September 2026 BT Speak and BT Braille Update Release Notes

Introduction

This update introduces many new features and enhancements, including Dropbox support and Terminal mode for BT Braille, which allows BT Braille to connect to and control devices such as an iPhone or computer. Many improvements have been made to playing audio including keeping your listening position after a deep escape or a reboot.

New Applications in Blazie Mode

Dropbox

The Dropbox cloud storage application has been added to the Personal Applications menu. Navigate to Options, Applications, Personal.

To connect to your Dropbox account, choose Connect to Dropbox from the main menu. Sign in and allow access in Firefox, then wait for the application to return you to Blazie Mode. The application will confirm the connection if it succeeds.

Disconnect from Dropbox erases your saved credentials at any time.

With the Dropbox application, you can browse My Files, search your whole account for a file or folder, download, rename, and delete files, and copy a shared link.

Copying a shared link puts a Dropbox web address on the clipboard, ready to paste into an email or message.

Choose Open on a file to download it, edit it, and save your changes straight back to Dropbox. Depending on the file type, it opens in the built-in editor or in LibreOffice. If saving back to Dropbox fails, you can keep your edits as a local file instead.

In File Manager, Save File or Directory (shortcut S) now asks which cloud service to use when both Dropbox and Google Drive are connected. If only one service is connected, it uploads to that service directly.

If a file with the same name already exists at the destination, you will be asked whether to overwrite it, save it under a different name, or cancel. This applies to both Google Drive and Dropbox.

Uploads and downloads report their progress in Braille and speech, so a large transfer no longer looks like it has stalled. See the Dropbox Help file for full instructions.

Project Gutenberg and LibriVox

Project Gutenberg and LibriVox are located in the Library Applications menu. To navigate there, go to Options Menu, Applications, Library.

Project Gutenberg (shortcut G) is a collection of public domain books. It currently contains over 79,000 titles.

LibriVox (shortcut V) is a collection of public domain audio books read by volunteers. It currently contains over 20,000 recordings. Neither requires an account or API key.

In Project Gutenberg, search by title, author, or subject, or browse Popular Books and Recently Added.

Read Now opens a book for reading without saving it.

Download saves it to Downloaded Books for offline reading.

In LibriVox, search by title or author. Stream an audio book over the Internet, or download it as a ZIP file for offline listening. Downloaded items in either application can be reopened, read or played, and deleted from their Downloaded lists.

Other New Features

Each Braille File Can Have its Own Braille Table

Braille files that you open in the editor can now optionally remember which Braille table is used for each file. As an example, one file could be set to use the English Unified Braille table, whereas another file could use the U.S. English Braille table. Even better, BARD books automatically use the correct Braille table for each individual book. This means that newer UEB titles from BARD will automatically use the Unified English Braille table and older EBAE titles will automatically use the English United States Braille table.

To use a Braille table for a specific file, open the file in the editor.

Next, type e-chord to open the Editor menu.

Press Dot 1-chord to move up to Choose the menu item called “Use Braille Table For This File”.

Select the Braille table from the list and press enter.

For more information, see the help topic called “Braille Table for This File”.

●        Additionally, copying and pasting between Braille files that use different translation tables now translates the text into the destination file’s Braille table instead of inserting the Braille code from the wrong table.

Text Transcription of Audio Recordings

Recordings can now be transcribed into text on either BT Speak or BT Braille. In the File Browser, point to a recording and press K. From the File Management menu, press K and select the recording to transcribe.

As an example, A recording titled note.mp3 produces a transcript with the title note_transcript.txt beside it, and the transcript opens automatically for reading. Processing takes place entirely on the device and reports its progress.

Please note that Blazie Technologies did not write the transcription engine and it is provided as is. Dictation accuracy, punctuation and capitalization errors should be expected.

Improved Support of Epub Files

EPUB files can now be opened directly from the File Browser. They now read with headings and chapter navigation, instead of as flat text.

Speak Amateur (Ham) Call Signs

The ability to correctly speak amateur radio call signs has been added. It is off by default. To enable it, press s-chord to open the Speech Controls menu.

Choose Amateur Radio Calls, or press c for the shortcut. The choices are off, letters or phonetics.

For example, if you enter the call sign

W1AW

Setting Amateur calls to Letters would read the call sign one character at a time.

