It’s that time of year. With WWDC just one week away, Apple is getting ready to announce new versions of iOS and OS X, as well as possible tvOS and watchOS updates. While concrete information about these future releases is scarce, speculation and feature wish lists have begun popping up on mainstream tech websites.
Here are my top wishes for VoiceOver improvements in the next iteration of the Mac operating system, presumably OS X 10.12.
USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the support organization for the advancement and adoption of USB technology, has today announced a new USB HID (Human Interface Device) industry standard that aims to simplify the development of braille displays and allow for an improved user experience.
In it's press release, USB-IF describes this new standard as:
Update, 7/4/2016, 3:25 PM CDT: Members of the National Federation of the Blind have just passed Resolution 2016-04.
Apple has announced the winners of its 2024 Apple Design Awards, which honor excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design across seven categories: delight and fun, inclusivity, innovation, interaction, social impact, visuals and graphics, and a new spatial computing category. The winners were chosen from 42 finalists.
I was a late adopter of the iPhone technology. I thought I didn't need ANOTHER gadget to keep track of. It wasn't until I heard some friends discussing their iPhones that I realized that an iPhone could replace many of the gadgets I used. Not only did the iPhone cut down on the number of gadgets I needed to carry, but it saved me money too!
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.
For a while now, rumors have been piling up that suggest the venerable, reliable, universal 3.5mm headphone jack could vanish from future Apple products as soon as the iPhone 7. While we don't know whether this will definitely happen, there is mounting evidence that it might; a prominent Android phone maker released a phone sans headphone jack, and Apple's audio supplier just released tools for developing Lightning-based audio accessories.
Today, Apple held what is probably its final live event of the year: "One More Thing". True to its title, this announcement consisted of one thing: the M1, Apple's first custom chip, and the new Macs that will be powered by it.
This post has been updated to include tips for using the image description feature based on feedback received from the Applevis Editorial Team and members of the Applevis community.
IMPORTANT: we need to stress that as recently as this morning, the Apple Accessibility Team was unable to replicate most of the problems listed below. This could be because there have been changes made to iOS since the Gold Master version which was used by us when testing for problems. It could also simply be operator error on our part, or local and specific problems caused by external factors not related to iOS. This means that it is possible that you will not encounter all of the problems mentioned in this post if you update to iOS 7.
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 pleased with the way the Compact voices were functioning.
Apple's iOS operating system doesn't suffer from a paucity of ebook readers.
The big announcements from Apple today gave us what rumors had suggested: the iPhone 6, available in two screen sizes, an Apple Watch, and apple Pay, a way to pay for things using just your iPhone or Apple Watch.
Today, as you likely know if you're reading this, was Apple's big September event, entitled California Streaming. For years now, Apple has used this time to announce the latest iPhones, often adding other launches to the agenda. This year was no exception. We have iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7, and new iPads, plus some new stuff for Apple Fitness Plus subscribers.
You can watch today's event yourself, or find it on their Youtube channel. As usual, audio description is available.
It's September again, and that means another media event from Apple. Apple usually uses these to announce the newest iPhones, the release date of the next major versions of iOS and OS X, and any other big secrets it's been hiding. Normally, the iPad gets either a silent update or a smaller event later in the year, but this time, Apple broke with tradition.
Today, Apple unveiled four new things, a price change for the Apple TV, and minor updates to its existing line of MacBooks. We saw the Apple Watch, a 12-inch Retina Macbook, HBO Streaming, and Research Kit, a platform that will greatly enhance medical research and studies. We also got iOS8.2, which includes the Apple Watch app, and some small fixes and improvements.
Today, Apple took the wraps off updates to its most popular product, and its wearable. We saw the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, as well as the long-anticipated Apple Watch 2. We also got hard dates for the public releases of the upcoming software updates across all of Apple's products. There was a lot covered today, so let's get right to it! If you like, you can follow along on the full video of the event.