AppleVis Unlimited: What's New and Noteworthy for May 2021

By AppleVis, 1 June, 2021

Welcome to the May 2021 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which highlights what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of content posted to AppleVis by members of the community - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. 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

AudioRoom - Audio Editor (iOS/iPadOS, Free with in-app purchases)

AudioRoom is multi-track audio editor, with desktop level editing engine.

It can perform multi-track mixing,copy,cut,paste,delete,insert and apply audio effect process.

If you are professional audio creative author who familiar with Audition and Audacity, AudioRoom can be a useful supplement to your media production toolbox, providing you with instant editing convenience.

If you are a podcast, talk show creator, AudioRoom, as a simple audio material editing tool, can provide a convenient workflow for multi-track mixing background music, recording materials, and dubbing commentary, helping you find inspiration for audio mixing and editing.

Current Version: 2.5.1 (May 18, 2021)

Read AudioRoom - Audio Editor's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit AudioRoom - Audio Editor's App Store page

Balance Lock (macOS, Free)

Noticing that the audio balance for your headphones is going slightly to the left or right? Balance Lock was designed to solve this by keeping the audio centred either in the middle or to a custom lock point. No more annoying left/right audio drift!

It runs unintrusively in the background, monitoring the audio levels to ensure that when plugging and unplugging headphones, the audio stays centered. It even has special support for USB audio devices so ensure all types of headphones are supported.

Current Version: 1.1 (May 16, 2021)

Read Balance Lock's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Balance Lock's App Store page

Curb - Request & Pay for Taxis (iOS/iPadOS, Free)

Curb is the #1 Taxi App in the US that connects you to over 50,000 taxis with the tap of a button. Easily request and contactlessly pay for rides in 65 U.S. cities, including New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Washington, DC.

Current Version: 5.16.1 (May 3, 2021)

Read Curb - Request & Pay for Taxis' AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Curb - Request & Pay for Taxis' App Store page

Letter Rooms (iOS/iPadOS, US$1.99)

Letter Rooms is simply a good anagram from the award-winning creator of Subwords, Asymmetric, and Elementary Minute.

Straight forward gameplay without any fuss: Launch the game and you're right in the next puzzle

Solve over 200 puzzles from 12 different topics, like animals, pop culture, sports, or culinary. If you ever get stuck, you can skip the level without any consequences

Master the three game mechanics: Moveable characters, On-Off Characters, and Multi-Characters

Make use of the accessibility features like the dyslexic font and support for VoiceOver and VoiceControl.

Plus: Widget, GameCenter, ...

Current Version: 1.0.1 (May 28, 2021)

Read Letter Rooms's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Letter Rooms's App Store page

My Finder (iOS/iPadOS, Free)

MyFinder AI is the smartest and simplest text, scene & object recognition app that speaks out the visible surroundings of the blind and low vision users, helping them lead independent lives. MyFinder connects the users, if needed, to a human volunteer right the way.

The app is developed for and along with the visually impaired community. It is easy to use, gets things done and a one for many features interface bringing the most advanced assistive tech experience to blind and visually impaired users.

Upon opening the app, simply hold your phone camera towards any piece of text, your surroundings, objects, people, or products, and everything will be read out to you thanks to MyFinder's artificial intelligence. The support button is on the same screen, connecting you directly to a human volunteer for further support.

Current Version: 0.5 (May 5, 2021)

Read My Finder's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit My Finder's App Store page

Passenger Assistance (iOS/iPadOS, Free)

Passenger Assistance is the new app for requesting assistance for rail travel in Great Britain.

Organise assisted train travel from one easy-to-use app. Input your accessibility requirements and receive travel information.

Easy to use. Download, create an account, and start organising journeys today

Current Version: 1.0 (May 25, 2021)

Read Passenger Assistance's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Passenger Assistance's App Store page

Perilous marathon (macOS, US$10.00)

Are you ready to run for your life? I hope you are. In this fast-paced game, you are running from left to right collecting items and trying to get the best score. Sound easy? Great! Because it's not.

features include:

avoidable pits

falling bombs

extendable stats system

scoreboard system

Cross-platform functionality, now available for both Windows and Mac OS!

