AppleVis Unlimited: What's New and Noteworthy for January 2017

By AppleVis, 1 February, 2017

Welcome to the January 2017 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis - from new app entries, to app updates, to podcasts and blogs. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.

New and Noteworthy App Entries

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (macOS, Free)

Do more with the leading PDF viewer. More powerful than other PDF software, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is the free, trusted standard for viewing, printing and annotating PDFs. And now, it’s connected to Adobe Document Cloud — so it’s easier than ever to work with PDFs on computers and mobile devices.

View and annotate PDF files. With Acrobat Reader DC, you can do even more than open and view PDF files. It’s easy to add annotations to documents using a complete set of commenting tools.

Open once, read anywhere. Say hello to easy file access.

Current Version: 2015.020.20042

Read Adobe Acrobat Reader DC's AppleVis Mac App Directory entry for more information
Visit the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC page on Adobe.com

Apple Support (iOS, Free)

Need help? Apple Support app is your personalized guide to the best options from Apple. Find answers with articles tailored to your products and questions. Call, chat or email with an expert right away, or schedule a callback when it’s convenient. Get a repair at an Apple Store or a nearby Apple Authorized Service Provider. Apple Support is here to help.

Current Version: 1.0.3 (January 24, 2017)

Read Apple Support's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information Visit Apple Support's App Store page

Autour (iOS, Free)

Autour is an eyes-free mobile system designed to give blind users a better sense of their surroundings. Although other systems emphasize navigation from one specific location to another, typically accomplished by explicit turn-by-turn instructions, Autour uses spatialized audio to reveal the kind of information that visual cues such as neon signs provide to sighted users. Once users notice a point of interest, additional details are available on demand.

For a demonstration video please visit our website at: http://autour.mcgill.ca/en/

Current Version: 1.6.8 (November 30, 2016)

Read Autour's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Autour's App Store page

Blindfold Euchre (iOS, Free with In-App Purchases)

Blindfold Euchre is a fully accessible Euchre card game for both sighted and visually impaired people, designed for rapid audio play.

Blindfold Euchre is a trick taking game where you pick the trump suit. You play with 3 computer players, in teams of two, who will try to stop you from making the tricks you need to win.

You score highest if you make many tricks. A help on how to play Euchre is included with the app.

You can customize the game to your liking: how much extra information is spoken and how quickly it is spoken, how many sound effects are used amongst other things. And you can post your high scores to Twitter or Facebook.

Current Version: 1.2.2 (January 26, 2017)

Read Blindfold Euchre's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Blindfold Euchre's App Store page

DayNight: Daytime & Nighttime Awareness (iOS, Free)

DayNight is designed to help the blind and visually impaired with day and night awareness by scheduling notifications at sunrise and sunset.

Simply navigate through the setup steps so DayNight knows your location and has access to send you notifications. Once complete 1 month of notifications will be scheduled and can be disabled anytime within the app.

Current Version: 1.1 (January 25, 2017)

Read DayNight's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit DayNight's App Store page

Departure Board - UK Train Departure Times (iOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

powerful yet simple UK train app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Instantly check the trains departing from your local station. Supports Apple Watch and watchOS 2. Accessible from everywhere using the Today view widget.

Departure Board is a simple application that displays the information found on rail departure board signs across the UK. When launched, Departure Board will use your location to find that station nearest to you and it will instantly load the rail departure board for it. Departure Board will display the time and platform that the train is due to depart from.

Departure Board also allows you to see where each train currently is, where it has called and at what time. You can even share the train you are getting right from the application.

Features:

Instant departure board for your nearest station.

Details of each trains journey progress.

Filter by calling points.*

Show arrival board.

Show arrival time at destination*

Show earlier trains.*

Favourite your most frequently used boards.*

Automatically load a favourite board on launch when you are nearby. Also, in Glance, Watch App and Widget.*

Handoff Support (transfer sessions between iOS devices and from Apple Watch).

iPad Split View and Slide Over support

Spotlight Indexing of all stations and favourites.

