Announcing Satellite, a custom launcher and other modifications for the Orbit Speak and Orbit Player and an installer to set everything up, with the goal of opening up these devices and allowing them to reach their full potential. Right now it does the following things:

• The launcher replaces the menu, but adds the ability to re-organize apps, including creating and deleting folders and hiding apps. It also shows all Android apps in the Android Apps folder, including the Google ones and any apps you install. By default, the layout is the same as Orbit's menu.
• Android apps now use Backtalk, instead of Orbit's very limited Android screen reader. Orbit's apps work as normal without Backtalk speaking, but when you launch an Android app that is not self-voicing, Backtalk will take over. On the Orbit Speak, you use the standard Talkback Braille commands to control it, and all of them are available including the browse mode commands on the web. On the Orbit Player, the numeric keypad acts as a Braille keyboard; 1, 4, 7, and * are dots 1-2-3-7, 3, 6, 9, and # are dots 4-5-6-8, and 2, 5, 8, and 0 all act as space. You can type in Braille and use Backtalk's Braille commands this way. On both devices, the arrows also control Backtalk; left and right go to previous and next item, holding left or right goes to the top or bottom, pressing up or down navigates by the current reading control, and holding up or down changes the reading control. In Orbit's apps, the Braille keyboard and numeric keypad behave as before, with Orbit's commands and T9.
• Google Play is enabled. The Play Store and Play Services are enabled and shown, so you can download any Android app you like and use it with Backtalk. Play Store appears under Android Apps.
• Third-party apps using Orbit's speech and Braille and keypad interfaces are supported. Developers can create their own apps using Orbit's AIDL interfaces, and when they are installed, they will show up in the menu and Backtalk will not speak when they are open. For an example of how to create such an app, you can look at the Satellite Launcher. This lets apps assign commands to Braille chords or keypad buttons, and create an interface that sounds and behaves like Orbit's apps.
• Some bugs in Orbit's apps are fixed. Dismissing alarms works and no longer does the same thing as snooze, and repeating alarms work. The updater always restarts the device after it is finished, where now it often failed to do this. More bug fixes may come later.

You need a computer (Windows, macOS, or Linux) to install, with your Speak or Player connected over USB. The installer will do everything automatically, and speak what it is doing. After Satellite is installed, updates to the Satellite components can be done on the device, from the Tools menu. Orbit's updater will still work for updating Orbit's software. The installer also has an undo function, to restore your device to the state it was in before installing Satellite, in case something goes wrong or if you don't like what it does. None of Orbit's code is copied or distributed in any Satellite component, and this project is not supported or endorsed by Orbit, so you should not ask them for support regarding Satellite.

https://github.com/emassey0135/satellite-setup

Braille Terminal on BTSpeak and BTBraille now supports Android (with Backtalk)

The Braille terminal on the BTSpeak and BTBraille now supports Android, with the Backtalk screen reader. Backtalk is a fork of Talkback with many bug fixes and enhancements and new features, now including support for the BTSpeak and BTBraille as Braille displays.

1. Install Backtalk on your Android device by installing the latest APK from the development release (linked below). You can just open the link in Chrome on your device, and it will ask you to allow Chrome to install unknown apps, then it will install it.
2. Turn on Backtalk in the accessibility settings, and turn off Talkback. You will hear two voices speaking at once before you turn off Talkback, but this is harmless. Otherwise, just set your accessibility shortcut to Backtalk (and only Backtalk so the inaccessible menu does not open), turn off Talkback manually, then hold both volume buttons to turn on Backtalk.
3. Turn on pairing in the Braille terminal menu on your BTSpeak or BTBraille.
4. Go to Backtalk settings (open its menu with a three finger single tap and go to Backtalk settings), then Braille display, then turn on Use Braille display if it is off, then connect to your BTSpeak or BTBraille when it shows up in the list of devices.

https://github.com/trypsynth/backtalk/releases/tag/dev

I just installed BackTalk on my Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and navigation is definitely way faster now, especially after also installing eSpeak NG and switching to it. It is also very cool to have full reading controls on the watch now with the rotor gesture.

