[Nfbf-l] The Abacus Meets the IPhone

[Alan Dicey]

Dear Friends,
Passing this along, thought some might be interested.
With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida
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The Abacus Meets the IPhone
Ah, now this is what I like.  With so many complaining about how these 
new-fangled computerized whatchamacallits are taking over the tried and true 
old school devices, complain no more.  I'm a big fan of the abacus.  While I 
struggled with math as a kid, the abacus is a great way to make math 
accessible, allowing a student to actually feel, by moving beads on a board, 
the steps which are required to solve a math problem.  It was also cheap and 
required no maintenance agreements, reboots or software upgrades.  During 
lunch, I found a blog post talking about an iPhone case with an abacus 
attached to it.  And, in case you're using slightly older versions of new 
assistive tech, you can get these cases for your iPhone 4s or iPhone 4.  I'm 
not sure how much these cases resemble the beloved APH version of the 
abacus, but this is probably worth pursuing.
>From Technobob .
While Apple definitely made it easier to access the calculator in iOS7, you 
still might find yourself without a way to do math on your smartphone. Maybe 
the battery ran out, or maybe you've found a way to make the Calculator app 
crash. Either way, you need a "Plan B" for your maths. I present the 
solution to this challenging equation - the Abacus iPhone case.
This 3D printed case designed by Joaquin Baldwin provides a fully-functional 
abacus on the back of your iPhone, letting you work math problems without 
even slightly draining your battery. And as an added bonus, you'll get tiny 
Apple logos in place of traditional abacus beads.
The Abacus case is available in iPhone 5/5S and 4/4S variants over on 
Shapeways for $24(USD). While I'll have to dust off my abacus-using skills, 
I guess it beats using Chisanbop.
David Goldfield
Computer Technology Instructor
919 Walnut Street
4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA  19107
215-627-0600 ext 3277
FAX:  215-922-0692

dgoldfie at asb.org
www.asb.org

Serving Philadelphia's and the nation's blind and visually impaired
population since 1874.
www.asb.org      www.asb.org
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