List your Apple Stories

Your tales are always a challenging read, Dominic. it's your style. it's as though you've thrown all the segments of the story up into the air and just told it in the order they've landed. I also have news for you - you are still young! could you not try to type rather than dictate? make better use of punctuation?

I became an iPhone user in 2010 - in August of that year. I'd just finished in the Oxford County Court in late August and I found I could not ring my instructing solicitor to tell her how the case had gone because my Nokia 6220 classic, a fine phone, would not power up. I'd heard all about the iPhone and Voiceover and had tried it a couple of times as a couple of my friends had the 3GS. I'd not been paticularly impressed. Typing was a really hard job compared with the Nokia and Talkx, as was dialing a phone number. The Nokia also had perfectly good email and internet for what I wanted, plus it was the form factor of a chocolate bar - and I don't mean one of those awesome fat boy chocolate bars. However, I now had a broken phone and I couldn't spare the time to do all the fiddling about to get another Nokia, including the time it used to take to get the Talkx licence transferred over. Not long, I grant you, but too long in the circumstances. So I took myself off to the Orange shop in Golders Green - a right bugger to get to from North Finchley, incidentally, which is where I then lived. two bleedin' buses! This would have been on a Friday, I believe, as the court case I mentioned at the outset of this tale finished on a Thursday afternoon.

The Orange shop let me have a look at a demo iPhone model and I walked away with a brand new iPhone 4. One of the surprises at the time was that they were able to set it all up at the Orange shop. When first the iPhone came out you had to get it home and do the iTunes setup yourself. it was only when the phone companies started moaning about this that Apple set up iTunes To Go, which could be used in mobile phone shops.

Now, it took me a good couple of weeks to get used to the iPhone. I was not at all sure about it to begin with and missed my Nokia a great deal. Typing was bloody awful - simple as that. i would say that's what took me longest to master. I missed not being able to compose text messages under the table, which was perfectly possible on the dear old Nokia. In fact, to an extent i still miss that.

However, and as I'm running out of time before my next meeting, I gradually liked the iPhone more and more and i would say I was in the swing of things by the time I went to the Conservative Party Conference in october 2010 and got David Cameron, then Prime Minister, very interested in how Voiceover worked. I think that was at a reception given by the government of Bermuda, at which I recall enjoying (I think) six Dark and Stormy cocktails.

Since then I've had a 4s, 5s, 7, 8, SE2020 (a lockdown purchase), 13. also an iPad and an Apple Watch. I had a Macbook Pro in 2011 but let's wind up the MacBook merchants by saying I found it not nearly as impressive as billed, giving no reasons for my conclusion.

Hang on, surely I've had more iPhones than that? Maybe I'm missing one out. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Pip pip.

I agree, please take the extra few minutes to read before sending. I am not always perfect. I do try to make sure I have things spelled right. I didn't even write your name because I didn't look how it's spelled and I wasn't going to leave what I'd written in there. So Apple here goes:
I got the 3GS because my mother wanted me to have a phone that was better then the I don't remember what i had but it had talks on it I think. Anyway, she'd bought it for Xmas and made me carry it in she loved doing that. since then I've done four up to 12 but I'm probably getting a pro next. I have an Apple watch also which I wasn't sure i liked but find it does keep me on track for calories and the like. i also kept the same number as my mother's was the same last four digits and since she's dead now, it seems only right. I have a third Mac, the first one being spilled on my birthday no less by my elbow and a beer which I hadn't had a single sip out of. Oops? That's when i discovered apple care is to expensive and not worth it. As Bingo just said, pretty please write a little better. You'll get there but if you keep writing like this, it makes it harder for us to help you.

And a teacher hauled us to the library where an Apple II and its monitor existed. We were allowed to stare at it, it wasn't turned on, then we were hauled back to the classroom. In later years, schools had rooms full of Apple IIe computers, upon which we were allowed to play "The Oregon Trail" about once a month for part of an hour, and some students were allowed to print out their name with each letter on a single paper, formed by a bunch of the same letter. I never got to print out my name. Later there were Apple IIgs computers that I used after I went blind, along with the II and IIe that seemed to be ubiquitous in schools. Anyone remember Braille Edit and BEX? As far as I know, the Mac was not accessible, and I never used one.
Then in 2014 I got an iPhone. I left out all the parts about other computers, like the Commodore 64 and the TRS80, Basic, QBasic, and all the IBM Gobbledygook because it isn't Apple.

It was 1983. I was in college at University of Michigan. I had registered for a computer science independent study with one of my favorite professors. I had in mind to create a word processor from scratch, running on the university mainframe. In those days, word processors had embedded formatting codes mixed in with the text. I figured I could write a parser, build a data structure, and output the result to a laser printer. Should be one semester's work.

I met with the professor at the start of the semester, and after I explained my plans, he said, "yeah, you could do that. But have you seen THIS?" And he fired up his Apple Lisa and launched the very first WYSIWYG word processor I had ever seen. The fonts were beautifully rendered, black on an almost white background, and it was so cool how you could just click with an actual MOUSE and start typing right where you clicked. I immediately felt like I was seeing the future. And I was.

When I have more time, I'll tell you how Maps satellite view on the first gen iPhone in 2007 sucked me in until I drained the battery.

I started with the 3GS, then I moved onto the 5s, then the 7, and now the 11. I'll soon be upgrading to the 14 pro, as I've had the 11 for 3 years.

