here to download the current version of the app.

Update: The app has not yet been released and some are speculating that Apple may be delaying the update because it is a competitor to Siri.

Voice Dream Reader App For iOS

Voice Dream Reader is a text-to-speech app for people with reading disabilities or people who just prefer to listen to text. The app costs $4.99 in the App Store. Click here to download the app. Voice Dream Reader can extract text from ePub, PDF, Word, Pages, Keynote and web pages and then read them aloud using text-to-speech with synchronized highlighting. Watch the above video to learn more. Voice Dream Reader comes pre-loaded with the Heather voice, but additional voices can be purchased for $0.99. One downside is that all text formatting and all images are extracted and not visible.

While reading a document you can change the speech rate, text size and background color. While reading a document it is easy to skip around in the text and look up words. The app cannot read the definitions so you will need to turn on VoiceOver. It is unfortunate that the app does not read the definition because some people may not be familiar with VoiceOver. Voice Dream Reader can be synced with a number of cloud services including Dropbox to get documents into the app.

In all Voice Dream Reader is a solid app. For some, the built in Speak Selection feature may be good enough. With iOS 6 coming in the fall, Speak Selection will have syncronized highlighting which will make some features of Voice Dream Reader obsolete. If you want the ability to create playlists or read with multiple voices this app is for you.

Click read more below to view screenshots of Voice Dream Reader in action.

Eyes Free Typing With Fleksy For iPhone

Fleksy is an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows visually impaired users to type without needing to see the keyboard perfectly. Users press on the screen approximately where they think the correct letter is located on the keyboard. Fleksy is designed only for people with visual impairments. To use the typing feature in the app VoiceOver must be off, and then when you want to share the text you have typed you must turn VoiceOver back on by tripple-clicking the home button.

As the above video shows the taps on the keyboard can be fairly far from the correct letter without effecting the accuracy. If there are multiple possible words based on your taps. Fleksy will allow you to choose other likely words by flicking up and down on the screen.

After each word you must flick right to tell Fleksy that you are done typing that word. After each word, Fleksy will speak the word aloud using text-to-speech. To add punctuation you can flick to the right twice and the select the correct punctuation. If you have to enter a name, you can hold down on the keyboard and the letters will be spoken as your finger touches them, then you can release your finger to type the letter. To enter numbers and symbols rotate two fingers to switch between text, numbers and symbols. When you have typed your text, tripple-click the home button to turn on VoiceOver. Turning on VoiceOver automatically brings up the sharing menu which gives you the option to copy, email, text and tweet your text. Fleksy does not replace the standard iOS keyboard. I tested the app by closing my eyes while typing and found that the type was accurate and surprisingly fast. Fleksy claims that users can type up to 25 words per minute with practice. Fleksy is definately faster than typing with VoiceOver and the standard keyboard for visually impaired users. 

Fleksy sells for $14.99 on the App Store. Click here to download the app. Click read more below to view another video about Fleksy and to view screenshots.

PaperPort Notes App for iPad: Notetaking with Dictation

Paperport Notes is a free app for the iPad. The app is made by Nuance the maker of Dragon Dictation. The app allows users to take notes by typing, writing with a stylist or by dictation. Paperport Notes also allows users to import pictures and web pages into notes as visual reminders. Another useful feature allows users to record audio notes of a class or meeting while they are typing or writing notes. The audio notes will allow you to go back and review the class or meeting if you missed an important part. Once you have completed your note you can save in as a PDF or use cloud services such as Dropbox.

Click read more below to view more images of Paperport Notes.

Researchers Find Faster Eyes-Free Typing Solution for Touch Screens

Researchers have developed and faster way to type on touch screens with out seeing the screen. The solution, called BrailleTouch, is perfect for blind smart phone users. BrailleTouch uses the three dots on each side of the screen to represent Braille alphabet. BrailleTouch is designed to be used with the touch screen facing away from the user. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers of both hands are used to touch the six dots. Researchers claim that BrailleTouch allows users to type eyes-free with 92 percent accuracy and 32 words per minutes. BrailleTouch is a prototype app and is not available to the public.

Click read more below to read the press release.

