October 2025 BT Speak Release Notes

Introduction

Blazie Technologies is pleased to offer our newest update for the BT Speak. In addition to various bug fixes, it also includes an exciting feature which enables expedited email composition from the Blazie mode editor. We have also greatly expanded QWERTY keyboard support in Blazie mode. Keep reading to learn more about how to update your BT Speak as well as what you can expect to find with our latest software.

We know that some customers enjoy the convenience of updating BT Speak from the user menu. If you have previously added the Check for Updates option to your user menu, we advise that you temporarily remove it from the user menu and then run the updater from the BT Speak Management menu, as outlined in the next section. This is because the command which was added in the User menu is from the old updater system and updating using the older updater system can cause problems. Once you install the new update, you are free to add the Check for Updates command in your user menu since it will then add the command for the new updater.

Quick Instructions for Updating Your BT Speak

Ensure that your BT Speak is connected to a Wi-Fi network and that your battery level is at 40% or higher.
Type O-Chord for the Options menu.
Type M for the BT Speak Management menu.
Type U to Check for Software Updates.
Your BT Speak should tell you that a new update is available and will ask if you’d like to install it. Press the letter Y to begin the installation. The BT Speak will download and install the update.
Once BT Speak restarts, you will be able to start enjoying the new update.

Send an email message from the File Browser

You can now send any file directly as an email from the file browser. Select a file from the file browser and its contents will be sent as the email message body. This makes it easy to compose a message in the Editor and send it right away. Files in contracted Braille format (.BRF and .BRL) are automatically translated into plain text. To do this, type O-chord followed by the letter F to open the file browser. Move to the file that you want to send as an attachment. Type the letter e (for email). Just like the Compose Email feature in Blazie Mode, you’ll be prompted for recipient, cc, bcc, subject, and attachments. Your BT Speak will then open Thunderbird in Desktop Mode so that you can review and send the message.

USB File Transfer Mode

While BT Speak provides a way to wirelessly transfer files to or from a computer, it is now possible to transfer files using a direct USB connection. Before we describe how to do this, we should begin with a few important notes.

USB file transfers are currently supported on Windows and Linux computers but not on the Mac.
It is strongly recommended that if you transfer files via a USB connection, you should disable Secure Shell and File Sharing on your BT Speak by going to Options, BT Speak Management, Advanced BT Speak Management, System Services.
USB file transfers only supports transferring files in your BT Speak’s Public folder, which is located in the home/pi folder.

To begin transferring files using this method, go to options, BT Speak Management, Advanced BT Speak Management, Enable USB Storage Mode (with U being the shortcut). When you select this option, BT Speak will announce that this feature is not available on Mac computers. You will also be advised to close other file sharing services to avoid data corruption on your public folder. Next, you will be asked if you wish to continue. Press Y for Yes. You will then be advised to ensure that you are using a USB cable which is capable of data transfers and to ensure that the cable is firmly connected. Press enter to continue and USB storage mode will be enabled, allowing you to transfer files to or from your BT Speak’s Public folder. Press the enter key on your BT Speak to exit USB mode. This is important as other BT Speak commands will not be available until you exit USB storage mode.

Wi-Fi Health Utility

The Wi-Fi menu now has a health status check option which reports the network you’re connected to, signal strength, approximate speed, and latency. This feature is useful for diagnosing problems related to low connection strength. For example, if your device is struggling to stay connected and the health status check indicates signal strength is low, try placing BT Speak closer to your wireless access point (router).

Google Drive Improvements

We’ve made a few improvements to enhance Google Drive performance and reliability: • Searching Google Drive is now smoother and more consistent • Shared files are now included more reliably in search results • Opening a directory from the search results list now displays all of its contents correctly

Enhanced QWERTY Keyboard Support in Blazie Mode

In a recent update, we added a few Function Key mappings for the Editor menu, the Options menu, etc. This update switches to more memorable and intuitive QWERTY key combinations, using Caps Lock as a special modifier key. The assignments of previous Function Keys have been removed. Important note: These expanded QWERTY keyboard commands are available only in Blazie mode. In Desktop Mode, QWERTY commands are handled separately by Orca. After you plug-in or pair an external keyboard to your BT Speak, the standard commands are ready to use. Just hold down the Caps Lock key and press another key. For example, hold Caps Lock and press T to hear the time. We have added 30 key assignments including multimedia control. We have also mapped Control left arrow and Control Right arrow to Previous and Next word in the editor, as well as Control up arrow and Control down arrow to Move up or down by text block (blank line detection) in the editor. This should make using the Editor more efficient and familiar. All of the new commands are documented in the qwerty keyboard help file.

Miscellaneous Fixes and Improvements

Pasting Braille into text documents was occasionally introducing stray characters during translation. We think this bug has been fixed.
We fixed an issue when re-opening a quick text or quick braille note, where the date and time were not reliably being added at the end of the file.
The Calendar app now synchronizes with Google Calendar each time you open it and not just after a reboot. This means any new events should appear as soon as the Calendar is loaded.
We fixed a bug reported by some users where new events were sometimes not actually added to Google Calendar, even though BT Speak indicated they had been successfully added.
We fixed a bug where toggling cursor tracking or append mode from the Editor menu weren’t always working as expected.
Podcasts with long titles and large numbers of podcast feeds were causing the Podcasts app to crash; this should be fixed.
A Set Logging Level option for diagnostics has been added to the Advanced BT Speak Management menu. This option is only meant to be used when requested by tech support. Please do not enable logging unless requested to do so by Blazie representatives. When logging is enabled it will make your device run more slowly and also use a lot of disk space. If Blazie requests that you enable logging, be sure to turn logging off, once the testing task is complete.

Concluding Remarks

As always, we welcome and value your feedback regarding this update as well as suggestions for future features and improvements. Please feel free to reach out to us by emailing info@blazie.net or by calling (772) 214-1616. The Blazie Technologies Team