Constant game updates

Read Perilous marathon's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Perilous marathon's website

TimeMachineEditor (macOS, Free)

TimeMachineEditor lets you change the one-hour interval of Time Machine backups. You can change the interval or create a more sophisticated scheduling.

TimeMachineEditor triggers Time Machine backups when it is most appropriate, the whole backup process is still handled by Time Machine. TimeMachineEditor is not a "hack", it does not modify system files.

Current Version: 5.1.9 (May 11, 2021)

Read TimeMachineEditor's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit TimeMachineEditor's website

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

iOS/iPadOS
Mac
Apple Watch
Apple TV

Notable App Updates

Carbon Copy Cloner (macOS, US$39.99)

You want options, and CCC has them! Create a backup on your external drive or back up your files to another Macintosh. Back up only an individual folder, or an entire external hard drive. CCC is flexible and you can choose exactly what you want to back up.

You will be astonished by how quickly CCC can perform backups! With our next-generation file copier at its core, CCC 6 was built for speed. Of course, CCC only copies changed or new files, but now also offers Quick Updates - no exhaustive scanning for changes needed.

Bring back files that you thought you'd lost forever! CCC can capture all your files exactly as they are at a moment in time. Restore files you accidentally deleted — or that were corrupted by malware.

Current Version: 6.0.1 (May 29, 2021)

Changes in Version 6.0

New file copier that offers faster performance and powers several of the new features noted below.

Compare: Offers a visual comparison of your task's source and destination, and provides details if the differences are the result of a task filter.

The new Dashboard offers one-click access to starting, stopping and monitoring your CCC tasks, plus details about recent task activity. The Dashboard also gives you a heads up to snapshot disk usage on the startup disk.

Postflight verification of files that were copied by the current backup task.

Ad hoc verification of files that were copied by the current task — source or destination.

The Snapshot Navigator allows you to step through older versions of your backups and get a preview of your files as they were at specific points in time.

Quick Update decreases the length of the backup by comparing a reduced list of folders provided by the macOS FSEvents service.

New scheduling option to run a task when a threshold of modifications have been made on the source.

Backup audit shows what was copied by your backup tasks, and why.

Dark Mode support.

Task Preview: See what changes CCC is going to make before actually making them.

Per-task control over the file copier's CPU usage.

You can temporarily pause a backup task.

A new, cleaner user interface. We reorganized the main window to make it smaller while making many of the controls and font sizes larger.

Refined Simple Mode – quitting and reopening CCC to switch modes is no longer necessary.

More detailed progress indication while a task is running, including a time remaining estimate.

File processing and transfer rates are now charted live during backup tasks.

Items that cause task errors can be excluded directly from the Task History Errors table.

CCC's Task Filter now offers support for respecting macOS "backupd" exclusions (i.e. exclusions defined for Time Machine).

Read Carbon Copy Cloner's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Carbon Copy Cloner's website

Cardhop (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

Until now, managing and interacting with your contacts has been a real frustration. Cardhop’s magical parsing engine is incredibly intuitive, letting you search, add, edit, and interact with your contacts using a simple sentence!

Just type in “John G” and John’s card will instantly appear. Or enter “Sarah Smith sarah@cardhopapp.com” and Cardhop will add a new contact to Sarah’s card. Or type in “call Michael S” and Cardhop will instantly start a phone call.

SEARCH, ADD, EDIT, AND INTERACT WITH YOUR CONTACTS LIKE NEVER BEFORE

Current Version: 2.0.1 (May 27, 2021)

Changes in Version 2.0

Welcome to Cardhop 2! Cardhop 2 is a free update for all existing Cardhop 1 users. All of the features from Cardhop 1 are fully available and free to use with no additional purchase.

Cardhop is now part of Flexibits Premium! This means if you've already subscribed to use Fantastical, you now receive Cardhop for free!

What's new in Cardhop 2:

Relationships: View family trees and set relationships between people and view org chart relationships between co-workers on Google and Office 365

Invite with Fantastical: Quickly invite people or groups to a new event with Fantastical

Business card scanning: Take a picture of a business card and Cardhop will automatically create a new contact and attach an image of the business card to the contact

Image attachments: Easily attach images to your contacts for future reference

Widgets: Add customizable widgets to your home screen to quickly perform an action or view a contact

Read Cardhop's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Cardhop's App Store page

Clew (iOS/iPadOS, Free)

Clew is an AR indoor navigation app that allows visually impaired or blind users to record, share, and navigate routes in indoor environments.

