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The tech industry's accessibility-related products and launches this week
From Apple and Google to Webex and Adobe, the industry’s biggest players have launched new features to make their products easier to use. Here’s a quick roundup of this week’s GAAD news.
Webex meetings will use AI tools to help speech-impaired users communicate
Voiceitt's technology learns speech patterns and live transcribes statements.
Mercedes-Benz is bringing WebEx meetings to the new E-Class sedans
Everything a busy worker needs to never get a moment's peace.
Webex's seamless CarPlay support means you can never escape your meetings
Webex now has seamless CarPlay support. You can keep a meeting going when you plug into your car... even if you'd rather leave work behind.
Ford is turning its EVs into video conference rooms with help from Cisco
Ford and Cisco have teamed up to develop a natively-running WebEx app for use on EV infotainment systems.
Cisco Webex adds real-time translation for more than 100 languages
Webex users can test the app’s new real-time translation starting this month, with general availability planned for May.
Recommended Reading: The life of a dropshipper
The week's best writing on technology and more.
Zoom is now 'the Facebook of video apps'
A lot of us are wondering just how full of crap Zoom is. Acting like Facebook is already bad, even more so now that we’re all fighting for our lives.
Slack adds Microsoft Teams video call options
More of us than ever are relying on video calling apps to chat with friends, family and colleagues. Slack, for example, has seen a huge increase in calls made and received through its app in the last month amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting today, the app will give you more options. For instance, you can now hop into a Microsoft Teams call directly from the productivity app, which said last week it was working on such an option.
Google’s .new shortcut now works with sites like Spotify and Microsoft
Last year, Google introduced .new shortcuts that made it easier to create a new Google Doc, Sheet, Slide, Site or Form -- simply enter the file type you wish to create into your browser and tack .new onto the end. Last week, Google brought the feature to Calendar, and now it's expanding it to other sites like Spotify. Soon, any company or organization will be able to register a .new domain to help their users start tasks faster.
Cisco's web meeting plugin for Chrome has a whopping flaw
If you participate in corporate web meetings, there's a good chance you have Cisco's WebEx Chrome extension. If so, you'll want to check that it's patched to version 1.03, because it has a scary hole that leaves machines open to drive-by attacks. In other words, "any website could just install malware on your machine silently," security expert Filippo Valsorda tweeted.
Moxtra app for iPad gives you binders full of shareable content
In the ultra-cloud, post-PC era, we do not lack for ways to share our stuff. Got a presentation deck to show? You can go full-on web meeting with Webex, GoToMeeting, Join.me or Fuze Meeting; to create the content and share it smoothly, Slideshare or Sliderocket will serve, as would either Google or Microsoft's online presentation framework. A document or a spreadsheet: Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.com, Dolly Drive or Egnyte. And if you're organizing your thoughts into notebook form, fan-favorite Evernote has your back. There's a bit of daylight between these platforms, though. If you want to build out a collaborative project book with the ability to include movies, sounds, PDFs, comments and annotations in an indexed "everything bucket" and share it selectively, you could do that in Evernote -- but you give up the ability to set a specific, front-to-back order and a solid presentation layer or web meeting front-end, or record your own narration to go with the show. If you go with something like Sliderocket, you get a slick presentation with powerful sharing options, narration, analytics and web meetings built in, but you are locked into the slide format; no arbitrary media and shifting content. Neither of those approaches provides a full annotation layer atop the content, with highlights and text notes in context rather than off to the side. That gap of daylight between pure presentation form and remember-everything functionality is where you'll find Moxtra, a new iPad app and suite of cloud services launching today. Founded by veterans of Cisco's WebEx division, the app is built around the concept of a shelf full of virtual binders, each one collecting whatever you need for that project, topic or area of interest. Moxtra's binders are digital portfolio cases, holding any document or media that you like. Binders are put together on the web or on the iPad -- an example of content curation, if not outright creation -- and you can easily narrate and share a slideshow edition that will play anywhere. %Gallery-177469% Adding pages of content to a binder is easy, with several pathways to get at your stuff. From the desktop, you can clip images or web pages right to the service; in fact, web pages can be "live" within a binder so that they'll always show the current version of the page. Cloud services like Box and Dropbox are accessible from the iPad app, so any of your files there in readable formats (PDF, images, movies, Office files and more) can be downloaded and converted to binder pages. You can take photos or video with the iPad camera, or access your existing photo library on the device. Most helpfully, there's a small desktop agent that you can install on your Mac or PC; it opens up your entire hard drive for remote access, so you can grab files at will as long as your machine is online. (One hopes Moxtra will add an extra security PIN or other challenge for users who have this access turned on -- yes, it's read-only, but it's still a lot of exposure if your iPad is stolen or compromised.) You decide whether to keep a binder private, share to the world (via Facebook) or selectively to invited guests/collaborators. You decide if they get view-only access, or the opportunity to edit and contribute to the binder with you. There's a full commenting and annotation layer, showing anything you choose to highlight or amend. In fact, if you record narration while you swipe through the pages in a binder, every annotation step will be recorded along with it in real time; the resulting movie is saved to your iPad photo album, and you can share that out as well if you choose. Just as you can share your binders to others, when other people share binders to you they'll show up on your binder bookshelf, with indicators showing how long they are, how many comments they have and how many people have access. Every action in every binder is logged to your Updates screen, so you can always track back and see what's been changed. It's a very personal news feed covering the things you're working on. The Moxtra team sees this product tacking back and forth between personal and team project management, with a lightweight client supported by several heavy-hitting cloud services. The Moxtra Cloud connectors pull in your files from your desktop or other storage providers; Moxtra Binder is the main iPad collection tool. Moxtra Note is the annotation and recording facility, and Moxtra Meet is the simultaneous web meeting tool. Did I not mention that already? Yes, you can deliver a WebEx-style presentation online right from Moxtra, including VoIP audio; participants can join from their desktop browsers with ease (and also presumably from the Moxtra app itself, although I wasn't able to test this). How would you use Moxtra? Home improvement projects, travel diaries, distance learning... the company's site shows a few other ideas, but you can come up with your own. Since Moxtra's editing facilities are limited to rearranging or replacing pages in the binder, you're not going to be creating your stuff directly within it; but when the task is to show and discuss what you're working on, it's got possibilities. The current version has some rough edges, but the company plans to evolve the product rapidly over the next few months. Moxtra is free for the time being, with the possibility of premium plans for high-demand users further down the road. You can download Moxtra in the App Store or sign up at moxtra.com.
