Welcome to the July 2023 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
Desmos Graphing Calculator (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Explore math with the fast and powerful Desmos Graphing Calculator. Plot any equation, from lines and parabolas to derivatives and Fourier series. Add sliders to demonstrate function transformations, create tables to input and plot data, animate your graphs, and more—all for free.
Features:
- Graphing: Plot polar, cartesian, or parametric graphs. There’s no limit to how many expressions you can graph at one time—and you don’t even need to enter expressions in y= form!
- Sliders: Adjust values interactively to build intuition, or animate any parameter to visualize its effect on the graph.
- Tables: Input and plot data, or create an input-output table for any function.
- Statistics: Find best-fit lines, parabolas, and more.
- Zooming: Scale the axes independently or at the same time with the pinch of two fingers, or edit the window size manually to get the perfect window.
- Points of Interest: Touch a curve to show maximums, minimums, and points of intersection. Tap the gray points of interest to see their coordinates. Hold and drag along a curve to see the coordinates change under your finger.
- Scientific Calculator: Just type in any equation you want to solve and Desmos will show you the answer. It can handle square roots, logs, absolute value, and more.
- Inequalities: Plot Cartesian and polar inequalities.
- Accessibility: Read and edit math using a screen reader or a refreshable Braille display, and use audio trace to explore graphs and data through sound.
- Offline: No internet access required.
Current Version: 7.4.0 (May 2, 2023)
Read Desmos Graphing Calculator's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Desmos Graphing Calculator's App Store page
Octal for Hacker News (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Discover and discuss the latest stories from Y Combinator's Hacker News. Your community-powered source for news in technology, computer science, programming, and more.
Octal is your go-to news feed for breaking tech news, putting the biggest stories of the day with engaging discussion right in the palm of your hand.
Beautifully designed for both iPhone and iPad, Octal focuses on what you care most about: design, speed, and usability. It's the modern, full-featured Hacker News app you've been looking for.
Current Version: 4.14.0 (July 11, 2023)
Read Octal for Hacker News' AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Octal for Hacker News' App Store page
Perplexity - Ask Anything (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Perplexity gives you instant answers and information on any topic, with up-to-date sources. It's like having a superpower on your phone that allows you to search, discover, research and learn faster than ever before.
- Powered by combination of AI and internet search, get information with cited sources
- Ask questions and context aware follow up questions
- Use your voice to ask faster
- Trust your answers by reviewing sources and browsing when you need to
- See new popular questions every day
- Keep your thread history so you can pick up where you left off
Current Version: 1.7.2 (July 30, 2023)
Read Perplexity - Ask Anything's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Perplexity - Ask Anything's App Store page
Pigeon — Client for Telegram (watchOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Before the telegraph, Pigeons ruled the messaging industry. Today, a little pigeon lives on your watch, bringing your messages across Telegram.
That little pigeon, is none other than this app!
Pigeon is a Telegram messaging client, built just for the Apple Watch platform. It operates directly on your watch, without even a companion iPhone app.
Current Version: 1.1.2 (July 27, 2023)
Read Pigeon — Client for Telegram's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Pigeon — Client for Telegram's App Store page
Rename (macOS, US$5.99)
Quickly rename multiple files/folders at once, formatting names by adding, removing, replacing text, and by numbering. It can be particularly useful at removing 'junk' from the names of downloaded files (like music files) giving them better, more readable, names.
Features at a glance:
- Auto number files/folders
- Remove, add and replace characters/words
- Change the filename and ext, alter their case (upper, lower, title etc)
- Apply a list of text to use as filenames (for example, a written track list)
- Build your own unique filenames and/or extensions using templates
- View a live preview of your alterations without any commitment
- Undo last rename operation (per session)
- Move files/folders up and down the list
- Alter all or only the selected items in the list
- Save options profiles for different renaming locations/requirements
Current Version: 2.4 (April 28, 2023)
Read Rename's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
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: 1.0.5 (July 23, 2023)
Read VoiceVista's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit VoiceVista's App Store page
Zanagrams (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Word puzzles just got a whole lot better.