Current Version: 1.5.0 (May 17, 2021)

Changes in Version 1.5.0

Better support for users who are low-vision through visualization of route segments during navigation. We have also added a required sign-in step so that we can better understand how folks are using the app.

Read Clew's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Clew's App Store page

Dolphin EasyReader (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

EasyReader is a FREE accessible reading app for readers with dyslexia, low vision or blindness. Browse & download from the World's largest collection of talking book and newspaper libraries. Open your own DAISY, Epub or text books. Or copy text from anywhere on your phone & hear EasyReader read it back to you. Experience perfectly synchronized text & audio. Or for text only titles, EasyReader can add a human sounding voice of your choice. Boost comfort or contrast - choose colours, text size and highlights to suit your visual needs.

Current Version: 2.15 (May 7, 2021)

Changes in Version 2.15

Introducing three new features for people with dyslexia and these are limited to text-only documents only:

"Lines Visible" allows you to display 1, 3 or 5 lines of text on screen with a black overlay

"Show Image Descriptions" allows you to show or hide any existing image description in the book (if they exist)

"Finger Reading" allows you to double tap on a word to speak out the word

Voice Over fixes made for announcing the side menu buttons correctly

Added support for text-only newspapers from Passend Lezen

Read Dolphin EasyReader's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Dolphin EasyReader's App Store page

GoodMaps Explore (iOS/iPadOS, Free)

Discover the world with GoodMaps Explore.

Accurate indoor* and outdoor† information and navigation for people who are blind or visually impaired.

On-demand and automatic updates about your immediate surroundings. With your device locked or unlocked, hear customizable location notifications. These notifications are a snapshot of your current location, and include: current direction, nearest room, street, points of interest (POIs), or keep track of one specific POI.

Customize how often you hear location information on the Configuration page. Set the frequency of notifications for direction, nearest address, nearby POIs, and more. Options include 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 120 seconds, and never.

Save any POI and, outdoors, create your own favorited POIs. Select a favorite POI or address to quickly set it as a destination. Don't worry about losing your favorites; favorited POIs and preferences are automatically saved.

Accurate indoor routing for independent travel. Follow a route to a destination in mapped indoor venues.

Direction-based discovery at your fingertips. Discover the POIs in the direction you point the phone. You will hear the POIs in order of proximity.

Before you go. Set your position outdoors to a POI and explore its surroundings. Search indoor POIs and follow routes to them virtually.

Current Version: 1.4.0 (May 25, 2021)

Changes in Version 1.4.0

Significant enhancements to indoor experience, including: guidance in confusing spots, guidance when Explore can’t tell where you are, and improved experience navigating stairs and elevators.

Search got upgraded to its own tab! Indoors, you’ll find that search has more robust functionality. It includes a directory of a building’s rooms, POIs, and more, with filtering capabilities. This is available in Virtual Mode too, so you can plan ahead with more detail than ever before.

Significant improvement to indoor Directions including: enhanced end-of-route experience that makes it easier to find your destination and improvements to route instructions.

Location Notifications now include what level of the building you are on. Data about levels has also been added to search results.

Fixed a bug in Virtual Mode where the wrong building would load.

Minor bug fixes and improvements.

Now available in the United Kingdom.

Read GoodMaps Explore's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit GoodMaps Explore's App Store page

Sonar Islands (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

Sonar Islands is a MULTIPLAYER ONLINE game, where all relevant events happen in your ears.

On various islands you explore and discover, seek hidden TREASURES and conquer OBSTACLES. Every new island has a special atmosphere and a different gameplay. Do your best to fortify your islands and be clever enough to take the gold from your opponents.

Current Version: 1.0.4 (May 18, 2021)

Changes in Version 1.0.4

Space shuttle with the heavy load of a new island and some small spare parts on the way to the Sonar Islands.