If you set Amateur calls to Phonetics, you would hear

whiskey 1 alpha whiskey

Improvements to Media Playback

●        Audio now resumes both for the last playback session and for individual media collections. By default, after a reboot or a Deep Escape closes the player, press 1-2-5-6-Chord to resume the file, playlist or stream; local media returns to the item that was playing at its saved time and speed. Reopening a directory or playlist also continues from its last item, time and speed, even after other media has played.

●        The Audio Settings menu has a new option called Save Playback Positions Automatically. This option has two settings: Save Playback Positions Automatically and Do Not Save Playback Positions Automatically. 

●        The Audio Settings menu has a new option called Resume Last Media When Play Is Pressed. When set to resume last media, the last file you were listening to begins playback at the point where you last stopped it if you press the Play/Pause toggle (dots 1-2-5-6-chord), even across device restarts or after pressing the Deep Escape command (Z-7-chord).

●         In the Audio Settings menu, Resume Media Collections Automatically does the same for media collections, assuming the Save Playback Positions setting is active.

●        When you start playback by choosing one file in a directory, the player now treats the other playable files in that directory as its playback context. Previous Track and Next Track therefore move through those files instead of playing the same file again.

●        The Media File Browser now supports queues, repeat playback, saved playlists and User-menu shortcuts. You can access the Media File Browser by going to Options, Applications, Media, Media Files. Choose Add This Directory to Queue to add a directory, or point to one file and press Plus or Next to add only that file. Choose Play Queue Sequentially or Play Queue Shuffled to start it, and turn on Repeat Playback first if required. To create a lasting shortcut, point to a directory or playback choice such as Play Shuffled and press Control+C; in Now Playing, choose Save Playlist to store the active collection.

●        The Now Playing screen includes the ability to Go to a specific Time in the file, with G being the shortcut. Enter 15, 15:00 or 15m for fifteen minutes. Use the colon as a time separator or h, m and s suffixes for other times, and begin with plus or minus for a relative jump.

●        The Now Playing screen supports named bookmarks for local media. A bookmark remembers the current file or playlist item and playback position, and can be restored later from Now Playing.

●        Optional Replay Gain settings can make volume more consistent between tracks. You’ll find these options by going to Options, Settings, Audio Settings, Media Volume Normalization. This includes settings for Replay GainMode, ReplayGain Preamp, Fallback Gain and Peak Protection

●        Radio Tuner can now add a playing station to the User menu: press Control+C from Stream Actions. You can also choose Find a Station by Website, shortcut W, to find a station from its website or streaming-server address; streams are identified by format and speed before you choose one to play or save as a favorite.

BT Code

●        BT Code now manages each project’s required libraries. Send to Code Store checks imported libraries, and Add New Library is joined by List Libraries and Remove Library. Projects with libraries can now be pinned to the User menu.

●        Every BT Code project now starts at main.py. New projects receive one automatically; older projects must rename an existing file or create main.py before publishing.

●        Publishing remembers your author and category defaults, chooses the version correctly, explains failures, and leaves the project file unchanged if you cancel. Failed downloads now give the actual reason, and downloaded Code Store projects appear automatically in the Downloaded menu under Applications.

Support and logs

●        The Advanced BT Speak Management menu now has a separate command called “Send a Log File to Support”. It opens a recent log in the editor so that you can add a description, explaining why you’re sending the log to us. Press S with Dot 8 to submit the log. Reviewing recent or older logs is now kept separate from sending them.

●        The Backup and Restore feature has been overhauled. Backups now cover the entire home directory and Wi-Fi credentials, in addition to the existing BTSpeak settings and notes directory tree. They report progress and can be saved in the Public folder, on USB storage or on an SD card.

●        Current and prior release notes are now available on the device. In Help, choose Guides and Tutorials, then What’s New in This Release, shortcut N, or Prior Release Notes, shortcut R, which lists all prior releases back to March 2024.

Braille translation changes

Braille translation is now faster across tables, alongside numerous translation fixes.

●        In US Braille, the phrase “Press R” no longer translates to “Press Rather.””

●        In U.S. English Braille, Dot 4 followed by e now back-translates as acute e, é.

●        In U.S. English Braille, Markdown balanced single-backtick inline code is presented in Computer Braille Code when its boundaries are safe, enabling commands, file names and other exact computer text to be read and edited accurately.

