Twenty years ago, my seven year old son and I were sitting on the stairs in our house. Curious what he might say, I turned to my child and asked, "Richard, why do you love me so much?"
My son pondered for a few moments, and then thoughtfully replied, "I guess I'm getting used to you."
We love our children, significant others, friends, pets, and guide dogs. But, some of us are a bit nerdy. We also love our toys.
College in the 1970s was a great environment to discover…
In recognition of World Sight Day and Blindness Awareness Month, Apple has today updated its Popular Apps Using VoiceOver App Store collection.
Among the new apps added to the collection are…
Welcome to the September 2015 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy in the accessible app landscape. Below, you'll find a recap 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.
Apple has today released OS X 10.11 El Capitan. As with any major upgrade, it brings a number of exciting new accessibility features, but a number of new bugs have also been introduced. If you have not already upgraded, we strongly recommend that you read this list (and any user-submitted comments posted thereafter) before doing so, as we believe there are a number of bugs present in OS X El Capitan which may have a negative impact on the experience for some VoiceOver users.
At this…
Today, Apple released OS X 10.11 El Capitan, a free update that will run on any Mac which supports Yosemite. Apple addressed some bugs in this release, as well as including a lot of new features in VoiceOver, and we think you'll really enjoy these updates and improvements. If you find any we missed, especially regarding braille or Zoom--which none of us have the capability to test--please leave a comment and let us know.
Before you update, be sure to have a look at our…
Two weeks to the day after releasing iOS 9 and a week after releasing iOS 9.0.1, Apple has today released iOS 9.0.2 to the public.
According to Apple's release notes via Mac Rumors, iOS 9.0.2 contains the following:
This update…
There is a very slight difference in the thickness of the iPhone 6S when compared to the 6. And because it's thicker, just like with human beings, that means it weighs slightly more. However, until I held the 6s in one hand and the 6 in another, I couldn't really tell that there was a difference in the weight or girth of the phone. Take this with a grain of salt then, quite literally, as that's about the difference in thickness between…
Only a week after releasing iOS 9 to the public, Apple has today released iOS 9.0.1 with a number of bug fixes.
According to Apple's release notes via Mac Rumors, iOS 9.0.1 contains the following bug fixes:
- Fixes an issue where some users could not…
When the iPhone 6 was announced last year, I wrote a blog post detailing my plans to resist temptation and hang onto my trusty iPhone 5 until the 6S came out. That year has now passed, and the iPhone 6S is here. In re-reading that post, I realized just what a good thing it was that I waited. I'm upgrading my phone this year, and the only question now is: Plus…
Apple has today released watchOS 2, marking the first major update to the Apple Watch operating system since the device was released in April.
According to Apple. this release brings a mixture of refinements and new features to the Apple Watch:
With watchOS 2, we’ve refined it. There are more faces to choose from. Faster, more powerful apps. Enhanced communication options. And innovative new ways to make your Apple…
In June, Apple unveiled its News app, which pulls together news from around the web and lets you read it all in one place, like an RSS reader. Unlike traditional RSS services, though, News can get an idea of what sources and topics interest you, then pull articles from everywhere that it thinks relate to the things you like. It's a curated news service, rather than the simple pipe of RSS feeds. In other words, instead of getting every article published by sources…
AppleVis already has posts on iOS9: we've seen an overview of the new accessibility features, a podcast covering all that iOS9 brings to the table, a…
Apple has released iTunes 12.3 to add support for today’s public release of iOS 9 and the soon to be released Mac OS X El Capitan.
According to 9To5Mac this release includes a number of fixes, including improvements for using Apple Music with VoiceOver:
…Apple has today released iOS 9. According to Apple. this release brings a mixture of enhancements and new features to iOS devices:
iOS 9 is full of enhancements you’ll appreciate every day. Your apps become more essential. New multitasking features on iPad make you even more productive. Siri can do more than ever, and new proactive suggestions help you get things done before you ask. And improvements at the…
It's September, and that means my annual reminder that I’m growing older has arrived. It also means Apple is doing their annual “coming out with more new stuff,” or in my case, birthday presents. The good news is that if you have been running iOS 8, your device is going to be able to run iOS 9. As a general rule, iOS 9 seems to run about as well as iOS 8 has on other devices, so if you find the features worth upgrading to, go for it.
Just like each year…
Detailed in this post are possible accessibility-related bugs which members of the AppleVis Editorial Team have identified during their testing of iOS 9. If you have not already updated your device to iOS 9, we strongly recommend that you read through this post and any comments before doing so, as we believe that there are some new bugs in this release which might have a negative impact on the user experience for some blind and low vision users.
As always, we do need to stress at the…
I would rather walk face first through a giant spider web than go shopping. I truly hate walking into large cavernous spaces with grumblings, rumblings, and piercing screeches resounding, rebounding, and reflecting from every surface. I tire of unbridled children pawing at my guide dog, and I could really do without the adults who treat shopping as a contact sport. Make that three giant spider webs that I'd be willing to walk through. If I cannot escape to the parking lot, I mentally retreat…
With the public release of iOS 9 now just three days away, we wanted to let you all know that we plan to have lots of information and resources ready to share with you as soon as Apple makes its new version of iOS available for download.
Our coverage will include a number of Blog posts with information on what you will find in iOS 9, along with podcast demonstrations of some new and changed features.
Some of our Editorial Team have been involved in beta testing of iOS 9, and we…
Apple this week launched the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. One of the headline features introduced on these is 3D Touch, a slight variation on the Force Touch seen on the Apple Watch and newest MacBooks and heralded by Apple as “the next generation of multi‑touch”.
…
It's September again, and that means another media event from Apple. Apple usually uses these to announce the newest iPhones, the release date of the next major versions of iOS and OS X, and any other big secrets it's been hiding. Normally, the iPad gets either a silent update or a smaller event later in the year, but this time, Apple broke with tradition.
Today, at an event entitled "Hey Siri", Tim Cook and friends delightedly showed off a whole range of new…