Finally!
It's been a long time since we've produced a newsletter to keep everyone informed on the latest developments at our end, what new software and hardware items have come and what we think of them. A lot has happened in that time, a new Windows has been launched by Microsoft, new peripherals have been introduced, some interesting news on Apple Macs, changes to the DSA (QAG). So we'll slowly start.

Windows Vista
Everyone will by now have noticed that Microsoft have launched their new version of the Windows operating system, called Vista, little over a year ago. The whole event itself was not nearly as spectacular as with previous versions, and we here at reach HQ are starting to wonder why: Could it be the fact that it's so terribly slow? Could it be the immense amounts of extra eye-candy that no-one really needed? Could it just be that the previous version, XP, already did what everyone wanted?

Progress, however, is the drive of economies, or so Microsoft must have thought, when it saw the time ripe to launch upon us its Vista. The initial teething problems were numerous. Most special needs applications such as Read&Write Gold, Inspiration and even HP printers and scanners did not work out of the box, or did not work without major tinkering. We here at Reach HQ, however, managed to get every single computer that came with Vista to work with the special needs titles thanks to our hard efforts. The saying goes "Where there is a will, there is a way!".

In the meantime, all the relevant manufacturers and publishers of software titles have released Vista-compatible versions of their products, so these teething problems are now a thing of the past. What remains is the lack of speed with Vista. The only solution to this problem is to specify 2 GB of main memory whenever a Vista computer is to be supplied. Indeed, almost all notebooks come pre-installed with

Vista, so it's important to ensure the notebook has 2 GB of memory. All our desktops (which we build ourselves) still come with XP, which only needs 1 GB to run happily and it's fast.

Dragon Naturally Speaking
Most will appreciate the advantages of talking to your computer instead of typing (the editor certainly could do more often with this method, given his rather limited, i.e. 2-finger, typing skills). Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred is usually the choice of software to make a computer understand spoken language. Certainly with Version 9 it now offers faster and more accurate recognition than ever before, and students have so far had positive comments to make on their use of this software tool.

That's fine for users of Windows computers. But what about the Apple Mac-brigade? Well, they have been left somewhat in the cold in the past. IBM's ViaVoice was discontinued even before Apple decided to start using Intel processors in their Macs. iListen was so and so, it just didn't even come close to what Dragon could do for Windows users. Which is why for some time we have offered Macs with dual-booting: On the same Mac you can run Mac applications under MacOS, and you can switch to Windows to run Windows applications such as Dragon. This somewhat clumsy scheme will come to an end, as MacSpeech have bought in the Dragon speech recognition engine for use in their own MacSpeech Dictate voice recognition software for MacOS. At the moment only available for speakers of the American accent, it will be available for British speakers by the end of March. Prices have not been fixed yet.

Whilst on the topic of Dragon: We have found the Wireless version of Naturally Speaking Preferred rather handy.

SpellEX Handheld Spellchecker
This device won't be available till end of March! Why? Well, originally manufactured and sold by Franklin (in turn affiliated with Casio/Timex), Franklin have decided to drop the product. SpellEX have seized the opportunity to get this product from Franklin and are looking at selling it under their own name. The legal and commericial stuff hasn't quite been finalised yet, so that's where the delay lies. Inevitably, it'll then also take a bit of time for the finished product, which no doubt will also have undergone some changes to the product itself, to make its way through the channel to the end user. It'll be worth the wait, though, we're told.

DSA/QAG
Things are changing as far as the backend of the DSA is concerned. As most of you know, the government are moving the work that up to now was done by individual LEAs to a new central unit in sunny Glasgow. This new unit is in effect the Student Finance or Loans Company, and it will work in close collaboration with QAG, also now located in Glasgow. The latter are the people responsible for audits, and your Access Centre may have already been treated to an audit. The QAG is also thinking hard about introducing a requirement for Access Centres whereby no less than 3 quotations for IT equipment per student have to be generated. This of course places a heavy extra workload on needs assessors, but it will, so we're assured, help in chosing the right supplier with the right cost, and save tax payers' money. That can't be a bad thing, since we all pay tax.

We're QAG accredited!
So, you may like to know that Reach Data Technologies were in fact one of the first suppliers (if I remember correctly we were the 2nd company to be assessed) to be accredited by QAG as a supplier fulfilling all the requirements as laid out in the QAG-SLA. We have even received the graphical logo to show off this new found claim to fame, but unlike most, we have not really pushed this fact that much. Too much modesty, if you ask me. Evidence of our accreditaton can be found on QAG's own website, right here: http://www.dsa-qag.org.uk/member_view.asp?MemberID=124&f=3

Interesting Notebook Stand
Notebboks are usually specified for students in conjunction with the full ergonomic package, consisting of an external full-size keyboard, an external mouse, and a notebook stand. Because of the need for extra USB ports, we then always also throw in an external 4-port USB hub. We were therefore quite interested in Logitech's Alto offering: A portable notebook stand with integrated full-size keyboard (including the numerical keypad) and integrated 3-port hub. This nifty item has a built-in soft palm-rest and even comes with a 5-year manufacturer's warranty. Available from us for £49.00 ex VAT.

Wrap Up
That's it for this issue, marking a hopefully good continuation to 2008 with lots of opportunities ahead, leaving you with this thought by William Ward: "Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards."