There are a number of problems people can have with their eyesight. They might be colorblind and so have trouble viewing certain sites. They could be legally blind and so unable to see anything, instead using a reader to help them navigate the web. Or, they could just have vision problems or “old eyes”, their sight deteriorating over time.
Whatever the case, if you are one of these people you might be wanting to make your computer a little more user friendly. Here are a couple of handy tools to help you along.
Are you tired of having to squint your eyes at the computer screen? Do you find yourself unable to turn the font size up high enough? This Firefox addon allows you to zoom in and out of sites either globally, or on a per-page basis. You are able to override the default of the site on text only and full page formats, and change foreground and background colors to your specifications.
Whether you have poor eyesight or difficulty focusing on text, this program for Windows can really help you. It isolates text and restructures it in an easier to view format that will keep you concentrating and reducing eye strain. It can be applied to compatible Windows applications such as Word, Notepad, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.
URL’s are hard to read at the best of times, but when you have trouble with your vision it is especially difficult. The address bar can be increased, however, using this nifty little add on. It is compatible with the latest version of Firefox, and there is no configuration needed. Just download it and enjoy the larger URL bar.
Are you making a website and you want to make sure colorblind users are able to view it? Vischeck is an excellent program that simulates colorblindness in various forms, showing you want sites and images look like for someone who cannot properly process certain tones and shades.
This is a default format override addon for Firefox. It allows you to choose the layout, background color, font color and size of text and images. They have a manual select feature for simplified versions of the same text, as well.
Conclusion
You don’t have to strain your eyes or avoid certain sites. These tools are great for increasing the readability of any web page. What are some of the tools you use? Let us know in the comments.
Annie is a geeky blogger for Direct Sight, the premiere supplier of cheap glasses based in the UK.
I don’t know if there is anything I hate quite as much as listening to traffic reports on the radio. The grating voices, the lightning-fast run down and the annoying background noise make it impossible for me to keep track of what it is they are telling me. Especially if I want to think back to what they said before making a route choice.
Besides, in the world of satellite radio and in-car MP3 players, who listens to the AM/FM format while driving anymore? But I, like most, still love traveling by car, and so traffic jams are always a risk. Checking the net for traffic information isn’t helpful if you can’t do it on the road, with conditions changing through the day and a sudden accident enough to lock up a freeway for hours.
That is why I have turned – as I so often do – to my Android phone and the many apps that have been created to maximize convenience in today’s busy world. It is great that they now have traveling and traffic apps, because this smartphone is in my hand so often that my family probably thinks a prankster has super glued it there.
Here are some of the best apps for avoiding traffic jams to download onto your Android phone:
This can officially be labeled a classic choice. Google is the single largest web company around, and they are famous for their many products. One of their most used is their Google Maps, which you can now get on your phone.
You get the usual features of looking up any area on a map grid, but there is also a navigation aspect that they have on the program itself, which will give you good directions. It will also let you know of any traffic problems in the area so you can find and follow an alternative route.
A handy GPS unit, Waze is socially based, just like all of the biggest Internet products. It works by allowing you and other drivers to build interactive maps based on the on-board GPS unit in your Android phone.
They have a navigation tool to plan rroutes for walking, running and driving, as well as real time traffic updates to avoid trouble spots. But it tends to have more information than some other apps, such as information on local areas and a social networking feature.
Where is like an all-in-one travel app. Not only does it give you current traffic conditions updated in real time, but you can find local restaurants, events, places of interest, deals and offers from nearby businesses and more.
You can save personalized ”favorites” that keep track of spots you visit often to target results when accessed, such as any accidents or slowdowns on the way there.
There’s a similar app for iPhone coming later this year from Cheaphotels.org.
Conclusion
Don’t get stuck in traffic, or stuck listening for a quickly-spoke traffic report on the radio. If you have an Android phone, the details are just a few clicks away. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
Spotify announced a new API platform for publisher a few days ago, which will give users a lot of great new applications to find and recommend new music. The new version of Spotify with the applications is yet to launch as official release, but if you want to test out the new application you can do so already.