Apple Watch Support.*

iOS Today Widget - access your departure boards from anywhere in iOS.*

URL Scheme Support - launch the application directly to a specific train station with optional calling point filter.*

Current Version: 3.0.3 (January 24, 2017)

Read Departure Board's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Departure Board's App Store page

Evertree Inn (iOS, US$3.99)

A mysterious tavern with a deadly secret! Check-in to this magical tale of murder and mystery where not everything is as it seems. Explore the tavern in secret or in style, meet and mingle with guests and staff, wield weapons and magic and uncover clues before the killer strikes again!

Evertree Inn is an immersive 265,000 word interactive experience by Thom Baylay, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based--without graphics or sound effects--and fueled by the vast unstoppable power of your imagination.

What will you do when an overnight stay in a highway tavern turns into the biggest mystery of your life? Will you rise to the challenge, or will you resist your destiny? Are you in it for the money, for the thrill of the chase or are you secretly hoping for romance? Enter an open world, where the choices you ignore matter as much as the ones you explore and where every interaction has a reaction. Choose your path as elf or dwarf, human or halfling or even the elusive brownie and find out if you have what it takes to survive the night at Evertree Inn?

Current Version: 1.0.1 (January 19, 2017)

Read Evertree Inn's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Evertree Inn's App Store page

Streaks (iOS, US$3.99)

STREAKS. The to-do list that helps you form good habits.

Featured in Apple's "Best of 2015" apps

Featured in Apple's "Amazing Apps for iPhone" TV advert

Featured on the Apple Watch web site

Preinstalled on demo iPhones in Apple Stores worldwide

Track up to six tasks you want to complete every day. Your goal is to build a streak of consecutive days. Streaks works with the Apple Health app to help you achieve your fitness goals.

Six tasks: Stay focused, get them done.

Streaks automatically knows when you complete tasks linked to the Health app

Includes a blazingly fast Apple Watch app, including Complications, Glance screen, and Rich Notifications.

Customize the app color

Hundreds of icons to choose from

Customizable reminder notifications keeps you on track

View your current and best streak, as well as your completion statistics

Current Version: 2.1.1 (January 26, 2016)

Read Streaks' AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Streaks' App Store page

Super Tile Smash (iOS, US$1.99)

A simple and addictive puzzle game where the objective is to complete as many levels as possible.

Select a tile and if a surrounding tile is the same it will be destroyed, you will need to destroy more tiles as the levels progress.

There are special tiles some of these are called Rocket,sidewinder and crossfire.

The in game menu can be reached by tapping on any item on the bottom row of the screen which contains from left to right current level,upcoming tiles and percentage of level completed.

The game is written to be fully compatible with Voiceover and is suitable for all players with any level of eyesight.

Current Version: 1.0 (January 24, 2017)

Read Super Tile Smash’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Super Tile Smash’s App Store page

All recent app entries posted to AppleVis can be found at:

iOS
Mac
Apple Watch
Apple TV

Notable App Updates

Aipoly Vision (iOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

Aipoly Vision is an object and color recognizer that helps the blind, visually impaired, and color blind understand their surroundings. Simply point your phone at the object of interest and press any of the recognition buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn on the artificial intelligence.

Aipoly Vision will keep running and recognizing objects until you switch to a different mode, or toggle the recognition button.

Aipoly Vision can recognize 1,000 essential items for free, and many more through a subscription.

Current Version: 2.0.2 (January 17, 2017)

Changes in Version 2.0-2.0.2

New AI: Aipoly Vision gets a brand new base AI with 1000 refreshed items that our users chose. This includes patterns, gadgets, tools, outdoor items and more!

Text recognition added: Press the text button to identify any text in front of the phone and have it read it out loud. Requires an Internet connection.

Food recognition added: Identify 1000 different types of food items.