If anyone wants to test the accessibility of the Googlebook OS without buying the hardware, you now can do so with this accessible and easy to use emulator for Apple Silicon Macs. I think we need blind people testing it and finding bugs and putting pressure on Google to fix them, because while Chromebooks are still around for now, eventually they will be depricated and Googlebooks will replace them, most likely including as the default in schools. I myself and a few others have already found some very significant bugs. Also, I doubt more than a very few blind people have bought the hardware, because the accessibility of the OS was completely unknown, so I think it is also important to have reviews and first impressions so people know what to expect if they are considering buying one, and also to put more pressure on Google if more people know exactly where and how this new platform falls short for the blind. If Googlebooks become popular, it is important that blind people have equal access so they have as much choice of computing platform as anyone else. Maybe CENA or Double Tap could help with this. @doubletap @JonathanMosen @fireborn https://dragonscave.space/@fireborn/117406959520231589

I've been able to work on the task management app I was planning and I've made a lot of progress, although I would still call it very early alpha quality. The idea is to combine the Todoist model with tasks, projects, labels, priorities, etc, with Structured's model of dividing a day into time blocks and assigning tasks to them. That way I can both track and organize tasks, and manage and keep track of how much time I spend on what. Right now the core is in Rust, and it has a CLI, a BTSpeak app in Python, an Emacs app in Emacs LISP with Emacspeak and Emacsvox support, an iOS app in Swift, a MacOS app in Swift, an Android app in Kotlin, a Windows app in Rust using Win32, a Linux GTK4 app in Rust, and a web app in TypeScript. I've done very little testing so far and I need to do a lot more, WatchOS and WearOS apps are still pending, and some features are not implemented yet like calendar/task import, reminder notifications, auto-planning like suggesting tasks to fill blocks and fixing the schedule when a block goes too long or short, automation, etc. And there isn't really user documentation yet at all. Devices can sync with each other, which is done without storing anything in the cloud, and with encrypted transport that works either directly or through a relay. I did end up using Claude for all of this so I will need to review the code as well, but without it I would never have been able to do as much anywhere near this fast, with a native interface for each platform for the most accessibility and efficiency. I also might not have done this at all, because it would have been a lot of work that is less interesting to me (implementing almost the same thing over and over on each platform), and I wanted to be able to actually start using it soon in my own life rather than waiting potentially years until I finished creating it on my own. https://github.com/emassey0135/lumenna

I'm thinking of creating a task management and day planning app, basically a combination of Todoist and Structured. I like Todoist's organization of tasks with projects and labels and priorities, and its due dates and reminders are useful. I also like Structured's time blocking because it actually lets you plan your day and what you will do when, and it lets you track how much time you spend doing things so you can be more aware and plan better for the future. However, Structured is only accessible on iOS, Todoist is Electron on desktop so its not ideal and it has had regressions in the past, and using both together is difficult because you have to manually sync tasks or have AI do it over MCP. So I want to create an app that supports both tasks and blocks; tasks can be organized with projects (including nested projects) and labels and have due dates, while blocks are created as time slots, to which tasks can be assigned. There would be different block types: work blocks that tasks can be assigned to, empty blocks like breaks that tasks cannot be assigned to but that can be moved, and events like meetings which cannot move or accept tasks. It would be easy to shorten or lengthen a block, if you end early or late, in which case the app will offer proposals for adjusting your later schedule that you can accept or change. Suggestions for filling blocks would also be supported, based on task priorities and time estimates assigned to them. I'm going to do this for myself in any case, but would anyone else actually use this? Both mobile and desktop would use the native UI frameworks rather than things like Electron or Flutter, and I want to create a CLI and a BTSpeak UI too. It would probably be a lot harder to make it visually appealing so I would mainly focus on the blind and on making it work the best with screen readers. And syncing would be between devices, not requiring a central server to host the data.