All you need to do is select from these beta clients:
The mobile and cell phone industry has seen a lot of innovation in just the last decade. It’s a far cry from a time when most people were merely content to make phone calls or a phone number check. Now we ascribe the term, “mobile device” to our phones in order to more accurately represent their myriad functions. Mobile devices and their constant evolution and pushed the boundaries of current technological capability and the industry is quickly coming a point where its reach will exceed the industry’s grasp. It’s for this reason that mobile apps and devices need to become increasingly Cloud friendly in order to offset the increased demands placed on them.
A study conducted recently by ABI Research discussed this very issue and found big problems with limited processing power, battery life, and data storage. These concerns will further limit application growth among much of the mass market if Cloud computing isn’t applied with greater strength. No smartphone is save, it seems, and even Apple’s iPhone has shown to perform at a deficit when factoring in these same concerns. It’s been shown that applications that are connected to cloud resources are far more likely to run successfully than if they were run solely from the mobile device alone.
Factoring in these issues, it’s likely that cloud-computing services will become a new market and will deliver annual revenues coming in the range of an annual 20 billion within the next five years. These are big numbers and it’s getting a lot of attention. It’s also thought that it could further drive innovation among cell phone development. Researchers and developers will no longer have to concern themselves with finding new ways to adapt a mobile devices’ processor to meet increased application demand. If this were the approach, people would likely have to have a separate device just to run their applications. However, cloud services offer developers a way to free up the processor and focus on other innovations.
Cloud computing software is likely to introduce an unprecedented sophistication to the world of mobile applications that has proven to be an industry all its own. Businesses are already benefiting from collaborations and data sharing through similar approaches. Users will be able to gain remote access to apps that could do anything from monitoring their home security to social networking. You’ll be able to do everything you already can, and more.
It’s not likely to be a touch decision for mobile device developers. It’s a win-win situation. This will create a new market for cloud services and free up companies to find better and more efficient ways to mobile their products. Every company, large and small, will likely be utilizing the power of such services, which will probably become a benchmark of the mobile community in a very short space of time.
Fences found here is a simple program that you download and install and then your desktop looks brand new. Fences allows you to make boxes on your desktop to organize you files and folders. You can label each box and make it as big or as small as you would like. It also has a couple prebuilt boxes so if you don’t wanna make a design it will do it for you. Another cool features is that if anything ever happens to your desktop you could restore it if you saved it prior. It does any auto save before fences is installed. One way it helps you is if you double click on your desktop it will hide all the icons and boxes. You can choose which boxes/files you do and don’t wanna hide. The last neat feature is that you can change the color of the boxes and even the transparency. All in all if you desktop is messy your gonna want this. There is a free version and a paid but I am fine with the free version since the paid doesn’t offer much else.
Raptr is like all the Instant messaging services you use combined into 1 program. It allows you to connect to facebook, xbox, psn, and many more. Although it does not work with skype which I am pretty bummed about because if it did support skype I would probably uninstall skype. It also supports ingame chat which I have not tried out yet though and it also checks what games you have installed and when you play that game it will show you as playing it which is kinda cool. Each game also has its own page like a Facebook page that you can like and write on.All in all it is a good program to have if you have alot of different Instant messaging services.
XbList is a little program that sits in your tray or pinned on you screen that shows you what friends are online and what they are playing. It also supports popup notifications that you can set. You could have a notification every time someone goes online or offline or every time they change games.It is a good program if you like to know who is on Xbox live and who isn’t.The only bad part about this program is that you must login with IE first and that sometimes there is a delay of like 10 seconds but nothing major.
Give Away Of The Day is a website that everyday has one free program to give away. It could be anything from audio converters to security software. Each program is avaible for free for only 1 day or 24 hours. The only bad part about this is you also have to install it within those 24 hours or it will not be free. Sometime they will ofter a program for free for more then one day or offer 2 programs one day but this is really rare. You can also submit your program to go on their site. They also have another site that gives away a game every day. Although they do not offer a game every day it is still good to get free games sometimes. Check Game Give Away Of The Day out Here.
which I am pretty bummed about because if it did support skype I would probably uninstall skype. It also supports ingame chat which I have not tried out yet though and it also checks what games you have installed and when you play that game it will show you as playing it which is kinda cool. Each game also has its own page like a Facebook page that you can like and write on.All in all it is a good program to have if you have alot of different Instant messaging services.
