Welcome to the September 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
BBC Sounds. (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Listen to the best of BBC audio with BBC Sounds. Stream and download your favourite BBC podcasts, radio stations and music all in one place.
Features include:
- Listen live to all BBC Radio stations
- Pause and rewind live radio as well as browse past and future station schedules
- Download or stream your podcasts, radio shows and music on the go
- Continue listening from where you left off on any device
- Autoplay multiple episodes of series or podcasts or all your downloads (optional)
- Subscribe to BBC podcasts, music mixes and shows
- See the latest episodes from your favourite programmes and podcasts in one handy list
- Get personalised recommendations to discover new audio youâll love
- Send music tracks you like to Apple Music and Spotify
- Browse by speech and music categories
- Sleep Timer
Current Version: 2.14.4 (September 25, 2023)
Read BBC Sounds' AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit BBC Sounds' App Store page
BROK the InvestiGator (macOS, US$19.99)
"Brok" is a narrative-driven game that blends action, puzzles and investigation in never-before-seen ways. Will you use your brain... or your brawn?
In a futuristic "light cyberpunk" world where animals have replaced humans, privileged citizens live under a protective dome from the ambient air pollution while others struggle to make a living on the outside.
Brok, private detective and former boxer, lives with Graff, the son of his deceased wife. Although he could never elucidate the nature behind her accident, recent events may shed some light on an even more tragic outcome... one that may be linked to their own existence.
Will they be able to withstand the threats of this corrupted world and face their own destiny?
Read BROK the InvestiGator's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit BROK the InvestiGator's website
SEEK JOBS - Job Search [Australia and New Zealand] (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
What do you seek? Find the right job with better job matches than ever before
Search jobs - find your next job or make your next career move NOW on SEEK! We make the job search and apply process easy. It doesnât matter whether youâre in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Wellington or anywhere else in Australia or New Zealand â we have hundreds of thousands of jobs waiting for you. Get searching on Australiaâs and New Zealandâs most visited and completely free job and employment marketplace!
Current Version: 2.189.0 (September 25, 2023)
Read SEEK JOBS - Job Search's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit SEEK JOBS - Job Search's App Store page
Soundscape (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Soundscape- a 3D audio navigation app for the blind and visually-impaired, helping them to navigate complex environments with greater confidence and in greater safety
Soundscape uses 3D audio technology to help users with visual impairment build a fuller and more complete awareness of urban environments, giving them a richer understanding of where they are and what is around them. This in turn helps them to navigate with greater confidence and more independence. It allows users to search for destinations and store markers and route information that they can use to help guide them on their way to the places they need to reach.
Current Version: 1.1.0 (September 1, 2023)
Read Soundscape's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Soundscape's App Store page
Soundscape Community (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Soundscape: explore, discover, and have fun with your personalized 3D sound map of the world!
Welcome to Soundscape Community.
We are a diverse consortium of organizations and individuals committed to improving access and inclusion for everyone, in partnership with a global community of users and open source developers.
We are delighted to make Soundscape available for its existing users, and new ones around the world. With Soundscape, you are able to immerse yourself in your surroundings and navigate effortlessly with itâs innovative spatial audio. The app calls out points of interest, your own markers, businesses and more using audio placed in the environment around you as you walk or drive.
Key features of Soundscape:
- Audio cues in 3D space that sound like they are coming from the direction of points of interests, parks, roads and other features in your surroundings.
- Track a specific point using an Audio Beacon on it to hear updates about where it is relative to you.
- Soundscape Street Preview helps you build a picture of a place virtually. You can "walk" down streets and roads and hear what is around each location as you explore.
- Buttons on the Home Screen can be used to explore further about what's around you, whether in the real world or in Street Preview.
To get the most out of the experience you will need a pair of stereo headphones that you feel comfortable wearing outdoors. For example, bone conduction headsets, Apple AirPods and in-ear open headphones have proven to work well. Soundscape is designed to live in the background and provide you with effortless ambient awareness; feel free to use it in conjunction with other apps such as podcasts, audio books, email and even GPS navigation.
We hope you enjoy the experience. We believe that this kind of technology offers a new way to relate to the environment around you and we canât wait to hear what you make of it. If at any time you have any questions about Soundscape, please refer to the Help & Tutorials section available on the main menu.
Current Version: 1.0 (August 31, 2023)
Read Soundscape Community's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Soundscape Community's App Store page
Structured - Daily Planner (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Sometimes we just need to plan our days to make better use of the hours. Sometimes we just need our days to be more ... Structured.
Structured is an app for people who need structure to their life or just like to know what's up next. Calendars and to-do lists can be fine, but sometimes we just need everything laid out, ready for us to tackle the day. Structured helps make that easier than ever, ensuring every task and event is in one place, ready and waiting. All that's left to do is smash the day ahead, checking off tasks as you go!
