Android for the disabled

Android may be the worlds most popular operating system for phones and tablets but if you have problems seeing what's on the screen you can't really take advantage of it, so what can you do if you can't see very well?

We don't often consider the problems disabled users face when using our favourite gadgets and gizmos so, to help those who do have sight problems or other impairments, let's look at an answer to that question, starting with TalkBack.

TalkBack is a big part of Android, and one that helps a lot with accessibility.

Included in the settings menu of almost all Android devices, and available from the Play Store for those few that don't have it installed, TalkBack literally talks back to you - it describes everything on the screen, and helps you use your phone or tablet to its full potential.

How?

Slide your finger across your home or app screens and Talkback will tell you the name of everything your finger passes over, from buttons to app icons and literally everything in between - so even if you can't see it you can know what's on screen and you can interact with it.

It will describe anything under your fingers, for instance if you touch a button it will tell you what that button does, if you come across some text it will read that text to you, you can have notifications read to you, when you receive a text or phone call TalkBack will tell you who it's from.

For users with missing digits, or limbs, who perhaps find it hard to type there is another way of interacting with your Android - Googles free (as all Google apps are) Gesture Search.

This allows you to draw on screen, one letter at a time, and will add those letters together and then search for things on your phone or tablet that match.

Let's say you have fingers missing and you want to open the YouTube app.

Instead of having to struggle opening your app drawer and scrolling through it you can use your fist, elbow, even a toe foot or heel to scrawl the letter Y on screen - you can take up the whole screen with the one letter.

You'll see things with Y at the start of their name pop up, contacts whose name begins with Y for example, scrawl an O and only things starting with YO will be shown....soon you'll see YouTube and can just press on it to open the YouTube app.

The same thing works for contacts, start drawing a large letter on screen and names of people you know that start with that letter will appear, press on the persons name to contact them.

Then there are apps that, while not free, are extremely useful yet cost very little such as Virginia.

Virginia costs £2.84 and is a simple easy to use app designed to help those who can't speak, or who can't communicate well, to talk. It turns your device into a communicator, like the sort that typically cost a lot more than a cup of coffee to buy.

It shows on screen a simple set of large tiles, each tile has a picture of an action (for example the icon for "my back itches" is a picture of a persons back being scratched) and the text of what pressing the tile will make your Android say.

With Virginia you can say hundreds of different words and phrases from a simple "yes" "no" or "thank you" to more detailed phrases such as "I would like to have some pasta" or "I have a pain in my right ear".

Virginia has competition in the form of a popular free app,called AAC Speech Communicator.



AAC is the same format, it uses tiles on screen, but rather than press one tile to get a quick preset word or phrase spoken you can press several tiles and then have them spoken aloud when you are ready, allowing for more unique and very highly detailed communication.

It is a very good app, and can produce more complex speech than Virginia while remaining easy to use, but be aware it is not quite as polished looking, however it is free and it is a very useful app for those who need help communicating.

Getting manufacturer specific now, Samsungs recent phones and tablets, such as the Galaxy series, have additional features that help. By default you can answer phone calls with your voice, if your phone rings simply say "answer" and the call will be put on speakerphone for you.

In the accessibility settings for Samsung devices you will find other options (a lot of manufacturers offer similar features so don't be afraid to dig around your settings if you're not using a Samsung device), you can have passwords spoken out to you as you enter them, useful if you can't see the characters on screen or if you can't read very well.

You can change font size, adjust your Androids colour, change the audio balance, zoom in and out of any screen to make what's displayed larger when needed and there is a setting called "improve accessibility" that makes additional changes specifically for users with reduce dexterity.

Back to free apps and there is one app that, if you have decent battery life, could be a big help, Utter.

Utter is a voice assistant that can be used with or without an internet connection. You can either press a button and then speak your command or (this is the bit that needs good battery life) have it always listening for your command so that you can wake it up and have it obey your commands at any time with no physical interaction needed.

With Utter you can send a text, make phone calls, update your facebook status, check the weather, open an app, play music or videos etcetera completely hands free.

And finally one more app, built into all recent Android phones and tablets, Google Now.

Google Now is a voice assistant that can do a lot of things for you. You can say "set an alarm for ... o'clock" and it will set an alarm for that time, you can ask it questions like "is it going to rain tomorrow?" or "how old is the American president?" or "what is a .....?" and it will answer them for you.

You can say "navigate to ...." and name a place to have Android give you directions to a particular place, "convert <currency, length, etcetera> to <currency, length, etcetera" to convert between units of measurement, for example "convert ten inches to feet".

Android has features that make disabled users lives a lot easier, as well as some useful apps (the majority of which are free) and hopefully this post will point those who need them in the right direction.

Zero lemon S4 7500mah battery [review]

The ZeroLemon 7500 mah battery for Samsungs Galaxy S4 is a big step up from the phones standard battery, but is it any good?

Retailing for £23.99 this is a big battery, boy is it big -  it will make your S4 twice as deep as it was before, and none of your cases will fit - so again the question has to be asked - is it really worth it?

The screenshot below may help answer that, over thirty two hours on battery, with just over nine of those hours being screen on time, that's an impressive achievement given the typical four hours of screen on time achieved using the stock Samsung battery.

That additional five or so hours of screen time included having additional services running such as instashare roundr Tasker sidebar etcetera that weren't in use with the standard Samsung battery - as well as gps and wifi and the phone still manages all day heavy usage.

The battery does have nfc but there is a catch, S-Beam will work perfectly but you will find it hard to read any nfc tags any more.

For example none of the blank nfc tags that work with the stock Samsung battery would work with the ZeroLemon replacement, at least not the particular one being used, nor would any nfc tag I could find elsewhere (such as the interactive ones at some bus stops).

Literally no tag would work, which was annoying but for me would only have been a deal breaker had S-Beam not worked, though rest assured that it works flawlessly as ZeroLemon claim.

Because the battery is so big it comes with its own rather large replacement housing that fits nicely around the phone and also provides a slight raised border around the screen so that if you lay it on a flat surface your screen won't come into contact with said surface and risk any damage.

If you commute, or use your phone for a lot more than just calls and texts (as many of us do), and you aren't bothered about your lovely slim phone suddenly looking like it's been stuffing itself with, well, whatever a phone would eat (if it could), then this battery could well be something you need.

I did ask ZeroLemon what tag types the NFC in their batteries will read but they did not provide that information, however their customer service is as good as they claim, the case that came with the battery had small marks on it and they dispatched one free of charge with a prompt response.

The case itself can be purchased in white or black and the only negative impact of the case, size aside, is that the sound from the rear speaker is covered by the battery and so the sound is channeled downward instead.

While some reviews claim this produces a muffled or quieter sound this has not been noticeable from personal experience, sound is fine and as clear as when using the original battery.

If you use your phone a lot, as in very heavy use (games, downloading, long commutes playing music, satellite navigation, taking a lot of pictures, etcetera) this is the battery for you.

It does have drawbacks, namely that nfc tags do not work (at least none of the ones I have tried, although NFC itself works because S-Beam uses it, and S-Beam works perfectly). Also your phone will now be a lot deeper, none of your cases will fit and you probably won't be able to wear skinny jeans any more - if you want to carry your phone in your pockets that is.

But once you have experienced being able to use your phone to its full potential, all day, without worrying if the battery will last until you get home as you gun down hordes of zombies, watch a hd movie, edit photo's, etcetera, you may find that, like me, you wouldn't go back to the stock battery.