[real-eyes] Fw: Talking Alarm Clock
- From: "Reginald George" <sgeorge@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 00:09:22 -0500
Here is wonderful information about a freeware reminder program I should have
passed on to the list three years ago. I've had an E-mail describing this
program in my saved mail for that long but, didn't realize it's potential till
I researched it tonight. Please review the following quick and easy
documentation. This program is still under development, still free, and now
supports Windows Vista along with all other Windows versions after 95. The
download is only 250K. I particularly appreciated the fact that this off the
shelf commercial software company has been thinking in terms of screen reader
accessibility almost since the beginning. I have wanted something much smaller
and more independent than Outlook to remind me of the important moments such as
birthdays or client appointments as I get older and weirder and my brain
continues to slip.
Note: this is not an actual review. Only an initial impression. I am hoping
this Alarm Clock software will do the job nicely. Now i just have to remember
to set up the alarms!
Reg
http://www.cinnamonsoftware.com/alarm_clock.htm
Talking Alarm Clock lets your computer remind you of important dates and events.
. It uses Microsoft® Agent to show a talking animated alarm. The alarm can
also play any sound you choose and includes a handy snooze button.
. An alarm can be set to go off once, daily, weekly, monthly or annually, with
very flexible scheduling. Each alarm can have multiple schedules.
. An icon in the Windows system tray gives quick access to the alarm clock.
The New Alarm Wizard makes adding an alarm fast and easy.
. Talking Alarm Clock's windows are easy on the eye, with soft colors and
gentle transitions. There's also help balloon that shows a full explanation of
each part of the Alarm Clock window.
Here are some of the new features of Talking Alarm Clock version 1.4
. You can now choose which Microsoft® Agent Character to use for each alarm,
rather than a single choice for all alarms.
. There is a new Microsoft® Agent Character chooser that includes a wider
selection of agent characters.
. The taskbar tray icon's menu has been expanded to allow you to close all
ringing alarms or temporarily disable the alarm clock.
. This version includes much improved support for Windows Accessibility high
contrast mode.
. The Alarm Clock Support program has been generally improved. It also
includes some new configuration options.
***Okay, here's the good part.
Talking Alarm Clock - Accessibility
Talking Alarm Clock supports Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA), and is
designed for compatibility with Window-Eyes from GW Micro Inc.
It has also been tested with Jaws from Freedom Scientific
and with Microsoft Narrator.
Here are a few hints for using Talking Alarm Clock with a screen reader:
. The main Alarm Clock window is composed of two panes. The top pane shows the
selected alarm, and the bottom pane shows a list of all alarms.
. To select an alarm from the alarm list, use the arrow keys to highlight it
and the space bar to select it.
. To move the input focus between the list pane at the bottom and the detail
pane at the top, use the F6 key.
. The detail pane contains two tab pages called Schedule and Options. When the
input focus is in the detail pane, you can change pages using Control+Tab.
. Any control where a number can be typed will also increment or decrement the
number using the up and down arrow keys. This applies to all date and time
fields, including the month.
. The toolbars used in Talking Alarm Clock can be reached using the tab key.
However, on all Windows versions except Windows XP they do not respond to
keyboard input. This issue is being addressed.
. The Talking Alarm Clock includes extensive context-sensitive help accessed
using the F1 key. However, the help is not currently read by Window-Eyes.
This issue is being addressed.
Version 1.3 includes limited support for high contrast color schemes. The
version 1.4 includes much better support for Windows'
high contrast
accessibility option.
What's New
Here are some of the new features of Talking Alarm Clock version 1.5
. This version of Talking Alarm Clock uses the latest Windows® media
technology. It can now use Video for Windows® or DirectShow® to play most
media formats,
including WAV, MIDI, MP3, WMA, AIF, SND, MPEG, AVI, and WMV (yes, an alarm can
now play a video clip).
The alarm window now includes a mute button which either mutes or silences the
media clip. This is a configurable option in the General settings of the
Talking Alarm Clock Support program.
Also, if the most recent updates to DirectShow® are available on your computer,
you can preset the media clip volume for each alarm.
. An alarm can now be set up to run programs, open files, open web pages, etc.
Each alarm can have one or more shortcuts to launch when it rings. You
can have the alarm launch its shortcuts automatically, or have it show them to
you so you can launch them yourself.
. You can now assign a shortcut key to the Close, Snooze, Mute and/or Silence
button in each alarm. The keyboard settings are available from a drop-down
button on the alarm Style page.
. There's a new "Say when" feature that lets an alarm announce a date (and an
optional time). This is useful for reminding you of future events. For
example,
you can set up an alarm that says "Mom's birthday is on October 10" by naming
the alarm "Mom's birthday" and adding a "Say when" schedule for October 10.
. The user interface aesthetics have been updated. New bright, shiny and glass
configuration options have been added to General settings of the Talking
Alarm Clock Support program to enable these new visual effects.
. You can now snooze an alarm for longer than 24 hours. For those who can't do
date and time arithmetic in their heads (say what?), we've added a little
tip window that shows when the snooze will end. Also, each alarm now keeps
track of it's own default snooze time.
. When more than one alarm rings at the same time, they can be cascaded or
tiled. This is a configurable option in the General settings of the Talking
Alarm Clock Support program.
. The Restore feature has been updated to fix invalid user accounts. This is
helpful when you've changed the accounts on your computer, or when you're
transferring alarms from one computer to another.
. You can now organize your alarms into named groups (available only on Windows
XP).
. Due to the addition of new features, the Talking Alarm Clock windows have
been rearranged somewhat. The alarm details are now shown on three pages rather
than two, and the New Alarm Wizard includes more optional pages.
Installation Notes
To install and use Talking Alarm Clock, your system will need:
. Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
. Microsoft® Agent (optional)
. Approximately 6 MB of free disk space
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