Welcome everyone to an episode chock full of news, overviews and fabulous updates to items we’ve covered in earlier shows. We even fit in a fantastic interview and your letters in the mailbag. So prepare for the onslaught of Android information!

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In The News:

Rubin out, Pichai in as Google’s new senior vice president of Android

Andy Rubin bids farewell to Android partners, describing himself as ‘an entrepreneur at heart’

Google separates its mapping and commerce unit, VP Jeff Huber headed to the X team

Google Closes the Book On Google Reader On July 1, Seven Other Products Also Get The Chop

Why Google Killed Google Reader? It was self defense

Google Reader May Return In Google Plus

Babble: Google may be priming unified chat service for Google I/O

Google slips, accidentally unveils Evernote-like Google Keep service

You can place flowers in remembrance for those who were gone before their time at Slate’s  “Google Graveyard” page

Meet the Galaxy S 4

Group Play Surround Sound on the Galaxy S 4

Comparing the Galaxy s 3 to the s 4

Galaxy S 4 Moves Away From Android

Google Play removes ad blocker apps

TalkBack v3.0 Now available

Google Hangouts Got A Lot More Accessible

Don’t forget that JJ and Joe went to CSUN 2013 and here is a link to a panel discussion they did in regards to APH’s Nearby Explorer and more

Google shows off a prescription version of Google Glass

Google Glass shows off its apps at SXSW

Bar bans Google Glass

Who’s afraid of Google Glass?

App Overview: Google Keep

Joe takes us on a quick tour of the new note taking app for Chrome, Google Drive and Android. And yes, he discusses the Evernote factor.

Interview With Dr. Robert Carter “The Tech Doctor”

Joe asked Dr. Robert Carter to drop by, as part of our continuing long look at the nexus 7, to discuss his thoughts and experiences on Android. Dr. Carter has been using the nexus 7 for a few months and he also is very familiar with the mac and iOS devices. His excellent podcasts on the nexus 7 covered some areas, such as connecting the unit to a mac, are definitely worth listening to if you are considering a nexus 7 in your future. Also, be sure to follow his show as he will be looking at APH’s Nearby Explorer soon.

Software Update: Another Look At Acapela TTS With Steve

A recent update to the Acapela TTS engine has Steve elated. Find out more about the update by visiting the Google Play market page for this voice engine.

Hardware Update: The Droid 4 And Jellybean

JJ and Joe have talked about their Droid 4 phones before, however, neither one of them ever thought they would be able to talk about running Android v4.1 on their units without having to learn the world of modding. Well it turns out that Motorola has been kind to the pair by releasing Jellybean to the Droid 4 recently. Is the best hardware keyboard phone out there enhanced or diminished by the OS update? Tune in to hear their verdict.

Mailbag:

The mailbag was kind of light this time around, however, some of your emails did spark conversations and suggestions about various apps on the Play Market from the team.

Audio Evolution  is an app that allows for the editing of audio on your android device.

Jango Radio is an app that Steve adores but wishes it wouldn’t force stop on him under jellybean. He is looking to contact the developer about the issue, and you can follow the app’s updates by visiting the Play Market page here.

Here’s an email from Carolyn about Google TV

“Hello!

 Keep up the great work on That Android Show!  We never miss an episode!

Dennis and I are thinking about getting either Google TV or the Apple TV.  First, can you access Apple TV from a Google Smart phone or tablet as your remote?

Is the latest version of the Google TV totally accessible?  And, do you have to use ITunes for the Apple TV?

Dennis said he’d rather use his 10 inch Google tablet as a cool remote if possible.

Thanks so very much.

Carolyn Ranker”

The team was a bit skittish to say much about Google TV this close to Google i/o. Joe did say that there were alternatives to using a Google TV out on the Play market.

Joe’s not played with MX Player, however, he’s heard good things about it for playback of various media formats.

And VLC is in Beta on the Play market as well.

These next two emails we answer during the course of this episode.

“Hello!

First I must say, that you’re doing an excellent job—keep at it!

Now, I have an Galaxy Nexus (android 4.1.1) with Ivona TTS, which is horrible for typing. How can I use Google tts for typing and Ivona for everything else without going to accessability settings?

Can you recommend any other TTS engines that have a nice voice and are not so laggy?

Thanks for your help!”

Check out Steve’s update on Acapela. He finds that a much better option in regards to lag.

We also talk about this one from James during our talk about Google keep.