Exercise your brain during your downtime with this new unique twist on word-puzzles you’ve come to know and love.
Each puzzle contains six clues you’ll aim to find the one-word answers for. Each answer is broken-up into groups of two or three letters, presented as buttons in the lower portion of your screen, and jumbled for your brain-teasing enjoyment. Try to spell out each of the answers in the puzzle by tapping buttons to add them to your spelling.
Zanagrams will automatically detect if you’ve spelled any of the answers in the puzzle you’re working on, and any of the buttons you used to spell that answer will be permanently-disabled to narrow-down your choices. By the time you finish a puzzle, you’ll have used every button once.
- Compete against friends by seeing who gets the best score for each puzzle in its Official mode.
- Play randomized versions of puzzles you’ve already completed for endless fun!
- Use hints to reveal the next group of letters in a word when you get stuck.
- Zanagrams contains 20 free puzzles, spread across two Puzzle Packs, totalling 120 anagrams you can play as many times as you like.
- Once you’ve fallen in-love with the game, you can purchase more Puzzle Packs, choosing from our huge selection of both themed and unthemed Puzzle Packs.
- 100% accessible with Voiceover.
- High-contrast color options available for low-vision users
Current Version: 1.0.6 (July 27, 2023)
Read Zanagrams' AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Zanagrams' App Store page
All recent app entries posted to AppleVis can be found at:
iOS/iPadOS
Mac
Apple Watch
Apple TV
Notable App Updates
Dolphin EasyReader (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
EasyReader offers convenient access to your favourite accessible book libraries and talking newspaper stands, in one place.
Designed for accessibility, EasyReader enables blind and partially sighted readers to read with magnified text, audio, or a combination of both - where each word is highlighted on screen as it’s read aloud. It also links to braille displays for braille readers.
EasyReader is compatible with VoiceOver and supported braille displays.
Current Version: 10.0.6 (July 26, 2023)
Changes in Version 10.0.6
- NEW: Bookshare libraries. Titles that have been assigned to a member of Bookshare, RNIB Bookshare or Bookshare Ireland are now listed in EasyReader App.
- NEW: Getem library. The Turkish library Getem is now available in EasyReader App.
- NEW: Translations. EasyReader App is now translated into Hebrew.
- FIX: Book navigation. If the user is attempting to navigate to a page that does not exist, EasyReader provides options for the user to move to a different page instead.
- FIX: Éole library. A new system is included for signing in and downloading titles from the French library Éole.
- FIX: Sleep timer. The sleep timer now stops the book playback correctly if the device goes into a low power mode.
- PLUS: Additional fixes and improvements.
Read Dolphin EasyReader's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Dolphin EasyReader's App Store page
Envision AI (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Envision is the fastest, most reliable and award-winning free OCR app that speaks out the visual world, helping people who are blind or have low vision to lead more independent lives.
Envision is developed for and together with our community. The app is simple, gets things done and brings the best assistive experience to blind and low vision users.
Simply use your phone camera to scan any piece of text, your surroundings, objects, people or products and everything will be read out to you thanks to Envision’s smart artificial intelligence (AI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
Current Version: 3.2.0 (July 19, 2023)
Changes in Version 3.2.0
Introducing the Redesigned Envision App! Revamped with a focus on features. Easily switch between your favorite features, and personalize the menu to your liking. Make the Envision App truly yours!
Read Envision AI's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Envision AI's App Store page
Fantastical Calendar (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Fantastical is the multiple award-winning calendar app with powerful features including intuitive natural language text parsing, beautiful full calendar day, week, month, quarter and year views, tasks, time zone support, and much, much more.
