ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Episode 358! JC is in the host chair with Salvis running the boards, joined by Rita, Preston, Donald, Nora, Veronica, and a bus-riding drop-in from Phil. Stacey is away this week, and the crew opens their hearts for her: Phil asks everyone to keep Stacey James and her family in their prayers as wildfires burn near Spokane, Washington.
The retro gold of the night: JC discovers that a developer has ported the legendary DECtalk synthesizer to iOS as a standalone app (GitHub download, Android port too) and plays a live demo. Perfect Paul lives again on a modern iPhone, along with Beautiful Betty, Huge Harry, Frail Frank, Dr. Dennis, Kit the Kid, Uppity Ursula, Rough Rita, and Whispering Wendy. Preston flashes back to Perfect Paul reading the weather radio on his first Sony Walkman. Pure nostalgia for every longtime screen-reader user.
Donald unveils Extreme eBook Builder Professional 3.0, his new Windows program for building e-books in Kindle, EPUB, and even standalone EXE formats from any text, Word, RTF, or HTML source. Fully menu-driven and screen-reader friendly with NVDA and JAWS, no mouse required. Retail price $297.
KSRN keeps expanding: Preston reports the Crazy Stacey Radio Network got approved on the Audacy app and website just 24 hours before taping, plus new listings on Simple Radio, the radio-browser.info
public directory, and MyTunerRadio. He is also registering for the NFB of Pennsylvania state convention in Hershey.
In the accessible app corner, JC covers Earshot, a new podcast player app making waves in the blind community, and shares his experience testing Lumen, a voice-driven email app for visually impaired users. Plus the roadmap tease: iOS 27 lands in September, and JC plans a full demo of iOS 27 and the new Siri AI on a future episode. And Suno AI keeps surprising: on this week's NFB Access On podcast, Jonathan Mosen used Suno to build a song about the NFB 2026 convention, and JC shouts out his friend Andrea, who is releasing her own Suno-made songs on Apple Music.
Music moments: JC plays a stereo recording from the end of the praise party at his Delight monthly meeting, and Nora's karaoke rendition of "Put on a Happy Face" gets new life with an instrumental track added by a friend she fondly calls "the guru." JC teases a possible duet with Gabby and Jaden next week.
Rita shares a belated birthday visit from her cousin, who shares her June 2 birthday and spent his working in Florence. He visited with his wife bearing roses, balloons, and Rita's beloved Nutty Bars. Donald talks tilapia on Dave's Killer Bread with hot sauce, plus a Chili's run for ribs and white cheddar mac and cheese.
Echo Grace updates: JC's mom officially became a church member last weekend. New Spanish-team additions Angela Martel, Gabby E., and John Santiago, who now directs the Spanish team. The June Night of Worship recording is up on the Echo Grace YouTube page, honoring Pastor Andrew, who has moved to Florida. The "You Ask For It" sermon series continues, with all messages available as a podcast. Preston also tells the story of the fair: a new country artist named Greyland James, a canceled grandstand headliner, refunded tickets, and a free-stage rescue show of live local country.
George is off this week, but Preston refuses to let the tradition die: "Doodles spilled the milk!" - and Donald makes sure George can't have any.
Keep technology alive, let your talent shine.
Recorded 2026-08-05. Hosted by JC with Salvis on the boards, on the VisionCast Network.
