Welcome to the June 2024 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, your monthly digest of the latest and most notable content on the AppleVis website. This edition features a curated selection of community-submitted updates, including new app entries, updates, news, and podcasts.
New and Noteworthy App Entries
AO3 Disco (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Discover fanfiction you’ll love with AI-powered search.
The AO3 Discovery Engine provides machine learning-powered recommendations for fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own. Give us an example of a fanfic that you enjoyed - you can share it directly from your browser - and we’ll generate a mix of recommended works that we think you’ll enjoy!
Current Version: 0.2 (August 2, 2023)
AO3 Disco’s AppleVis App Directory entry
AudioCat (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
AudioCat is an accessible audiogames platform designed to be fully focused on audio and leaving the visuals for your imagination - that way only the sky is the limit!
Virtual companion - when you enter the platform you will be greeted by your very own cat companion and you will hear more about its backstory after what you can give it a name. You need to also keep in mind that you need to feed your pet to keep it full so you can go to amazing audio adventures together. There will be more options to interact with your pet in the future.
- Audiogames - right now AudioCat platform has two audiogames which have both been designed and developed by our team.
- Wordy is a word based audiogame where you need to guess the correct word after the given definition. The game will play five rounds and then the points will be calcualted together. Also at the end of the game you will earn xp and coins.
- Echoes of Valor is an adventure rpg audiogame whoch focuses on the moral questions about good and evil. The main storyline is 25 levels and that is followed by infinite levels if you wish to continue. At the end of each level you will earn xp and coins.
- Coins - they are used to buy your pet foods to fill up its hunger meter and still have the chance to play the audiogames. Soon coins can be used in the in-game store where you can purchase more different pets, accessories, clothes and colors.
- Levels and XP - they work together since one does not go without the other. You earn XP from games and that will increase the level. Levels give different bonuses in different audiogames.
- Summer confirmed updates - third official audiogame and a framework that will give you the chance to create your very own audio adventure and share it with your friends as well as go crazy in the in-game store.
Current Version: 1.3.0 (June 21, 2024)
AudioCat’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Instant Connect (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Introducing the ultimate cooking companion, the Instant Connect ™ app - your gateway to culinary excellence. Elevate your cooking experience with over 2,000 curated recipes designed exclusively for Instant Pot appliances, including the renowned Instant Pot, Instant Air Fryers and Toaster Ovens, Duo Crisps, Slow Cookers, and more.
Whether you’re embarking on your culinary journey or a seasoned pro, our app empowers you to cook to your full potential. Kickstart your adventure with easy one-pot meals, or explore a multitude of innovative recipes to take your skills to new heights.
Discover exciting ways to prepare everyday staples like eggs, rice, and chicken, or indulge in the art of baking with delectable treats such as cheesecake and brownies.
The Instant Connect ™ app revolutionizes your cooking routine, making it simpler than ever to find time and inspiration every day. Select your appliance, and we’ll provide recipe suggestions that are perfect to get you started.
Current Version: 3.34.0 (June 25, 2024)
Instant Connect’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Instant Connect’s App Store page
Online Radio Box (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Online Radio Box - is a free application for listening to the radio online. Application features:
- timer
- radio stations genres
- favorite stations
- web-version personal preferences synchronization
But there is one more thing in Online Radio Box, you should know about. It’s not only huge amount of worldwide online radio stations, it’s the one of the easiest application for internet radio listening. It’s completely free, it’s fast and doesn’t need any registration. Just install it and start enjoying your favorite online radio stations.
Current Version: 2.3.1 (November 8, 2023)
Online Radio Box’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Online Radio Box’s App Store page
Orion Browser by Kagi (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Orion is a fast, free, web browser for iPhone and iPad with no ads, no telemetry. Check also Orion for your Mac desktop.
Orion has been engineered from ground up as a truly privacy-respecting browser. We did it by embracing a simple principle - Orion is a zero telemetry browser. Your private information will never leave Orion by default.
And to protect your privacy on the web, Orion comes with industry-leading anti-tracking technology as well as a powerful built-in ad-blocker.
Current Version: 1.3.8 (May 1, 2024)
Orion Browser by Kagi’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Orion Browser by Kagi’s App Store page
Softgoods (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Softgoods is the platform to manage your fan fiction. Bookmark, journal, and share your favorite fics all in one place. We make it so easy to organize your favorites!
Softgoods is a place where you can store, bookmark, journal, and organize your favorite fan fictions. You can create different shelves sand saved links to your favorite fan fictions. Add notes to each story so you can go back any time and see what you have read in the past and what your thoughts are.
Softgoods is also a great place to share what you have read with friends. You can do this by making shelves and notes public, and send your friends links so they can see what you have read and what you thought. You can add tags to each story as well, which makes it easy to search through your timeline.
