The AppleVis community has voted the first generation AirPods the winner of its World Cup of the Decade, beating Apple Pay by 55% to 45% in the final.
Whilst Apple's AirPods weren't the first truly wireless earphones, the combination of ease of use; solid audio performance; long battery life; good call quality; and a price point that compares well with competitors, make them one of Apple's most ground-breaking products of recent years.
As the number of active Apple devices increases, so too do the different choices that the consumer has. The latest offering from Apple is the new iPhone SE 2020. This iPhone is a mix of the old and new: it retains the build size of the iPhone 8, but has the new A13 Bionic chip offered in the iPhone 11 series. It offers Bluetooth 5.0, but retains the Home button, which also includes Touch ID.
This review was completed after 10 days of use. Most of my comparison will be with the iPhone SE 2, since that was the phone I had been using previously. For the sake of clarity, when referring to the previous generation of iPhone SE released in 2020, it will be referred to as the iPhone SE 2. Apple refers to the current model of iPhone SE simply by that name. This was also true of the first and second generation.
Apple has today released macOS 11 Big Sur to the public. As usual, we won’t cover the mainstream features here, concentrating instead on what's new and changed for blind and low vision users. For an overview of the mainstream changes, we recommend that you read this in-depth review by MacStories.
Apple has today released macOS 10.15 Catalina to the public. As usual, we won’t cover the mainstream features here, concentrating instead on what's new and changed for blind and low vision users. For an overview of the mainstream changes, we recommend that you read this indepth review of Catalina by Mac Stories.
Today, Apple released the macOS 10.13 “High Sierra” update. As usual, I won’t cover the mainstream features for the most part, concentrating instead on accessibility.
Please remember to check the section about bugs to see if it’s worth upgrading. There’s no harm in holding off a few weeks or months to let Apple address a problem you may find too disruptive to deal with. In particular, users of the “most” punctuation setting should know that this setting has been removed, leaving just “none”, “some”, or “all”.
Yes, it's too big a dilemma to be ignored by VoiceOver users. While sighted iOS users can easily rely on app reviews to determine if an application works the way they want, VoiceOver users should solely rely on websites such as AppleVis -- the most comprehensive repository of app reviews from the viewpoint of the visually impaired, a couple of email lists and the very occasional mention of VoiceOver support on the App Store before making a purchase.
Hello AppleVis community. It's been some time since I blogged. Other writing tasks have occupied my time. But the real reason I haven't blogged is because bugs are getting me down.
I could remain silent about the bugs as I've been doing for the past seven months. Or I could post a rant on the forum. But ultimately, I decided to approach the topic with some seasonal levity. So if you can read this blog as constructive criticism and humor, then join me on a merry sleigh ride through the Twelve Bugs of Christmas.
I absolutely love working this way! I am sitting in my living room comfy chair and happily writing my first AppleVis blog. All the computer I need is right here. My iPhone 5S is in my shirt pocket, my Apple ear pods are where they belong, and my Logitech Bluetooth Keys-To-Go keyboard is cool and light on my lap. Except for taking my guide dog outside for another break, I cannot think of a single good reason to get up.
There is a very slight difference in the thickness of the iPhone 6S when compared to the 6. And because it's thicker, just like with human beings, that means it weighs slightly more. However, until I held the 6s in one hand and the 6 in another, I couldn't really tell that there was a difference in the weight or girth of the phone. Take this with a grain of salt then, quite literally, as that's about the difference in thickness between the 2 devices.
While upgrading to a new version of iOS is often exciting, it can also prove to be very, very frustrating - because of the time the process takes and especially when things don’t go so well.
Apple has today released tvOS 17, bringing several new features, including FaceTime support, an updated Control Center, and improvements to Apple Fitness+.
For VoiceOver users, the Eloquence speech synthesizer is now available.
When Apple announced the iPhone 5, I told myself I wouldn’t do it—that I wouldn’t buy one.
And yet, there I found myself walking out of my local AT&T Store on launch day, a 64 GB iPhone 5 in my pocket.
Well, had it not been for the unusability of many Reference apps, I'd have mentioned this first. Any decent and feature-rich screen reader should provide a pronunciation editor. All TTS engines have their own pronunciation problems or quirks and VoiceOver's TTS engine (called Nuance Vocalizer) is no exception to the rule.
First and foremost, I admit that I love the double-tap approach Apple has implemented in VoiceOver. However, as one becomes more and more familiar with certain apps, it would be quicker to locate a button or link and then activate it via a single tap instead of two. Imagine being able to flick around left or right to find something and then tap once to activate it.
As I’m gradually adding apps to my iPhone 4S and enjoying the extensive features and gestures provided by VoiceOver, I thought I’d add my desired features which might be considered by Apple for inclusion in future releases of iOS. Of course, I use the phrase “iOS 6” here and in the rest of posts dedicated to this topic because it seems the most logical release of the OS which can accommodate my features; however, there would be nothing wrong with implementing one or more of them in, say, iOS 5.2.
On April 29, 2005, Apple Inc. introduced Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Included in Mac OS X Tiger's list of features was the VoiceOver screen reader. VoiceOver was not Apple's first foray into assistive technology: Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar introduced Universal Access which provided customizations to the operating system for those with visual, hearing, and physical disabilities. In fact, Mac OS X Universal Access was influenced by similar technologies which were bundled with the classic Mac OS (Mac OS 9 and earlier).