english

My Cousin's Bicycle

And only the little light on the right actually works. The icing on the cake!




english

Dear Hipsters, Stop.

Okay, okay. The merry-go-round horse is quirky and fun, but did you seriously have to put pegs on a beach cruiser? Neigh to you, sir.

~NSHA




english

Drunk Octopus Needed To Be Restrained

He'll always stay there, but he might take a bite or two out of your coat. ~NSHA





english

German Engineering

Now THAT'S Das Auto!




english

Undergraduates Hard at Work




english

Furry Tail Light

His head turns left when the driver's turning left, right when the driver's turning right, and down when the driver's turning down...





english

How to Make the Whole Room Smell Fresh

We've gone way past plugging it in (plugging it in)!




english

You Said You Wanted a Fountain for the Front Yard




english

Hello Tailpipe




english

Become One With The Tubes

From the submitter:

Transmission of vibrations are stopped by the bicycle's tube finally. The metal slot's are removed and replaced by tubes.





english

We Caught Him!

Birds don't need oxygen, right? ~Not-So-Handy Andy







english

mousePAD

And just as they were programmed to do, all previous iPad versions shut down as soon as a new model was announced.

~NSHA





english

An Organic Solution

The exit chute and handlebar both broke on my lawnmower, and since I'm moving soon, it didn't make sense to get a new mower or spend any real money to fix this one.





english

Holding a Hose? Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!





english

Even Works in Cartoons




english

The DIY Russian Snow Cleaner

Just another video that shows us what a dull place the world would be if Russia had no video cameras.





english

Untitled




english

Even Our Doors Are All-Natural!

That's whole grain wood too!




english

Good Thing We Had These Giant Stilts Laying Arround

And due to superstition, the front door was never opened again.

~NSHA




english

Duct Tape Fixes Everything




english

Now the New Travel Mug Fits the Coffee Maker



  • there I fixed it

english

Mad Science Monday: It Doesn't Get Madder Than This




english

Sealed Plastic Packages: Spawn of Satan? Full Story at 11!





english

Research reveals manufacturing and supply chain decentralisation preventing analytic maturity – Alteryx

Data Stack Evolution: Legacy Challenges and AI Innovation, a global report which included a survey of 775 manufacturing and supply chain IT decision-makers, found that almost three in five (58%) said their data leadership and IT teams work in silo.




english

force dark mode across android OS version 10 for low vision users

Step 1Enable Developer Options

To force dark mode across all apps, you need to enable a specific developer setting on your device. You'll need to locate the developer options in your system settings, which is hidden by default.

To get started, open the main Settings menu by either selecting "Settings" from the app drawer or by pressing the gear icon in the Quick Settings menu (the menu that appears when you swipe down from the top edge of any screen).
From there, scroll to the button of the menu and select "About phone." Next, choose "Software information."
Now's the fun part. Scroll down and tap on "Build Number" seven times in rapid succession. You will be prompted to input your PIN, gesture, or password. Once you enter the requested information, you will be returned to the previous page, and you'll see a toast message saying "Developer mode has been turned on."
(this is for a Samsung device but should be close for all other devices)

Step 2Force Dark Mode to All Apps

Since this feature is mainly used for developers to see what their apps look like without any extra tweaks for dark mode, your mileage may vary. Some apps do seem to work quite well with the setting enabled, which is good news for the app developers too. At the same time, some apps will have mismatched background colors, fonts, or icons also — so keep that in mind when enabling this setting.

From the "Developer options" main screen, you need to locate a setting that mentions forcing or overriding dark mode. For Galaxy users, Samsung has opted to call this "Force Dark mode," while Google and OnePlus users need to look for "Override force-dark." Once you locate the proper setting, simply flip the switch to the on position to enable it across the entire system

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english

Nokia 6.1 and recording

The nokia 6.1 came out at the beginning of 2018.
It is under the android one program, which means that it is running stock android.
Also it gets updates faster than other phones.
At the time of writing, I am waiting to get android 9.0 pie on my phone which some nokia 6.1 users started receiving already.

I am using hi-q mp3 recorder pro for my tests.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hiqrecorder.full

Probably you will get similar results with amazing mp3 recorder, but I am more familiar with hi-q mp3 so I am using this one instead.