Currency recognition added: Identify USD currency

Animal recognition added: Identify 1000 species of animals

Plant recognition added; Identify 1000 species of plants and flowers

Navigation mode added; Have Aipoly Vision only look for items relevant to navigation such as signs and obstacles

New interface

Subscription model added to unlock modes. Access settings to view subscription options.

Color recognition improved to avoid false positives.

New onboarding pages to introduce new features.

Read Aipoly’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Aipoly’s page on the App Store

Fruitpot: Fantastic Free Fruit Machine (iOS, Free)

Forget slot machines, don't waste your money! FruitPot adds the best features of fruit machines and puzzle games, resulting in the funniest game ever!

FruitPot has all strategy and fun of fruit machine games combined with original challenges and increasing levels of difficulty. With bonus games, prizes, and games of chance you’ll want to play for hours.

No real money is involved, play just for fun!

Test your skills on the highly entertaining fruit machine with its classic ‘nudge’, ‘hold’ and ‘bet’ buttons.

Fill the FruitPot, win the jackpot and watch your fortune grow.

Spend the chips you’ve earned on products in the stores.

Collect new symbols to add to the reels of the fruit machine, for bigger prizes and more difficult challenges.

NEW: Enjoy for free, now also on your Apple Watch!.

Complete VoiceOver integration in iOS.

Current Version: 1.45 (January 26, 2017)

Changes in Version 1.42-1.45

Major improvement of the VoiceOver integration thanks to AppleVis.com and their readers.

Read Fruitpot’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Fruitpot’s page on the App Store

Google Voice (iOS, Free)

Google Voice gives you a free phone number for calling, text messaging, and voicemail. It works on smartphones and computers, and syncs across your devices so you can use the app while on the go or at home.

Forward calls, text messages, and voicemail to any of your devices, and get spam filtered automatically. Block numbers you don’t want to hear from.

Calls, text messages, and voicemails are stored and backed up to make it easy for you to search your history.

Send group texts and share photos instantly.

Google Voice provides free voicemail transcriptions that you can read in the app or have sent to your email.

Make international calls at competitive rates without using your mobile data.

Keep in mind:

Google Voice is currently only available in the US

All calls made using Google Voice for iPhone use the standard minutes from your cell phone plan

Calls are placed through a US-based Google Voice access number, which may incur costs (e.g. when traveling internationally)

Current Version: 2.0 (January 26, 2017)

Changes in Version 2.0

Google Voice has been completely redesigned to include the things you care about:

A new, intuitive layout keeps your calls, text messages, and voicemail organized

Sign up for a new Google Voice account from the iOS app

Conversations stay in one continuous thread and support photo sharing and group messaging

Support for multiple accounts and improved accessibility

Read Google Voice’s AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Google Voice’s page on the App Store

lire (Full-text RSS) (iOS, US$4.99)

Love RSS feeds? So do we!!

RSS feeds are a great way to follow updates on your favorite website. However, some sites set up their feeds to only show a portion of each entry, you know, to get you to click through to their actual website. We find that really annoying, and we're sure you do too.

Which is why, unlike other RSS feed readers, that either push you into a browser (in-app or otherwise), or depend on third party text parsing services and require you to be online to fetch the full text of one article at a time (which makes it no different from having to click/tap through to a website), in lire, you get your favorite RSS feeds as they should've been. You don't need to click through to any website (though, you do still have the option to, if you really wanted). It takes your favorite partial feeds, does it's magic, and converts them in to full feeds, so you don't have to click/tap on those annoying 'Read more' or 'Continue reading' links.

Once they're cached, you don't even need to be connected to read your full-text feeds.

Current Version: 3.0.2 (January 27, 2017)

Changes in Version 3.0-3.0.2

Major 3.0 update..

New sync services: FeedHQ, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader.

Completely redesigned UI.

Several new fonts.

State Restoration (lire will now start where you left it when you were last using it).

Standalone feed engine is completely rebuilt from the ground up.