“Hi guys,

I have been a listener of the show to keep up with the advancements in android accessibility. For a while they were extremely slow, but it seems with Jelly bean we have really gained a lot. I have always wanted and still really hope for great access on the Android side and this might truely represent the majority of the ground that needed to be gained from earlier versions. I purchased a nexus 4 to put on my second line. As I write this I still need to go get a sim card for it as it just arrived today from amazon. After listening to yours and other podcasts, I am quite confident the basic functionality is quite nice to use now with talkback such as phone, messages, settings, etc.

My concern is how well will apps work. I also have been wondering about selecting text and copy and paste. Do you know if we can do that at all in edit fields or other places yet?”

Additionally, we had a great iReport on how well this works in Episode 14’s mailbag segment in case anyone else wants to know more about editing options in Android.

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 Android Access.net.

Finally, Check out Steve’s Twitter feed.

Thanks for listening!

2012 has been a banner year for Android and the Nexus line. Powered by the amazing Project Butter filled Jellybean, the rise of the Samsung Galaxy S III and the growth of the Play Market, Android became a worldwide sensation with adoption rates soring past the 1 million activations a day mark. The summer release of the Nexus 7, featuring the partnership of Google and Asus, started off a flurry of sales and it shoed that you could have the experience of stock Android in a good looking and affordable 7 inch tablet. While the team dreams of getting their hands on a new Nexus 4 or the delightful nexus 10, we turn instead to our trusty Nexus 7 units to provide you a long look at the tablet and the enhancements that come along with version 4.2 of Jellybean. Join Byron Lee, Ricky Enger, Ana and Joe as they discuss their thoughts on the good and the bad of the Nexus 7.

In The News

Let’s start with the “What’s new” page for jellybean 4.2

Ars Technica reviews Jellybean 4.2

Android 4.2.1 rolling out to take back the month of December

Here’s the Play Market page for the nexus 7 8 BG

take a look at the Accessibility page for the Nexus 7

Also, for more SPN goodness on the Nexus 7 and other tablets, be sure to listen to our second Mobile Special “Scratching The Surface With Mike Calvo”

A Discussion Of low Vision Use Of The Nexus 7 With Byron Lee And Joe

We’ve had a lot of requests to chat about using low vision related apps on Android. Byron Lee recently acquired a Nexus 7 and he stopped by to offer his thoughts on the unit and provided some tips for using Android in general.

Change System Fonts to APHont

Below are the steps Mr. lee provided for changing your system fonts. Beware that this requires you to root your phone and you would seriously need to decide if you would want to do that before pursuing this option. Also, we don’t recommend rooting on the show. So, do this at your own risk!

Here are the steps from Byron:

1) root phone

2) changed her default fonts to BOLD APHONT–a low vision font

APH Products: APHont A Font for Low Vision

note: the default fonts for android are in the device folder

/system/fonts/

and i replaced both

DroidSans.ttf

and

DroidSans-Bold.ttf

with APHont bold, but i made sure to rename it as “DroidSans.ttf” and

“DroidSans-Bold-ttf”

*** i also kept a backup copy of those 2 fonts! ***

3) rebooted

4) changed the default font SIZE using “Font Size (for root users)”;

published by i-p-tel GmbH, and available on the Android Market.

5) rebooted again

6) installed JORTE for calendar — syncs w/ google calendar

Byron also recommended these apps as being low vision friendly

Big Font

Mobile Accessibility

BIG Launcher

ScreenZooM (rooted)

Battery Notifier (Big Text)

K-9 Mail

Dolphin Browser

iBlink Radio

Mailbag

First up, an email from Mike Arigo

“Hey guys, loved the show!

I don’t know of any qwerty phones that have jellybean out of the box, but if you’re willing to learn how to install different roms, you have several options. I’m running 4.1.2 on my sony xperia pro, my sony xperia mini pro, my htc desire z and my htc my touch 4g slide. All of these phones have qwerty keyboards, and were never officially updated to jellybean, but they run it very well. These phones only work with GSM, that’s why I don’t like CDMA, you’re too limited in what phones you can use. I’m with Steve, I prefer to buy my phones directly, as far as I’m concerned, the carrier control needs to end at the sim card.

That’s a shame about motorola phones, but I’m not surprised. Motorola has always been one of the slowest companies to update their phones, and on top of that, they don’t allow you to unlock or easily root them to install other roms. I have 2 motorola phones that are stuck on 2.3, they could easily run jellybean but I can’t gain the access to do it.

Unless Motorola changes their policy on letting you install other roms, I will never purchase or recommend motorola phones again.”

Next, Chris writes in with an ARCHOS update

“Hi,

Just wanted to say once again how much I enjoy the show, love the news and app reviews which are nicely put together, unlike the ‘Android Police’

podcast which although at times interesting seems to be so full of waffle!