In hi-q mp3 recorder we have got 5 available microphone options with in settings.
Front microphone which is enabled by default, rear microphone if available, raw audio no pre processing, device default and unprosessed raw.

The last option unprosessed raw, is available only for android 7 and above. I don't find this option on my nexus5 which is on android 6.01.

On the nokia 6.1, the 3 options front microphone, raw audio no pre processing and device default, don't give good results either in mono or stereo.
Noise cancelation is used, similar to the nexus5, and the gain volume is pritty high.
This is also the type of sound you get if you send voice messages in facebook messenger, watsapp and viber.
The gain is not as high, but you get noise cancelation.
Your voice sounds nice and clear, but don't expect to capture the surrounding atmosphere if you are out and about at the sea, the garden etc.

Only the options rear microphone if available and unprocessed raw are giving good results.

In mono, the rear microphone option is much louder than unprosessed raw, but the result is good for both without noise cancelation.

When stereo is enabled, both options are pritty much the same in my oppinion.

When stereo is enabled, the left microphone is the one on the top where the headphones juck is, and the right one is on the bottom where the usb port and speaker is.

When recording in stereo, to avoid distortions, it's better in my opinion to have the gain at 80 or 85 percent.
You can always use a sound editor later to change the volumes.
It's much easier to make a quiet recording louder, but if it is distorted it's pritty impossible to fix it.

Personal comments about the stereo recording.

The over all result is good.
I would say it is impressive for a phone which costs 270 dollars or less.

I have got the impression that the right microphone is slightly louder than the left, and perhaps some more bass would be better.
The highs are very good, maybe a bit too much, but for my needs they are welcome because I want to record bird sounds especially during Spring.

Finally it wouldn't be possible to talk about recording without a sample.

The following recording is about 7 minutes and 30 seconds long and there are 3 parts in it.

Part1 is very short. It's a car passing from right to left in front of me.
Part2 is the longest. It is some general ambianse from the ikea restaurant in Nicosia Cyprus.
Finally part3 is a short sample of a music practice.

You can use the link below to have a listen.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7036rjgq5ak9vc/Nokia%206.1%20stereo%20demo.mp...

Android pie and recording.

With the update to android pie on this phone, it is not possible to make long recordings with the screen locked.
After 30 or 40 minutes of recording, the microphones are muted and the rest of the recording is completely silent.

Unfortunately the only work around is to keep screen on during the recording to make sure that all the sounds will be captured without interruption.

In hi-q mp3 settings, unfortunately we have got the option to keep screen on under trouble shooting settings.
We have got the options to dim the screen during recording or to use it with the brightness we use any other time when the screen is on.

Unfortunately this method will use more battery but for now I couldn't find anything else.

I hope this issue will be fixed with a future update.
I know the intention was good. Probably they wanted to protect us from programs which might watch the microphone and camera without our attention but this functionality is useful for some other apps.

I will update this article if nokia fix this issue.
Thanks for reading.

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english

Textifi: How to OCR Hard Copy Printed Material Even in Airplane Mode

Textifi by Virtual Eye is a simple OCR app that doesn't require a data or wi-fi connection. The Play Store link is
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=textifi.virtualeye.iohl=en_US

the interface is straight-forward. In the top right corner is a button for turning on the flashlight/torch, and across the bottom are buttons for detecting text, copying text to the clipboard, and reading the text out loud again. There is no menu icon, and there don’t seem to be any app settings.

To use Textifi, do the following:

• Turn on the flashlight (if necessary).
• Center your phone's viewfinder over the printed page.
• Tap the Detect Text button. Recognition is fairly quick. If nothing happens after a second or two, tap the screen again.

Once text is recognized, it is read automatically. If you want it to be repeated, tap the Speak Again button, and if you want to save it, tap the Copy button, then use TalkBack's editing menu to paste the text into a notepad app.

This app’s OCR results are great, but the key is to position your camera right. I was sitting in my office at school going through junk mail. If I positioned the camera by putting my elbow on the table next to the printed page and holding my hand up in the air, results were very good, almost as good as the Eye-D app by GingerMind Technologies. With Eye-D, recognition was pretty good even if I didn’t keep the camera level; with Textifi, recognition was great if I held the camera right, but results were bad if I wasn’t careful.