These are some very interesting articles about AI programming. They show how AI can be very useful and massively speed up development time and enable people to develop software they couldn't manually because of not having all the required skills and knowledge. But they also show how software engineering skills are still necessary and without human guidance, AI will end up creating poor quality code. Its not only verifying that the software works and functions correctly, but there are also poor choices AI can make that are not obvious from the functionality of the application, but show up in worse performance, longer time spent debugging later, not working well on different machines than your own, and technical debt that you find out about later when you want to extend the application or fix issues with it. And they show what kind of work the human does when using AI for coding, and that this work is still substantial; its just more abstract and more high-level, more about architecture and design and problem solving than about syntax and translating ideas into code. For this author the work still felt fulfilling, and actually the more fulfilling and important part of software design. https://blog.getutm.app/2026/introducing-neptune-direct3d-virtualization-for-qemu/ https://blog.getutm.app/2026/bringup-notes-building-triton/

I got my Orbit Speak today and it uses the same Helio P22 SOC as the Orbit Player (4 Cortex-A53 at 1.8 GHZ, 4 Cortex-A53 at 1.5 GHZ, 3 GB of RAM). This makes sense since its the same software but I thought they may have used something more powerful in a bigger device. Its not quite exactly the same software but its the same architecture and it seems like they might compile the same code for the Player and the Speak using Gradle split builds.

I am glad you can use ADB on both devices to sideload apps and get access to the underlying Android system and do other cool things, but you can provide ADB access while still having good security like SELinux and a screen-lock password and a locked bootloader and other security measures that Android phones have. And neither device has ADB authentication either which is a useful feature that limits ADB to only the computers you allow and not any random computer that connects to the device.

Also both devices are very insecure, with SELinux in permissive mode and root access exposed with no permission prompt or password. On the Orbit Player the bootloader is unlocked so anyone can easily flash their own firmware image, and on the SensePlayer the Android build is userdebug and root is enabled by su shipped in the system image which is usually something you would only do in a debug build. On the Orbit Player, Magisk is installed on top of the image for root access. File-based encryption works on both, but on both I tested setting a lockscreen password and the Android screen reader couldn't handle it either. On the SensePlayer I could type the password and unlock the device but then when I restarted it, the screen reader didn't work so I had to use ADB and SCRCPY to get back in. On the Orbit Player, I can type the password on the lock screen, but for the Android screen reader to read the lock screen and let me navigate, I had to launch an Android app with ADB. And then when I typed my password, I couldn't press enter and the unlock button didn't activate when I pressed it, so I had to press enter from the ADB shell. So basically file-based encryption is useless on both because setting a lockscreen password makes both devices unusable without ADB connected. So I guess that means you should never store any sensitive information on these devices. At least the BrailleSense 7 allows you to set an encryption password as described in the manual so it should be more secure, but I wonder what the Orbit Speak and Strata are like. I hope they are more secure so you can store sensitive documents and passwords on them.

Here are my findings on the hardware of the Orbit Player vs the SensePlayer. The Orbit Player uses a MediaTek Helio P22 (octa-core Cortex-A53, 4 1.8 GHZ cores and 4 1.5 GHZ cores). It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. The SensePlayer uses a MediaTek Helio P35 (octa-core Cortex-A53 again, 4 2.3 GHZ cores and 4 1.8 GHZ cores). It has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. Both devices use the same exact GPU. So basically both the Orbit Player and the SensePlayer use the exact same SOC except the SensePlayer has higher clock speeds and more RAM and double the storage. Both these SOCs are from 2018 by the way, although perhaps that is not a big deal for a small book and media playback device. I wonder if the Orbit Speak and Strata use the same exact SOC though or a better one.