Anyway, I’ve recently gotten a replacement Archos 80 G9 250Gb tablet, after Archos most recent firmware 4.0.25 turned my previous flash/SD G9 device into a ‘plastic brick’ (long story but the forums are full of tales of woe and lousy customer service).

Whilst replacing all the lost apps, I noticed that Adobe Flash Player has vanished from the Playstore, although I haven’t come across a problem in not having it installed so far, is their any alternative out there?, I assume it’s primarily for video playback?

Best wishes

Chris

UK”

Well Chris, um no. Chrome is one way of getting around some issues with Flash content. And Adobe only is allowing new Flash installs for the BBC iPlayer. But this isn’t a consistent thing and it does depend on the region you live in as to if it remains on the Play Store. If you have installed it before, it is in the “All Apps” section of your Play market options. 

Lastly, Norman writes in with more info on using Hotmail

“Hi.

I’m a longtime fan of That Android Show, great show.

I just finished listening to episode 12.

I wanted to comment on the e-mail from chris about setting up Hotmail on your android.

I set it up using Microsoft exchange.

Use m.hotmail.com as your mail server.

I’ll also include the link on where you can go to get instructions on how to set this up.

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/hotmail/hotmail-help-center/android-hotmail-without-app

these steps are a little tricky but I did it without sighted assistance

Norman”

Thanks Norman and thanks to everyone else who wrote in, left us iReports in iBlink Radio or who drop us a line on Twitter. We’re looking very forward to hearing your nexus 7 experiences!

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 Android Access.net.

Finally, Check out Steve’s Twitter feed.

Thanks for listening!

Welcome back everyone to hear what J.J., Ana and even our dear friend Steve, have to say about the latest in the world of Android Access. This month is a bit quieter, however, it looks like things won’t be calm for long if the news forcasts are right.

In The News:

Android 4.1.2 brings home screen rotation to devices

Download: Android 4.1.2 JZO54K Update for Nexus 7

Google Is Holding An Android Event On October 29th

Android 4.2 to feature second pull down panel with quick settings

Android APK 4.2 teardown shows Google getting serious about security

Google Play may get its own built-in virus scanner

From rumor to retail: the full story of Google’s fourth-generation Nexus

Google’s $99 Nexus tablet will reportedly launch ahead of the holidays

Google may own Motorola, but carriers still have their way with Android

Motorola To Customers: Sorry, No Android Upgrades For Your New-ish Devices

Gmail App for Android Features Long-Awaited Updates

Google Calendar for Android becomes stand-alone app

Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project | Threat Level

Apps4Android Releases Beta Version of Accessible Voter Information Guide

Ideal Currency Reader

iOS, Android apps are porking up, research firm says

Where the internet lives, a peak at a Google data center

Will It Blend? iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 put through the ringer

App Review: Google Translate

Ana shows us the power of your Android Camera and more with Google Translate. Did you know you could have a conversation with your android? Find out more and hear what’s for dinner in this overview of the free App from Google.

App Review: Google Currents

Over the next few months we will be focusing in on the Nexus 7 as it’s the best, and really affordable, device for keeping up with the latest from the Android release vaults. With that in mind, joe takes us on a tour of the Google Currents App this month. Google Currents is the stock news reader for the nexus 7 and it is easy to use for light reading.

App Review: Ride metra

J.J. is always on the go. So having a great transit app on his phone can be the difference for him either being late or just there in the nick of time. He shows us how this app works with trains in his area and more. You can find this app on the Play Store here.  

Mailbag

We were thrilled to receive so many iReports from new users of Android. We focus on a few of those this month in the show, however, we also wanted to share a few of the emails from the mailbag as well.

Chris from the UK writes in with comments about Hotmail.

Loving the show, I’ve recently bought an Archos 80 G9 tablet with ICS now upgraded, and finding it pretty accessible having overcome my fears of buying a touchscreen device, and choosing the Android over Ipad.

I do have a couple questions which I hope you may be able to shed some light on,

1. I could use an accessible hotmail client, I like Microsoft’s only official app, it offers multiple account suppoprt and email notifications, however once I get to my emails it only reads out the subject header not the actual body of the text, not sure if this is something in the incoming text format but it’s a big frustration!

Oddly I have the same thing with ‘Documents to Go’ I’m able to load up documents, but when I touch the screen it simply won’t read what’s there, using talkback and explore by touch with Ivona Amy English voice installed,

Any suggestions would be welcome!

Finally this one may be a little more techy, the Archos has the facility to add a 3G dongle to gain internet connection on the go, however most of the time I use my tablet at home or in hotels, but of course there will be the odd occasion when I’d like to use it in a non wifi area.