Read Sonar Islands' AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Sonar Islands' App Store page

Super Lidar - Lidar for Blind (iOS/iPadOS, Free)

Super Lidar helps the blind and visually impaired users to locate objects and people around them and understand their surroundings’ layout.

With the power of AI and the Lidar sensors, Super Lidar parses the depth of the physical space you are in and finds the objects and people in front of you. Lidar is a type of depth sensor that enhances the capabilities of augmented reality apps and serves as the eyes of self-driving cars which is now available on iPhone 12 Pro.

Full features of SuperLidar:

Depth Description: Scans and maps the 3D layout of your environment to determine the distances of your surroundings and provides sound feedback to avoid obstacles. Higher pitch sound corresponds to longer distances. A low pitch sound indicates an obstacle nearby. Additionally, on iPhones, haptic feedback is provided to indicate an immediate obstacle visible to the camera. Strength of the vibration increases with the size of the obstacle.

People Detector: Detects people that appears on your camera and let you know about their distances to ensure maintaining social distance

Mask Detector: Checks whether the people around are wearing any type of face covering or not

Most features work without an internet connection so that users can use it in any situation (without having to have an active connection). The app has full VoiceOver accessibility support and is available in multiple languages. Whenever you get stuck about how to use the app, you can always Request a Call or check the

Current Version: 1.2.1 (May 6, 2021)

Changes in Version 1.2.1

A new Rhythmic audio feedback based on the distance of your surroundings

Audio feedback settings are added to the Menu for the following actions:

Turning the audio feedback On and Off

Switching between the Continuous and Rhythmic audio feedback

Inverting the tone of the audio feedback to a higher or lower pitch when you’re closer to an object

Enhanced the audio feedback to work only when you move the camera and stop when you hold your device steady

Fixed bugs and made UI changes for a more stable experience

Read Super Lidar - Lidar for Blind's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Super Lidar - Lidar for Blind's App Store page

Supersense - AI for Blind (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

Supersense is the smartest and simplest scanner app made for the blind and visually impaired users to read any text format, currency or product details from a barcode independently.

With the power of AI, Supersense automatically figures out what you are trying to scan, guides you on how to point the camera, and reads the content in the right format. Its unique design minimizes the time and frustrations of scanning and reading text for a blind and visually impaired user.

Current Version: 1.8.5 (May 11, 2021)

Changes in Version 1.8.5

A new Scene Describer mode is added to the Explore screen which allows you to capture a photo of your environment and provides the most probable description of the scene. You can also save the captured photo to your camera roll with the description and share it to other apps.

With the addition of the new Scene Describer mode, the user interface of the Explore screen has been changed to be similar to the Read screen. You can switch between Object Explorer, Find and Scene Describer modes by tapping the select feature button at the bottom right corner of the scanning screen.

Updated the user interface of the Barcode mode. Now, when you scan a barcode, the name of the product will be announced and displayed on the top of the screen and you will be able to continue scanning without being interrupted by the additional information about the product. If you would like to access more information about the product you can tap the show details button under the displayed product name. 4.The new scene describer model is also added to the Import mode so you can hear the most probable description of an uploaded photo

Fixed bugs and made UI changes for a more stable experience

Read Supersense - AI for Blind's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Supersense - AI for Blind's App Store page

Twitterrific: Tweet Your Way (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)

Twitterrific is the award-winning, elegant Twitter client that’s easy to understand and a delight to use. Tweeting has never been simpler or so much fun!

Browse Twitter free from the clutter of promoted tweets. Easily search for the perfect GIF or meme when composing tweets. Use Muffles to hide tweets containing words, phrases, people and hashtags from the timeline that you don't want to see. Customize fonts, appearances, image thumbnails and more via the theme panel. Quickly respond to tweets, change accounts or view conversation threads with a minimum of effort using gestures. Rich media support means GIFs and videos play right in the timeline.

Robust VoiceOver support means Twitterrific is fully accessible. Extensive keyboard shortcuts make Twitterrific a breeze to use with an external keyboard.

Current Version: 6.3.1 (May 29, 2021)

Changes in Version 6.3

Overall navigation and layout improvements to address long-standing design limitations, new pull down menus, better accessibility & much more.