New background refresh/sync engine: You can now set the minimum amount of time that must elapse after a background refresh/sync before another background refresh/sync can me initiated.

Get notifications when a successful background refresh/sync downloads new articles.

New, and more efficient full-text fetching engine.

New OPML import engine: Besides being able to import file via 'Open with:' from other apps, you can now import OPML files from iCloud drive, and other apps that offer file providers, from right within the OPML Import/Export screen.

New section in Accessibility/VoiceOver Options: VoiceOver users can now change the order in which VoiceOver will speak different attributes of each article in a list of articles.

New Fast Read Later option: This is different from 'Fast Read Later' in previous versions: Go to Settings > Article Options > Fast Read Later, and select what you want Fast Read Later to do. This actions will basically replace the second button on the bottom bar in the main article view.

New Swipe To Left Action option in article lists: Go to Settings > Article Options > Swipe To Left Action, and select what you want Swipe To Left Action to do. Which in a list of articles swipe/slide an article to the left to perform this actions. VoiceOver users can perform this action from the rotor.

New Swipe To Right Action option in article lists: Go to Settings > Article Options > Swipe To Right Action, and select what you want Swipe To Right Action to do. Which in a list of articles swipe/slide an article to the right to perform this actions. VoiceOver users can perform this action from the rotor.

Easy way to report problems with specific feeds that the new standalone feed engine may have trouble with: Go to view articles of specific feeds, from the article list, open Subscription Details, and tap on 'Report a problem' button at the bottom of the Subscription Details view. (This button is only visible if you’re using the app in Standalone mode).

Easy way to report problems with full-text extraction of specific articles: Tap 'Report a problem' link at the bottom of the full-text view if the specific article.

Easy way to report problems with Cache: Go to Settings > Caching Options > Report a problem.

Tons of other new features, improvements, and bug fixes..

Read lire's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit lire's App Store page

Nebula Game (iOS, US$0.99)

Nebula is a spaceship battle arcade game that will provide you a new experience. With many features such as 3D audio, device movements and accessibility for the visually impaired.

FEATURES:

Gaming Modes: Campaign, Free and Multiplayer.

3D audio*, allowing play without vision.

48 enemy spaceships

Campaign with storyline

Upgradeable spaceship.

Detailed tutorials

9 chapters and 36 levels

STORY:

During the last great inter-galactic war, the Spacial Defense Force created the Nebula project, an army of defense and attack composed by 2000 spaceships. The project got it's name due to the difficult the pilots had to perform combats in space, as they face huge nebulas that limited their vision and scrambled their systems. Because of this, engineers have invested heavily to develop a technology that would allow us to hear other ships and unknown objects.

Current Version: 1.3 (December 27, 2016)

Changes in Version 1.3

Major bug-fixes throughout the game.

Upgraded device compatibility.

VoiceOver bug-fixes.

Full campaign now included in the game, no more in-app purchases!

Read Nebula's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Nebula's App Store page

Voice Dream Writer (iOS, US$9.99)

Voice Dream Writer helps everyone write better: Text-to-speech proofreading reduces mistakes, phonetic and meaning search help you use the right words, and an active outline helps you organize and improve the structure of your writing.

Text-To-Speech Proofreading. Professional proofreaders recommend reading out loud as the best way to catch mistakes. Like a personal proofreader, Voice Dream Writer reads your writing using text-to-speech, so you can easily spot awkward sentences, grammatical errors and typos. Also, it can read words and sentences as you type or voice dictate. This way, you can type faster because you no longer have to look up to check the text you just wrote.

Word Finder. Voice Dream Writer helps you find the right words using phonetic search and meaning search. For example, search for "inuf" phonetically, and you will find "enough", and search for "Fast Africa Cat" by meaning and you will find "Cheetah." Word Finder also shows you the dictionary definition of a word as you type without you having to select anything or open another program.