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english

Getting Started and How to use a Samsung phone with Talkback

Introduction to Android.

Android is the operating system of your phone. Much like Windows is to a computer; it helps you control all functions of your phone.
Firstly, if there is something you don't like about the way your device works from the file explorer, to the phone dialer, to the voice recognition engine to the browser or any other aspect of your device's interface or operation, likely you can change it.

Initial startup with Voice Assistant:
When you first power on the device, to activate voice assistant (the built in screen reader); simply hold 2 fingers on the surface of the touchscreen. After about 5 seconds it will announce tell you to keep holding down on the screen if you wish to enable it. A few seconds later you will hear the screen reader start up. You will at this point be presented with the startup wizard that will take you through connecting your phone to a wifi hotspot, connecting your google / gmail account and setting up the initial parameters of the device. Depending on what version of Android your device uses, you may need a set of earphones in order to hear your password spoken out.

Talk Back, the screen reader:
Samsung and Google have their own adaptive technology layers. Some of the tools need to be installed on a Samsung device in order to make it usable.
For example, Samsung has its own screen reader called "voice assistant", it is not very good. (e.g. doesn't support web content, keyboard access or braille very well or at all). You need to install Talkback (Google's screen reader) separately from the play store.
You can do this either yourself or ask for sighted help to do this so if you are asking for sighted assistance, you can start by turning off Voice Assistance before passing the phone ober.
1. From the Home button, slide your finger up slightly and you should hear Apps. Double tap to open it.
2. Use two fingers slightly separated and swipe upwards with short strokes till you get to the bottom of the list.
3. Slide your finger till you hear Settings and double tap to open it.
4. Use two fingers slightly separated and swipe upwards with short strokes till you get to the bottom of the list
5. Slide your finger till you hear Accessibility and double tap to open it.
6. Slide your finger till you hear Vision and double tap to open it.
7. Slide your finger till you hear Voice Assistance and double tap to open it.
8. Slide your finger on the upper right of the screen till you hear Switch ON and double tap to set it to Off.
9. An alert pop up will warn you that typing OK will turn off the Voice Assistance.
10. Double tap on OK and Voice Assistance will be turned off.

To install Talkback from the Play Store, your sighted friend will need to do the following:
1. From the Home screen, tap on Apps.
2. Scroll down a bit and tap on Play Store.
3. Tap on the Search button on the upper part of the screen.
4. Tap on the edit field and type Talkback.
5. Tap on Google Talkback.
6. Tap on Install.

Once installed, you will not be able to have the two running at the same time. Enabling Talkback will automatically disable Voice Assistance. To perform the switch, you will need to do the following:
1 From the home screen, tap Apps.
2 Tap Settings.
3 you will need to scroll down a little to Tap on Accessibility
4 Tap Vision.
5 Scroll down past the Services heading and Tap on TalkBack.
6 Tap the slider to enable Talkback.
7. An alert screen will pop up requesting permissions.
8. Tap on OK and the switch is done.

Talk Back Tutorial:
To familiarize yourself with the gestures, you should practice the tutorial by going to settings then slide and double tap on accessibility then slide and double tap on talkback then slide and double tap on settings then slide and double tap on Launch Explore by Touch Tutorial

Below is a list of the most common gestures used with an Android phone.

Gestures:
You use a single finger swipe left to go forward and swipe right to go back through the items on a screen.
You hold your finger on the screen to open a menu related to the shortcut on the screen.
You double tap anywhere on the screen to activate the item that has the focus.
You use 2 fingers (swiping left, right, up or down to scroll in a list, scroll on a page or scroll around a multi-screen layout.
You can pair a gesture with a limited choice of commands. By default, the following gestures work:

Global menu
Draw an upper case L on the screen

(i.e. touch the surface of the screen and quickly draw a line down, than continue to the right and raise your finger) to open the global menu to access reading commands like read all, read from last touched item, spell last utterance, the quicknav commands and also there are a few buttons for global commands like disable talkback temporarily and talkback settings.
Previous screen
Draw an upper case L backwards
(I.e. touch the surface of the screen and quickly draw a line down, than continue to the left and raise your finger) to go to the previous screen
Local menu
Draw an upside down upper case L
(i.e. touch the surface of the screen and quickly draw a line up, than continue to the right and raise your finger) to go to the local menu where you will find specific commands for the field or control that currently has focus such as the label button command if focus is on an unlabeled button or the paste command if the focus is on an edit or input field.
Home
Draw a backwards and upside down upper case L
(I.e. touch the surface of the screen and quickly draw a line up, than continue to the left and raise your finger) to go to the “home” screen

It does take a little practice to learn how to do the "L" based gestures at first and it is important to listen to the audio cues that talkback provides to advise you if talkback recognizes the gesture you just completed as a valid "L" gesture.

Configurable gestures:
To configure the unused gestures, go to settings then slide and double tap on accessibility then slide and double tap on talkback then slide and double tap on settings then slide and double tap on Gestures.
Read the list of gestures and find an unassigned gesture.
Double Tap on it to open the list of commands that are available to associate with the gesture.
Select the desired command by double Tapping on it and the dialog box will close and you will be back at the gestures screen.
You can try the new gesture immediately.

Suggested gesture configurations for quick navigation and reading:
Swipe Up “Read from next item”
Swipe down “ Next navigation setting”
Swipe Left “Previous item”
Swipe right “Next item”

In the Talkback settings screen, you can customize your talkback gestures and even experiment with some new ones such as "shake to activate" which many people set to "read all"; so that when they shake their device it reads out the entire screen to them.

Nova Launcher:
When your device completes the initial startup wizard, you will be in your device's "launcher". Depending on the manufacturer and device this launcher could be the google now launcher, senseUI or any of a host of other launchers. Many people will install Nova Launcher to replace the default launcher of the device.
Once installed, you must enable it by double tapping settings then slide and double tap on accessibility then slide and double tap on services then slide and double tap on Nova Launcher.

The desktop, the first screen you will encounter when unlocking or starting up your phone or when you press the Home button, will likely have several pages to the left and several pages to the right; each page contains a grid view of icons. At the bottom, you will encounter a line called the dock which usually contains the following icons, Phone, Apps and three others that you may choose amongst the ones that you use most often.
The Phone icon is the icon used to control all calling functions of the cell phone.
The app drawer contains a grid view of all the apps you have installed on the device.

Below that line, at the very bottom, on each side of your Home button, is another line with the following icons that appear as needed. Back, Home and Recent Apps
Back icon, returns you to the previous screen
Home button, returns you to the Desktop screen.
Recent Apps icon opens a screen with the apps presently in use or in memory. You would use this screen to close apps that are not being used to free up memory.

Making your phone easier to use.
Extending Screen time out
You may want more time of inactivity before the screen locks. This is controlled with the screen time out option. To adjust it, go to Settings then slide and double tap onDisplay then slide and double tap on Screen Time Out. 5 options will be offered, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes or 10 minutes. We suggest double tapping on 5 minutes.Your choice will be saved and you will be returned to the previous screen.

ChangingAlternative the keyboard layout,
Another keyboard you might consider installing is the blind accessibility keyboard.
You can find it in the Play store by typing the following link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.bright_side.blind_acces...

It supports both double tap and touch typing.
Key size can be adjusted for more precise accuracy.
Layout can also be adjusted.
Once installed, you must enable it by going to Settings, then slide and double tap on General management, then slide and double tap on Language and Input, then slide and double tap on Default keyboard, then slide and double tap on Blind Accessibility US English.

Lock the screen to Portrait Orientation:
In order to have better control and stability while using your phone, it is best to keep the screen orientation locked in portrait. Nova Launcher forces this orientation throughout all applications. To access Nova Launchers settings, you need to be at your phones desktop.
Once at the desktop, press the Home button. This will open the Nova Launchers Settings panel. Double tap on the Settings button, then double tap on the Look & Feel item. Slide your finger till you find Screen Orientation and double tap to open it. Slide your finger to the Force Portrait list item and double tap it. This will save your choice and bring you back to the previous screen.

