Yes, the latest rumor to come out of the mill is that Apple is going to introduce a radically re-designed, one-port Macbook Air sometime this year. It will have a 12-inch screen, a keyboard, a trackpad… and a single USB C port, along with the usual 3.5mm headphone jack. That's just one lonely little port for power, printers, external drives or card readers, USB audio peripherals, connecting…
GoodReader, reportedly the world’s top-selling PDF file management, viewing, and annotation app for iPhone and iPad, has recently released an update which adds VoiceOver compatibility.
“We are excited to be able to provide better access to documents on iPads and iPhones to those with visual or reading disabilities,” said Yuri Selukoff, president of Good.iWare. “Our aim is for GoodReader to be…
Here in the UK we have a saying that goes roughly like this - you can wait ages for a bus, to then find that 2 come along at the same time.
Replace ‘a bus’ with ‘an app to help the blind identify objects and situations that they encounter in their daily lives’, and you have what is about to happen in the iTunes App Store.
In the past few days, the respective teams behind Specular and…
Be My Eyes - helping blind see, an iPhone app which aims to connect blind users in need of assistance with sighted volunteers via video-conferencing, will be launching worldwide on January 15, 2015.
According to the Be My Eyes website, the app works as follows:
At the end of each month, members of the AppleVis Editorial Team take a look at all the apps that have been posted to the site during that month—either for the first time, or where there has been a significant update—and decide which of these they think is the most noteworthy.
The AppleVis Editorial Team app picks of the month for December 2014 are as follows:
New iOS App Directory entry (version 1.1.6); December, 2014.
From the App…
Update 13 January: 9To5Mac reports that some users - presumably those with an excessive number of refunds on file with Apple - are now receiving a notification when they attempt to make purchases. They are being prompted to agree with the dialog before they can proceed with the purchase. By doing so, they…
We are pleased to announce the results of the third annual AppleVis Golden Apple Awards.
The AppleVis Golden Apple Awards were launched in 2012 as a way for the community to recognize the best apps, products, and developers of a given year.
To be shortlisted for the Golden Apple Awards, apps must be completely accessible to blind and low vision users; they must be exceptionally good at their intended purpose; and they must have a developer who has continually demonstrated a…
We are pleased and excited to announce that voting for the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards of 2014 is now open.
This is our community’s opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous work by developers over the past 12 months in creating great and accessible iOS and OS X applications.
The shortlist for each Award has been compiled from the nominations that were submitted by members of our community.
Voting will close at 23:59 PDT on 24 December 2014. You are not required to…
Apple today released iOS 8.1.2 as an over-the-air software update.
This update reportedly includes a number of bug fixes, including a fix for a problem regarding ringtones purchased through the iTunes Store. Apple advises users who have lost ringtones to restore them by visiting https://itunes.com/restore-tones from their iOS devices.
iOS 8.1.2 was not seeded to developers before being released to the public, so we do not know at…
At the end of each month, members of the AppleVis Editorial Team review all of the apps that have been posted to the site during that month--either for the first time, or where there has been a significant update--and decide which of these they think is the most noteworthy.
The AppleVis Editorial Team app picks of the month for November 2014 are as follows:
Updated to version 3.5.2 (now at version 3.6); November, 2014.
"Dropbox lets you bring all…
As most of you know by now, iOS8 brought with it a huge feature: the ability to type in braille anywhere you can type on an on-screen keyboard. From your passcode, to passwords, to emails, to Spotlight searches, and everywhere else, a single twist of the rotor is all it takes to start typing braille. You can even use it on your Home Screen, to locate and open any app…
In her latest song, "Shake it Off," the country/pop artist Taylor Swift wrote, "...the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." While I am sure that Ms. Swift was not referring to some peoples’ recent comments about Apple's commitment to accessibility when she wrote the song, the basic idea behind that particular phrase still applies.
When Apple’s iOS 8 operating system was released in September, it included…
Apple has today released OS X Yosemite 10.10.1, bringing with it a series of bug fixes and improvements—including a fix for WiFi reliability issues.
According to the OS X 10.10.1 release notes, via 9 to 5 Mac, this first Yosemite update includes the following changes:
"The OS X Yosemite v10.10.1 Update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac…
iOS 8.1.1 is now available for download, and - just as with iOS 8.1 - it includes a number of bug fixes for blind and low vision users.
Here are the changes that we have found in our initial testing. Please do let us know in the comments of any further fixes or new bugs that you find in this release.
I got my iPhone 5 in December of 2012, almost two years ago as of the time of this writing. Last year, the iPhone 5S came out, and it was really cool, but not worth paying an early upgrade fee on top of the price of the phone. Now, the iPhone 6/6 Plus is out, and way cooler than the 5S, and my upgrade is coming due… But I'm not making the switch. Why, you ask? Good question!
The iPhone 6 (and 6 Plus, but you know what I mean) offers a lot over the 5, from a larger screen, to the…
At the end of each month, members of the AppleVis Editorial Team take a look at all the apps that have been posted to the site during that month--either for the first time, or where there has been a significant update--and decide which of these they think is the most noteworthy.
The AppleVis Editorial Team app picks of the month for October 2014 are as follows:
Updated to version 1.…
For years, I have used your products. I took the path that many people take: an iPod Touch, which slowly drew me into the joy of a simple, powerful, and overall great operating system; to a Mac, which slowly replaced my Windows computer thanks to OS X's lack of crashes and errors, syncing with iOS apps, ease of downloading apps from the App Store, and other features; to the iPhone, because it's a more powerful iPod that can get online anywhere and make phone calls, so…
Following a short beta testing period, Apple today released iOS 8.1 to the public - the first major update to iOS 8 since its release last month. Along with the introduction of a number of new features, iOS 8.1 appears to include a number of accessibility-…
Today (October 16, 2014) was Apple's third major announcement of the year, after WWDC in June and the iPhone/Apple Watch event last month. This time, the focus was on the Mac and the iPad, with some exciting new products announced, not to mention the release for the long-awaited OS X 10.10 Yosemite, iWork updates for the Mac, and the scheduled release of iOS8.1 on Monday, October 20.
If you'd rather watch the video, you can now do so. Here's Apple's…
The latest update to Yosemite, 10.10.2, is now live. It claims to fix wifi bugs and other assorted problems, including VoiceOver. With the exception of the two bugs encountered when typing in edit fields on webpages and the inability to play audio iMessages, I have to say that I've found nothing new or fixed in terms of VoiceOver, as much as I hate to write that. See the list of bugs at the bottom of this post. There is a note next to some of…