Alright everyone, today’s the day!!!

I’m excited to announce the Flipper Access project, and the first official release of Sonar, my screenreader for Flipper Zero which, as far as I know, makes this device accessible to blind users for the first time ever.
Sonar is built on a customized fork of the Momentum firmware for maximum flexibility. The included install script provides an easy way of copying all that's needed to get this working onto a Flipper, and it is possible to upgrade from the stock firmware to Sonar without any sighted help.
You’ll need a microSD card for the voice pack, a USB cable, and a computer with Python 3.10 or newer.

The install script has been tested extensively on macOS. It should work on Windows and Linux too, but hasn’t been tried there yet, so I’d love to hear how it goes for you. The project readme contains a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to get going, and hopefully it should be a smooth process for all of you wanting to dive in.

Having said that, however, do note that this is highly experimental work and we're at the very beginning of this project. There's hopefully a long and happy road up ahead for Sonar, but there will inevitably be bugs and issues along the way. When that happens, please always feel free to reach out on here, open a GitHub issue, or submit a pull request of your own - I'd truly love to see this become a community effort.
Last but most importantly, have fun! The Flipper Zero is a super nifty, versatile and fun little gadget with lots of tricks up its sleeve, most of which I haven't even had time to explore due to being so focused on getting the screenreader into a shippable state.
If you do decide to pick up one of these now that it can be used accessibly, I'd love to know how you like the experience, any ideas for improvement, cool things you've done with it, and so on.

Sonar is and will always be free. If you’d like to support it, there are links to Patreon and Ko-fi in the readme.
Enjoy!

https://github.com/robin24/flipper-access
#Accessibility #Screenreader #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #IndieDev #FlipperZero

Okay, fuck the #Apple ordering. both the app and the website—it's just total crap. Current delivery estimate for the Duo is the first week of December. Out of frustration, I placed another order with Media Markt; it currently shows October 24 as the delivery date. I'm curious to see if they can actually meet that.

Yeah, so basically I was working on some YouTube videos but I kept running into a problem.

In each video I encounter a subject which I believe is necessary to explain, such as the concept of a stager, I explain it. However, if in a subsequent video I encounter a stager, I would then have to regurgitate the information again or tell the viewer to review the a previous video and jump to a specific timestamp.

I believe a better approach would be creating short-ish videos (10 minutes - 20 minutes) explaining core concepts of malware, then when I'm bonking goop I can say "if u dont know wtf is going on, check out da video on dis thingie over der".

But then a new issue is created whereas then I would have to produce a bunch of shorter videos to explain introductory concepts...

Alternatively, I could explain absolutely nothing and let the viewer figure it out themselves and the significance of what the goop is doing

Another issue, sort of, is that due to my demanding schedule I would be unable to produce videos frequently and my initial uploads would primarily explaining core concepts rather than actual malware analysis or development.

I don't know, bro.

I was actually going to just buy a bunch of stuff from Polish marketplaces, but I'll just ask here instead. Do you guys have any idevices you'd like to get rid of? I've been messing about with iOS exploits more recently and having some fun getting Android to work, unsupported versions of iOS, etc. I'm particularly looking for devices supporting Checkm8, so A5 to A11 (for the non wierdos that's iPhone 4S to iPhone X), but really anything will do. I don't care if it's physically damaged or whatever, iCloud locked, etc, the only condition is that it boots and has no internal faults that cause a kernel panic. Ideally you're located in Poland, or are willing to deal with international shipping which I'll happily pay for as well, particularly if you have a large lot of devices. Boosts appreciated! #ios #apple #iphone #jailbreak #checkm8 #repair

whoever runs the world should make a 30 day sight trial, no credit card required. Though if you want the full version you need to buy Sight Cloud. Personal includes 10 sight credits a week, a credit is valid for an hour. If you want permanent sight as in the trial, you must buy the enterprize subscription with 3 seets minimum, ID checks, and credit card verification. None of your Sight data will ever leak of course, and Sight inc definitely doesn't collect your sight feed on their servers.

God I think this post prooves I really need to put my phone down and sleep.

The world was a much better place before everything was a fucking monthly subscription, or fucked by adverts. Can we go back to just paying for apps please.

Everyone needs to see this and also acknowledge why reverse engineering is a super power.

Credit to https://instagram.com/ayoships
Guy reverses the dark patterns of mobile apps and publishes it, absolutely love it!

RE: https://mastodon.social/@anon_opin/117444320075592159

Correct, I have not

OK, we've now gotten the bottom and top speaker working!

But, here's the thing. Accessibility isn't just about us "disabled" people with our totally weird shit going on. It's about the millions of people who need to wear glasses, or who maybe are starting to need hearing aids, or their joints are a bit creaky.

There's a narrative of accessibility as an extraordinary thing, needed by a minority. This relies on the average person's certainty that they aren't disabled.

You're either disabled, or you're not disabled yet. Accessibility is for all of us.

AI agents make creating and abandoning projects so much faster

New post: Have You Tried Turning TalkBack Off and On Again?
An Android bug can kill touch exploration for every screen reader until you reboot. I traced it to a stuck injected pointer in the input dispatcher and sent Google Disability Support a detailed report. Their answer: turn TalkBack off and on, clear Accessibility Suite's cache, and reboot. Only then would they consider passing it to an engineer. Their form wouldn't even accept my logs, only screenshots.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/have-you-tried-turning-talkback-off-and-on-again/
#Accessibility #A11y #Android #TalkBack #ScreenReader #Blind #Google

Also, the unboxing was me being overwelmed by the big af box, struggling to get all the parts out and scattering half the stuff on the floor, so, uh, I don't think you've missed a lot to be honest.