Using the phone:
Press the HOME button or slide your finger from left to right in the middle of the screen to answer the phone when it is ringing.
To hang up the phone, press once on the power button.
To call someone in your contacts list, double Tap on the phone icon, first icon at the bottom left of your screen. Then double Tap on the Contacts tab, the tab directly below your search edit field and double Tap on the person’s name. If you have more than one number for that contact, you will be presented with the list of numbers available. Double Tap on the desired number to start the dialing process.
Voice Search
You can use the voice search button located at the right of the Search edit field. Double tap on it, you will hear a blink sound, say the name of the person you want to call or the numbers you want to dial. A different blink sound will be heard once the phone has stopped listening to your voice and the phone will dial the persons name if it recognizes it in your contact list. If that person has more than one number, a list of numbers associated will be presented. Double tap on the number you wish to use. If you have only said the numbers to be dialed, it will dial them for you.

Using a regular Keyboard with your phone:

You can use a regular computer keyboard with an android phone by plugging it to the mini USB plug using an OTG adapter but only the following keys can be used.
The "Menu" key is usually the key to the right of the right Windows key. (sighted users describe it's legend/label/icon as a menu) Commonly called the Application key.
At the home screen:
Menu + W = change wallpaper
Menu + M = manage applications
Menu + N = show notifications
Menu + A = add item to homescreen
Menu + S = new search (or you can just start typing)
Menu + P = open settings
Home + B (or Search + B) = open browser
Home + C (or Search + C) = open contacts
Home + L = open calendar
Home + Esc = exit back to homescreen
In the browser:
Menu + N (or Ctrl + T) = new tab
Menu + I (or Ctrl + I) = zoom-in on page
Menu + O (or Ctrl + O) = zoom-out on page
Menu + J = open download manager
Menu + L = open search bar
Menu + R (or Ctrl + R) = refresh current page
Menu + F = find on page
Menu + B = open bookmarks
Menu + H = view browsing history
Menu + D = add bookmarks
Menu + S (or Ctrl + S) = open social network sharing
Menu + G = page info
Menu + E = select text
Menu + P = open browser settings
Menu + W (or Ctrl + W) = closes the current open tab
FN + Tab = toggle browser toolbar on/off when it's hidden
Ctrl + Shift = select input method (universal outside of browser also)
In Gmail:
C = compose new message
L = go to Label menu
X = check message in Inbox
V = add Label to current message
M = delete highlighted or checked messages
Alt + Up = go to top of Inbox
Alt + Down = go to bottom of Inbox.
General:
Shift + Backspace = Forward delete (like a full keyboard "Delete" key)
Ctrl + X = Cut
Ctrl + C = Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste
ALT + TAB = Show recent apps window. Keep your finger on the Alt key and press on the right arrow key to cycle forward between apps or press the left arrow key to cycle backward. Once on the desired app, your finger must still be on tha Alt key, press the enter key to activate it.

Recommended Apps to install:

Google Talkback –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.marvin....

Google Keyboard –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputme...
Nova Launcher –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher&h...

Google Keep –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.keep&hl=en

@voice aloud reader –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hyperionics.avar&hl=en

File Commander –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobisystems.fileman&hl=en

Aqua Mail –
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.AquaMail&hl=en

Additional Refferences :

Instructions for using the Google keyboard

- https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6110948?hl=en

Inclusive Android:

http://inclusiveandroid.com

National Braille Press's Getting Started With Android:

http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/ANDROID.html

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english

listening to a book or lecture with podcast addict

The following will cover a quick way to listen to audio books. I will be using airmore and podcast addict.
I should preface this by saying that I'm 2 weeks new to android, so any corrections will probably be necessary.

steps"

  1. Download podcast addict from the google play store.
  2. Download airmore from the google play store
  3. Run both at least once.
  4. Connect your computer to airmore with the IP address method.
  5. Click files
  6. Click the SD card if that's where you want to put the files.
  7. Create a new folder for your book files. Note it is best if your mp3s are numbered so, 001, 002, ETC.
  8. Click import after selecting the new folder
  9. Import your files.
  10. Wait until your files have ben imported. Make sure you have all of the files or you might find some odd jumps in the book. I've had this happen once already.

Once the book is imported into that folder you will do the following.