Read PDF Files Aloud with vBooks PDF Voice Reader

vBooks PDF Voice Reader is an app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that reads PDFs aloud using text-to-speech. The app has a similar interface to iBook. vBooks PDF Voice Reader comes with a male and female text-to-speech voice included with app. The included text-to-speech voices sound good and are easy to understand. To read a PDF simply tap on the front page of the PDF from the bookshelf and then press the red play button on the bottom of the screen. The text can be read at speeds of 100 words per minute all the way up to 240 words per minute. The app has a cursor that highlights the word being read and you can drag the cursor around to start reading a different part of the PDF. The app also has navigation features such as search, thumbnails and sliders. PDFs can be imported into vBooks PDF Voice Reader by using the "open in" feature from apps such as mail or iTunes sync. vBookz does not have OCR capabilities so images with text will not be compatible. Another downside is that there is no bookmarking feature and the app will not remember where you left off so you will have to find where you left off each time. To learn more about OCR click here. vBookz PDF Voice Reader costs $4.99 in the App Store.

vBookz requested the following be included in the review,

"We're open for requests and suggestions. Not everything can be implemented, but it is important for us to improve our products as much as we can".

For more information about zBookz click read more below.

TurboScan App Review

TurboScan is a app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The app uses the built in camera to capture a document and convert the image to excellent quality PDF files. TurboScan is $1.99 in the App Store. The app will not work very well with the iPad or iPod Touch because they do not have high quality cameras like the iPhone. The app has a simple interface that is easy to learn. It allows you to capture documents by taking a picture with your iPhone camera or import one from your album. TurboScan also has an option to take three pictures of the document for better accuracy. TurboScan also allows users to scan documents that are more than one page.

Once you have taken the picture of your document TurboScan detects the edges of the document and makes a PDF file. The apps has a few sharing options but not as many as JotNot Pro. The sharing include email and a really nice option called "email to myself" witch allows to quickly email your self the documents you have created.

Once you have your documents on your computer you can open them with Kurzweil to use all of Kurzweil's features such as read aloud and note taking. The PDF files created are crisp and clear.

Click read more below to see more pictures and videos of TurboScan.

Color ID: Free Color Identifier

Color ID is a simple free app that recognizes colors using the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch's camera. Point the camera at the object you want to know the color of to use the app. Turn on VoiceOver to hear the color of the object be said allowed. Click here to download Color ID. Color ID is ideal for people who are blind or color blind and need to identify the color of clothing or any other object.

Printer Pro For Allows You To Print From Your iOS Device

Printer Pro for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad allows you to print to most printers from your iOS devices. Click here for the iPad app and here for the iPhone and iPod Touch app. Printer Pro is not a universal app so you will need to buy the app separately for your iPhone and iPad in order to have the best experience. Printer Pro allows you to print to most Wi-Fi printer and any printer attached to your computer by downloading a desktop app. To test to make sure your printer is compatible you can download Printer Pro Lite by clicking here. Setting up is relatively quick and easy. Once you set up your printer the app will remember your printer and you will not need to set it up each time. Printer Pro allows you to print email attachments, files from Dropbox, Web pages, Photos and Contacts. Click read more below to see screen shots of Printer Pro.

Proloquo2Go the Premiere AAC App for iOS

Proloquo2Go is the most full featured augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app for iOS. The app can help people who have trouble communicating communicate by touching words or phrases that they want to have spoken aloud. To learn more about Proloquo2Go visit their website at Proloquo2Go.com. Proloquo2Go has an extremely visual interface that makes finding what you are looking for easy. The home screen of Proloquo2Go has a grid with folders; each folder has an image and title on it. The user touches a folder to enter that category. For example if you wanted to say "yes" you would click on the yes, no, maybe folder and the touch the yes button. Once you touch the yes button a computerized voice would say "yes." Many folders have numerous sub folders which can make it time consuming to find the word or phrase you would like to say. Luckily, you can make quick sets of words and phrases you use often for quicker access. In addition you can make custom commands such as family member's names or home address. Proloquo2Go also allows users to input the word  they want via a keyboard. The keyboard has advanced word prediction that allows users to insert words faster. When using the keyboard you can type out phrases that Proloquo2Go will say allowed when you are finished typing. Proloqu2Go allow features several high quality text-to-speech voices. Proloquo2Go is a feature filled AAC app that can allow people to communicate. Because of the abundance of features Proloquo2Go can be slightly complex to use at the beginning. To try Proloquo2Go you can stop by your local Apple Store and find the app installed on all of the display iPads. Proloquo2Go is $189.99 in the App Store and works with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Proloquo2Go can replace much more expensive AAC devices and using Apple devices can make users feel less self-conscious than using a dedicated AAC device that is different from anything peers or same age students would use. To watch Proloquo2Go featured on 60 minutes click here. To learn more about Proloquo2Go click read more below.

iOS 5 Camera Accessibility

iOS 5 introduced many new accessibility features including Assistive Touch, Siri and Speak Selection. One hidden feature gives blind and visually impaired the ability to take pictures with VoiceOver and the built in camera on the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. Your iOS device will tell you how many people are in your picture and if the people are in the center of the screen so you can get the best shot. This is just on feature in a growing list of iOS accessibility features.