●        In U.S. and UK English Braille, Markdown strong emphasis written with double asterisks translates accurately beside question marks, quotation marks, square brackets and braces.

●        Common lowercase email addresses can now be entered directly in UK Literary Braille. Use Dot 4, then Dots 2–3–4–6 for the at sign; the Dot–4 prefix is required. Full stops (low-d), hyphens and in-word contractions are supported.

●        In UK Braille, pound and dollar amounts retain decimal points and grouped commas, including £1,234.50 and A$60.50.

General Improvements

●        Wi-Fi status now says “not connected” instead of “disconnected”.

●        Speech Controls and Now Playing start faster.

●        Read to End with ER-Chord is more reliable, including with very long sentences, and long spoken passages now break at a whole word instead of being cut off. Sentence reading has also been improved.

●        Desktop-mode Low-F letter chords once again generate their corresponding function keys.

●        The Calculator’s full function set has been restored, including trigonometric and logarithmic functions, factorial, average and unit conversions.

●        The editor no longer reports missing-file errors at startup for files that were deleted or are on disconnected removable storage.

●        The editor no longer asks whether to save a completely empty file.

●        Closing the editor is faster when several files are open because it no longer announces each file on the way out.

●        In the editor, Go To Column, selection-length reports and search positions now reliably count accented and other multibyte characters as one character, keeping the cursor and reported position aligned.

●        In read-only files, the Editor, Delete, Paste and Navigation menus now show only the commands that are available.

●        In the editor, text and Braille clipboard content can now be appended together, with translation handled automatically instead of the two forms being refused.

●        An issue where Markdown links could not be activated in Braille files has been fixed.

●        If the Desktop Braille Input editor cannot return edited text to a Desktop field, the unsent draft is now retained. The next time Braille Input starts, it announces “Recovered unsent text” so that the draft can be edited or sent again.

●        YouTube Stream now reports activity while updating and handles a previous streaming failure.

●        AI Chat now works again and uses the Chat Latest model.

●        AI tools results now use cleaner, more consistent Markdown.

●        Stopwatch and Morse Code now recognize chorded commands correctly rather than prematurely exiting.

●        Setting the time zone and showing the Internet address are faster and more reliable. The new get-geolocation command reports your city, region, country, time zone, coordinates and Internet address from the command line.

●        Printing now selects the requested printer correctly.

●       Voxin speech volume has been adjusted down to better match the volume of other voices. You may need to adjust your default master volume to compensate for this change.

●        all manuals have been updated and are complete (thanks To Aleksander).

●       For translators, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese message catalogues have been refreshed. A downloadable translator kit now lets translators work without the source code.

●        BARD sign-in problems are now explained in plain language. Expired sign-ins no longer claim that the password is wrong or delete the saved password.

●        corrected Bard passwords can be saved again, book titles are easier to understand, and BARD books retain their reading position.

●        The Bible app now remembers your location in any of the books you were reading.

●        Internet-based applications now time out instead of appearing to freeze when a service does not respond.

●        NFB Newsline articles no longer include stray characters in the spoken article text.

●        The main NFB Newsline menu now correctly offers Sign into Newsline when you aren't signed in, and Sign-out of Newsline when you are. Before this fix, it always showed Sign-out, regardless of your actual connection state.

●        In NFB Newsline, backing out of a publication list under Publications by State or Magazines now returns you to that state or magazine list. Before this fix, it exited all the way back to the Newsline main menu.

BT Braille Updates

Terminal Mode for BT Braille

The highly requested Braille Terminal mode is now available on BT Braille. It will be available to BT Speak owners in a future update.

Terminal mode lets you control other devices using the Perkins keyboard, and displays their output on the Braille display. It supports VoiceOver on iOS, as well as JAWS and NVDA on Windows. VoiceOver on MacOS should also work. Support for Android and Linux is currently not available. It uses Bluetooth to connect to other devices; USB is not supported. It runs more like a background service than the other applications, so you can switch between controlling an external device and using your BT Braille in other applications. It is like switching between Blazie mode and desktop mode; whether you are in the editor, the calculator, or another Blazie mode application, you can perform the command to switch to a device, control it, then switch back to your BT Braille and resume from where you left off. You can even switch to terminal mode while you are in desktop mode, and when you switch back from terminal mode, you will be returned to desktop mode.