FEATURES

New pull-down menus in the header title of each timeline make taking specific actions quick, easy and discoverable:

New pull-down menus on tweets for quick access to tweet actions:

New pull-down menus in other places throughout the app: When VoiceOver is enabled, access the new pull-down menus using the triple-tap gesture; when VoiceOver is active tweet pull-down menus include a "More Actions" menu with some additional actions such as replying, quoting, or liking from another account, viewing thread participants (if any), and opening a tweet's attached location (if any).

IMPROVEMENTS

Moved the Home timeline's customizable tab bar to the bottom of the screen

Search can now be added as a custom tab bar slot on the Home timeline

Adopted the native iOS photo picker when attaching media to tweets and DMs

Added a haptic vibration after a timeline refreshes and new items have loaded

Improved the overall layout of the Search view & trending topics

Discussion timelines now have a counter that indicates how many tweets are above the visible portion of the screen

Long-pressing on a tweet and tapping the tweet's action menu now open the same menu with the same options

Added keyboard shortcuts for "Jump To Marker" (CMD-Shift-J) and "Jump To Latest Unread" (CMD-J)

Removed the persistent search bar from the top of all timelines

Removed the confusing "magic scrolling" behavior when tapping on a timeline title or tab icon

Updated the icon for Saved Searches

BUG FIXES

Updated the Amelia font to correct an issue where some unicode fractions appeared with the wrong value

Fixed bugs that could cause timelines to jump to the wrong scroll position

Fixed an issue when scrolling between tweets in center stage mode

Fixed an issue preventing the theme from switching between light and dark when using the automatic mode

Read Twitterrific: Tweet Your Way's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information

Visit Twitterrific: Tweet Your Way's App Store page

Recent News and Views

Apple Previews New Accessibility Features Coming This Year, Including Expanded Image Recognition Capabilities for VoiceOver Users

By AppleVis | May 19, 2021

Ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 20, Apple has previewed a number of accessibility Features coming later this year for those with mobility, vision, hearing, or cognitive disabilities.

“At Apple, we’ve long felt that the world’s best technology should respond to everyone’s needs, and our teams work relentlessly to build accessibility into everything we make,” said Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. “With these new features, we’re pushing the boundaries of innovation with next-generation technologies that bring the fun and function of Apple technology to even more people — and we can’t wait to share them with our users.”

The new features include expanded image recognition capabilities for VoiceOver users, AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch, new eye-tracking hardware support for iPad, new background sounds to help minimize distractions, and for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, Made for iPhone (MFi) will gain support for new bi-directional hearing aids.

Other Apple News

The AppleVis Community Inducts Cash Reader and Overcast into its iOS App Hall of Fame

By AppleVis | May 29, 2021

We are pleased to announce that our Community has chosen Cash Reader: Bill Identifier and Overcast to be this year's inductees into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame.

First opened in 2011, the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame showcases and acknowledges the passion and hard work that app developers put into creating great iOS apps that are fully accessible to VoiceOver users. These apps place powerful tools into the palms of our hands, and give access to services, information, media or entertainment that the sighted world typically takes for granted.

This Month in Podcasts

Quick Tip: Reseting the Bluetooth Hardware Module on Your Mac to Resolve Bluetooth Issues

In this podcast, Tyler walks us through the process of resetting the Bluetooth hardware module on a Mac. This may be necessary if you are encountering Bluetooth connectivity issues and none of the more obvious troubleshooting tips have resolved the problem.

Listen to “Quick Tip: Reseting the Bluetooth Hardware Module on Your Mac to Resolve Bluetooth Issues”

Travel with Essential Words and Phrases with GoTalker for Apple Watch

In this podcast, techluver gives us a demonstration of GoTalker for Apple Watch, an app that gives you access to 750+ essential travel words and phrases in many languages to remove the stress of communication so you can focus on enjoying your adventure.

Listen to “Travel with Essential Words and Phrases with GoTalker for Apple Watch”

This month's podcasts from Thomas Domville

Hot AppleVis Content

Here are some of our forum topics which have got people talking in the past month:

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To learn more about Club AppleVis; the perks of membership; and how you can join, please visit www.applevis.com/club-applevis