Outline. As you write, Voice Dream Writer automatically creates an outline of headings, paragraphs and sentences. The Outline helps you structure your document better by giving you an always-on overview. You can also quickly navigate to a section in a long document without endless scrolling. Finally, you can drag and drop elements in the Outline to organize your writing. No more selecting, cutting and pasting large blocks of text.

Besides these unique features, Voice Dream Writer also comes with everything you would expect from any great writing tool:

Comprehensive settings for text appearance

Uncluttered writing area

Search for text

Search for misspelled words

Word count

Synchronize and backup with iCloud

Import and export for Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box

Preview and print with multiple themes

Markdown support for formatting

Export to Microsoft Word format (compatible with Apple Pages)

Support for Bluetooth keyboard

Current Version: 1.5.0 (January 10, 2017)

Changes in Version 1.5.0

Added rhyme search in Word Finder

Improved meaning search results

Improved Word Finder usability

Cursor location more predictable

Added option for toolbar to be always visible

Text search and spellchecker go to first result after cursor

Load ".md" Markdown files

Listen to Help document while using an external keyboard

Show keyboard commands (tap and hold Command key)

Other minor enhancements and bug fixes

Read Voice Dream Writer's AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information
Visit Voice Dream Writer's page on the App Store

Weather Gods (iOS, US$2.99)

Meet the Gods: Fire, Ice, Water, Air & Moon delivering you the Weather as you have never experienced it before. Weather Gods redefines the weather app with painstakingly crafted data visualisations, procedural graphics and audio that enable you to literally see, hear and feel the weather. With no more weather icons to decode, the Weather Gods is simply the quickest, most engaging, most enjoyable way to get the accurate weather information you need.

The Weather Gods skillfully integrates premium weather data into an elegant, iOS Exclusive, easy-to-use interface that will delight casual users and weather enthusiasts alike.

With a wealth of rich weather data from the world’s most respected providers, the Weather Gods provide detailed site-based forecasts for over a million locations worldwide. Our advanced, next-generation notifications are easy to setup and bring you exactly the information you want right when you need it.

With 24 hour charts, observed weather, built in moon phase, widget, world clock and much, much more, the Weather Gods is a powerful personal time machine that lets you travel the world and visit the future. Please come join us on this exciting journey as we begin our mission to bring you the finest, most practical, most enjoyable weather app experience ever. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

Current Version: 1.0.7 (January 31, 2017)

Changes in Version 1.0.6-1.0.7

NEW: master volume slider in settings

NEW: cloud cover for voiceover users on main screen with fire god

NEW: now includes summary for Tonight in the summary notification

NEW: add wind chill to the freeze notification

NEW: add gusts to the wind speed notification

NEW: add UV index and safety information to UV notification

NEW: add visibility to the Fog notification

NEW: help for first time search users

NEW: voiceover; help for first time search users

NEW: voiceover; fog and visibility added with cloud cover when it's foggy

NEW: voiceover; fog and visibility added to hourly Fire god

NEW: sunrise and sunset count down below fire god when the sun is rising or setting

NEW: hourly fire god data correctly handles those places where the sun doesn't rise or set, depending on the time of the year.

NEW: weather wheel handles those places where the sun doesn't rise or set, depending on the time of the year.

NEW: voiceover announces whether the god is awake or asleep. E.g. Moon god is asleep when the moon is down

NEW: status of 'level' when the current temperature isn't changing in the next couple of hours. This is in addition to 'warming' and 'cooling'

NEW: added a backup weather data server (ICE) should the main server (FIRE) be unavailable

UPDATE: some minor layout improvements for iPad

UPDATE: voiceover; information about 3 finger swiper added to location button

UPDATE: voiceover; weather sounds sign posting added to About button in Settings

UPDATE: in response to feedback, we've made some more adjustments to the volume of some of the weather sounds

UPDATE: weather sounds listening screen moved to the About screen under ‘Weather Sounds Explained’

