Listen to That Android Show Episode 20: Copied In Cupertino
It’s a blast from the past with Ana, JJ and Joe [subbing for Steve] in the line up for what is technically three years of the trio talking Android. The first show appeared under the now retired “SeroTalk: Tech Chat” name. One year later, and two years ago, the team formed this very Podcast as an SPN original. Today, on the month that celebrates the 5th Birthday of Android, we bring you a fun filled look at what is on the horizon before the end of the year for the little OS we use daily. Come listen in as we talk Kit-Katts, OREOs and other possible flavors of upcoming Android releases.
In The News:
Google Nexus 5: Leaked video, Android KitKat, and more – The Week Magazine
Cyanogen raises $7 million to build a better version of Android
More GPS options with Point Finder Accessibility
Ana is really excited by the addition of Textbooks On Google Play
Firefox for Android 24 has been released to Google Play. Here’s what’s new for TalkBack users
Google is preparing for screenless computers.
Is NFC Dead? oogle buys Bump, the smartphone file sharing company
Google Wallet Now On Non Android Platforms
Surprise! 64-bit support in Android may not be far off – GigaOM
App Demonstration: EqualEyes
Ana takes us on a tour of another of the Home Screen Replacement/Suite of apps that lets you have shortcuts and simpler menus to get to what you want faster. Listen to the demo as Ana shows us what all can be done from this suite available now on the google Play Market.
Interview: EqualEyes
Ana sits down with the Developer Team behind EqualEyes and learns about their background in android, their family focus and what drives them to provide their User Interface Experience.
Mailbag
First up, an email from Kenny….
“dear That Android Show team,
Does any one of you know if the following is accessible with the latest version of talkback, and android jellybean 4.3?
Netflix?
hulu plus?
Amazon instant video?
and red box? the app that will let you stream red box content to your device?
If so can y’all do a demo of any and all of these video streaming apps.
Thank you.
Kenny “
Thanks Kenny, the good news is that most of the services you listed have free trials and you can try them out yourself no matter when you decide to use them with Android. Well, everything but amazon Video. There isn’t an app for that just yet. Beyond the Kindle Fire itself that is currently. Joe noted that he uses Netflix constantly. Steve has called it “pants” from time to time, however, Joe hasn’t run into many issues with the U.S. version of the app.
Permission Manager, the tool Joe mentions during this portion of Mailbag, is a great way to get to a feature buried within android v4.3. Be very careful, however, with the apps you say “No!” to as this is a pretty powerful tool.
Next, Louis writes in with a question…
“Hi Anna, JJ, and Steve,
I was wandering about Google updating their apps via the PlayStore instead of updating their OS. To somewhat eliminate some of the fragmentation dealing with older handsets not getting the newer versions of the OS or even of the apps. Though this may be a great thing for the average user, do you know how or if it will affect accessibility for the blind user using Talk Back?
Only reason I’m asking is, because I notice that some apps when I first got a Nexas7 weren’t fully accessible. But when I got the update of Talk Back, the app without updating became a lot more accessible. Also, how will it affect the average app? I have both Nexas7 2012, and Nexas7 2013. And say with Netflix, when 4.3 first came out. on the Nexas7 2012 I was able to access Netflix without a problem. But with the Nexas7
2013 Netflix had a hard time reaching the servers. It wasn’t until the newest version of 4.3 that fixed the GPS and other stuff on the 2013 model, that Netflix began to work properly on both devices.
Thank you and great job you 3 have been doing.
Luis”
Thanks Louis for the question. To hear the full answer, listen to this part of the show. But, in short, the beauty of Android is that access is not directly tied to the Operating System. In the past four months we have discussed multiple updates to BrailleBack and Talkback where as some other company just now updated their OS and won’t be doing anything that major again for perhaps half a year at the very least.
We also had a Tweet question from Mark about the TED Talks app in Google Play. While not an official app from TED, JJ’s walkthrough on the show during the Mailbag showed it was useable but with a few unlabeled buttons that you can now label with the TalkBack beta in v.4.3.
Contacting the Team
We’ve had our say, now its your turn. Drop us a line at resources@serotalk.com or send us a tweet at our official Twitter page.
You can also follow our hosts by visiting
Ana’s Accessible Android blog or
JJ at AndroidAccess.net.
Finally, Check out Steve’s Twitter feed.
Thanks for listening!
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