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Today we're going to talk about a handy little application that a friend of mine, Doug, introduced me to. Now let's start by talking structure of this particular app. You can use Cheat Sheet, which is all one word, C H E A T S H E E T for completely free as long as you want. However, for $5 a year, yeah, not $5 a month, but $5 a year, you can invest in the app developer and get additional features that's available. Now. What is Cheat Sheet? Well, Cheat Sheet is sticky notes for your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Though the Mac does have a $7.99 upfront cost, you do have to have a subscription separate from the Mac app in order to synchronize your sheets across devices. Now, the description of the Cheat Sheet app is that you can take notes of things that you want to remember and easily access that information by moving forward. Someone asked me when I was describing this app to them, well, what's the difference between this and drafts? And one of the cool things about this is that you can have widgets on your phone, either on the Home screen, lock screen or your Today screen and specify specific sheets that show up in each of those places. So maybe you have something you want to make sure to not forget. Put that on your lock screen and you'll always have that in front of you when you're opening your phone. Cheat Sheet is fully accessible, does take advantage of the rotor actions, and there is an easy way to access the settings of Cheat Sheet by tapping the back button in the top left corner until you get to the surface level of the application and then choosing settings. If you're looking for an easy to use and a very accessible sticky note solution, check out Cheat Sheet available in the App Store.

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Today we got a request in asking about widgets, what they are and how they work and all that good stuff. So today we are talking widgets. So what widgets are are a small app or companion app to something like a bigger app or a main app. For example, let's say Messages for example, if you have a widget that is a messages widget, it would be a smaller app that you can put anywhere that gives you a quick piece of information. So a lot of them are customizable. But let's say for example you have a messages widget. That widget will show you how many messages you may have or maybe how many messages you have and who it's from. Or maybe it'll show you the top three most recent messages. You could place it anywhere, you could place it on any home screen or in the today view. And there's a lot of other widgets that do many, many other things. So for example, a really popular is battery. So it identifies every Bluetooth device that has a battery connected to your computer. So or your phone or iPad for that matter. So you can choose the size, you can choose how it looks. So it could be like a small little square or it could be a larger rectangle. It's just all of your preference. And let's say you want to see the information that's in the battery widget. So you're going to have your phone and it will show you how much battery you have left on your phone or how much charge you have. And then it could show you your AirPods for example, and it's pretty cool because it just won't say AirPods. Depending on the state your AirPods are in, it'll show you the case with the buds in it, or it will show you the case plus then each individual bud. So it can give you lots of information. There's things like the weather. The weather will show up wherever you place that widget. And it can give you a small piece of information, just like what is the temperature currently outside? It can give you the temperature plus a five day forecast. All the widgets have totally customizable size and the amount of information that it gives you. So they're pretty cool. All they are is a small mini companion app to something larger like weather. Or it's a standalone information like batteries is no larger or main app for batteries. It's just its own widget. Also, when it comes to third party developers, a lot of the third party developers will make a widget that goes along with their app. So if you have a third party app and you want to find out if there's widgets, you can definitely do that by just going into the main widget section, which would be flicking up on any icon and then at the top left there is a little button that says widgets and you click into that and then from there it'll take you into all the widgets that you have available on your device. And then if you picked a widget, for example, let's say batteries, then it will show you all the different sizes and information that you can flick through to decide which widget and how much information you want that widget to give you. So in short, it's just a small little app that gives you quick hit information and it's super easy and you can put them anywhere you want, either in the today view or you can put them on any one of your home screens and organize them however you want. So that's what widgets are. Check them out and enjoy.