  1. Launch podcast addict.
  2. click the nav drawer at the upper left.
  3. Click add new podcasts.
  4. Click virtual podcast.
  5. Browse to where the folder is.
  6. Tap the folder
  7. Tap ok.

Now if you did things right you should be able to queue each ep in the playlist by double tapping and holding.
I'm reading a book this way and it is working fine. I have the auto advance function on in the playlist, so this makes listening to a book very enjoyable. I hope this simple guide helps someone.

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english

How To read text with google tts without talkback enabled

1. The person should select the text that wants it to be read;
2. To select must keep your finger on the text will appear a bar with several options among these select everything;
3. In this same bar you have the option more options;
5. Enter into more options as you have the option to speak;
5. In speaking the text will be read by google tts even without talkback enabled."

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english

Browsing the web with chrome and talkback 2016

This tutorial is for android 6 or later. If using android 5.1, click here for the old tutorial.

Configuring talkback

In order to use the web effectively, Make sure your keyboard and gesture settings are set as described here. Set talkback’s swipe up gesture to activate previous granularity and the swipe down gesture to go to next granularity. Tap settings, accessibility, talkback, settings, manage gestures, and make the changes here for swipe up and for swipe down. Once this is done, swiping down or up will change to navigation by character, word, and so on. In marshmallow, this is usually the default.

Next, set your keyboard to the default keymap. If you have been using classic all this time, switching to default may come as a nasty shock at first.; However, you will appreciate the extra features once the learning curve is through.

Gesture navigation

When you load a page in chrome, use the down/up gestures to navigate the page by element. chrome offers you heading and landmark, link, and control navigation. Control and link are self-explanatory. Heading and landmark replaces section navigation in marshmallow, and works far better than section navigation did. List navigation is gone. If you’re thinking that three web navigation elements is just a bit stingy, see the section on keyboard browsing. It would be nice to see substantially more elements receive gesture support, and to have the ability to configure the granularities menu to include the elements you want in the order you want.

Now, try this on your mobile device. Open the Inclusive Android homepage. Use the vertical gesture (swipe up or swipe down) to find headings and landmarks. Then, flick right to move down the page heading by heading until you reach the "latest apps and game entries" heading. In order to read the contents of that section, you'll have to use the gesture again to cycle to default granularity. Then you can flick right link by link to see the most recently added apps. These gestures work much more reliably for me than the firefox gestures, but I find the extra step of having to cycle a bit tedious. The firefox solution is more elegant in it's way as you'll see in a moment.

Keyboard navigation

While you were off configuring your keymap, you might have glanced down the list of keys and functions and thought, “ah! I see where he’s going with this.” For those of you who ignored the keyboard settings, go take a look. Using the keyboard, talkback will navigate by numerous elements including: individual heading levels, various form control types, tables, lists, and so on. For example, you can press alt H or alt shit H to move back and fourth through the headings, or you can use alt 1 to jump to any heading level one on the page. You can use alt T and alt shift T for tables, alt e and alt shift E for edit boxes, and much more. For an exhaustive list, see manage keyboard shortcuts in talkback settings.

Browser features

chrome's interface is blissfully uncluttered with most of the screen devoted to displaying pages, an address and search box, a tabs list button, and a menu button containing most of the actual browser functionality you'd expect. A link to keyboard shortcuts for chrome features can be found in the sources list below.

In marshmallow , the find in page feature is now accessible. You get to find in page by tapping more options, then find in page, or by pressing control F on your keyboard. I have not perfected a technique for doing this with the touch screen; However, using the keyboard, you first type what you want. Tab to next and press enter, Talkback will speak the instance of your search. You can press alt enter to activate if the instance is a link or object. You can use alt left or alt right arrows to see items nearby to your instance for context. Or, you can press enter on it’s own to go to the next instance. If you want to go to a previous instance, press shift tab to get to the previous button and press enter. Try finding the word “latest” on the inclusive android homepage. I think you’ll be very pleased.

chrome does not have an article reader. Considering that I have access to keyboard support, this is the only feature I really miss from firefox and safari.

Sources

works on:

  • Motorola Moto G 2nd edition
  • Report if this works on your device

Works not on:

  • Report if this does not work on your device

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english

Volkron Checkbook: Getting Started

Volkron Checkbook is a ledger for keeping track of your bank accounts. Its Play Store link is
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.volkron.checkbook.andr...

