Doplphin have just released version 11 of their Screen Reader and Magnification software suites (SuperNova, Hal, Lunar and Lunar Plus). I haven’t had a chance to look at it myself yet. However here’s a what caught my eye in the new version
- 64-bit Windows Support – I suppose there are ordinary people out there who are using the 64-bit version of Vista. If you don’t recognise the jargon, don’t worry because you aren’t likely to be using it <grin>. Mind you you can’t use it a log-in just yet…
- Support for Internet Explorer 8 which is welcome as version 8 has been giving a lot of people headahces.
- Support for the Beta version of iTunes v8 – all extra access has got to be good. There seems to be still some accessibility issues with iTunes but there is at least a work-around.
- Skype v4 Support – excellent news. Version 4 just feels so different;
- List All Tabs Hotkey in Mozilla Firefox v3 – a nice feature.
- New Application Sensitive “SuperNova Help” Available Anywhere – this sounds like an excellent idea (dare I say, though, that Jaws has had this for ages?)
- Context sensitive Help windowVersion 11 introduces a brand new Help system that is available anywhere, by simply pressing CAPS LOCK + F1.
- Fresh New ‘Look’ Dolphin Control Panel – from the brief look I’ve had, it does look much easier to find what your looking for.
- Clearer, Less Technical Language, view the list of terminology changes. Any thing that is makeing life easier for the non-geeks amongh us has my vote.
- Version 11 of Supernova uses the “Dolphin cursor” now instead “of Auto Virtual Focus”, “Area Virtual Focus” and “Live Mode”. And will announce ” Dolphin cursor on” and “Dolphin cursor off”.
- The “Auto Interactive Mode” which I’ve always thought a clunky phrase, has been renamed “Forms Mode”, just like Jaws. From a training angle this is much easier to explain.
- The “Doc Reader” is now called “read from here” which maked sense
- They renamed the List Utility as “Item Finder” which is just friendlier.
- Braille is whoing some nice new features for the high end user, but also the fact that Braille wll now only display whole words makes a great deal of sense.
So all in all some nice features. some of those seem to have been “inspired” by Jaws. But then some of the features of Jaws 10 were “inspired” by SuperNova, like the automatic switching of Forms mode on and off.
Dolphin are also getting ready for the newest version of Windows (7) – Yes folks we are just getting to grips with Windows Vista and another one is just round the corner. More of that another day, I’m sure.