- Beautiful, clean, and easy to use calendar app allowing you to manage basic events
- The DayTicker and calendar makes your schedule look the nicest it ever has
- Full screen day, week, month, quarter, and year views
- Full task support including Todoist and Google Tasks
- 3 day weather forecast (powered by AccuWeather)
- 14 day free trial for Flexibits Premium
Current Version: 3.7.18 (July 26, 2023)
Changes in Version 3.7.16
- Interesting calendars are now accessible when using VoiceOver
- Year view is now fully accessible via VoiceOver
- Improved support for increase contrast accessibility setting in Day, Week, Month, and Quarter views
- Added support for scheduling Skype Calls in Fantastical
- Live Activities are updated with push notifications making them more responsive
- Openings can now be scheduled up to 180 days in the future
- Quarter view now provides an overview of the days when VoiceOver is enabled
- Go to Today and Go to Date… will now move focus to that date when VoiceOver is enabled to streamline accessibly navigation
- Improved reliability when finding and filtering events using Shortcuts
- Improved support for connecting to US government and 21Vianet instances of Microsoft 365
- When opening the parser after a long tap on a calendar day, the first letter is now capitalized
- Various fixes and improvements
Read Fantastical Calendar's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Fantastical Calendar's App Store page
Mona for Mastodon (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Mona is a Mastodon app packed with customization features. Optimized for VoiceOver. Native design.
Current Version: 5.7.1 (July 26, 2023)
Changes in Version 5.7
- Optimizes VoiceOver keyboard navigation on macOS 13.1 and newer systems
- Automatically skips duplicate content warning speeches on the post view for VoiceOver
- Adds an accessibility option for VoiceOver: Skip content warning speech
- Adds an accessibility option for Mac: Always display link underlines
- Adds a theme customization option for iPhone and iPad: Selected Tab
- Adds a user action: Send Message
- Adds keyboard shortcuts for user cards: Follow, Post, and View Links
- Tapping or clicking the selected Local or Federated button now scrolls the timeline to topmost position
- Supports loading more than 4 pictures on the full-screen picture viewer
- Additional improvements and bug fixes
Read Mona for Mastodon's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Mona for Mastodon's App Store page
Space Wave Race (iOS/iPadOS, US$2.99)
Only the true heroes of space can become champions of Space Wave Race: the intergalactic championship that will take you to challenge the best pilots in the galaxy!
- Fly through a myriad solar systems, space ruins, unknown engineering structures, asteroids and incandescent stars to win the battle. Be the first in this intrepid running race fighting your enemies. Prove what galactic material you are made of!
- Enjoy the experience playing with different spaceships designed for battle. Unlock more spaceships by playing the game.
- Includes several game modes with different complexities and gameplay: Championship Mode, Single Race Mode, Endless Galactic Mode.
- Space Wave Race has been developed to be fully accessible, including modes for players with reduced mobility, visual and/or hearing impairment and dyslexia. Expressly created to enjoy the experience without losing a single detail in all conditions.
Current Version: 1.7 (July 26, 2023)
Changes in Version 1.7
We're thrilled to announce the release of Season 2 of Space Wave Race, featuring exciting new features and enhancements to take your intergalactic racing experience to the next level.
Some of the key features and improvements included in the new update are:
- GDPR Menu: At the beginning of the experience, a message will pop up asking players if they consent to collect usage data for improving the experience.
- Boss Fight Mechanic: At any point during the race, players may encounter a big enemy, and they will have to fight with a variety of weapons and tactics to defeat them.
- Frenzy Taps with Big Asteroids: A new mechanic where players will have to tap quickly to destroy a giant asteroid that occupies all three lanes.
- New levels for all leagues: All the races have updated layouts. You can play again to achieve new record times.
- New Music: Updated soundtrack for the main menu and all levels, creating an even more immersive experience.
- UX Enhancement: Docking audio when an audio cue sounds, enhancing the overall gaming experience.
- Updated tutorial to make it more accessible and introduce new mechanics.
