Welcome to the June 2016 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy in the accessible app landscape. Below, you'll find a recap of the best content posted to AppleVis - from new app entries, to app updates, to podcasts and blogs. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.
New and Noteworthy App Entries
A Sword Fight Warrior (iOS, Free)
For entertainment purposes only!
Take on your enemies and best friends in a full out sword fight! Just load this app onto both your devices and unleash your fury against friends and enemies. May the best warrior win!
Best experienced by holding firmly onto your device and shaking or swinging lightly as if you held a real sword. Think of it like a warfare reenactment or playing out the final scenes of your favorite sword fighting movie with your device as your sword.
Current Version: 1.4 (June 18, 2016)
Read A Sword Fight Warrior’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit A Sword Fight Warrior’s page on the App Store
Amazon Alexa (iOS, Free)
The free Amazon Alexa App is a companion to your Alexa device for setup, remote control, and enhanced features. Alexa is always ready to play your favorite music, provide weather and news updates, answer questions, create lists, and much more. Alexa's brain is in the cloud, so she continually learns and adds more functionality over time. The more you use Alexa, the more she adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.
How It Works
Interactions with Alexa are automatically mirrored visually on your Amazon Alexa App, providing more information as you want it. The Amazon Alexa App lets you easily manage your alarms, music, shopping lists, and more -- wherever you are.
Current Version: 1.12.75 (June 13, 2016)
Read Amazon Alexa’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Amazon Alexa’s page on the App Store
Amedia Live Reader (iOS, US$29.99)
Features:
- Scans a live image captured by a camera and reads the texts in it in real-time.
- Designed for visually impaired users.
- Supported language: English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese and Korean.
- Employs an excellent OCR technology powered by ABBYY.
How to Use:
- Open the App with VoiceOver turned on.
- Tap the "Active" button to focus. The App starts beeping.
- Direct the camera to letters. The App detects and reads them in real-time.
- Hold the device flat (with the camera facing down) to take a still picture. This is useful when you're reading paper sheets on a desk.
- The previously read texts can be reached by left swiping.
- Copy the texts to the Clipboard in the Settings screen.
Current Version: 1.1 (April 11, 2016)
Read Amedia’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Amedia’s page on the App Store
Blindfold Bird Songs (iOS, Free with In-App Purchases)
Blindfold Bird Songs is a fully accessible tile game that is inspired by matching games and bird songs for both sighted and visually impaired people, designed for rapid audio play.
There are several types of games in Bird Songs.
- Name That Bird improves your skill at matching a bird with its song.
- Find That Bird is a matching game where you must remember the square where each bird song is located.
In both games, you start out matching 3 bird songs to complete the level. Each time you complete a level, the next level has the prior level's bird songs, along with two more bird songs randomly mixed up. In both games, you win points for good matches, lose points for bad matches, and can be played for dozens of levels.
Blindfold Bird Songs comes with 7 bird songs for free. You can get additional packs of bird songs; the full game has over 60 bird songs.
Current Version: 1.1.0 (June 6, 2016)
Read Blindfold Bird Songs’ AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Blindfold Bird Songs’ page on the App Store
Diced - A Simple Puzzle Dice Game (iOS, US$0.99)
Diced is an annoyance free casual puzzle game for everyone!
Only $0.99 with no in-app purchases or ads
- Place dice on a grid to form combinations, clear the dice and score points!
- Combinations can be five of a kind or five in a row (straights).
- Wild cards, bombs and blocks add to the complexity.
- Game ends when you run out of space!
- Three game modes (Normal, Zen and Blitz) provide something every one!
Current Version: 1.1 (May 17, 2016)
Read Diced's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Diced's page on the App Store
Quick Record — Voice memos audio recorder with iCloud sync (iOS, US$1.99)
Quick Record is the fastest way to record audio with your device.
It can record in one tap or even automatically, sync to multiple devices with iCloud, record in High/Medium/Low quality, share via email, and open in other apps.
Record music, lectures, meetings, wildlife, interviews, ideas, and anything else using the device in your hands.