Sharp unveils an 80-inch touchscreen for the boardroom
For the corporate types, Sharp is taking its massive Gen-10 1080p LCDs and adding a touchscreen as well as integrating presentation and video conferencing technologies like Skype, WebEx, GoToMetting. There is even a package that includes an optional compact whiteboard PC preloaded with Windows 7 and drivers for the display. The 80-inch touchscreen display will be available in late February for $13,795, but the press release after the break doesn't mention a price for the 60 or 70-inch versions.
iPads aid Disney's Imagineers in expansion of Magic Kingdom
Disney has posted a pretty cool video that shows how their "Imagineers" are using iPads to monitor and make changes to the New Fantasyland at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Using proprietary Disney software on the iPad, which allows Imagineers to view and manipulate a 3D digital rendering of Fantasyland, the Imagineers can communicate with the engineers and contractors working in the field to immediately see if any conflicts of design vs. practicality emerge. If there are any conflicts, the contractors can use the iPad's built-in cameras to photograph or record the areas in question. If there's a conversation to be had, they can kick off meetings right on the spot with Cisco's WebEx for iPad software. Check out the video below to see the whole process as well as some cool behind-the-scenes footage of how a theme park is built. It's wonderful to see Apple's "magical and revolutionary" device helping create magical and fantastic places.
Cisco Cius Android tablet hands-on (video)
In the market for a $750 Android tablet with an IT-controlled closed ecosystem, Atom processor, and a requisite middle man to place your order? Then you probably work for a corporation. Cisco's Cius Android tablet was designed with a Cisco infrastructure in mind, focusing heavily on security and integration with other products. Sure, you can watch HD video or play Angry Birds (if IT is willing to flip the switch on game downloads), but you'll mostly be using the Cius to join WebEx presentations, TelePresence conferences, and access custom enterprise apps -- this is not the tablet to give your kids, for someone just looking to browse the web, or really for anyone not working at a company that already depends heavily on Cisco services. Basically, if a Cius magically appears on your desk one day, you'll know it's right for you.%Gallery-127444% Today Cisco launched AppHQ, a custom app store created to give IT departments complete control over device app loading, allowing them to limit access only to enterprise apps, or the entire Android Market. We went hands-on with the tablet and AppHQ at the company's offices in NYC, and were impressed with the tablet's ability to integrate seamlessly with Cisco services. Even though Cius isn't intended to be used for entertainment, it's designed to be both your primary portable device and desktop workstation -- so that ability to play HD video will definitely come in handy. You can access all of Cisco's popular communications tools, making private calls as you walk, joining a video conference from the train over AT&T or Verizon LTE, and then slipping the device into its dock once you reach the office, which adds speakerphone functionality, three USB ports, video out, and even Ethernet connectivity. You can use Cius to access an offsite virtual Windows desktop, using a mouse, keyboard, and monitor to control your primary machine. The tablet has begun rolling out to some clients and will be available worldwide on July 31st. You'll need to reach out to your Cisco sales rep to make a purchase, but jump past the break for a quick look in our hands-on video.
Updated 6/3: Weber's On The Grill, Glympse, Bump, Stitcher Radio, WebEx
iOS App Store updates this morning: Weber's On the Grill: additional language support Bump: Faster photo uploads Glympse: Redesigned favorites view & more favorites features. Stitcher: Support for the Ford Sync radio. Cisco WebEx: Support for WebEx Beta sites. Hit your app updates in iTunes to download these & any other apps that are ready for you!
Show floor video: Webex lets you collaborate across platforms
So let's say you've got a Panther machine on your DSL connection with a firewall, and another computer across town running Windows 98 on a dual-ISDN connection, but you really need to control the Mac from the PC. No dice, right? According to Webex, this might just be possible,* although your experience won't be a zippy thrill-ride.Webex uses a subscription-based tool to allow remote access across computers, and at Macworld they were talking about Mac-to-PC friendliness. Scott had a chat and wound up with pricing (it's as cheap as $10.35/month), a website (pcnow.com), and the aforementioned horrific scenario of connectivity. Oh, and they've got iPhone compatibility of a sort, just be aware of the limitations.*In theory, Webex engineers say a 56k connection will allow connectivity. The specs also provide compatibility with Panther and Win98 on the low end. Note I said "low end" which means the performance won't be anything close to a high-speed connection and some more current OS'es. Full video explanation after the jump.
