Speaking Software Helps Blind People Move About Easier

Most maps are worthless if you are blind.

That’s a double frustration for visually impaired computer users, in the face of the popularity of mapping programs and computerized navigation systems.

And that’s the problem Menlo Park, Calif.-based Etak set out to solve with its new program called Atlas Speaks. It provides spoken information and clues to maps of 3,000 counties and 20,000 U.S. cities.

One of the program’s beta testers, Robert Sweetman, a tax attorney in Southern California, said he uses Atlas Speaks to “trace routes ahead of time so I can walk or take a bus or taxi to my destination. I now have a better understanding of my home and work area.”

The program also is designed to work with a product called Strider, also from Etak, that is a lightweight portable navigation system that fits in a backpack. It uses military satellites to get an exact fix on location. Strider uses a synthetic voice to information users of their location when traveling - either by foot or vehicle.

Both programs are perfectly useful to the sighted as well. For instance, you’d be able to continue driving without taking your eyes from the road and still get location information from Atlas Speaks and Strider.

The Atlas Speaks program can be obtained on a single CD-ROM that contains one geographical region - for instance, the Southeast - for $495. For the same price you also can get a floppy disk program that covers about five counties (depending on size). Four CD-ROM sets that contain maps of the entire United States except Alaska, go from $995.

Strider isn’t available yet, but will sell at $1,500 to $2,500 depending on how it is equipped. It will include the Atlas Speaks software when it is introduced in the fall.

The telephone number for Etak is (415) 328-3825.

Hot-selling Windows

Here’s a gauge of the interest in Microsoft’s new Windows 95.

QVC devoted two hours to taking advance orders for the new software on July 15. The TV shopping channel says it took more than 12,200 orders at $89.99 for Win 95. The next day, it took another 2,500 orders.

If the notion of getting your order in now for delivery on the Aug. 24 release date of Windows appeals to you, it can be purchased from QVC by calling (800) 345-1515.

QVC says, by the way, that the two-hour session was the most air time ever devoted to a new product on that channel.

Faster, faster

If you’ve been wondering about the progress of the P6 chip that will replace the Pentium as the most powerful PC processor from Intel, you’ll be interested to know that the chip maker plans to introduce six versions of the fast chip this fall.

Even if you aren’t in the market for a P6, the introduction will bring some good news. Pentium prices are expected to drop considerably as the introduction approaches.

For instance, 75-megahertz Pentium chips that go for $275 will drop to $180, perhaps as early as August, according to the trade magazine InfoWorld in its July 17 issue. Top-of-the-line 133-megahertz Pentium chips that go for $935 are expected to sell for $680 sometime in August.

Easy going

While technology such as video-conferencing, faxes and e-mail may cut into the amount of travel needed, it can’t and won’t replace face-to-face meetings. Technology can help make travel easier.

Austin-based Travelogix - which has offered an on-line airline reservation service for several years - has expanded its offerings. Now subscribers can also make hotel and rental car reservations on line.

And it’s easy to do. Travelogix uses a Windows-based program that lets mouse clicks replace a lot of the typing. Subscribers get a direct 24-hour connection to the reservation service.

Here’s how to subscribe. The company - like most on-line services - offers a free 30-day trial. After that trial period, the cost is $9.95 a month for the first 60 minutes of use, and 18 cents a minute after the first hour. To get the software, contact Travelogix at (800) 815-6449, extension 8. Or the software and subscription information can be downloaded from the Internet’s World Wide Web (http:/ /www.travelogix.com).

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