FEATURES
- Record in one tap
- Sync to multiple devices with iCloud
- Use locally without iCloud if desired
- Record automatically when the app opens
- Record in the background while using other apps
- Record in the background while device is asleep / locked
- Record directly from Apple Watch microphone
- Automatic pausing for incoming calls
- Select quality from High (256kbps), Medium (96kbps), or Low (32kbps)
- Share via email, iMessage, Airdrop, etc…
- Open in other apps
- Organize by naming / tagging / starring items
- Search by name / tag
- Choose your workflow (automatically Edit/Tag/Share/Open in… after recording)
- Play recordings while using other apps
- AAC / M4A format
- No complicated instructions
- Universal app for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple Watch
Current Version: 1.1.4 (June 20, 2016)
Read Quick Record’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Quick Record’s page on the App Store
All recent app entries posted to AppleVis can be found at:
Notable App Updates
1Password - Password Manager and Secure Wallet (iOS, Free with In-App Purchases)
1Password remembers all your passwords and other sensitive information so you don’t have to. Keep your digital life secure, always available, and safe behind the one password that only you know.
Use 1Password to generate strong and unique passwords, save them securely, and fill them on websites and in participating apps with just a few taps. 1Password is your digital vault for all kinds of information associated with modern life, from addresses and credit card numbers to locker combinations and one-time passwords.
Current Version: 6.4.2 (June 6, 2016)
Changes in Version 6.4.2
Improved
- Item sharing has returned with proper advice for sharing only over secure services. {OPI-3536}
- References to 1Password Teams have been expanded to be inclusive of 1Password Families as well. {OPI-3488, OPI-3504, OPI-3493}
- VoiceOver now properly names the items in the tab bar as "tabs" instead of "buttons". {OPI-3573}
- When editing an item VoiceOver now makes it clear how to edit how to edit the notes for that item. {OPI-3574}
- 1Browser's User Agent options now represent the latest versions for each choice.
- Updated our translations with the latest from our incredible translators on Crowdin.
Fixed
- Items can now be copied from a 1Password account that was frozen to other non-frozen vaults. {OPI-3157}
- We now support the "View Password History" permission for 1Password Teams accounts. {OPI-3411}
- Fixed an issue that could cause items with invalid created/updated timestamps from syncing with 1Password accounts. {OPM-4157}
- Fixed an issue where the "New Login" button in the extension was not visible for frozen accounts. {OPI-3547}
- Fixed a rare issue where some Logins were not properly matching to the current web page.
Read 1Password’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit 1Password’s page on the App Store
A Blind Legend (iOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
It’s the first-ever mobile action-adventure game without video – where ears replace eyes! Discover the original, innovative sensory experience of binaural 3D sound.
Your eyes will be of no help. So close them, sharpen your hearing and your blade… And embark on an epic, perilous rite of passage.
Live the adventures of Edward Blake, the famous blind knight! Guided by your daughter Louise, you must find your way and avoid the many traps that lie in store in the High Castle Kingdom, while confronting dangerous enemies!
This serious game is fully accessible to visually impaired people, and is aimed at anyone who’s eager for an original, immersive sensory experience through a ground-breaking video game. And because the player is the character, it will help raise public awareness of this kind of disability.
This hack-and-slash game, with a heroic-fantasy flavour, harnesses the innovative technology of binaural sound, which delivers a gripping 3D soundscape and brings characters and actions vividly to life around the player – as if they were actually in the game!
Current Version: 1.2 (June 29, 2016)
Changes in Version 1.2
- You can now purchase UNLIMITED lives!
- New mode of difficulty HARDCORE!!!
- New intro music!
- Improved stability and performance;
- Improved tutorial;
- Improved horse race ;
- Improved audio rendering (binaural engine updated) ;
- Correction of some english sentences.
Read A Blind Legend’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit A Blind Legend’s page on the App Store
Dice World - Dice with Friends (iOS, Free with In-App Purchases)
6 Great games in one App! Yatzy, Farkle, Pig, Threes, Balut and 24!
- More funny computer characters!
- More awesome custom dice sets!
- More everything!
Dice World is designed so blind and sighted can compete against each other! It is completely accessible to the blind!
Voted best game of year by AppleVis.com in 2014 & 2015!
Current Version: 9.04 (June 7, 2016)
Changes in Version 9.04
Making the game accessible is always priority #1 here at Dice World. And this release is no exception!
Accessibility Enhancements in this release:
- Farkle - New 'select all' button to make gameplay faster, and navigation easier.
- Yatzy - Navigation simplified dramatically! Now scoring buttons are easily found after each roll right next to the roll button.
- Balut - Yes, finally Balut is just as easy to play as Yatzy for voice over users! So if you have never played Balut, give it a try!
Other goodies included:
- Optional animations for playable hands in Farkle, Balut & Yatzy! This makes learning new games a piece of cake!
- Farkle animation/scoring fix.