UPDATE: small visual tweak to iPad search button

UPDATE: improved the accessibility of the weather sounds volume slider

UPDATE: improved the accessibility of the switches in settings

UPDATE: ice and water gods will now display chance of sleet and be awake

FIX: widget not working correctly after sunset

FIX: partly sunny weather sound louder than sunny weather sound

FIX: more work on the widget around loading of weather data

FIX: more work to try and prevent the issues we saw with data corruption after the recent network outage

FIX: no hourly data from 11pm to 12am when viewing charts

FIX: app stuck in a loop when searching for places that have no time zone e.g. Sahara Desert

FIX: bug fixes and stability improvements

FIX: moon god is sleeping when the moon has risen

FIX: moon not showing 100% illumination for full moon

Read Weather Gods' AppleVis iOS App Directory entry for more information Visit Weather Gods' App Store page

Recent News and Views

Apple Releases iOS 10.2.1; Bringing Fixes for Braille Users

By AppleVis | January 23, 2017

Apple has today released iOS 10.2.1 to the public.

At the time of posting, release notes are not yet available; however, it’s likely that this release will mostly bring under-the-hood improvements with no major changes in regard to features and operation. We will update this post if this proves not to be the case and there are outward-facing changes of note.

For blind and low vision users, our testing indicates that Apple has made some progress towards addressing the accessibility bugs present in iOS 10. Specifically, based on our limited testing, we believe the following serious bugs to be resolved in iOS 10.2.1:

Freedom Scientific Focus Blue, Handy Tech Easy Braille, Papenmeier, and Esys braille displays now correctly pair to devices running iOS 10.2.1.

When typing in any text field with a braille display, text input is no longer sluggish as it was for many under iOS 10.2.

Apple Releases Software Updates for the Mac, Apple Watch and Fourth-Generation Apple TV

By AppleVis | January 23, 2017

Today has seen another round of software updates from Apple. In addition to the release of iOS 10.2.1, there have also been updates for the Mac, Apple Watch and fourth-generation Apple TV.

At the time of posting, full release notes for these updates are not yet available; however, it is safe to assume that there will be the standard mix of bug fixes, security patches, and under-the-hood performance improvements.

We have been able to carry out some limited testing of macOS 10.12.3 prior to today’s public release, and our experience suggests that the only accessibility-related change for blind and low vision users is that VoiceOver once again announces the remaining battery percentage on Mac laptops.

Opinion: Lire Solidifies its Position as the Best Full-Text RSS Reader for iOS

By Amir | January 23, 2017

It's not often that I find the privilege of blogging about an application which is not only feature-rich and revolutionary in its feature set, but takes accessibility to an entirely new level. Of course, if you ask David Goodwin, the awesome guy behind AppleVis, he'll tell you that my inspiration for blogging has subsided recently despite what creative app developers are doing... David, do you hear me?! :)

Anyhow, here I've blogged a few times about lire (Full-text RSS reader), an application which first brought the innovative concept of displaying the full text of articles with shrunken text to iOS. The app has evolved considerably over the past couple of years and, as recently as September 2015, version 2 of lire managed to outwit its competitors in my Full-text RSS Reader Shootout.

With V3 of lire out the door -- after a couple of months of intensive beta-testing, that awesome experience has been enhanced considerably. Let's take a close look at what's new in lire V3.

Opinion: How Not to Work Out with Apple Watch

By mehgcap | January 18, 2017

I've had my Apple Watch for about ten months as of the time of this writing. I got it for a few reasons, but a major one was fitness. I wanted my movements and exercise to be tracked, I wanted calorie burn estimates, I wanted heart tracking, and I wanted to be reminded to move every so often. Plus, I wanted a simple way to log and track my workouts so I would have the data and so I could look back at trends.