Bambu Lab A1 update:
This setup process was certainly an interesting procedure, but I must say I'm pretty impressed I was able to do a lot of it just with the help of Claude Voice Mode instructions.

Unfortunately, I didn't record it. It took me hours, with eating in between, mainly because I procrastinated over the cables for half an hour. If you know how it works, it's really not that hard, but you have to fit a cable box at the bottom of the printer and align the cables.

Eventually, I just got sighted help, which turned out to be smart because there were apparently stickers you had to remove as well.

For now, I'm printing without the AMS Lite. The Benchy printed successfully on the second try, after the first print did nothing because I hadn't put in the filament correctly. You really have to check if it's pulling the filament, and maybe even feel the plate (if it's not at maximum temperature).

I also tried printing a whistle, but it completely messed up, and now I'll have to wait for my actual filament to arrive today.

Sorry again for not being able to record this. I was actually very enthusiastic about documenting it, but unfortunately, I kinda underestimated it, since I had to understand it myself first.

But I'm open to any questions, and might write a blog post about it in the future too.

Also, this thing would be really great to sample.

My Zoom F3 talks now.

As a blind field recordist, I've modded the F3's firmware so it speaks: every menu item as you scroll, which option is selected, popups like "SD Card Full!", confirmation dialogs, and even the date and time setup. No sighted help needed.

Would you want a step-by-step guide, with no technical knowledge needed, to put this on your own F3?

#Accessibility #Blind #ZoomF3 #FieldRecording

In BeamNG, you can use the node grabber to pull on parts of the vehicle. You can set the strength of the effect. At lower strengths, it's akin to attaching a rope, at higher, you can lift the vehicle up or even rip parts off it.

I wanted to see what would happen sound wise if I lifted an EV up then full throttled in drive, so I did, but I pinned the node. What this basically means is that this node is fixed in the air. The vehicle can't really drive this way, but it can spin around the pinned node.

So what happened was that the front wheels were intermittently touching the ground while the back ones were spinning freely. Several attempts at rocking the vehicle back and forth produced a sort of popping sound and the vehicle was now driving away. Checked the damage report and it ripped the spoiler off.

I no longer believe Google Disability support is manned by humans at all. Here is my latest response from them re: the inability to use explore by touch and needing to reboot.

Hi Aaron,
Thank you for providing these additional details about the touch exploration issue affecting Backtalk and TalkBack. I understand that the issue occurs across multiple screen reader and Android versions, affects touch exploration across screens and apps, and can only be resolved by rebooting the device. I also appreciate the troubleshooting you have already performed as both a Backtalk developer and a user.
To help further investigate whether refreshing the accessibility service or updating Android Accessibility Suite makes a difference, please try the following steps if you have not already done so.
Turn TalkBack Off and Back On
Important: Only perform this step if you have a TalkBack shortcut enabled or someone sighted available to assist you if needed.
Open Settings.
Swipe right or left until you hear Accessibility, then double-tap.
Swipe right or left until you hear TalkBack, then double-tap.
Swipe right or left until you hear Use TalkBack or TalkBack switch, then double-tap to turn it off.
Wait about 10 seconds.
Double-tap the switch again to turn TalkBack back on.
This refreshes the TalkBack service and may resolve temporary issues.
Check for Android Accessibility Suite Updates
Open the Google Play Store.
Tap the search field and type Android Accessibility Suite.
Select Android Accessibility Suite from the search results.
If an update is available, tap Update.
Clear the Android Accessibility Suite Cache
Note: Clearing the cache removes temporary files and does not affect personal settings. Clearing app data, however, resets the app to its default state and may erase saved settings. Please clear only the cache for this step.
Open Settings.
Swipe right or left until you hear Apps, then double-tap.
Swipe right or left until you hear See all apps, then double-tap.
Locate and double-tap Android Accessibility Suite.
Double-tap Storage & cache.
Double-tap Clear cache.
Test touch exploration again.
Restart the Device
After completing the steps above, restart your device to refresh system services and clear temporary memory. Once it has restarted, check whether touch exploration continues to work normally.
If the issue continues, please let us know the results of these steps, so we can forward this to our internal team for further review. In addition, could you also provide the following details?
How does the touch exploration issue affect your ability to navigate your device and use apps?
Are there any specific tasks or activities that you are unable to complete when touch exploration stops working?
Are there any other details about this issue that you would like to share with us?
I hope this helps. If you have questions about Google accessibility or assistive technology, just reach out and we’ll be glad to support you.

Got LineageOS 23.2 booting on my iPhone 7. Currently trying to get audio to work, since right now I have to use a fake TTS service that forwards Backtalk's speech over USB to Orca. @TheQuinbox I blame you for putting me in this rabbit hole, without Backtalk I probably wouldn't have started this. Look what you've done!

Having lots of great experiences with Be My Eyes volunteers lately. I remember reading lots of negative things about it on here over the last year but honestly I've needed to use it quite a bit over the last couple of weeks and it's been great. If you are a volunteer, thank you!