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We are proud to announce the winners of the inaugural AppleVis Golden Apple Awards.

These awards were launched to acknowledge and reward the apps, developers and products that the AppleVis community rated the best of 2012.

The Golden Apple of 2012 - the iOS or Mac app that the community believes has done the most to empower…

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.

One of the first things I noticed about the iPhone 5 was the metal back. It has a metal back with two glass strips running the width of the phone—one at the top and one at the bottom. The headphone jack has been relocated, and it is now on the bottom left of the device—…

Apple have just rolled out further accessibility improvements to the App Store in iOS 6.

Firstly, the rating of an app is now read by VoiceOver.

Secondly, the app screenshots now have a clear label for VoiceOver users.

Lastly, and this is a real nice one, when on the Search or Genius tabs you will now find a picker control that allows you to move quickly through the listed apps. As I said, this is really nice, and makes browsing search results quicker than it…

As with the previous release of a major iOS upgrade (from version 4 to 5), there are many enhancements to iOS 6 not directly related to accessibility. In this release, they include FaceTime over cellular networks, a redesigned App Store, a revamped settings menu, direct Facebook integration, a do not  disturb feature—among many others. Please see the link at the end of this article for a list from Apple about changes not directly related to accessibility. To list and discuss all…

I am pleased to say that the major problems we reported with the App Store in the Gold Master release of iOS 6 have now been fixed by Apple.

This is great news, and our thanks go to everybody at Apple who has been busy working on these last minute fixes.

Those who said that this would happen have been proved correct, and I have no problem in saying…

If you didn't know that Apple was supposed to unveil its latest iPhone a couple of hours ago or in case you had no clue about the new features in its accompanying iOS 6, perhaps you belong to a different planet! Seriously, now that Apple has introduced its 4-inch iPhone 5 with much fanfare, it wouldn't be odd to argue that it'll be remembered in the history of cell phones many years from now. As cynical as you might be, you might contend that it can be said about each and every iPhone.…

Back in March when I took a stab at comparing iOS and Android from the perspective of a blind user, Android 4.1 (a.k.a. Jelly Bean) was nonexistent and no one knew what access features it would offer. Having tested Google Nexus 7 for more than two weeks and having seen blind users' opinions of Android 4.1, I'm now in a better position to compare iOS and Android yet again. So tighten your belt as I…

Fleksy is getting better on an almost daily basis as its betas reach testers. It's pushed my bluetooth keyboard to the sidelines and while it would be better if we could bring it up in each and every application instantly instead of typing in a separate application (if Apple had allowed it), that might not be quite far-off. Syntellia has made Fleksy's SDK available to developers, meaning they can integrate it into their…

No big announcements yet other than the fact that so far 30 billion apps have been downloaded and that the Store has 400 million accounts but, guys, this is really terrific! WWDC attendees are now watching a video in which a blind person who lives near a jungle can find his way there using his iPhone. A developer is also talking about how his app can help the visually impaired. Yet again, this is Apple's difference with the rest of the big companies out there. Accessibility has a special…

Now that sounds a bit geographical, doesn't it? As Apple's World Wide developers Conference (WWDC) is on the horizon, Apple's App Store is down. It's to be held later today in San Francisco and many analysts believe iOS 6 will be unveiled there along with some hardware-related pieces of news and, perhaps, a couple of surprises. No one knows the very exact features of iOS 6 other than what some tend to call Google-free 3D maps and better photo-sharing. So, as you see, guessing its…

I'm not sure if you listen to Harry Shearer's interesting weekend program Le Show, but his May 20th show is much more interesting as he uses Siri several times during the 1-hour program to remind us all of the weaknesses of artificial intelligence. The show starts with a humorous conversation between Harry and Siri. and Siri also shows up a few more times throughout the program, but her final appearance in the form of a conversation with "…

When I heard the news of the release of iOS 5, I didn't own an iDevice. However, I was thrilled to know that it'll provide Premium voices as well as the previous ones which are now called Compact voices. So I was looking forward to trying them as soon as I got my iPhone 4S. I used to think that my 4S came with the Premium voices though I didn't have the "Use compact voice" option under Settings->General->Accessibility->VoiceOver -- I was wrong. Honestly, I was mistaken partly because I was…

As I finished reading How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone in The Atlantic, I couldn't resist sharing it with you. I'm pleased to see that Apple's access-oriented efforts are deservedly being brought into the limelight. It'll also help developers become fully aware of access issues and the infrastructure which is available to them if they wish to work…

When I heard the news of the recently released $0.99 Bluetooth OnOff app, an application which allows iOS users to turn bluetooth on and off quickly without going to Settings/General/Bluetooth, some thoughts came to my mind. First and foremost, I hope Apple doesn't remove this app from the App Store as it's quite easier to alter a feature like Bluetooth this way without delving into Settings. I also hope to see the same official apps for the WiFi and the Airplane mode switch. After all, it's…