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Hi everyone, I would like to share with you some tech reflections for the year. I know it's a pretty common thing to do, but I think we all kind of reflect back on the year that we've spent and how it went and what we'd like to see in 2025. But maybe the good things that happened this year are absolutely worth recounting. So in thinking about tech and apps and experiences that I've had, I wanted to just recap for you some of my favorite tech experiences this year and the tools that I've used and the things that I've learned. Maybe it will encourage you to explore those same tools or use them in a different way. So it's really all about connections to technology and visual information this year. First I want to give a shout out to NUMA Solutions and Remote Incident Manager. It's really come a long way and knowing that I can teach my students remotely when even if they're in a different location or they're using a different machine than I am, or perhaps we're both using our Macs and there wasn't really a good solution before NUMA Solutions created this version of Remote Incident Manager for the Mac. So I've been working with students and I teach remotely a couple days a week, which has worked out just great. And even I have helped a student refresh her Braille knowledge, pun intended, because she's been using a Braille display and so I would type sentences for her to read and she would read them back to me. She would type on her Braille display and I would hear my computer reading it. I think that we are going to get to the place where we get to hopefully Braille back and forth to each other using rim and I'm looking forward to the point when that happens if it is able to occur, because that would be great. I've also helped a friend with some computer tasks and that's really awesome. And so, you know, Remote Incident Manager is great and there are some free options for you to receive help. And right now, until the beginning of January, which is just a few days away, I think it's January 2nd, maybe they're offering free RIM. So GetRIM app is where you want to go and I know, I know what would the year be without AI? Whether you're into it or not, it's the big story of this past year and a little bit of the previous here. So while I wait for Siri to be smart, I'm sorry, I'm running out of patience with her. I'm enjoying many features and apps that rely on AI. PictureSmart with JAWS is one of those, and its developments have been really amazing this year. It's been available to us for some time, but it's really taken a quantum leap in its abilities this year and even most recently with the Jaws 2025 update. I really enjoyed taking Brian Hartj AI like it course in the summertime or early fall, and it was a real eye opener. While I haven't really plumbed the depths of all the possibilities, the fact that all those possibilities are out there with all the AI options, especially the ChatGPT and the Picturesmart, I really had a great opportunity to use this in my workplace. I demoed Jaws Picture Smart's usefulness to a group of employers who came for a presentation and I described or had it describe and summarize a chart and a spreadsheet, and that just barely scratches the surface. I had a limited amount of time, but it was so great for the employers to see this in action, and it was truly a demonstration of possibilities. And during my short presentation I dared to say that it doesn't give employers a pass on making things accessible, but Picture Smart and features like it provide opportunities when things are not accessible because we're not always in control and sometimes the employer isn't either of what comes to the employee in terms of whether that document spreadsheet file is accessible. We also learned a lot about ChatGPT in Brian's course and got a lot of time to experience it. I've been really excited to use it in my teaching, so I've translated a Braille display user manual into Vietnamese when none was available. My student said that it was helpful, especially if you had an intro to the device. Of course, I don't know the language that it has been translated into, so I'm relying on my student to let me know if it was successful, if it was valuable to them for a learning tool. I've also had the Chat GPT translate the 128 citizenship test questions and answers into Spanish for one of my students who's studying for the Citizenship Test and I think it's really important that people have access to both their native language and our language because when they're studying for a test, they really need to understand what they're studying and then they need to understand how it is presented in English. What would I have done before I wouldn't have provided this opportunity for my student? Be my eyes. I am a true convert now. For years I was nervous about calling a stranger and I still really don't like to do that because I have the wonderful benefit of being able to afford AIRA minutes. And so I prefer to rely in on a person who is a trained professional. But I have been happy to call the actually to contact the BE my AI which is awesome. And I never thought I would say hooray for handwriting. You know, cards come in the mail, especially this past spring when my guide dog passed away and I got a bunch of sympathy cards. And I did not want anyone to be a part of my grief moments, so I didn't read them. And I put it off and put it off. And finally recently I decided, you know, I've heard this thing does better on handwriting. So I presented these cards to the BE my AI and it did an absolutely fantastic job of reading them. I would hold the card open with one hand and snap a picture by swiping my thumb across the surface of my phone to the Take picture button. And I was able to capture the message and it would even distinguish between the printed message on the card and the handwritten message, as well as the signature. And I, I just really, I can't tell you how much that touched me to be able to read these very precious personal cards. You know, have a good cry, but. But be in private and being able to appreciate that moment all to myself and not have to share it with someone. And so those private cards are just truly special. Of course, I've also used the BE my AI for reading digital displays on ovens and pressure cookers. A lot of cooking over the holidays. And so we did lots of that. The AI and I also identified gift bags. I almost gave a Christmas gift in a birthday bag. So it was really great to be able to identify the birthday bag and absolutely not put it in there. Also, of course, I've had it describe my clothing on a daily basis so I know exactly which shirt I'm wearing so I can make a choice. Then of course, there's my beloved Aira. I've had Aira for six and a half years and I truly love this service. Yes, I'm blessed to be able to afford it. But even if you get the free access offers, you are a candidate for good information from a trained professional. So this year Ira and I have set up computers together. I did install on my Mac the Windows operating system and also had to do a lot of setup and that kind of thing. And of course we've been training the AI for a little while and getting lots of good information to it. Also, we've unfortunately had to read some Covid tests together and thermometer readings, hoping for a negative reading and a lower temperature and all that sort of thing. No, I don't know what happened to the talking thermometer. It bit the dust some time ago. On a more day to day basis, I've really enjoyed creating a shipping label with them for a return to Amazon. And you know, I wouldn't have been able to create that on a larger piece of paper and fold it in such a way that all the information was available to the postal service. We've also set up my printer to the size of the photo paper that I had and we printed a photo for a gift for somebody and that was really great. But then you have to set things back to the right paper size and the fact that you're using regular printer paper and of course the mundane is really important. It's a really important health concern to sort through those expiration dates. And the best thing about it is I love that they have no judgment. They, they don't judge me for why have those eggs been in your fridge for X amount of time? You know, they don't judge me because they say, you know, we do it too. We have to go through our fridges as well. And of course we've also, Ira and I have also gone shopping in person and online the other day they persevered with me as we were trying to find Christmas crackers, the little party favors, you know, and I needed to share with the agent what a cracker was. And so that was really fun. So my British listeners can get a little chuckle out of that that this person didn't happen to know what those were. And so we went on a wild goose chase for a Christmas cracker. And we finally found some that would come before the party that I'm hosting in just a couple days. And finally Ira's able to read very confidential information in terms of I got a new credit card and I needed to know the details including how to activate it and the, you know, security code, you know, the expiry date and all that kind of thing. So that is really, really great. So in closing, you know, it's all about connections and access to information through remote Incident Manager, jaws, AI apps and services, Be My Eyes and aira. The world holds more inclusion and possibilities than it ever has before. What will 2025 bring? We'll have to wait and see.

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Thanks to Andre Louis shorts collection for the music used and Zap Splat for the transition sounds.