Good Day, Bad Day
Spare change, Braille publishers
GOOD DAY FOR: Spare change, as financially strapped states are raising road, bridge, and tunnel tolls. Drivers in California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey are all facing toll hikes; New York is upping tolls by $2-$10 a pop. “People view highways as free, but they’re not,” says Patrick Jones of the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association. (USA Today)
BAD DAY FOR: Braille publishers, after Nokia, the National Federation of the Blind, and text-to-audio pioneer Ray Kurzweill unveiled a cell phone that can take a picture of any text and read it aloud. A joint venture, K-NFB Reading Technology, will start marketing the $2,100 phone in February. “It is the next step, but this is a huge leap,” said K-NFB’s James Gashel. (AP in BusinessWeek.com)
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