Read Dice World’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Dice World’s page on the App Store
KNFBReader (US$99)
KNFB Reader is fully accessible using VoiceOver. If you’re worried about getting the right photo, the app will help you. It has text detection so you know you have the printed side of the page. It also has tilt assist and viewfinder assist – the app helps you get the whole page photographed. Just a tap of the finger and the print is yours.
WHAT CAN THIS APP DO?
It can read receipts. Know what has been put on your card at restaurants, stores, or in taxis. And it’s fast –the print will be yours almost instantaneously.
KNFB reader can read labels. Want to know what came in the mail? Need nutritional information from your breakfast cereal? KNFB Reader captures it all.
Out shopping and need a price? KNFB Reader can read price tags and labels.
KNFB Reader captures print from your computer or tablet screen. Photograph the screen and know exactly what those error messages say.
What about user manuals? Many items come with manuals or installation instructions. KNFB Reader can read those too. It can scan multiple pages at a time in the batch mode. Just turn the pages as you shoot the photos. Need that manual later? KNFB Reader can export it to Dropbox or Google Drive. Once you’ve scanned it, the print is yours.
Can’t find a book through an accessible book service? Set your KNFB Reader to batch mode and scan the pages, and read them at your leisure.
Need to read your children’s homework sheets (or your own)?? Notices from school? That print is now yours.
KNFB Reader allows you access to your private documents with complete independence. Review your taxes. Check the terms of your lease or mortgage. Read reports from the doctor. Read your bills – even those with tables.
KNFB Reader has various options to adapt the font type, size and color; background color and uses double highlighting. People who are visually impaired or with other print disabilities (such as dyslexia) can easily follow what is being read aloud on the screen by watching the cursor move across the document.
Current Version: 2.7 (June 14, 2016)
Changes in Version 2.7
The following languages are now supported:
- Russian text recognition and user interface;
- Czech text recognition;
- Bulgarian text recognition;
- Ukrainian text recognition;
- Estonian text recognition;
- Greek text recognition.
A recognition issue with some PDF documents has been resolved.
Minor bug fixes.
Read KNFBReader's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit KNFBReader's page on the App Store
Seeing Eye GPS (iOS, Free Trial)
The Seeing Eye, the pioneer in guide dogs, and Sendero Group, the pioneers of accessible GPS, have teamed up to create The Seeing Eye GPS™. Almost 20 years of user feedback and feature requests are behind the design of all Sendero GPS products. The accessible features in The Seeing Eye GPS™ are only the beginning of what is yet to come as users help in evolving this first fully accessible GPS product for the iPhone. The Seeing Eye GPS™ is a fully accessible turn-by-turn GPS iPhone app with all the normal navigation features plus features unique to blind users.
Unique to The Seeing Eye GPS™
- Instead of multiple layers of menus, the three important navigation elements are on the lower portion of every screen: Route, POIs and Location.
- At intersections, the cross street and its orientation are announced
- Intersections are described (e.g. four-way) with the clock face orientation of the streets.
- There are two choices for POI data (Google Places and Foursquare).
- Directions are configured appropriately for Pedestrian and Vehicle routes, including heads-up announcements for approaching turns, turn now, continue straight and upcoming turns.
- If one wanders off the route, it's automatically recalculated and updated turn information is announced.
- Point your phone in a given direction to hear what is nearby with the LookAround Wand.
- Nearby Points of interest and intersections are automatically announced.
- Ability to run in the background or with the screen locked for iOS 7. If you are running an older version of iOS 6 only the sound effects will play and the phone will vibrate at turns and at your destination but no speech output. Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
Current Version: 2.1.3 (June 18, 2016)
Changes in Version 2.1.3
Bug fixes and address search optimisation.
Read Seeing Eye’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Seeing Eye’s page on the App Store
Talking Goggles - a camera with speech (iOS, US$0.99)
- Talking Goggles can recognize images and speaks out what it finds.
- Recognizes almost any image within seconds. Logos, landmarks, books, products, artwork, text and more..
- Shows the description of the image and speaks it out to you.
- Speaks it out using the correct accent of your selected language.
- Includes a torchlight to assist in reading.
- Video mode. Talking Goggles will continuously check the video stream for any familiar images, and will present it and speak it out when it finds something.
- Easy copy function. Use goggles as a scanner/translator and use the results in any other application.
- Look up more details on the image found by doing a direct search. Or, if it is a product, check where it is available nearby, and show a price comparison.
- Don't know the name of that actor on that poster? Just point your camera at it and Talking Goggles will tell you!
