I just appeared on the excellent show Access Unlimited, an award-winning show on KPFK in Las Angeles. I talked about my first experiences with computers, the first time I used an iPhone, and even text adventures. Jolie Mason, one of the show’s hosts, contacted me and we had a great chat. I knew we would have a great interview. Stella Violano from AppAdvice and Thomas Domville from Applevis also participated. I met Stella when she contact me to help her make her excellent list of apps for the blind, and her follow-up list of games for the blind. It felt good to get us all on the same program.

You can listen to it or download it. Enjoy!

I feel very excited to review the Aftershokz bone conducting headphones. These new headphones use bone conduction to deliver sound, leaving your ears open to the outside environment. Originally developed for special ops, they have now found their way into the public sector. They help the sighted and the blind even more.

As with many good things, synchronicity surrounded my discovery of Aftershokz. I wanted a way to hear my iPhone’s GPS while still leaving my ears free to hear my environment, especially given my recent interest in echolocation. At first I wondered about some kind of shoulder mounted speaker. I thought someone would have done this, but I found nothing. I started using a small earpiece, but it did obscure my hearing slightly in my left ear where I wore it. Still, it worked for the time being. As I pondered my options, I saw a tweet about these headphones, and I knew Goddess had answered my prayers!

I wondered how they would help the blind, and others did as well. I found a great review and podcast from SeroTalk. It got me excited and I ordered a pair of the mobile headphones on the spot. I received them yesterday and have had a chance to play with them a little. They deliver as promised, and I really enjoy using them.

The headphones look sort of like a little pair of regular headphones, but with some differences. The band wraps around the back of the head, and the ear pads sit in front of the earlobes right where the sinuses begin. Wearing them feels very comfortable. They have a single cord on the left side which connects to the battery box, and in the case of the mobile headphones, the inline microphone. The battery box also has a power light, and two buttons. The top button turns the headphones on and off, and the bottom button acts like the middle button no a pair of Apple headphones, allowing for answering calls, and playing and pausing music. The battery box also has a hefty clip to keep everything nice and untangled. The cord then continues down to a standard 3.5mm jack, the kind used by iPhones and iPods. The box also comes with a little extension cord and a USB charger which plugs into the headphones.

After plugging the USB charger into my iMac and letting the headphones charge for three hours, I wanted to try them out. I turned them on and hooked them up to my iPhone and fired up Ariadne GPS. I walked with my family to Hawthornes Cafe, an awesome local restaurant. To my delight, everything worked as expected. I could hear my location while carrying on a perfectly normal conversation with my family.

The sound has a slightly tinny quality to it, but I sort of expected that. I would not consider them for serious listening, but then again I did not get them for that purpose. For human and synthetic speech they sound just fine. The sound has an interesting quality since it comes through your bones. It sort of sounds like it comes from within your head as when wearing headphones, but something does seem a little different. I like it.

Later I had a call, and again the voice sounded fine. I asked how the mic sounded, and she said she didn’t even know I used the headphones and thought I just used the normal microphone on the iPhone. We talked for four hours and my ears never hurt or felt uncomfortable in any way, plus I could rome freely around my condo. This beats wearing headphones which makes navigating impossible even in a familiar space, or wearing one headphone over your ear and letting the other rest against the head to keep an ear open, or just leaving it on speaker phone and manipulating the phone while doing other tasks. This use really impressed me and showed the real potential of bone conduction.

I also played some music through them. First I loaded up a goa trance track by Psychonaut. I could actually feel the bass thumping into my head through the ear pads, though lower frequencies do sound a bit muted. It felt unique. Then I put on a mellow ambient track by the Orb. While the headphones don’t deliver the full bass response of standard headphones, they sound just fine for casual background listening.

The freedom offered by Aftershokz feels so wonderful. Now a blind person can hear any audio they desire without sacrificing their orientation and mobility. My Mom said I look like a space cadet because of the shining power indicator, and it sort of feels that way, walking and talking with a GPS overlaid onto my reality. I can see how soldiers would benefit from this technology. I recommend these to all blind users. They fill my needs perfectly, and arrived at the perfect time. They range in price from $59.99-$79.99. You can preorder them now and the site also has a link to order them immediately. Go get them now, you will not feel disappointed.

I have recently gotten AirPlay working to prepare for a move. As I wrote, I got an Airport Express and an Apple TV. At the time of writing I had to wait to get the Apple TV working. Now I have, and I love it. The whole model of content distribution needs to mature, and Apple will lead the way.

I ordered my Apple TV and it arrived within twenty-four hours. I felt amazed just examining the box and its contents. The Apple TV looks like a little square with a few ports on the back and rounded edges. The remote looks like the coolest remote I’ve ever seen, just a thin rectangle with convex surfaces and round corners. The remote has a button with the four arrows and enter in the center, plus a Menu/Back button and a Play/Pause button below it. It reflects a zen minimalism perfectly.