Current Version: 0.9.0 (June 4, 2024)
Softgoods’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Tailscale (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Tailscale is a mesh VPN alternative that makes it easy to connect your devices, wherever they are. No more fighting configuration or firewall ports. Built on WireGuard®, Tailscale enables an incremental shift to zero-trust networking by implementing “always-on” remote access. This guarantees a consistent, portable, and secure experience independent of physical location.
Current Version: 1.68.0 (June 12, 2024)
Tailscale’s AppleVis App Directory entry
All recent app entries posted to AppleVis can be found at:
iOS/iPadOS
Mac
Apple Watch
Apple TV
Notable App Updates
GoodMaps Outdoors (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
GoodMaps Outdoors is a fully accessible turn-by-turn GPS app for iPhone. It has all the outdoor navigation features you expect plus unique offerings you cannot get anywhere else, including extra verbosity for blind users.
Features
- Four main tabs are easy to access at the bottom of the screen: Routes, Location (Default), POIs and Settings.
- A unique GoodMaps Outdoors feature: Record a route using breadcrumbs, called Waypoints. No other accessible app has this. You can add these waypoints with the add button or you can shake the phone to create a Waypoint. It also automatically records a point after you have gone a certain distance. These Waypoint routes can be saved for future use.
- The Lookaround Wand in the top right tells you what is around.
- The More Info button gives the altitude and speed.
- Create your own POIs and share your POIs with others or keep them private with a shortcut on the Location page or from the POIs page.
- POI categories are announced with search results and make finding your destination easier.
- Audio tones and vibrations give feedback throughout the app, letting you know about upcoming turns, critical intersection information, and when search is loading.
- A robust route menu includes multiple methods of choosing a destination, from starting with a POI, an address from your contact list, your route history, and many more!
- Settings include many customization options like: vibrations, vision contrast, color settings, and distance units.
- There are announcement options like right, left, clockface or both.
Current Version: 5.1.2 (June 4, 2024)
Changes in Version 5.1.2
With this release, there are no longer interruption issues with route announcements. Facing/heading announcements, location, and turn announcements continue if they are interrupted by apps, phone calls, or music.
GoodMaps Outdoors’ AppleVis App Directory entry
GoodMaps Outdoors’ App Store page
OKO - Accessible Navigation (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Oko is a AI driven navigation app that helps you navigate and explore your environment with confidence. Simply search your destination to receive detailed, turn-by-turn directions. When approaching an intersection, oko will inform you about intersection information. If you need visual assistance just raise your phone, and oko will notify you when the walk sign is on. Start discovering places and remember to go with oko.
Current Version: 4.1.1 (June 27, 2024)
Changes in Version 4.1.0–4.1.1
- Maps is now available across the US.
- We have added a zoom button in the camera to detect the pedestrian signal even further.
- Maps is now available in more regions including, Canada, Japan, Spain and Belgium.
OKO - Accessible Navigation’s AppleVis App Directory entry
OKO - Accessible Navigation’s App Store page
PiccyBot (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Use PiccyBot to convert photos into spoken descriptions, pose questions in the text field, and zoom in for specific details. PiccyBot answers any image-related query with a clear calm voice.
Key Features:
- Photo to Voice: Instantly convert your photos into vivid spoken descriptions with a single tap.
- Voice-Activated Queries: Use your microphone to ask anything about your picture.
- Ask Anything, Anytime: Pose questions about your pictures in the new text field and receive insightful answers.
- Zoom and Inquire: Delve into specific details by zooming into parts of the image and asking questions about particular aspects.
Current Version: 1.23 (June 19, 2024)
Changes in Version 1.22
- Added: share videos to PiccyBot. Now share videos from your phone library or from certain apps directly to PiccyBot to have their description spoken out to you.
PiccyBot’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Speech Central AI Voice Reader (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Feature set that exceeds the competition, no subscription for the premium tier with the free tier that is limited by the quantity, not by the quality, that is the reason why you’ll love Speech Central. Here are just some of our outstanding features:
- The best text-to-speech experience - our proprietary engine significantly enhances the output of Apple’s voices and AI voices (OpenAI, Azure) by infusing their readings with emotion and variation.
- The best PDF support in text to speech apps - your reading flow will not be interrupted by footers, headers, footnotes, in text citations and long web links as they are detected by the advanced artificial intelligence in most cases. No other app has all those features. Even the scanned PDF documents are imported with titles recognised.
- The best web support in text to speech apps - for the first time you can listen everything as both articles and headlines (including RSS feeds) are supported. Articles can be added from the headlines page for fully uninterrupted flow or from Safari. And you can send articles from the desktop browser with the Pocket extension.
- The widest support for documents/office and e-book formats.
- CarPlay support.
- Knowledge and text annotation tools built-in.
- Import the text from the physical books with the camera.
- The widest choice of options to customize the voice, appearance and various other parameters.
- Sync playlist items across Apple devices including with the macOS app and the current position in the text.
- Apple Watch app that can play the content independently of the main app.
