Month Calendar 2, Google Play Newsstand, and TextExpander 3 Chosen as AppleVis Editorial Team App Picks of the Month for September 2014

By AppleVis, 6 October, 2014

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

At the end of each month, members of the AppleVis Editorial Team take a look at all the apps that have been posted to the site during that month-either for the first time, or where there has been a significant update-and decide which of these they think is the most noteworthy.

The AppleVis Editorial Team app picks of the month for September 2014 are as follows:

1. Month Calendar 2 - overview at a glance of your iCal, Google, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, etc. calendars

New iOS App Directory Entry (Version 10.0); September, 2014.

"Month Calendar is an amazing and simple way to manage your calendar. You get a brilliant overview at a glance when planning. Use decorations to add color and icons to your events. Month Calendar gives you powerful yet easy ways to browse, organize, edit, and share your calendars." - App Store

From the AppleVis Editors: What more can we say? Month Calendar is a fully accessible, easy-to-use calendar app; it is likely what many people have been looking for when it comes to the ideal Calendar application. It also works very well with Braille displays!

Visit the App Store Page for Month Calendar 2

2. Google Play Newsstand

Updated to version 3.0.0; September, 2014.

"With Google Play Newsstand, discover more of the news you care about on your iPhone and iPad. Enjoy breaking news and in-depth articles featuring audio, video and more. With hundreds of premier publishers from sports, business, cooking, entertainment, fashion and more - it's all there, easy to follow, read, and share." - App Store

From the AppleVis Editors: We were quite impressed by the full VoiceOver support Google's Accessibility Team brought to Google Play Newsstand version 3.0.0. This app brings news to your fingers differently than anything we have seen before, and it is also a great way to follow your interests.

Visit the App Store page for Google Play Newsstand

3. TextExpander 3 + custom keyboard

New Release (now updated to Version 3.0); September, 2014.

"Type faster on your iPhoneR, iPadR, or iPod touchR in any App using the TextExpander keyboard. The keyboard enables custom abbreviations to expand into long snippets of text, such as addresses, URLs, email signatures, and form letters. You can even insert today's date automatically with the default abbreviation 'ddate'!

Access all your TextExpander snippets while in Mail, Safari, anywhere!" - App Store

From the AppleVis Editors: TextExpander is one of the first (if not the first) accessible third-party iOS 8 keyboards we've seen to date. It allows one to enter abbreviations that will then be expanded into full words. While the initial setup screen is not fully accessible with VoiceOver, the developers have assured us that they are aware of the problem and are working on an update.

Visit the App Store page for TextExpander 3 + custom keyboard

Did We Miss Anything?

What were your favorite app releases and updates for September 2014? Let us know in the comments!

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Comments

By Month Calendar on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 22:08

Just wanted to thank you all, editorial team and community.
We have had a fantastic welcome to your community with excellent feedback.
Some of your feature requests are implemented and going through Apple review soon we hope. So look out for the coming version.

Very best,

Month Calendar, Nicolai and Svend

By Scott Davert on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 22:08

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Month Calendar

Hi to the app developers.
Just wanted to drop you a quick note and thank you for making this app. I use this daily instead of the iOS calendar and love it. Keep up the great work, and I look forward to future updates! As a braille only user, it's great to have this option available.

By Tree on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 22:08

I too just wanted to thank the developers of this app for making a point to be so dedicated to accessibility. I have not tried this app yet, but I am downloading it now. I am very bad about managing my time and I hope this app can help.

By Thomas Byskov … on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 22:08

Hi Scot!
Have you compared Monthcal2 and Fantastical in relation to wich of those that works best with braille compared to the standard IOS-calender app?
Can you in Monthcal add an event by typing the date in braille instead of jumping around controls like in the IOS-calender app? Like this:
Lunch Monday October 20th 2014 12:30 PM?
Sorry for changing the topic, but I love braille
myself and want to find the best calender app for braille users using IOS. :-)

By Month Calendar on Friday, November 21, 2014 - 22:08

Hi All,

First of all thanks for the kind words. We really appreciate all the fantastic feedback we have been getting here.

Thomas, I have never myself used braille, but Month Calendar uses the built-in dialogs for adding and editing events, so I am sorry to say that it might work pretty bad on braille (or as bad as Apples calendar).

Best,

Svend