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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

App was provided complimentry to reviewer

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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.

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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.

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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.

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