I can’t justify buying a data plan on a 3G network, and wanted to tether or access the web through my Nokia N82 mobile phone.  I installed a little app on my phone called JoyKuSpot which effectively turns the cellphone into a mobile Adhoc wifi hotspot, I can certainly detect it and use it with a PC laptop, however Android doesn’t recognise it, I installed an app called ‘wifi scanner’ and it’s now visible to the tablet, but it won’t connect.

From what I’ve read Android won’t allow connection to Adhoc hotspots, there is an app called Z-180 Adhoc’ but from some of the reviews it can seriously mess up your wifi on some devices, not being particulary techy I don’t want to take that risk – are they likely to enable adhoc connection in Jellybean or perhaps someone create a safe app to do this?, a friend has an Ipad and is able to connect to Adhoc, why are Android locking out this feature and liniting their users?

Sorry if this is a lot to answer, but thanks in advance,

Keep up the fantastic work,

Regards,

Chris Ankin

UK

Chris also writes us again with a follow up to his first email.

It’s certainly odd that there is this inaccessability amongst email apps, one would have thought that reading out a body of text would be relatively simple!  I have found an app called ‘Handy Hotmail’ which can do it, the downside is that it’s not really very feature packed, and as far as I can discover only supports one hotmail account, so I’d love one that provides everything under one roof so to speak,

Another app with potential is ‘PDF to Speech’ which has great potential as it does what it claims, however it could use a couple of dedicated play/pause buttons rather than gestures for users with sight loss, and I’ve suggested this to the developers,

Best regards,

Chris

UK

The team also mentions ideal K9 for email as well if you want an app that has been known for being reliable and Talkback friendly over the years. Find our thoughts on it from an earlier show on this very blog. 

Next, Eugene writes in to talk about file managers and to answer a question from Episode 11.

Hi everyone:

First, let me tell you how much I’ve been enjoying your android podcasts.  I’m anxiously looking forward to the next one.

You asked about apps which might be accessible.  Well, I suggest two for your approval.

The first one is Videos App.  There are times when I wish to play a video which I downloaded (such as the news) and the browser won’t recognize the file when I click on it.  In cases like this, I need an app which simply finds and plays the video.  Videos does just that.

You click on the icon, and the app will look for videos and list them. 

Then all you do is touch the video’s name, or use the keyboard, and away you go.  When you’re done, close it.  That’s that.

The other app is AndroZip File Manager, which reminds me of a Unix file manager.  If you wish to get a look at your files, or possibly archive them, this is the app you’d use.  The buttons on AndroZip are nicely marked, and keyboard access is very good, too.  In fact, the only problem with it is that it’s not flashy, but if you don’t care for sizzle, but you care about functionality and accessibility, you’ll love AndroZip.

AndroZip File Manager is put out by AgileSoft, while Videos is put out by Android Code Monkey (AndroidCodeMonkey.com).  I’m sure you’ll love both of these apps.

Finally, I suspect that with the advent of ICE and JB, the arena of accessible apps will grow like mushrooms.  I’ve already noticed that I’ve gotten to parts of the screen that were not accessible in earlier versions of Android, and I’m sure this opening up will continue.

Continued good luck, and have a good evening.

Eugene A. Hetzer Jr.

Eugene also writes in to mention marco’s blog from Episode 10’s great interview segment.

Hi everyone:

I wanted to mention to you that I went to Marco Zehe’s blog.  It’s a very interesting place to be, and in there there’s an engaging article about making apps accessible.

It turns out that there’s a lot more to it than simply labeling buttons.  This is especially true on the web, which is mouse-driven.

For more about this, go to the blog and read the article, which was well thought out.

Thank you, and have a good day.

Sincerely,

Eugene A. Hetzer Jr.

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 Android Access.net.

Finally, Check out Steve’s Twitter feed.

Thanks for listening!

Greetings and welcome back to our show. This time we have another fantastic Developer Interview, another hardware Review and a few more surprises.

In The News:

Apple v. Samsung verdict is in: $1 billion loss for Samsung

Misunderstanding of Prior Art May Have Led to Apple-Samsung Verdict

Google on Apple vs. Samsung Verdict: Most Claims Don’t Relate to Core Android

In Wake of Samsung Verdict, HTC Does Not Intend To Settle

For Google Goggles and Glass, Google lands patent for automatic object recognition in videos, leaves no stone untagged

Google Goggles update brings support for devices without autofocus  

New TalkBack Beta  adds continuous reading mode to #Android 4.1, bug fixes, and performance enhancements.

