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Before there was an iPod or an iPhone, and even before Microsoft had Windows 95, there was the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. In those early years, I was a regular attendee at the WWDC. I was extremely fortunate to make great connections with many Apple employees and other Macintosh developers. I also established very close ties with the event organizers. Instead of sitting in one of the thousands of tightly packed stackable chairs in the main hall, where I would never see the slide…

Intro

Apple has just concluded its annual September media event. This year's, which it titled "By Innovation Only", gave us new iPhones, the Series 5 Apple Watch, and more details on the company's new Apple Arcade and Apple TV Plus subscription services. Innovation, though, wasn't exactly the word I first thought of when I considered how to sum up the announcements. Don't get me wrong: the new iPhones have some great new features, and it will be interesting to see where the new…

Apple has today released updates to all of its major platforms, iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.

According to Apple's release notes for iOS 12.4.1, via MacRumors, the update contains, "Important security and stability updates" and is believed to fix a recently discovered security vulnerability.

According to Apple's release notes for macOS 10.14.6 Supplemental Update, via…

Welcome to the July 2019 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis by members of the community - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. 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

Apple has today released macOS Mojave 10.14.6, watchOS 5.3, and tvOS 12.4.

According to Apple's release notes via MacRumors, macOS Mojave 10.14.6 brings some enhancements to Apple News and several bug fixes:

This update:

• Makes downloaded issues available in the My Magazines section of Apple News+, both online and offline
• Adds all publications…

Apple has today released iOS 12.4.

According to Apple's release notes via MacRumors, iOS 12.4 includes enhancements to Apple News and a new iPhone migration option to directly transfer data from an old iPhone to a new iPhone:

iPhone migration

• Introduces the ability to wirelessly transfer data and migrate directly from an old iPhone to a new iPhone during setup…

Welcome to the June 2019 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis by members of the community - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. 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

Apple has today released iOS 12.3.2 to address issues with portrait mode.

According to Apple's release notes via 9to5Mac, “iOS 12.3.2 resolves an issue that could cause Camera to capture Portrait mode photos without depth effect on some iPhone 8 Plus devices.”

At the time of writing it is believed that this update may only be available on the iPhone 8 Plus.

As iOS 12.3.2 did not have a public beta…

Update: since posting this article we have recorded an interview with Sarah Herrlinger, Director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives at Apple; and Dean Hudson, Accessibility Evangelist at Apple, who discussed the enhancements mentioned below and shared a few others which we didn't already know about.

These include:

• The use of machine learning in iOS 13 and iPadOS to help VoiceOver users with unlabelled buttons.
• The ability in iOS 13…

Apple today kicked off its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) with the traditional keynote presentation.

WWDC is when the world gets a preview of the software coming out of Cupertino in the Fall. We traditionally see the next iterations of Apple's operating systems for all of its main platforms and maybe a new service or cloud-based offering. This year was no exception: iOS 13, macOS Catalina, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 were all showcased on stage.

Amongst the…

Welcome to the May 2019 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what’s new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you’ll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis by members of the community - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.

Ahead of next week's WWDC, Apple has quietly released a seventh generation iPod touch featuring an A10 Fusion processor.

The upgrade from the A8 chip found in the previous generation iPod touch will bring support for AR games and Group FaceTime to the new model.

In addition to the upgraded processor, the new iPod touch offers a 256GB model for the first time.

The 2019 iPod touch retains the chassis design dating back to…

Apple has today released iOS 12.3.1 to address issues with voice over LTE calls as well as iMessage filtering and reporting.

According to Apple's release notes via 9to5Mac, iOS 12.3.1 includes the following fixes:

• Fixes an issue that could prevent making or receiving VoLTE…

Today has seen another round of software updates from Apple. In addition to iOS 12.3, Apple has released macOS Mojave 10.14.5, watchOS 5.2.1, and tvOS 12.3.

The macOS Mojave 10.14.5 update appears to focus on under-the-hood bug fixes and performance improvements, with the only notable change being adding support for the…

Apple has today released iOS 12.3 to the public, bringing with it a redesigned TV app; a slightly updated design for the Apple TV Remote app; and enhancements to the Wallet app.

In iOS 12.3, Apple has removed the Accessibility Events switch introduced with iOS 12.2;…

Welcome to the April 2019 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis by members of the community - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. 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

In the latest versions of iOS and macOS, Apple introduced a new setting called “Accessibility Events” for users of assistive technology.

This new feature tells websites when an assistive technology, such as a screen reader, is being used by the site visitor, enabling developers to customize the behavior of the website accordingly. One example would be to ensure that any custom controls such as custom web sliders are accessible by users.

For blind web users, this should…

A new feature for VoiceOver users called "Accessibility Events" was introduced in iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4 without any announcement or documentation. I cannot find any info about this feature on Apple's website. Even the installed Help files say nothing about it, so far. The only information given is a short description label in the Mac Preferences and IOS settings, shown below. To the best of my knowledge, which is quite limited at this time, leaving it turned on allows webmasters and…

Welcome to the March 2019 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis by members of the community - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. 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

Apple’s major “It’s show time” event was held today at Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino; here’s our summary of the highlights.

Having made a number of hardware announcements last week via press releases, it came as no surprise that Apple's focus for this event was new and upcoming services rather than new or updated hardware. There's a new TV and movie streaming service featuring original content commissioned by Apple; an updated TV app that better integrates third-party services; a…