- Want to find out if that product is really the cheapest around? Take a picture and let Talking Goggles do a comparison for you.
- Point Talking Goggles at a logo, and you will be told the name of the company after which you can do a search for it.
- Talking Goggles is particularly good at recognizing book covers and posters. Try it out!
Current Version: 2.2 (June 29, 2016)
Changes in Version 2.2
Major improvements in photo recognition. Goggles will now check the photo and come up with a description of the image. This means that for example, it may not recognise a picture of Mount Everest as such, but it will definitely recognise it as being a mountain.
Text recognition has been improved a lot as well, it is now able to read and speak out most handwritten text as well. Together with the built-in translation function, this makes goggles a powerful tool indeed.
Talking Goggles has been a very popular app among the blind and visually impaired community, and we hope this update will prove to be an even more useful tool. Best of luck with this update, please let us know if you have any recommendations or suggestions!
Read Talking Goggles’ AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Talking Goggles’ page on the App Store
Tweetbot 4 for Twitter (iOS, US$9.99)
AppleVis Editor’s Note: Although version 4.4 included some much-welcomed improvements to VoiceOver support, the consensus of those who have used the app appears to be that there are still some accessibility issues left to address and that Tweetbot is unlikely to be the primary Twitter app for VoiceOver users at this time. However, the developer’s work on improving the accessibility of this extremely popular app is very encouraging.
Tweetbot is a wonderful Twitter client that’s powerful and a joy to use. Sync your timeline across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac (Tweetbot for Mac also available in the Mac App Store). Mute tweets by users, hashtags, tweet sources, or keywords (including regex). 3rd Party support for image, video, read later, and timeline sync services. Tweetbot also has all the features you’d expect in a full-featured Twitter client like lists and direct messages, and others you wouldn’t like the statistics view, a night theme for low-light reading, and much more.
Current Version: 4.4.1 (June 30, 2016)
Changes in Versions 4.4 and 4.4.1
- Better VoiceOver support I
- New Timeline Filters.
You can apply a filter to any timeline from the search bar. Filter your timeline to just view media, or filter another user's tweets to remove replies. You can even use custom rules to create your own.
- Much improved threading of reply Tweets on Tweet detail views
- You can now differentiate between GIFs and Videos in media previews
- Support for uploading videos up to 140 seconds long to Twitter
- Better media previews for search results
- More 3D touch support
- Quotes now show a timestamp
- Lots of bug fixes
- Added: You can now add quotes and OR to timeline filters. This lets filter out "Game of Thrones" OR GOT while you catch up on weekend TV viewing.
- Added: Videos that launch a browser to watch (YouTube) will now display a WWW in the corner
- Fixed: Pin to top is fixed
- Fixed: Uploaded images on LTE were being shrunk too much
Visit Tweetbot’s page on the App Store
Recent News and Views
Apple to Receive Accessibility Award from the American Council of the Blind
By AppleVis | June 29, 2016
Apple will soon be receiving another award for the accessibility features in its products.
The American Council of the Blind (ACB) has today announced that Apple will be receiving the Robert S. Bray Award for the company's continued innovations in accessibility.
Read More: "Apple to Receive Accessibility Award from the American Council of the Blind"
Lesson Learned: iPhones and Orange Bugs
By Morgan | June 18, 2016
Sometimes, I suffer from a serious case of the "Stupids." When I was 16, the year when NASA engineers were preparing a lunar rover for the next moon landing, I had enough remaining vision to legally obtain my own Texas Drivers License. Although I knew I was going blind and could no longer see at night, my day vision was still reasonably intact. There were some caveats. Seeing clearly in shadows cast by buildings and trees might prove problematic. Getting stuck in traffic at dusk could be dangerous. However, I was under the influence of too few birthdays, too much testosterone, and the deep-seated need to push my right foot to the floor and go fast.
Perhaps it was a bit of serendipity that my parents owned three cars and that I was the oldest of five children. My dad's car looked good in a corporate parking lot. My mom's car was a van, handy for ferrying kids and groceries. The third car was my father's toy. An old toy. An old, rusty, 1955 Volkswagen Bug toy. He let me borrow it.
Our Bug was distinctive. In the grand familial tradition of doing things on the cheap, my father hand-painted the Volkswagen exterior using an old brush, and buckets of bright orange Rustoleum paint. The very visible brush strokes resembled the furrows left by a gap-toothed comb dragged through really oily hair. This was not a car you could lose in a parking lot. Even if you tried.