The first step is to enable the Braille Terminal, since it is disabled by default. The command to turn terminal mode on or off is located in the Options menu. The command is called Terminal Mode, with r being the shortcut.

while terminal mode is enabled, you will not be able to use Bluetooth keyboards. If you want to use a Bluetooth keyboard, terminal mode must be disabled first. Bluetooth audio devices will work properly; only Bluetooth keyboards will not.

Once you are in terminal mode, you can switch back to host mode by pressing L1-chord.. Remember, the l1 button is the top left of the three small round buttons to the left of the Braille display. Press the l1 key along with space. When you are in host mode, this means that you are now controlling your BT Braille and not the other device.

Terminal mode allows you to connect to as many as five Bluetooth devices.

To connect to device 1, press the space key with l2.

To connect to device 2, press the space key with l3.

Pressing the space key with r1, r2 and r3 will allow you to connect to three additional devices.

As a reminder, pressing l1-chord switches BT Braille back into host mode.

When you pair a device, it will be added in the first available slot. For example, when you pair your first device, it will be assigned to slot 1. If you pair a second device, it will be assigned to slot 2. You can have an unlimited number of slots, but the dedicated commands allow you to switch among only the first five devices.

To pair a new device, terminal mode must be in pairing mode. If you have no devices paired yet, it will start out in pairing mode by default, but otherwise you will have to enable it from the Braille Terminal menu. After that, pair with your BT Braille from your other device.

To pair an iPhone or iPad to your BT Braille:

On iOS, open Settings, then go to Accessibility, then VoiceOver, then Braille, then pair with your BT Braille.

On a Windows PC, pair it from the Windows Bluetooth settings. In Windows, you may have to select Braille Hid in JAWS or NVDA, or restart your screen reader.

Another important option in the Braille Terminal menu is Manage Devices, where you can re-order slots and disconnect or delete devices. You can also connect or switch to a device, if it doesn't connect automatically after a restart. Each device in the list has a menu with the following options, or there are shortcut keys that you can press on each device without opening the menu.

●       Disconnect a Device: d

●       Remove a device: r

●       Switch to a device: s

●       Connect to a Device: c

●       Move a device up or down through the list of devices: plus or minus

Another option in the Terminal Mode menu is the Bluetooth audio toggle. When this is enabled, the audio from your external device will play through your BT Braille’s speakers. When it is turned off, you will not hear your device's audio through your BT Braille’s speakers.

If you connect headphones or a speaker to your BT Braille and Bluetooth audio is turned on, your device's audio will be routed through the speakers or headphones just like your BT Braille's audio.

Pan Voice and Auto Panning feature

Auto Advance and Pan Voice are included as version-one features, and we welcome feedback on ways to refine them.

●        In the editor, press ER–7-Chord to start Auto Advance, which moves the Braille display forward automatically. Set the initial pace under Settings, Braille, Auto Advance Rate; while reading, Dot 7 speeds up the advance by 1 tenth of a second. Dot 8 decreases the pace. The adjusted rate is also saved. 

●        Pan Voice controls whether panning is accompanied by speech. When it is on, the Braille shown on the display is spoken as you pan manually or when you use Auto Advance. When pan voice is off, manual panning and Auto Advance are Braille only.

●        Existing navigation commands, including Previous Line and Next Line, continue to speak the new line as before. Turning speech off with L3 and Dot 7 overrides Pan Voice, so panning remains silent until speech is turned on again.

Other BT Braille Improvements

●        An optional neural reading voice can be downloaded from Speech Settings. It provides higher-quality speech for long-form reading with ER-Chord and has its own language and voice choices. This voice sounds more human, but it is not very responsive and its pronunciation can be a little unusual at times.

●        Real-time offline dictation is now available. Before first use, open Settings, choose Dictation, then Download Dictation Model; the model is not installed by default, and dictation is enabled when the download finishes. Hold R2 and R3 together and speak; each phrase is typed into the current application when you pause. The same Dictation menu can turn the feature off or on and can speak the dictated text when you release the keys.

Note, this uses the same dictation engine as described earlier for audio transcriptions and those limitations also apply to BT Braille live dictation.

●        Long search terms, file names and other editor prompts can now be panned across the Braille display.

Contact Information

Blazie Technologies

Phone: (772) 214-1616

Support Email: support@blazie.net

Web Site: www.blazietech.com