Daily Loaf

Technology gets more amazing every day. Satellites guide us from our driveways all the way to a grocery store in Ohio. A webcam enables a soldier in Afghanistan to talk face-to-face with his wife in Nebraska. And a new wave of iPhone apps allows individuals with disabilities to communicate with others — some, for the very first time.

At 235 megabytes, Proloquo2Go turns a standard iPhone into a fully functional augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Co-designed by Penn State doctoral student Samuel Sennott and carried by iPhone app developer AssistiveWare, Proloquo2Go “provides a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking,” such as individuals with autism, Lou-Gehrig’s Disease, Down syndrome or cerebral palsy. Like any other AAC device, it combines symbols, words, sounds and technology (source) to guide its user through an intuitive, hierarchical system of sentence-building software. Added to that, it hosts a minimum vocabulary of 7,000 words and life-like voices — and, at approximately $150 (not including the iPhone), costs a fraction of the $8,000- $10,000 families pay for cumbersome text-to-speech machines. Read the rest of this entry »

New iPods hitorically debut in the fall, around September. This report that says Toshiba will “ramp up” production of flash memory chips during the month of August. Word on the street is that Toshiba is doing so to meet a big order from Apple. So, new iPods could be on the way.

Why such speculation? Read the rest of this entry »

Step right up, folks, the Future of Music is here. Come one, come all — and haul all your audio equipment with you, including digital media, CDs, LPs, iPods and laptops. The myriad demonstration stations include: a “nitty gritty LP cleaning station” to ensure that your tunes are in prime condition for ripping to your computer; a lesson on easily integrating your iTunes library with your in-home WiFi system; info on streaming video and the best download methods; tutorials on headphones and headphone amplifiers, tube docks and bookshelf speakers, and more to help you wade your way through the vast sea of new technology available for getting music to your ears. Visit avsouth.com for more info. Sat., July 25, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Audio Visions South, 3655 Henderson Blvd., Tampa, free.