At the end of each month 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 we think is the most noteworthy.
December proved to be a good month for VoiceOver users, with a number of apps making it onto our shortlist. Particularly pleasing to see was the release of major updates from three popular mainstream apps - Twitterrific, InstaCast and 1Password - where it was clear that VoiceOver support had featured explicitly in their development. The only disappointment with all three, was that they were released as completely new apps, so there was no free update for owners of previous versions. As the app market continues to mature and stabilize, this is something that we will perhaps need to get used to - paying a couple of dollars for an app and getting a lifetime's worth of support and updates might no longer be a business model that is financially viable for app developers (if it ever was!).
Having to part with some money wasn't, however, enough to prevent Twitterrific from becoming our Editorial Pick for December.
For quite some time, TweetList has been the Twitter client of choice for many VoiceOver users - the 'Go To app' if asked to recommend an accessible Twitter app. With the release of Twitterrific 5, we think that VoiceOver users have gained another good choice.
It was also great to have Gedeon Maheux from the Twitterrific Team join us on one of our AppleVis Extra podcasts, where he spoke about the new release, accessibility and how Twitter were making life harder for developers of Twitter apps.
Another developer who joined us on an AppleVis Extra this past month was Michael Doise, the creator of VO Starter. This app was another strong contender for our Pick of the Month - one that anybody new to iOS should take a look at if they want some help learning their way around VoiceOver.
As always, we would love to hear of any apps that you think we have overlooked, so do please post a comment below to share your own personal picks.
By David Goodwin, 7 January, 2013