A visual day planner at its core, Structured is the app you've been hunting for. Whether you're trying to reduce distractions by planning your day ahead of time, or you're someone who needs a clear outline of your day to avoid the worry of missing something, Structured has your back â and it looks beautiful while it does it, too. Just a few taps is all it takes to enter your first task, decide when to complete it, and get on with your day!
Current Version: 3.2.1 (September 18, 2023)
Read Structured - Daily Planner's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Structured - Daily Planner's App Store page
All recent app entries posted to AppleVis can be found at:
iOS/iPadOS
Mac
Apple Watch
Apple TV
Notable App Updates
Ferrite Recording Studio (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Ferrite is the award-winning app you need for creating podcasts, radio journalism, or other professional voice production work â lectures, speeches, voice-overs and more.
It combines the ease-of-use of a âvoice memoâ audio recorder, with a versatile multi-track editing studio. Powerful tools like effects and automation are available when you need them. With time-saving features and a UI designed to get out of your way, people around the world are switching to Ferrite.
Current Version: 3.1 (September 18, 2023)
Changes in Version 3.1
- Support for our new app, Transcriptionist
- Various performance, user-experience, accessibility and reliability improvements
Read Ferrite Recording Studio's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Ferrite Recording Studio's App Store page
lire: RSS Reader (iOS/iPadOS, US$9.99)
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 its 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.
Use as a standalone feed reader, sync with iCloud, or, sync with any of the several services: Feedly, Feedbin, FeedHQ, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader, Newsblur, Feed Wrangler, FreshRSS, Miniflux, Nextcloud News, Tiny Tiny RSS.
Current Version: 6.0.1 (September 25, 2023)
Changes in Version 6.0.0
ADDED:
- Newsletter Mode (re-written from ground up): Some sync services (like Feedbin), and some 3rd Party services (like kill-the-newsletter.com) allow you to read Newsletters in your RSS reader. In Newsletter mode, articles are rendered as is, without applying lire's internal styling, this is especially useful for reading newsletters (most of which include their styling inline). Feeds that are known to be Newsletters are automatically set to open their articles in Newsletter mode. You can also set specific feed to open their articles in Newsletter Mode in Settings > Article > Open in.
- Open articles in Inline Webpage: Some sites prevent scraping of their content by lire's full-text parser because of various reasons, while some other sites put their content behind paywalls, or login-walls. Inline Webpage provides a more reasonable way to read the content of these websites than was previously possible with In-app browser/Safari-View-Controller, or the Safari app, or some 3rd party web browser. You can set specific feed to open their articles in Inline Webpage in Settings > Article > Open in.
- Open articles in Default Browser: Open articles directly in Safari (or any other app that you set as your system default browser). You can set specific feed to open their articles in Default Browser in Settings > Article > Open in.
- Full-text Search (Experimental): Allows the in-app search engine to look in every article's body and full-text (if cached). Set it up in Settings > General > Search > Full-text Search.
- Ability to disable Spotlight indexing/search. Set it up in Settings > General > Search > Spotlight.
- "3 Days" option in all app-wide "Mark older as read" menus.
- iPadOS 17 Lock Screen widgets.
- iOS 17 iPhone StandBy mode widgets.
IMPROVED:
- Hot Links now open in the new Inline Webpage view.
- Support for rendering of embedded 'X' (formally Twitter) & Instagram content.
- The way the app reports & displays errors related to Inoreader's Rate Limits.
FIXED:
- A bug that caused an intermittent crash while opening some articles.
- Tons of minor (and major) bug fixes.
Read lire: RSS Reader's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit lire: RSS Reader's App Store page
Weatherology: Weather Together (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
The first weather app that fully integrates into your home and car with real-time audio weather reports and emergency weather notifications; personalized for you.
We take weather to another level.
- Our patented technology delivers real-time audio weather reports to your location.
- It's voice-activated: Ask Weatherology for the latest forecast.
- At home. In your car. On your phone.
- It's real-time. With up-to-the-minute weather updates including the latest watches, warnings, advisories, and bulletins. We alert you with relevant weather notifications to keep you informed.
- It's real people, not voice simulation: Select your favorite weather talent, and they provide real-time weather reports on demand.
- It's accurate and personalized for your location.
- The technology is new, but the Weatherology team has been around for 34 years. We have contributed to more award-winning local weather broadcasts than our largest competitors combined.
Current Version: 8.0.2 (September 26, 2023)
Changes in Version 8.0
We know your next adventure is important, so we've spent some time to improve the functionality and stability of the app in this update:
- Introduction of Weatherology Features, a new way for you to receive relevant content for your forecast location from our team of meteorologists.
- An ability to get to know more about the meteorologist delivering content to you.
- A more simplified and refined push notification system. Opening the app from a push notification now brings up the forecast location for which the notification displays.
- An ability to place two markers on the map at any time to see approximately how far certain weather events are from a location.
- An ability to pull down almost any scroll view to manually refresh the content on screen.