I also just found something similar for the Silmarillion, a dramatized audiobook reading with added music. I haven't listened to much of it yet but so far it sounds really good, although its not quite the same thing as Phil Dragash's Lord of the Rings audiobook. But that is likely in large part because the Silmarillion is just a very different type of book. Make sure to read the description before playing because it has important information about the order of the files (basically listen to the books in order with 8 first and then up through 12). https://archive.org/details/SilmarillionMettana/Book+8_2+---+Thou%2C+Melkor.mp3

At the Meta session, they told me they are working with GoodMaps and a GoodMaps Meta integration is on the way. #NFB26

At the exhibit hall I also looked at the HapWare, a wrist band and app that can connect to Meta glasses and use the camera to interpret facial expressions and other visual cues, and communicates them with vibrations through the wrist band. For their demo I don't think they had the camera recognition, but they showed me the wrist band and some of the haptic signals. They were easy for me to interpret, since the vibration area is large so you can feel the shape as the vibration travels along the line that forms it. You can also control the speed of the signals in the app, so you can start out slow while you're learning what all the signals mean and practice interpreting them, and then you can speed them up later so they take less time. They said they will start shipping in 6 to 7 months. You could pre-order it from the exhibit hall at $299, which is $150 off the regular price. I ended up ordering this because it seems like it could be very useful to have this information. #NFB26

At the DotPad session, Dave Williams demonstrated an NVDA add-on that they are developing. It displays 10 lines of Braille instead of 8, and its also real multi-line not just the current line like NVDA by itself displays. For example, in a Word document, it displayed as many lines of text as would fit instead of just the current line. You can also focus a math equation in Word and perform a command to graph it, and the graph will show up on the Dot Pad. You can also perform a command to display the character under the cursor as a print character on the DotPad, and it works with any unicode character not just letters. Also they told me that the add-on can display any image, although of course if its not designed as a tactile graphic it may be unintelligible, but you can use ChatGPT or other AI services to simplify images for tactile representation. The add-on is not available yet but they will soon start beta testing, and they will publish it in the WhatsApp group for DotPad developers. #NFB26

During the Computer Science Division meeting, the presentation about Word math was extremely useful. I had no idea that Word had autocorrect codes for math that let you enter equations using only the keyboard (or that most of them would be the same as the LaTeX commands too), or that Word could convert LaTeX to Word math. You can do very advanced stuff like integrals too with the autocorrect codes. For more information, there's a tutorial at https://online.math.uh.edu/typing-math-in-ms-word/ #NFB26

Honestly I think I changed my mind about the Evolve. Mainly because of the performance and battery life and upgradability, I think I'll just wait for the Optima next year. I think its a significantly better Windows notetaker.

I also went to the HumanWare table and felt the QWERTY BrailleNote Evolve. It was about the size of the Optima and it felt pretty thin and light. However the battery life is the same and so is the processor. They told me they plan to rlease it late this year like October/November. It will have a 40 cell Braille display instead of 32. #NFB26

Also when I tested Chrome on the Orbit Player it was extremely responsive, I think slightly better than the PlayStore on the BrailleSense although its hard to judge. They said that they will not advertise web browsing capability on their devices but it was a good test. They said that their Android devices have modern smartphone-class processors. #NFB26

I also went to the Selvas booth. The BrailleSense 7 feels very thin and light and it is a pretty small device. The auto-pan was pretty cool; it automatically panned to the next line when I finished reading the current one, and it was pretty fast. However, its kind of annoying in the menus because when I finish reading a menu item it pans. The two methods of moving the cursor, double tapping a cell or holding your finger on it and pressing a thumb key, seemed to be pretty reliable, at least more reliable than the Monarch's similar mechanism. I tried navigating around the Play Store a little bit, and it was pretty responsive, which makes me think the performance of Android apps should be good. They confirmed to me that the CPU is a very modern one and is a Snapdragon. Also, the attachable QWERTY keyboard doesn't make the device any bigger when you put it on. Its a pretty small keyboard but it felt fine to type on to me. The extra external battery you snap on the back makes it a little bigger but not by much. They do not have any convention deals for the BrailleSense 7, just the existing pre-order deals. #NFB26