As a dedicated Blackberry user, I am delighted to see that services are now becoming available for both the iPhone and the Blackberry. The latest in dyslexia-friendly tools is this simple download which give you voice control for many of your programs.
Here is another one of those programmes whereby you can simultaneously edit documents online, which can be very useful. But there are a couple of extras with this. Firstly it looks like you can have all the formatting in place (unlike in other similar programs that just use Courier typeface with no embellishment). And it is also available in Japanese and Chinese. OK, so the second one may not interest most readers!
On several occasions on this blog I have mentioned my need to send large email. This one now seems to be a better solution than previous ones. It is a small freely downloadable application which allows you through email to share files at least 100 meg, and maybe a lot bigger. As I understand it, from a technical perspective it is ingenious in that you send an email and at the same time in the background a special little program uploads it to a web folder (a sort of ftp). The recipient is told where to find it, and downloads, again using a small piece of software. Simple and easy to use (but only PC at present).
Yes, it is yet another concept mapping tool. This one is free online, and also has an offline version. It uses Microsoft Silverlight, as opposed to Flash, Apex or some of the other systems. I am not convinced of Silverlight programs as yet. It seems the critical mass of the number of people developing software in this system has still not been reached. Only time will tell if Silverlight moves forward. But the software seems good though I did notice the email with the password did say "keep your reference number for when the product goes commercial. Hm!
Do you ever wish there was an easier way to type frequently used phrases, expand abbreviations and auto-complete repetitive phrases? That is what PhraseExpress does. It also has a few other little tricks. See their website for details. What I particularly like is the way it says why it is free for personal use. They understand word of mouth is important, and ask people to recommend it to their bosses, who then pay just $50 (€39) for the software.
There was something very appealing in this online typing course. Maybe it was because it was not all "designery", and obviously done by a real person for real people. And there was humour and explanations. I am not saying it follows the phonics principles of some of the commercial software, but it does not try to. As it says on the front page "Welcome to this humble course. Here you'll find a set of free online typing lessons and typing exercises for beginning typists, and frustrated hunt-and-peckers who want to move from four-finger typing to full-blown touch typing." Nice one Pete!
Mendeley is a new tool (currently Beta 0.6) designed to assist you to "manage, share and discover research papers." In theory it is good (who can afford those prices for one paper!). It claims to have "Articles added: 854,817 research papers in all academic disciplines." But just below is the reality check of "6,321 research papers downloadable for free from their authors' profile pages." Maybe it is not quite so advantageous as it may at first appears. 
My Powerpoints tend to be BIG. Therefore I have problems sending them to people. I have found a few sites to upload to, but again there are usually restrictions of around 50Meg. However, the limit for this is 100 Meg, which opens up more possibility, including sending film clips.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is usually about big flatbed scanners and expensive software. Here is a service that (currently) offers free online scanning. All you have to do is upload your document and it does the rest.
Many people worry about password protection, for various reasons.
Although sold as a workhorse for rugged environments, this tablet PC appealed to me as a viable alternative for those who may have difficulties with the mouse, and coordinating between what they are looking at on the screen and what their hand is doing with the mouse. It is a standard tablet, but build for the more rugged environment. This may be useful for the dyspraxic individual, as well as those who take their frustration out on the technology. By using the stylus pen, the user can achieve hand-eye coordination more easily. There are many learning activities where this approach could be used. An external keyboard could be attached for more traditional typing. 
Do you want to change the appearance of your desktop? Make it virtual? Have it tidied for you? (Hm!!!) Well, this is an exciting website that allows you to do that and much, much more. Try looking at the video on the front page before you say no.
This verison of screen capturing allows you to record your screen and then share it immediately online with anybody who cares to view it. It is a beta version, but has potential.
This website offers an opportunity to make simple small, "professional looking" tests. But they could equally be made by the dyslexic learner as they could by the teacher.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Tom West (he has an updated version of his book "In the Mind's Eye" out later this year) say that there are huge numbers of dyslexic individuals employed in the animation industry? Well here is an animation industry for the dyslexic individual. It is an online animation maker (cartoons that move!), which although I have not spent hours exploring, does appear to offer some learning potential with a difference (including motivation?). You can write your own script (it uses some form of text-to-speech to make characters speak), choose characters, change actions and facial expressions etc. Well worth a look.
This is another one of those sites that seems to offer all the necessary support mechanisms you could imagine. Among the capacities listed on their website for PCs (more restricted for Macs) are:
I can't believe that I have managed to survive until now without this!
