Welcome to the NFB-NEWSLINE® Podable News information and download page. On this page youll learn about this revolutionary new feature and how you can read the publications on your DAISY supported device, computer or portable MP3 player. Youll also find information about, and links for, the application download that is used to retrieve your preferred publications.
Feature Information
We've increased the flexibility and functionality of NFB-NEWSLINE® so that you can more easily and quickly get your news onto your portable player or listen to it by using any number of media player software programs. With Podable News, you have increased portability and flexibility in reading the news and can enjoy the functionality that a portable player provides. You can download the content onto your computer (and then copy it to another device) or have it sent to a digital talking-book player, and if desired you can also set up a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed of your preferred content via a podcasting client.
The files that you download using Podable News will be in an audio MP3 file that is a recording of a synthetic voice reading your selected content. You will be able to choose which speech synthesizer you wish to read your content, either Eloquence or a more human-sounding voice.
Download Information
To make use of the NFB-NEWSLINE® Podable News feature, youll need to download our free software application. In order to start enjoying the flexibility that NFB-NEWSLINE® Podable News affords for yourself, please select the below link to download the software. Please note the difference in the file size for these two options; the download files are of different sizes as the first file includes the Java software for those who do not have it already installed on their computer. If you are uncertain which option to choose, it is best to select the file that includes the Java software. The file without Java included is 730 KB, and the file that has Java packaged is 20MB.
NFB-NEWSLINE Podable News Version 1.2 - Java Software Included (Recommended)
NFB-NEWSLINE Podable News Version 1.2 - Java Software Not Included
Selecting one of the above download links will open up the Podable News setup wizard; follow these steps to have the program installed on your computer:
1. A dialog box will pop up asking you if you want to run or save this file. Choose run.
2. A second dialog box will open stating that the publisher could not be verified and asks if you want to run the file. Choose run again.
3. The NFB-NEWSLINE® Podable News installation program will open. Select Next to begin the installation process.
4. To save the NFB-NEWSLINE® Podable News file on your computer, choose next again and then on the next screen click install.
5. To finish the installation wizard and complete the process select finish.
Feature Usage Information
Now that youve downloaded the Podable News software, youre ready to set up your list of the publications and their sections youd like to download to your DAISY supported device, computer or MP3 player. To do this, youll need to set up your favorites using our new online favorites management tool. To access this tool select, Manage All Your Favorites. From the Options Page. The Options Page is the web page that is displayed after you login to nfbnewslineonline.org.
After selecting Manage All Your Favorites., a new page will open providing links to manage favorites for all of the access methods; choose the option for Manage your Podable Subscriptions. You may choose to search either by state or alphabetical listing, and you are not restricted to only six favorites as is the case with the traditional phone-access method. Its also important to know that you can select different publications for the different access methods; you are not restricted to using the same publications for all access methods. You may choose to subscribe to an entire publication, or you may choose an individual section thereof. The Podable subscriptions page lists the publications and offers links for subscribing to the full publication (for example, Add New York Times to your Podable Subscriptions) or for viewing the publication sections (for example, Add a Section from New York Times to your Podable Subscriptions). If you wish to subscribe to a particular section, select the link to add a section, and the next page will display a list of all sections within that publication. Then select the link for the desired section (for example, Add Foreign Desk to your Podable Subscriptions). You can view your subscriptions on the Manage Podable News Favorite Publications page, and you can remove selected subscriptions on that page as well by selecting the (for example) Remove Foreign Desk Section of the New York Times from your Podable Subscriptions link.
After selecting your Podable News favorites, you can then begin the process of downloading your subscriptions. The application allows you to download the content to your computer or to a digital talking-book player, and when launched will ask you where youd like to place the content.
Downloading Content to Your Computer
The Podable News installer placed an application shortcut on your desktop named NFB-NEWSLINE Podable.exe. Launching the application will open a command-prompt screen and begin the download process. The length of the download process will be determined by the number of publications or sections you request, and by the type of Internet connection you use; fewer publications and a broadband connection will both shorten the download process. You may choose to launch the Podable News application at night, and then copy your publications to your device in the morning; you can also leave the Podable News application running and it will automatically download your podcasts for you each day.