The app is free and completely accessible. I haven't found any unlabeled buttons or other wonkiness. Well, there is one thing, but it's pretty minor. I'll mention it below.

The app's tag line is that it's simple and elegant, and this is true. In fact, the app is so simple and elegant that it's confusing when you're new to it.

When you open the app for the first time, you find Open Navigation Drawer in the top left corner, More Options in the top right corner, Default Account near the top of the screen, and New in the bottom right corner. Tapping Open Navigation Drawer lists your accounts at the top and some preferences farther down. Tapping More Options lists various search/display filters. Tapping New brings up a new transaction form.

To create an account, tap Open Navigation Drawer, then Settings, then Accounts. This brings up a screen with your existing accounts (i.e., Default Account) near the top. There's also an Add button in the top right corner. For your first account, tap Default Account, edit the name, and fill out the rest of the form. For additional accounts, tap Add and fill out the form. If you want to delete an account, tap the name of the account, then tap Delete in the top right corner. The new account screen is pretty basic, really just the account name (e.g., Checking, Savings) and the starting balance. When you're done, tap Save in the top right corner.

The next time you open the app, you find yourself on the last screen you worked on. Most likely, this is the account you moved money into or out of most recently. the name of the account is at the top, and your transactions appear as a list, with the oldest at the bottom.

To create a new transaction, tap New in the bottom right corner and fill out the transaction form. Information appears as a list: amount at the top, name of the party giving you the money or taking it from you (e.g., AT&T), Category (e.g., phone bill), number or code (e.g., check number or invoice number), date, and Notes. To the left of the amount is a minus sign, which TalkBack announces as "Switch." Tapping this symbol changes it to a plus sign, which TalkBack correctly announces. the edit boxes for Name and Category each have a button to the left for bringing up a list of names and categories you use often so you can just tap the one you want. Btw, when you install the app, it doesn't have any suggested names or categories, but each time you type a new one, it is saved for you automatically. When you finish filling out the transaction form, tap Save in the top right corner.

To work with a different account, tap Open Navigation Drawer to move to the screen with all your accounts and with a few preferences. Then tap the account you want.

This is enough to get started. The rest is easy enough to figure out.

Volkron Checkbook has a modern interface and is 99% accessible. I also like the way it displays and filters transactions on the Account and Statement screens. Unlike a similar app by Digital Life Style Solutions, Volkron doesn't have options for recurring transactions, like payday and auto bill pay, and it doesn't really let you export your files. You can back your information up as a DB file, but if you don't have a database app, you can't really do anything with that. The Play Store description for Volkron says these two features are forthcoming as premium features. When they come, the app will definitely be worth paying for.

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Twidere for Twitter: Getting Started

If you’re looking for a free Twitter app that is accessible, check out Twidere for Android by Mariotaku:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mariotaku.twidere&hl=en
This is a very brief guide to get started.

Immediately after Twidere installs from the Play Store, you’ve got two preliminaries to take care of. First, the app tells you to log into Twitter. Just tap OK or Continue to launch your browser, enter your Twitter user name and password, and tap the sign in button. Second, the app brings up a series of settings screens. Tap Next to move through them, making changes if you have convictions or leaving things as they are if you don’t. At the end of this process, you may be asked to allow location and one or two other things.

The Twidere main screen is pretty simple. Across the top are four tabs: Home, Interactions (i.e., Mentions), Trends, and Messages (i.e., Direct Messages). In the bottom right corner is a New Tweet icon. The first time you visit a tab, the screen displays no tweets or messages; you need to refresh to populate the screen.

To visit a tab, either tap the tab icon at the top of the screen, or swipe left or right with two fingers. For example, let’s say you’re on your timeline and you want to go to your mentions. Either tap Interactions, or swipe left once with two fingers.

To refresh the screen, long-press its tab icon. For example, if you want new tweets to appear, long-press Home.

To open the menu, touch the very left edge of the screen, then swipe right with two fingers. This is one of those things that takes a little practice, then works right every time.