Read Space Wave Race's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Space Wave Race's App Store page
Study with Subwords (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Turn learning into a word puzzle in Study with Subwords!
The idea is simple - you create a study list, like one for countries and their capital or English words and their translation into Spanish. Study with Subwords will split these words into pieces and you have to put them back together. With multiple learning modes, splitting types, and a study plan, Study with Subwords will help you to memorize that knowledge without ever feeling like learning.
Features:
- Created by an Apple Design Award-nominated indie developer
- Download dozens of learning lists for free in the Gallery!
- Create a learning plan to stay on track with your goals
- Scan lists via the camera or import them as a CSV from Excel or Google Drive (Plus feature)
- Excellent Accessibility features (VoiceOver Support, dyslexic font, large type support, custom color schemes, grid layout & custom rotors)
- Multiple Study modes & ways to split the terms
- Widget, iCloud Sync & SharedWithYou
Current Version: 1.2.3 (July 26, 2023)
Changes in Version 1.2.1
This is a little re-launch of Study, where many complicated things have been made easier. The most important things are:
- There is now a real onboarding, which also suggests lists to you and lets you set study reminders
- Significantly better language learning for VoiceOver users. Words are now read out in the correct language (so German words are read in German, French words in French etc.)
- New notifications system, replacing the over-complicated study goals
- Directly start a study session from the Gallery. Lists started there are automatically added to your collection
- New app icons from indie friends: Gola, one sec & Structured! Go Pinky Apps!
- Many tiny UI enhancements
Read Study with Subwords' AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Study with Subwords' App Store page
Recent News and Views
- Apple Releases iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 With Bug Fixes and Security Updates
- Apple Releases macOS Ventura 13.5, watchOS 9.6, and tvOS 16.6
This Month in Podcasts
AppleVis Unleashed July 2023: It's Classified
In this month's edition of AppleVis Unleashed, Thomas Domville and Mike Malarsie are joined by Kevin Jones to discuss recent Apple news and other topics of interest. Topics featured in this episode include:
- Introduction
- Vision Pro launch at retail stores is Apple’s most complex rollout ever, will require appointment to buy
- Apple GPT is the company's answer to ChatGPT and it could arrive next year
- Beats Studio Pro arrives with Spatial Audio, massive battery life
- New EU regulations mandate user-replaceable batteries in Apple products
- iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro rumored to feature big boost in battery sizes
- Apple Watch could detect Parkinson's disease up to 7 years earlier
- What's in this month AppleVis News
Listen to “AppleVis Unleashed July 2023: It's Classified”
Quick Tip: How to Activate iOS and iPadOS Beta Updates
In this episode, Tunmi13 walks us through how to activate iOS and iPadOS beta updates.
Listen to “Quick Tip: How to Activate iOS and iPadOS Beta Updates”
Radiant: A Digital Radio App with a Personal Host on iOS
In this episode, Orinks walks us through Radiant, an iOS app that lets you listen to digital radio with a personal touch. Rad, your digital host, plays music that suits your mood and preferences, thanks to his integration with Apple Music. He also keeps you updated on the weather, traffic, news, and trivia about the artists you love. You can interact with Rad and tell him what you like or dislike, and he will adjust his selections accordingly. Radiant is a fun and smart way to enjoy radio on your iPhone or iPad. All you need is an Apple Music subscription and a sense of adventure!
Listen to “Radiant: A Digital Radio App with a Personal Host on iOS”
Podcasts by Thomas Domville
Hot AppleVis Content
Here are some of the most talked-about posts from the past month:
- Zanagrams: Accessible Word Puzzle Game By Blind Veteran
- Announcing Space Wave Race Season 2
- Playing Chess on the Mac and iOS
- accessible air frier
- Can you suggest the best headphones/earbuds/bone conduction system to work with Voicevista, the soundscape replacement?
- iPhone 14 Pro Max or iPhone 15 Pro Max?
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