Intersection Explorer now part of Maps on Android:

Google Maps now has schedules for more than one million public transit stops worldwide

Samsung Galaxy Note II official with 5.5-inch screen and Android Jelly Bean

Big Launcher app makes Android accessible for people with vision disabilities  

Users choose Androids over iPhones due to larger screens

Verizon Intros Suite of Apps for Visually Impaired

Android users finally buying paid apps, download numbers catching iPhone

App Review: Acapela voices

Steve takes the group on a tour of the new Accapella  TTS voices for Android. He’ll explain why he finds these voices better than other options available on the Play Market. To learn more about these voices, visit the Google Play Store page

Developer Interview: BookShare

Ana and J.J chat with Bookshare’s Vice President of Engineering Gerardo Capiel about the development process behind the successful Go Read app. The discussion doesn’t stop there as we learn more about Google’s “Summer of Code” and a story about how an intern added his own unique contribution to the Bookshare project. Also, learn about what the “Social Coding For Good” initiative is and how it is playing a big role in where things are going in the future for Bookshare.

App review: Ana and Go Read

Ana takes us on a trip around the Go Read app. And she reveals what popular book series she is reading as well. Take a listen to find out more about this amazing app and Ana’s reading habits.

Hardware Review: Galaxy S3 on Verizon

Two episodes in a row with an actual hardware review. It’s a shame we are running out of hosts who need to renew their hardware contracts. We may have to find more ways to get J.J. to fall into more pools at conventions in order for us to score more of these reviews! This time Joe is here with a phone he stole away from his wife. The Samsung Galaxy S III is the new hot phone to have  and we find out more about it in this hardware overview. Check out this Wiki page for the Galaxy S III to learn more about which carriers support the phone in its various flavors and configurations.

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 Android Access.net.

Finally, Check out Steve’s Twitter feed.

Thanks for listening!

Please take this screen reader user survey and help spread the word about System Access.

Wow, we know its been a long time since we took our break for Google i/o and the Summer Conventions… but! We have a huge show this go around and we hope you will find that it was worth the wait. Especially if you were interested in trying a few Jellybeans!

In The News:

Meet Android 4.1 Jellybean

Here is the Change Log for Jellybean

Jellybean is faster thanks to the slick Project Butter

Google Maps adds Offline Mode in jellybean

T mobile, when is Jellybean coming to my phone and or tablet?

3 phones likely to get jellybean

More conjecture on possible Jellybean upgrade canidates

Jellybean will be harder to hack?

Adobe says no stand alone Flash for you Jellybean users

Accessibility gestures for Android 4.1

Google I/O 2012 – Making Android Apps Accessible

Reports of Jellybean issues with double tap navigation

Nexus 7 accessibility, where are we?

Introducing the nexus 7

Rounded corners in advertising, check out the Nexus 7 commercial

Nexus 7 16 GB sells out on Play Market

Nexus 7 suggested to cost $156 by iSupply

Report: Nexus 7 more repairable than iPads

Need something smaller? How about the Galaxy Note II

Google Play gets magazines and more

The Nexus Q

Sadly, this happened shortly after we recorded the show, Nexus Q launch delayed indefinitely, no longer available for pre-order

Google reveals Google Glass high above San Francisco

Additional info on Google Glass

App Review: Georgie and Synaptic

We had many emails and iReports asking us to discuss these new apps while we were on our break. Steve nutt takes a moment to describe and lay out the features of Georgie. It has a 14 day trial if you find that you want to take this for a spin from the Google Play Market.

Steve, who had more time on his hands to play with apps and things, also delves into another option in this arena in his description of “Synapptic”. To learn more about this alternative , visit the official website.

Developer Interview: Mozilla Firefox

Eitan Isaacson and Marco Zehe sit down with Ana and joe to discuss the approach and the development of accessibility in Firefox for Android.

The interview spotlights how users can download the firefox betas from the Google Play market and provide the team feedback on their experiences with Androids from 4.1 all the way back to version 2.2. 

Check out marco’s blog to keep up on what is new with firefox accessibility

And you can find out more about Mozilla at the MozillaProject website. We sincerely thank Eitan and Marco for their time and we urge everyone to download and see the tremendous efforts that have been taken to make Firefox work with Screen Readers.

Hardware Review: Droid 4

joe’s long search for a replacement handset has ended in his selection of the Motorola Droid 4. He showed it to JJ at the Summer Convention in Dallas, and through a series of events we’ve been asked not to elaborate on [but can spread rumor and conjecture  about], he too now has a Droid 4. JJ and joe take some time to talk about what they like, and are eagerly hoping for in the unit’s ICS update, with the phone that sports one of the best hardware keyboards on the market.

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 Android Access.net.

Finally, Check out Steve’s Twitter feed.

Thanks for listening!