- Export the text with annotations to .docx format
- Functions of audio buttons can be customized for high productivity and accessibility. The widest selection of tools to control the speed and browse the text that is read aloud.
- The app can be used with dozens of languages that have text-to-speech support on the device with automatic language detection from the content.
- Export the text to the audio file.
- The best in class accessibility. It is completely free when used with VoiceOver and tested to be accessible by legally blind users.
- Your data stays truly private, we collect only analytics data with no identifiable reference to the user or imported content even when the syncing is enabled.
- Track the Mindfulness time in the Health app
Current Version: 15.5.91 (June 27, 2024)
Changes in June
- Smoother word highlighter
- Apple Watch Continue Play button
- Improved Export to Word Doc:
- folders can be exported into the zip and folder structure is preserved
- exported .docx files contain custom Speech Central properties that can be preserved
- exported .zip container can be imported back and folder structure will be restored
- improved text styling
- New Siri shortcuts
- Wider support for automation and scripting in Shortucts app
- Lock screen widget + Apple Watch complication
- Continue Play per folder (from the context menu)
- New Comment experience on the iPad
- Improved text edit experience
- Improved Navigation Panel / Player sidebar
- Improved navigation slider
- New setting to show length in word count
- Regrouping of Speech settings
- Previous and Next buttons in the More sheet on Apple Watch
Speech Central AI Voice Reader’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Speech Central AI Voice Reader’s App Store page
VoiceVista (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
VoiceVista is a critical application for the blind and low vision users’ community. It is built upon Microsoft’s discontinued and open-source project Soundscape (https://aka.ms/ossblog) and is licensed under the MIT License (https://github.com/microsoft/soundscape/blob/main/LICENSE.txt).
The app leverages advanced iOS audio technology and precise location services to empower individuals in developing a heightened sense of their environment. It offers reassurance in unfamiliar settings, assisting users in forming mental maps and confidently navigating their desired routes.
Current Version: 1.5.3 (June 27, 2024)
Changes in June
- Crossings supercategory for customization
- Options to disable sound effects for POIs and markers
- Route calculation with alternative results
- Options to avoid tolls and highways
- Customization of turnpoint sensing distance
- Updates of sound effects
VoiceVista’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Recent News and Views
WWDC 2024 Recap: AI, More AI, and Some Not AI
By mehgcap | June 11, 2024
Today, Apple told us what to expect in the next round of software updates, coming this fall. While the focus was, unsurprisingly, AI, there is more than just that to be excited about. Let’s dive into what you can look forward to on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV later this year. Or next year, in some cases; as has become common in the last few years, Apple announced features it won’t be rolling out until well after the software’s initial release.
Siri got a lot of attention this year, and for good reason. AI is being used to upgrade and enhance Siri in a lot of big ways. Many of the improvements can be summarized quite simply: real, natural interactions. Basically, the goal seems to be to let users ask for something to happen in natural speech, and Siri will do it. It feels a lot like Apple’s old “it just works” philosophy–no thinking about how to phrase a request, no having to know what actions Siri can and can’t do. Just ask that this contact’s name be changed, or this photo be set as your wallpaper, and it happens.
Siri can even handle mistakes. If you ask, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather in San Diego? Wait, I mean San Francisco.” Siri will correctly identify that you wanted the weather in San Francisco. It’ll even keep the conversation in mind for future queries, so if you then ask, “How long would it take to drive there?” Siri will know that “there” is San Francisco.
Siri will also be able to keep track of, well, pretty much everything. If you and a friend agreed to have lunch in a text message thread, Siri knows about those lunch plans. If your boss sends you an email with a time-sensitive task, Siri knows it. Ask it to play “that song Jim texted me about”, and Siri will figure out which song you mean. This even extends to photos and video–Siri can handle a command like, “show me pictures of my husband from that trip we took last year where he’s wearing a hat.”
Read more: “WWDC 2024 Recap: AI, More AI, and Some Not AI”
Other Apple News
This Month in Podcasts
AppleVis Extra #98: Recapping Apple’s WWDC 2024 Keynote
In the latest AppleVis Extra, hosts Dave Nason and Thomas Domville convene to share their insights on the highlights from Apple’s WWDC 2024 Keynote.
Listen to “AppleVis Extra #98: Recapping Apple’s WWDC 2024 Keynote”
Podcasts by Thomas Domville
Also new in podcasts
Hot AppleVis Content
Here are some of the most talked-about posts from the past month:
- New Apple updates incoming at WWDC, what would you like to see?
- The New BSI is Nothing Short of Game Changing
- I Drove Glide: My Thoughts
- Introducing Solos AirGo Vision: The Future of Smart Glasses for Blind and Visually Impaired Users?
- Alt Text Adventures: AI vs. Human Descriptions
- Which one is better: Windows or Mac?
- What is The Best Text Editor for Novel Writing ON Mac With Good Accessibility?
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The AppleVis Editorial Team
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