Read More: “Lesson Learned: iPhones and Orange Bugs”
Announcing a Change in the AppleVis Rules Covering Posting of Information About Beta Apple Software
By AppleVis | June 18, 2016
We are extremely pleased to announce that we are now able to significantly relax our rules covering what can and cannot be said about beta versions of Apple software on the AppleVis website.
Previously, our rules covering new features or changes in a forthcoming software release have only permitted sharing of information which has already been made public by Apple itself. This typically included information made available at events such as new product launch announcements, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and on the preview pages of Apple’s website.
We hope that you will be pleased to hear that most information about new features or changes in beta Apple software can now be freely shared and discussed on the AppleVis website - even if not originally made public by Apple itself - provided that any post does not include the following:
- Anything which could be considered as technical support. For example, seeking help with installing/using beta software or problems with native or third-party apps after installing a beta.
- Discussion of bugs introduced or fixed in a beta release.
- Detailed descriptions, reviews or walk-throughs of how new or changed features are implemented in a beta release.
Apple Previews New Accessibility Features Set to Come Later this Year in iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS
By AppleVis | June 16, 2016
At its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference this week, Apple previewed some of the new accessibility features coming to its iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS platforms later this year. At this point, it's worth noting that this software is still in beta form, and not all features--particularly, the specifics of how they will be implemented--are finalized. With that said, below is what Apple has announced will be coming for users of accessibility features:
iOS 10
- VoiceOver will include a pronunciation editor, allowing users to customize how the speech synthesizer says particular words.
- VoiceOver will gain the option to send audio to multiple sources. This will allow users to have VoiceOver playing through one audio source while sending music to another.
- A new Magnifier feature will allow one to magnify objects using the camera on your iPhone or iPad. One can use the device's flash to provide additional light, and color filter to assist in differentiation.
- A number of new color filters will be available to assist users with color blindness and other vision challenges.
- Speak Screen and Speak Selection will gain the ability to highlight sentences along with words. Additionally, users will have the option of having letters on the keyboard and predictive typing selections spoken aloud.
- Users of Switch Control will be able to control other connected devices from an iPhone or iPad. Among other possibilities, this could let a person using Switch Control control an Apple TV from their iPhone.
- Software TTY will allow users who are deaf or hard of hearing to place and receive TTY calls without the need for traditional hardware teletypewriter accessories.
Fleksy Acquired by Pinterest; Will Open-Source Some Components for the Benefit of the Blind
By AppleVis | June 16, 2016
An interesting and surprising piece of news today is that Fleksy has been acquired by Pinterest. What’s perhaps most interesting for the vision impaired, is that this may have positive consequences for those of us who remember just how revolutionary Fleksy once promised to be.
For those unfamiliar, Fleksy is a text input system for iOS that on its launch four years ago was specifically designed for people with visual impairments. At the time, its developer boldly stated that “… it is set to revolutionize the way people think about accessibility on mobile devices”. This claim appeared to be well-justified, with Mike May of Sendero Group describing how it “… felt like it was reading your mind. Absolutely brilliant”, and David Woodbridge of Vision Australia stating “… I never thought I could type so fast on a onscreen keyboard. This app is a game changer”.
The potential power of Fleksy was that it didn’t require your typing to be completely accurate. It simply required that you tap on the screen roughly where you thought the desired character was located, and based upon this the app would use some very clever predictive technology to correct any mistakes and read out the word that it believed you wanted to type. If the app’s prediction was incorrect, simply swiping up or down would present you with quick access to the most likely alternatives.
Fleksy immediately became a huge hit with blind and low vision users, earning it induction into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame in October 2012 and selection as the AppleVis community’s Golden Apple of 2012 and Syntellia the Developer of the Year accolade.
Summary of WWDC 2016: Year of the Software
By mehgcap | June 13, 2016
Welcome back to AppleVis' yearly summary of Apple's yearly developer conference announcements. There's a lot this year, much of it exciting, some of it very much expected, and a few things long overdue. Instead of a long introduction, let's just start moving!
watchOS
First up is the Apple Watch. Love it or hate it, Apple is committed to it and feels it's a great way to get people more active and connected. To that end, watchOS3 will bring a huge array of updates to your wrist, all of them benefiting from the biggest one of all: speed. Apps launch instantly (well, seven times faster than in watchOS2, but who's counting), and we can expect speed improvements across the entire platform. This is thanks to multiple under-the-hood changes, but mostly due to apps updating themselves in the background, always ready for you to open them. Apple is so confident in this new scheme that you can swipe from app to app, without opening them, and view critical data in real time.
