Our next meeting of the Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and visually Impaired will take place this coming Friday, October 24 at 8:00 PM Eastern time via our phone conferencing system. All are welcome to participate, even those outside of the Philadelphia area. Please note that this is a week earlier than we would normally have our meeting. However, the weekend of October 31 coincides with a local ACB convention, is celebrated by some as Halloween and is the vigil of All Saints' Day for Catholics and some of us, myself included, may be attending Mass that evening. Therefore, our next phone meeting will be on October 24.
A lot has happened during the past month and so we have the potential to discuss a large amount of topics. Here are some things we could talk about.
1. iOS 8.1 is scheduled for release on October 20. For those who will decide to download it, I'd like to know how you like it? Has it improved by correcting many of the bugs plaguing many of us using iOS 8.0.x? 2. The second beta release of JAWS 16 was released toward the end of September and the final version could be out at any time, possibly by the time of our next meeting. Have any of you been using the beta? What do you think of the new features, such as the JAWS commands search feature as well as the ability to read scanned PDF files.
3. Apple has announced a new iPad Air, a new iPad Mini and has reduced the prices of older iPads, such as $249.00 for the first-generation iPad Mini? They've also announced an updated Mac Mini starting at $499.00 and an updated 27-inch iMac. Are any of these announcements causing you to consider purchasing a Mac?
4. OSX 10.10 Yosemite, the new operating system for the Mac, was released. It includes easier keyboard navigation within Safari as well as access to iBooks. Have any Mac users installed it? what do you like about it? what issues or bugs have you discovered?
5. Microsoft released their first technical preview build of windows 10, which seems to work with JAWS and NVDA, at least enough to make Windows 10 usable. Have any of you been brave enough to install it? If so, I'm curious to know what you think of the new OS?
6. In addition to a new Nexus 9 tablet and a Nexus 6 phone, Google has announced the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Are there any blind or low vision Android users who will be moving to this OS, assuming that your particular non-Nexus phone will be offering it?
I'd love to hear your questions and comments about these and any other tech-related topics. To participate, call
(712) 432-3900 when prompted for your access code, enter 391477 followed by the pound key. See you on October 24. -- Feel free to visit my new Web site http://www.DavidGoldfield.info Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573 Visit my blog http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/davidgoldfield David Goldfield, Founder and Peer Coordinator Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired To learn more about the users' group, visit http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/updated-faqphiladelphia-computer-users-group-for-the-blind-and-visually-impaired/