I couldn’t wait to get it working. Things worked out very nicely actually. For Christmas my Mom gave me a little lightweight TV to bring with me on the move, as compared with the bulky one I bought when I bought the house in 2002. It amazed me how in ten years media and the technology around it has totally changed. The old one didn’t even have an HDMI port, something Apple TV needs. I had a friend come over and haul the old one outside with a FREE sign on it. In my excitement I had tried hooking up the Apple TV to the new TV, but hit the wrong button on the new TV’s remote, putting it in a perpetual menu and making it silent and useless. I really hope APple really does come out with a full TV which talks! Imagine that, no more inaccessible menus.

My friend got the new TV working with Apple TV just fine. Hitting the lower right button (Play/Pause) three times during the initial setup will enable VoiceOver. Once we got it off the ground I could operate everything with Apple TV’s remote, plus a few buttons on the other remote my friend taught me. I could now try to evaluate this thing.

Apple TV has a simple menu structure. Going left and right goes through the different categories of things (movies, TV shows, etc.) and going up and down goes through the options in that category. In this way you can rent movies, watch TV shows, listen to music in your iTunes library, subscribe to podcasts, watch Youtube videos, and lots of other fascinating things. For the first time I can lounge in my recliner with a remote and browse on-demand content and have it talk to me, something sighted people have enjoyed for years. I love it!

First I looked at hot movies. Apple has a notorious anti-pornography stance, so it seemed interesting to see the fascinating documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule in the top ten independent films. You can’t have sex, but smoke all the DMT you want! I also saw a documentary about Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, one of my heroes. I plan to rent both.

Next I looked at TV shows. I added some favorites to my list. I watched the latest episode of the Simpsons just to try it. The episode parodied Glen Beck and the tea party movement, and I enjoyed it. It felt cool to see all the different networks and shows. It just has on-demand content, nothing live. As soon as they start streaming live content we can cut the cable forever, and I look forward to that day.

Then I wandered over to the internet category. I watched a Ron Paul video on YouTube, and subscribed to a few podcasts, including the very funny Radio Free Oz. I really like listening to podcasts on my Apple TV from the comfort of my living room. I could really get more into podcasts this way. I also browsed my iTunes library, very cool. And of course, Apple TV acts as an AirPlay device, so I can hear anything I want over it as long as I can stream it.

All and all, I love Apple TV, but the current generation represents a stepping stone. I think that things need to mature so we can enjoy live TV. People have become tired of paying insane amounts of money to watch their favorite two or three channels on cable. In his biography, Steve Jobs said that he has cracked the secret to an easy high definition television. I hope he has, because I welcome a full Apple TV. Should you get one? If you like watching on-demand content or have a large iTunes library then I would say yes. If you don’t know then you might want to wait to see how the rumors play out. Either way, I have found my Zen TV.

Twitter has had an official app for a while. Now it has become less accessible, and it has also become integrated into iOS. Twitter must make the same commitment to accessibility which Apple has.

Accessibility refers to making something usable by everyone. In this case it refers to making an application work well with VoiceOver so that the blind can use it. Sites like Applevis post accessibility ratings for different apps. If an app does not play nicely with VoiceOver then the blind cannot use it and it may as well not exist for us.

This can seem very annoying, as you can imagine. For example, several friends have asked me to play Words with Friends. As you can read, everything works except for the game board, a rather important feature. I played a lot of Scrabble as a kid and would really enjoy playing again. The official Facebook app also sucks, and many have found alternatives. App developers can choose to improve accessibility, and many do. Many apps also work with little or no modification. All well and good, and normally I wouldn’t write a blog post about this.

The Twitter app falls into a special category however. Apple has chosen to integrate it very heavily into iOS 5. The Twitter settings has a link to easily download the official app, and iOS accesses it if using its built-in Twitter integration. This puts the app in a special circumstance. If a blind person wants to use iOS’s Twitter integration, they have to use the app. Because of its unique position, Twitter must care about accessibility.

Since it came out, Twitter has provided a clutter-free social network which the blind have enjoyed. I know many of us prefer it to Facebook for that reason. And don’t even get me started about Google+! Twitter must recognize this and continue along these lines.

Apple has become the leader in accessibility. Every Apple device talks out of the box. This includes the iPhone, iTouch, iPad, Apple TV, and Macs. No other company has done this. The blind have come to expect that anything Apple does will have accessibility in mind. Turning over their Twitter integration to a third party means that third party must have the same commitment. If they don’t it makes Apple look bad. Apple must recognize this and demand appropriate action.