Once the download is complete, you can listen to your desired content on your computer using a media player such as Winamp or you can download the MP3 audio files to an MP3-playing device or onto some digital talking-book players. The voice reading the text will be the same voice that you choose for the traditional phone-access method; the same is true for the voice speed. If you would prefer another voice, you will need to call into the service and select another voice by selecting the number eight key when listening to an article and rotating through the voice options until you arrive at the voice you want. If you would like a different speed, press 7 or 9 when listening to an article to slow down or speed up, respectively, the speaking rate. This voice and speed will be set for both the phone-access method and Podable News.
The downloaded publications are placed in a new folder, called NFBNewsline Podable, on your C drive. The publications are presented in separate, individual subfolders with a sub-subfolder for each issue or edition date of the publication; the desired subscriptions will be contained in those sub-subfolders.
You can choose to either play your content on your computer with a media player or copy these files to an MP3-playing device. For those who wish to play the content on their computer, youll need to either use a pre-installed media player or download one of the free media players, such as Winamp.
Learn more and download the free Winamp Media Player.
When playing your content on your media player on the computer, you will use the commands intrinsic to the player to find and play the files. Again using Winamp as an example, you can hit the L key on your keyboard to select the desired content, or you can choose to have Winamp play the entire contents of a publication or of all publications in the NFBNewsline Podable folder by entering Shift+L. Depending on what you want to hear, in the new window navigate to the NFBNewsline Podable folder, and either select to play the entire contents of that folder, or select a sub-subfolder for a particular publication to hear that publications desired issue date. When listening to content, use the built-in commands; useful commands for Winamp include X to play or restart, C to pause and unpause, Z to move to the previous track, and B to move to the next track.
Downloading Content to Your Digital Talking-Book Player
If youd like, you can download the publication content directly to your digital talking-book player. The devices supported by Podable News are the same as those for NFB-NEWSLINE® In Your Pocket, those being:
The Victor Reader Stream
The Braille+
The Icon
The BookSense
The Book Port Plus
To download content to your digital talking-book player, plug in your device and turn it on and then launch the Podable News application. The application will recognize your device (the Braille+ and ICON will require that you turn your device into a hard drive), and you will be asked if you want the content to be placed onto your digital talking-book player. As with NFB-NEWSLINE® In Your Pocket, you will be asked for your codes the first time you download content to your device with Podable News; subsequent downloads to that device will not require you to provide your codes. Your content will then download to your device; when through, unplug your device from your computer (using the Safely Remove Hardware utility first) and you can then take your preferred content with you on the go. You can close the Podable News application by pressing control-c on your keyboard.
Setting up an RSS Feed of Your Preferred Content
You can also set up an RSS feed of your preferred publications that you can then copy to an MP3-playing device such as the IPod. The feeds for the publications may be found by clicking the link below.
Click here for the NFB-NEWSLINE Podable News RSS Feeds.
and youll need to have a podcasting client such as Juice or ITunes to receive the feeds.
Learn more and download Juice.
Learn more and download ITunes
If you are the owner of a Braille+ or Icon, you can also directly download these RSS feeds to your unit. See the manual pages for your device for further instructions.
As we provide a free software for Podable News that will allow you to download desired content to your DAISY supported device, it is not necessary to set up an RSS feed, but this option is made available to those who wish to have it.
Deleting Content on Your Computer and Digital Talking-Book Player
Just as with on the phone and other access methods, you will be provided with the current and prior issue dates, and in the case of most newspapers, the Sunday issue. Assuming you keep the prior and, for newspapers, Sundays, issues on your computer, the next time you download your subscriptions with the Podable News application you will only download the current or current days issue. Just like with NFB-NEWSLINE® In Your Pocket, its best to delete a weekday issue only when its two days prior to the current issue so that you dont have to keep downloading it to your computer. For example, if today is Friday, you can delete Wednesdays issue because it has dropped off our system and will not be re-loaded onto your computer. The next day, on Saturday, you delete Thursdays issue, but if you delete Fridays issue it will be re-loaded onto your computer as it has not dropped off our system.
We here on the NFB-NEWSLINE® team want to make sure that you get all of the
information that you are looking for, so don't hesitate to contact us if you need assistance.
We can be reached during the workweek from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Eastern on
(866) 504-7300 or you can send an e-mail to the
NFB-NEWSLINE® team.
|
