JAWS 7 Details Posted

Yes, that's right. All the details of what's new and what's been fixed have been posted to the Freedom Scientific website today. Read about them on the JAWS 7.0 Coming Soon page.

Among the notable new features is:

• Support for MSN Messenger 7.0 and 7.5. We'll see how good it actually is, but I know someone who will be very glad to hear this, :)
  

• FS Clipboard: This is a new feature that builds on the Windows Clipboard, with a notable exception--you can append text to text you already have in the clipboard area! This is something that I've been waiting for someone to implement ever since I saw it on the KeyWord word processing application, introduced by HumanWare many years ago. Say what you want about HumanWare, but being able to append text to your already selected text is great.
  

• Run JAWS from a USB thumb drive: This sounds like it really could be handy, but they're not completely there yet, at least as far as being able to use JFW with any computer, no matter if it has an authorization key on it or not. But it is progress, and progress is good.
  

• Support for Mozilla FireFox: Granted, FS admits that they haven't gotten all of the bugs worked out yet, and that they're working on it. I say this could be a great thing though, since until now, blind people have been limited to Internet Explorer for their web browsing. Recognizing that not all people, blind or otherwise, are that satisfied with IE or Microsoft to begin with, giving another option for web browsing is good. Window Eyes beat them to the punch in their recent 5.5 public beta, with FireFox support, but that's ok. Competition is good.
  

• And much more.
  

Word is, according to FS, that JFW 7 will be out by the end of September. I've heard rumors that it could be October. Either way though, its coming very soon, so I'd advise anyone who's mildly interested in it, to make sure that they're qualified to download and use it. In other words, it would be a great time to make sure your SMA is up to date.