Swiping from app to app? Yep, Apple has added a "dock" to the Watch, which comes up when you press what used to be the Friends Button. What happened to your list of friends is unknown at this point. You can choose which apps are available here, letting you customize a subset of apps you use most, ready to be opened at the push of a button.
Read More: “Summary of WWDC 2016: Year of the Software”
My Wishlist for VoiceOver in Mac OS X 10.12
By t dog | June 7, 2016
It’s that time of year. With WWDC just one week away, Apple is getting ready to announce new versions of iOS and OS X, as well as possible tvOS and watchOS updates. While concrete information about these future releases is scarce, speculation and feature wish lists have begun popping up on mainstream tech websites.
Here are my top wishes for VoiceOver improvements in the next iteration of the Mac operating system, presumably OS X 10.12.
Bug fixes
Several months ago, I wrote a piece detailing the many lingering VoiceOver bugs in OS X El Capitan and the apparent inaction by Apple accessibility in resolving them. Those opinions still stand, with no accessibility changes in the latest release, 10.11.5.
Although the release of OS X El Capitan focused largely on stability and performance improvements throughout the OS, VoiceOver continues to suffer from a wide array of issues that contribute to a gradually degrading state of accessibility on the Mac platform. For this reason, it is long overdue for Apple to give a concerted focus to improving the stability, performance, and intuitiveness of VoiceOver.
Read More: “My Wishlist for VoiceOver in Mac OS X 10.12”
Apple Releases iTunes 12.4.1 with Bug Fixes for VoiceOver Users
By AppleVis | June 3, 2016
Apple has today released iTunes 12.4.1 to the public, bringing bug fixes for VoiceOver and other features.
According to Apple's release notes via MacRumors, iTunes 12.4.1 includes the following improvements:
This update addresses a number of problems where iTunes doesn't work as expected with VoiceOver. It also restores the option to Reset Plays and fixes the following issues:
- Up Next may have unexpectedly played songs added together in the incorrect order.
- iTunes was prevented from crossfading between songs.
At this time, it is unclear the extent of the VoiceOver improvements in iTunes 12.4.1. However, one of our testers noted that the issue with some list views not being read by some Windows screen readers has been resolved. If you encounter any accessibility-related fixes or regressions in this release, please let us know in the comments section below.
Read More: “Apple Releases iTunes 12.4.1 with Bug Fixes for VoiceOver Users”
This Month in Podcasts
AppleVis Extra #44: Ged Maheux from The Iconfactory, developers of Twitterrific
In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Michael Hansen and Jamie Pauls are joined by Ged Maheux from The Iconfactory, developers of the Twitterrific app for iOS.
With Twitterrific recently inducted into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame, this was a timely opportunity to talk about the history and future of Twitterrific and the developers long-standing commitment to providing the best possible experience for VoiceOver users.
Listen to “AppleVis Extra #44: Ged Maheux from The Iconfactory, developers of Twitterrific”
Capti Narrator for iOS: Listen to Everything That you Want to Read
In this podcast, Thomas Domville gives us a walk-through and demonstration of Capti Narrator, a free iOS app that will convert nearly any text content to audiobooks.
Capti supports multiple file types, including PDF, DOC, PPT, EPUB and RTF files, with support for adding content from browsers, GoogleDrive, Dropbox, Bookshare, or Gutenberg.
Free Features:
- Text to Speech: Turn any text into an audiobook; listen hands-free and eyes-free
- Save for Later: Save documents and web articles for later in your Playlist and access it even offline; synchronize your Playlist and your reading position across all your devices
- Sophisticated Navigation: Jump to the next/previous word, sentence, paragraph, heading, or page
- Screen-Reader Support: Extensively customized for VoiceOver
Premium Plan Features:
- Full-text search of your Playlist: The search algorithm is intelligent, and will guess the best matching tracks even when the exact match cannot be found
- Store and view images with text: In tracks created from EPUB, PDF, or DOC(X) documents you will be able to see both text and images
- File Size Limit: Add documents and books that are up to 100MB in size; default limit is 10MB
- Word Translation: Right-click any word in the track to translate the word to your language (available on Windows and Mac only)
- Create Playlists: Stay organized by saving tracks into different playlists.
Listen to “Capti Narrator for iOS: Listen to Everything That you Want to Read”
A complete list of all podcasts posted to the AppleVis website in the past month can be found at www.applevis.com/podcasts