Once tweets are displayed on the screen, each has three lines of information. The top line is the sender’s name and Twitter handle. The middle line is the sender’s profile icon and the tweet itself. The bottom line is a row of controls, which varies a little. Typically, controls are Reply, Retweet, Like, and an unlabeled button I’ve called More. Tapping More brings up additional controls, like Share, Copy, and Add to Filter. Exploring is the best way to read the screen.

To send a new tweet, tap the Compose icon in the bottom right corner. The new screen displays an edit box (above) and the keyboard (below). To the right of the edit box are a check box for adding your location and the Send button. Below the edit box is a row of icons for changing the account, adding an image, taking a photo, and saving as draft.

The app is very accessible. The only hiccups I’ve found are the unlabeled button in the third row of each tweet and the fact that TalkBack doesn’t announce, “Selected,” when you touch the tab for the screen you’re on.

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How to create app specific talkback label files for sharing on inclusive android

Introduction

The world may not be quite ready for this tutorial, but I am pretty excited and can't wait to share it with you. Android talkback's export graphics feature doesn't officially support exporting graphic labels for a specific program; however, you can make this happen using a simple text editor. I'm going to show you how to accomplish this, so that inclusive android users can upload graphic labels for specific programs that anyone can download and use. .

To learn the basics of labeling, exporting and importing graphics, please see:

Examining a talkback labels file

From a writing point of view, this is the challenging part. I want to give you enough information to make you feel confident that you can do this, but not so much that you feel overwhelmed. Let's assume that you have successfully exported a talkback labels file according to the tutorials listed above. Now you have a file called Talkback_custom_labels_MMDDYYYY.tbl. MMDDYYYY refers to the date that your talkback labels were exported of course. This is a standard text file that contains some programming code. To edit the file, you can open it in any text editor such as notepad or text edit.

Now you are going to examine and edit that file. In doing so, please remember that each line is separate and distinct, and disarranging the lines will cause the file not to work properly. Make sure that your text editor preserves the line breaks as in the original.

The first line of the file reads like this: {"labels_array":
The left brace opens the function that is based on this array. Then you have "labels_array" in quotes. This shows you that a variable of type array called labels is being created. An array is a type of programming variable that stores a lot of other variables and their types and values for easy use. After the closing quote there' is a colon which signifies that a list is coming. This line needs to be preserved in tact.

The second line of the file reads something like this: [{"package_name":"com.c51","package_signature":"0cc8cabd00f51f7d13f8bf21f2e7a96eaf69d520","view_name":"icon","label_text":"toggle star","locale":"en","package_version":30,"timestamp":1467083805861},
This is a collection of variables and their values. It tells talkback which label belongs to which program. In this case, you can see that my label is for the program checkout 51, and that I assigned the text "toggle star", to that particular label. Notice that the line begins with a left bracket. The left bracket designates the start of the list of variables in your array. So, the second line of your file must open with this left bracket. Finally, the line ends with a right brace and a comma. The right brace closes that entry in the array, and the comma tells us that there is another entry coming up in the array that we should look for. Of course, the text in between the braces on the second line will be different depending on the label you set up.

Now, jump to the very bottom of your talkback labels file and look at the very end of the very last line. The final three characters are: right brace, right bracket and right brace. The first right brace closes the final set of variables. Normally after this we would have a comma, but since this is the final set, we don't need the comma. The right bracket closes the left bracket that we used to begin the second line. it tells the program that our array is closed. The final right brace closes the left brace that is the first character on line one and tells the program to close the function for this array.

Creating your program specific labels file

You can have as many labels for as many programs as you want' however, we want to separate out the labels for one particular program so that we can share it with other users interested in that program.

To begin, make a new text file. Copy the top line of your talkback labels file and press enter. Type a left bracket as shown above. Identify all of the labels associated with a particular program, copy them from your original talkback labels file and paste them, making sure that everything between each set of braces is on one line with no hard returns. Finally, make sure that there is no comma after the final brace and add a right bracket and a right brace. Save your new text file under the name of your program with an extension of .tbl, and you have a program specific graphics label file

Look for the graphic files upload feature. Coming soon to inclusiveandroid.com.

Device compatibility

Works on :

  • Motorola moto G2 marshmellow
  • Report if this works on your device

Works not on:

  • Report if this does not work on your device

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