In summary, the blind have come to know Apple as the leader of accessibility. Steve Jobs insisted that Apple’s devices should have universal accessibility. Having a Twitter app with less than full accessibility goes against this philosophy. Twitter must fix their official Twitter app as long as iOS depends on it. The Me tab has serious issues and unlabeled buttons. Oh well, back to using Tweetlist Pro!

In an episode of the Simpsons, Carl quips: “Have you ever noticed how oldies stations always play the same songs? Like, how about some new oldies, geniuses?” It would seem that corporate America would agree, though perhaps not in the way intended by the consumer. The homely and humble oldies station has become just another monolith. This artificial acceleration of culture damages us all.

Radio stations change from time to time. I learned this at a young age. I will never forget the day when WCAU FM changed its format from top forty to oldies, and their call to WOGL. I thought my radio had broken, but soon learned the truth about the radio station and about life. Over the last few years, WOGL has slowly changed from oldies to the hits of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. They don’t even play real oldies anymore. Now they play Michael Jackson and Abba. Now Philadelphia does not have an oldies station.

As a kid I vividly remember sitting in my grandparent’s car, listening to the kind of music their generation listens to. Stations played that music well into my childhood, letting them enjoy their music into their older years. Eventually their music went away and we began seeing more oldies stations. I don’t feel like the boomers have reached that point. A lot of them still work and drive and listen to the radio. A lot of them don’t know how to use technology like the iPhone, so don’t realize that easy ways exist to still hear the oldies they miss. Because of this, a lot of them have just given up on the idea of hearing their favorite music. That makes me sad.

I have to get my Mom to take me to karate, since it resides way out in the middle of fields and things. Today, she couldn’t handle the wussified Christmas music burbling out of the radio, so asked me to find something. I could hardly figure out how to work the digital tuner, which I loathe. Analog things like radios and tapes should have analog controls. Just give me a dial! I put it into scan mode but it didn’t matter, all crap on a Sunday afternoon, and Christmas didn’t help. I finally just switched it off and got out my iPhone.

“What kind of music do you want to hear?” I asked, starting to consider my options to find her something. “I don’t know, as long as it’s not Christmas music.” I opened Pocket Tunes Radio and looked for an oldies station. This only took two taps.

I quickly found Oldies .977. She knew all the artists and titles and around when they came out. The station also displays this information. Giving her access to this music made me feel really good. Some songs she hadn’t heard for years. I knew she needed this music.

I offered to give her my iPhone 4, but she said the whole thing seemed too complicated, and she didn’t want to pay for the data plan. I still think parents could figure something out which would only take a few taps. Those who don’t want to consume precious data could always load songs onto an iPhone, iPod, or iPad. I just did it this way because I didn’t know what else to do, and it worked.

Parents have some other options as well. Satellite receivers such as XM Radio offer oldies stations, though require a subscription. Most modern car CD players can play MP3 cd’s, meaning you can get your kid to put a bunch of oldies onto cd’s, then play them in your car. An mp3 cd means it holds compressed files, so it can hold much more music than a standard playable CD. Some car stereos also have a line-in jack, a small jack which looks like a headphone jack and works in the opposite way, allowing you to pipe audio into your stereo. They also make small FM transmitters so you can play audio and pick it up with your car’s radio. You could then get a simple inexpensive MP3 player and load it (or have it loaded for you) with your beloved oldies, charging it from your car’s cigarette lighter. No matter what you choose, you don’t have to remain bound to corporate radio.

While listening to her oldies, Mom went down memory lane as she put it. She liked every song she heard – Diana Ross, The Supremes, The Turtles, Cher, what she called obscure Beatles, and her favorite, Smokey Robinson. She told me that she and her friend saw him many times, and they saw the Beatles when they came to America for the first time and sat in the first row. Many songs reminded her of going to the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) dances in a church basement or gymnasium. During a slow song, she said: “This is the kind of song you would have to wait for a boy to ask you to dance.” She couldn’t picture today’s kids holding each other and dancing in this way. Neither could I.

One song by Frankie Avalon reminded her of the summer time, and the dance hall at the boardwalk in Ocean City. She explained how dances provided a safe space for teen-agers to socialize. At home this meant meeting kids from her school and the local area. At the shore this meant socializing with different kids. I remembered going to the skating rink, but that seemed fading even then. Mom agreed, and wondered what kids do now. I don’t know, probably meet on Facebook, then get together and get high in a basement.

The fifties and sixties seemed like such a carefree time. Hold onto it if you lived through it. Don’t let faceless corporations take it from you. Learn to understand the technology you need to hear the music which made your memories. Ask your kids for help. And if you have a parent in this situation, this makes a great Christmas present.