Here at The Chicago Lighthouse we are big fans of Zoomax's products as they combine great features and great prices. We're glad to see the Butterfly, our latest acquisition from them, is no exception. This 3.5" portable electronic magnifier features 5 color modes, 1.5x to 15x magnification and a freeze frame mode. The thing that we really like though (and that gives it its name!) is the butterfly shaped stand on the rear of the unit. This stand puts the screen at an...

The Lighthouse has just received a new desktop CCTV from Zoomax, the company who introduced the Butterfly, Snow and Snow 7 HD electronic handheld magnifiers, and we like.  The CCTV is called the Panda and comes in a striking black and white color scheme (hence the name!). Containing all the features you would expect such as 17 different color modes, 2x-70x magnification and a 19" monitor, the Panda is an attractive CCTV with a good image and is really easy to use. And...

We've been talking a lot about accessible television recently, and today we came across another great service that can make it easier for people with a visual impairment or who are blind use their television - X1 from Comcast! This service introduces some great features for the blind and visually impaired, such as an accessible television guide, accessible menus and accessible DVR control so you never have to miss your favorite shows again or find what channel they...

Let's face it, everyone likes to watch TV, but for the person with a visual impairment this can be a difficult task. For those with a central or peripheral scotoma it can be hard to see faces of the people on television, and easy to miss important action happening on the screen.  Audio described television (which we talked about last week with regards to Netflix) can be one helpful tool for this problem. A narrator describes the action on the...

The market for small portable electronic magnifiers has just got better with the introduction of a new device - The Butterfly from Zoomax. Zoomax has already impressed us with it's Snow and Snow 7 HD  handheld electronic magnifiers, and the Butterfly continues their impressive track record. Smaller than either of the Snow's, the Butterfly features a 3.5 inch screen and weighs only 4.2 ounces making it ideal for taking around in a pocket or a purse....

The Tunity app is a great new resource that is proving to be very popular, and even better it's free! But what is it, I hear you say? Tunity is an app that lets you stream audio from your favorite TV Channels through your phone. What's the point of this, I hear you say?! Imagine you are in a noisy sports bar and want to listen to the game they are showing on the TV - just start up the app and listen from your phone! Or imagine you are in the waiting room at the airport...

As Cyanogen moves along a new path (apparently with help from Microsoft) phone maker OnePlus is working on its own flavor of Android, and now it has a name: OxygenOS. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much else beyond promises of going back to the drawing board with software that is "open, customizable, and free of bloat and unnecessary features." That's good to hear though, and matches up with the alpha build seen earlier this month. In classic OnePlus style, the...

What if I say that while just sitting in a sofa in your room can can do your office work by changing your room compeletly into your office or, what if you can see beyond your Laptop's or PC screen. Microsoft on Wednesday in a Windows 10 even announced it's new technology breakthrough "Microsoft Hololens". Watch this Beautiful Video: A thing that will change the way you think about technology or see technology. It comes with a new innovation i.e. 3-D Holograms...

The Connect 12 from Humanware is a fantastic new device combining the convenience of tablet technology with low vision features. Based on an Android tablet, the Connect 12 runs the Prodigi software meaning good quality near magnification, fast and accurate OCR and ease of use. An optional extra is a wireless distance camera which can be used to magnify the whiteboard, look out the window or whatever else you might want to see. Once you have finished on the Prodigi side...