- An ability to share almost anything in the app, including forecasts, alerts, and tropical systems.
- Better visibility and functionality when retrieving the latest weather data for your current location at any time.
- A refined location search engine that filters out lesser known towns and villages when their inclusion is not needed.
- Greater functionality and compatibility with the VoiceOver accessibility feature.
- Even more options for customizing your experience with the app in the settings, including an alternative font option.
- (US locations only) A new module that displays approximately what to expect for precipitation within the current hour based on future radar data.
- (US locations only) An ability to toggle future radar on or off.
- A completely rebuilt onboarding process for new users that includes more setup options, better context, and a newly animated presentation.
- Additional optimizations, quality-of-life improvements, and bug/crash fixes based on user feedback.
Read Weatherology: Weather Together's AppleVis App Directory entry for more information
Visit Weatherology: Weather Together's App Store page
Recent News and Views
Artificial Sweetener: ChatGPT and Me
By Morgan Watkins | September 18, 2023
"Daddy!"
The cry was plaintive, and clearly directed my way. Ugh! I was relaxing in a comfortably furnished waiting room, enjoying some cinnamon coffee cake, and I was prepared to completely ignore the unnecessary outburst.
"Daddy!"
It happened again. It wasn't a real voice, and it wasn't really saying "Daddy!", but that is how I heard it. I knew who was crying. It was my stupid car, wailing at me via text messages during its first warranty check-up at the dealership. What a wimp!
"Daddy!"
Incredibly, I began to feel guilty about ignoring my car. I put down my pastry and capitulated. I opened the iPhone's Messages app and listened to my car's whining.
"Daddy! All my doors are open!"
"Daddy! Someone lifted my hood!"
"Daddy! my tires are being rotated."
In truth, the messages were a tad more succinct and mildly informative, but I am not used to being talked to by a motor vehicle. I like my cars quiet.
Is this the new artificial intelligence that I keep hearing about? I must be getting old.
Read more: âArtificial Sweetener: ChatGPT and Meâ
Apple News
- What's New in iOS 17 Accessibility For Blind and Deaf-Blind Users
- iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 Accessibility Report: VoiceOver, Braille, and Low Vision Issues and Improvements
- macOS Sonoma: New Features, Changes, Improvements, and Bugs for Blind and Low Vision Users
- iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 Now Available With New Features and Accessibility Enhancements
- watchOS 10 Now Available With Stackable Widgets, Updated Apps, New Workout Features, and More
- tvOS 17 Now Available; Bringing FaceTime to the Apple TV, an Updated Control Center, and Improvements to Apple Fitness+
- Apple Releases iOS 17.0.1, iPadOS 17.0.1, and watchOS 10.0.1 Updates
- Apple Releases macOS Ventura 13.6 and macOS Monterey 12.7
- Apple Releases iOS 16.6.1, iPadOS 16.6.1, macOS Ventura 13.5.2, and watchOS 9.6.2
- Recapping Apple's September 12 "Wonderlust" Event
This Month in Podcasts
AppleVis Extra #96: Apple's September 12 "Wonderlust" Event in Review
In this edition of the AppleVis Podcast, Dave Nason, Thomas Domville, and Tyler Stephen get together to discuss Apple's September 12 "Wonderlust" Event.
Listen to âAppleVis Extra #96: Apple's September 12 "Wonderlust" Event in Reviewâ
Logic Pro X Tutorial Series
- Learning Logic Pro X: Using Reverb
- Learning Logic Pro X: Virtual Instruments
- Learning Logic Pro X: Automation
Podcasts by Thomas Domville
- A Quick Tour of Some Notable New and Enhanced Accessibility Features in iOS 17
- How to Modify the iOS âFastâ Long-Press Speed Option to Open Context Menus More Quickly
- How to Use Text Detection in the iOS Magnifier App
- Finely Tune VoiceOver Speech to Best Suit Your Needs and Preferences on iOS With Per Voice Settings
- How to Change Siri's Speaking Rate on iOS and iPadOS
- How to Use Sound Curtain for Braille Display Users on iOS and iPadOS
Hot AppleVis Content
Here are some of the most talked-about posts from the past month:
- Introducing Soundscape from the Scottish Tech Army
- The absolute importance of calling Apple accessibility directly
- Exciting news! Be My Eyes is going live with Be My AI
- Siri voice question
- What does everyone like about iOS 17?
- Alex mispronouncing words since updating to IOS 17
- What does everyone think of their new iPhone 15 and 15âs pro?
- iPhone 14 pro versus 15 pro
- Want to Create Accessible Apps of Your Own?
Club AppleVis
By joining Club AppleVis, members and friends of our community can directly support the financial costs of operating AppleVis, ensuring that we can continue to provide valuable information, help, and support. Your contribution will support our mission and help ensure the success of AppleVis. Become a part of our special donor community today!
To learn more about Club AppleVis and how you can join, please visit www.applevis.com/club-applevis