The Watch has done all that, and done it well. But at the end of the day, it's still a computer, not a personal trainer, and it can't know or do everything. Here are the fitness-related traps I've found while using the Apple Watch as a health and fitness companion. Hopefully, these will serve as warnings and/or reminders, so you don't make the mistakes I did. I don't have all the answers; in fact, I'm still in the process of changing my own fitness habits even as I write this. I just wanted to share my experiences, to help others not follow me off the path we should all be on.

Yo, Human! - Audio Described People: Accessing Life with Adaptive Technology

By Nicholas | January 12, 2017

A black rectangle fades in on a soft background, it's top suddenly split by a thin line of white, streaming down and filling the bottom third. In the upper portion, bright capital letters A and V become typed on either side, accompanied by two solid strikes of an old typewriter. Underneath, the sounds change to soft clicking, as small dotted patterns start to appear, looking at first like Braille. The clicking becomes melodic as a sudden flurry of pixels forms the word AppleVis. The sounds fade into the background, a soft, continuous digital echo.

Transition to a dim room, lit by a single lamp. A gentlemen sits facing a laptop resting on a large wooden computer desk, dark glasses underneath a baseball cap pulled down over his forehead.

The man reaches to the computer, pushing the On button. Bong! The system startup sound reverbs from the paneled walls. A voice begins emanating from the laptop.

“Yo, Human! VoiceOver is on. Welcome to macOS." The scene fades to black.

I wish people came with audio descriptions. Came with what?

There are ongoing efforts by many in the blind, research and entertainment communities that are helping to bring an entire form of communication into the non-visual realm. Audio described videos have an extra track that is created by talented writers, and artistically recorded by voice actors. These recordings describe the visual content that occurs in-between the actors dialogue. They are provided for the blind and visually impaired. If you have never experienced one of these specially created videos, it can be difficult to even understand the need.

This Month in Podcasts

See Your Steps Easily with Pedometer++

Lisa Salinger reviews Pedometer++, an iPhone and Apple Watch app that allows for easy, real-time monitoring of the steps you take in a day.

If you have questions about this app, you can contact Lisa on Twitter

Listen to “See Your Steps Easily with Pedometer++”

An Introduction to Suddenly Lost, an Interactive Adventure Novel for iOS

In this podcast, Tunmi introduces us to Suddenly Lost, an interactive adventure novel for iOS with a script that is over 40,000 words alone.

Listen to “An Introduction to Suddenly Lost, an Interactive Adventure Novel for iOS”

AppleVis Extra 48: What's New in lire 3.0

In this edition of The AppleVis Extra, Alex Hall and Scott Davert speak with the developer of lire, an RSS feed reader for iOS that includes extensive support for VoiceOver. In this interview, we learn about the history of lire, and find out what is in the latest version of the program.

Listen to “AppleVis Extra 48: What's New in lire 3.0”

AppleVis Extra 47: Timecrest Takes Accessibility to a Whole New Level

In this edition of The AppleVis Extra, Jamie Pauls and Alex Hall talk with Sneaky Crab cofounder Justin Ng about the accessibility work that has gone into their award-winning game, Timecrest: The Door. Sneaky Crab received a 2016 Golden Apples award for developer of the year, and Timecrest received a Golden Apples award for best iOS game of 2016.

Listen to “AppleVis Extra 47: Timecrest Takes Accessibility to a Whole New Level”

Game Review: Blindfold RS Games for iOS

In this podcast, Hope Robinson takes us on a brief tour of Blindfold RS Games for iOS.

Listen to "Game Review: Blindfold RS Games for iOS"

Game Review: FruitPot: Fantastic Free Fruit Machine

In this game review, Izzie G. takes us on a tour of FruitPot: Fantastic Free Fruit Machine

From the app store: "Forget slot machines, don't waste your money! FruitPot adds the best features of fruit machines and puzzle games, resulting in the funniest game ever! ..."

Listen to "Game Review: FruitPot: Fantastic Free Fruit Machine"

A complete list of all podcasts posted to the AppleVis website can be found at www.applevis.com/podcasts