Libraries for the Blind and Print Disabled

The intent of this page is to share news regarding computer software that most of us use. Herein forthcoming release dates are posted along with links to free software and/or free software updates. This is a page for us techies!

NOTE: The page is Microsoft/desktop PC heavy but that is not the intention. Feel free to expand this to Apple, Linux and mobile technologies.

--- //[[dan.malosh@state.mn.us|Dan @ MN1A Regional]] 2013/08/19 14:00//

• NLS's BARD Mobile app
• Apple iOS 7.0.3
• Microsoft Windows 8.1

• Apple OS X|10.9 Mavericks – Fall 2013
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 – Fall 2013 (For computers running Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1)
• NLS's LCM replacement: Hindenburg Audio Book Creator - Alpha version *should* be released in January 2014.

Also worth noting, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014.

Offline installers are executable files that can be downloaded and used to install on computers without Internet connections. They are nice when the file is very large - like a Service Pack upgrade from Microsoft - or when a particular program is having problems downloading - like Adobe Flash not downloading because of Active X problems in Internet Explorer.

• Adobe Photoshop updates: 13.x for PC – 13.x for Mac
• Irfanview (Free, “poor man's” image editor)

• Apple iTunes (comes bundled with QuickTime)
• Apple QuickTime (if you wish to only install QuickTime but not iTunes)
• Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 (For computers running Windows XP and Windows Vista)
• Microsoft Windows Media Player 12 (For computers running Windows 7 and Windows 8)
• VLC Media Player

• Windows XP: SP2 (Released: August 25, 2004/September 2007) – SP3 (Released: April 21, 2008)
• Windows Vista: SP1 (Released: February 4, 2008) – SP2 (Released: April 28, 2009)
• Windows 7: SP1 (Released: March 18, 2010)
• Windows 8: 8.1 will be available on October 18, 2013 but it is not clear as to whether or not it should be regarded as a "service pack". Check back at Microsoft's Service Pack Center after 10/18/2013.

• ExtractNow (Free tool for unzipping multiple zipped folders quickly)

• Gutenberg Cartridge Duplicator (For use on Fedora/Linux platforms to mass-produce Digital Talking Book cartridges)
• DTBC Write Protect (For applying write/erase protection to Digital Talking Books)

• Adobe Acrobat updates: 9.x – 10.x – 11.x
• Adobe Reader 11.x

NOTE: Adobe Acrobat is software you purchase to create PDFs. Adobe Reader is a free program used to view and fill out PDFs.

• JAWS updates
• NVDA (Free screen reader)

• Adobe Flash
• Java

• Google Chrome (See also "Alternate (offline) Google Chrome installer (Windows)")
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (For computers running Windows XP)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (For computers running Windows Vista)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 (For computers running Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows 8)
• Mozilla Firefox

• Apache Open Office (Free alternative to Microsoft Office)
• Microsoft Office 2010 Service Packs: SP1 (Released: June 27, 2011) – SP2 (Released: July 16, 2013)
• Microsoft Office 2013 Service Packs: (None available as of 8/18/2013)