There isn't much to my Apple story, but here it is:

One of my nephews had an iPod touch, I think it was the 4th generation at the time. Then his brother also got an iPod touch, this was before or around the time of the first iPads.

Kids back then, for the most part, had iPods.

Someone was demoing how VoiceOver worked on, back then, I think it was the 3GS.

After playing around with my nephew's iPod, I received my own for my birthday.

It wasn't until the iPhone 6S was first released that I decided to get my first iPhone.

When the battery on that started to no longer hold a charge, I moved onto the 12, and that's the phone I am currently using.

Oh, and @Dominic, if you really insist on dictating your messages, at least use ChatGPT. That way, you can get it to clean it up for you.

Use the dictate button in the app instead of the one Apple provides.

Your messages should be a lot cleaner that way.

Wow, I think I'll be running this post through ChatGPT because it seems I've made quite a few mistakes while typing this, and I'm too lazy to fix it myself, lol.

Some of you folks need to understand he is just a kid lol. He’s like 13 if I’m doing the math correctly. Blame adults for poor grammar and spelling. They should know better. This is a child…grow up lol.

Why should I blame myself for a child's poor grammar and spelling, save to the extent that I have had a direct hand in that childs education? I have never taught, nor do I believe it is likely that ever I shall teach, young Master Dominic. All I will say is that his references to back wen he was young make me weep. the poor fellow is still in the springtime of his glorious youth unlike I, who in glorious middle-age moan about how many buses it takes to get to Golders Green. I didn't tell you what they were, incidentally, and yet it's part of my Apple story: two bleedin' buses! 263 from Leisure Way to east Finchley station, then the 102 from East Finchley to Golders Green, then the Orange shop is very near the famous tailoring establishment otherwise known as the big red building on Golders Green Road. There'll be some clever so-and-so reading this asking why I didn't just get the Tube. Well, because that would have been one bus - the 263 aforementioned - then the Tube all the way into town, change at Camden Town and then all the way back out again on the other branch. it's daft. Apple Maps these days would get very cross, though Apple maps in 2010 did not have public transport.

Getting back to the dear old iPhone 4, I actually the voice on that for UK English was rather good. jane, I think she was called. She breathed, similar to what alex fans talk about these days.

I think one of the first apps I downloaded was Sendero look-around. Load of rubbish. The equivalent of a well-intentioned paperweight.
I think one of the other apps I downloaded due to my typing difficulties was Dragon Dictation. didn't work. Clause 4 of the head lease became all's war with the head police. Dominic would have been proud, and Cool Turk would have had to tidy up.

Another app I downloaded not long after getting the iPhone was the ECB Cricet app, so I could check the cricket scores. That app was much better than it is today. it's an example of an app that officially has become more accesible but at the cost of a really clunky and awful design. Still, we can have live Ashes scores in our pocket from today. Come on England!

I agree with bingo here. I suspect he dictates because maybe typing isn't fun but at least read before sending. As most of you know i have had issues not reading before sending which I'm working on. I suspect if he's not given a better direction from which he's going with the beta installs and things, he will know just enough to get himself into trouble. I'm not afraid to say hey i need help. Now if he becomes a fabulous app writer and programer, I'll wholeheartedly be proud of what he's turning out to be. Right now, show initiative and let us help make you into a better person, that's all he and i are getting across to you and any others who are offended on his behalf.

I started on Android. I got tired of the terrible accessibility for those that rely on a keyboard. I finally listened to a friend and got an iPhone 8. This was approximately 5 years ago. Then I got the SE 2020 then an iPhone 13 pro. I then gave up to quick on Face ID and went to an SE3. I will get either a 14 pro or 15 pro and deal with the face ID. I still have a samSung but Google is still far behind apple. I do think those that haven't installed the iOS 17 betas will be very happy if it continues on this track. It is good so far.

I started in 2018 on the iPhone 7, and am still using that phone. Not long after I got it I received 2 very helpful training sessions at a place here in the Chicago area. The guy who trained me is a VoiceOver user himself, so that was extremely handy. He was patient and supportive. I probably could've asked for more sessions with him, but I really didn't need them because he did such a good job and took his time with me. I think the iPhone 7 is perhaps one of the best things ever invented, and I'm told newer models are like this as well. As for the Mac, I am on my second one and the same is true regarding training. I was trained on the Mac right in a local Apple store. Though it was quite noisy due to all the shoppers and what not, the training went well. Back in the day I used a couple AppleIIE computers with Echo/Cricket, and found them to be a lot of fun. I credit my brother with informing me of AppleVis and all the awesome apps that I have today. There are definitely issues here and there which need to be resolved, but as stated previously I heartily commend Apple for taking accessibility so seriously. Long live Apple!

In 2007, I was running my own consulting business, and an associate and I were working a job in Huntsville, Alabama. Lots of space and rocket companies there. As it turns out, our hotel was right next to Space Camp, and I could see a moon rocket, an actual Saturn V, right out my window. It was freaking cool. I wanted to go to Space Camp and check it out, but we were there for work, so the view out my window was as close as I was going to get.

My associate was a huge Apple fan, and was the first person I knew who actually owned the first-gen iPhone. One morning as we ate breakfast in the hotel, he said, "Have you played around with maps yet?" Of course I hadn't. So he handed me his iPhone while he went to refill his coffee or whatever. I tapped the button to turn on satellite imagery. And it sort of tiled in real slow like, because, after all, this was 2007. And as I dragged with my finger, it would display vector streets first, then page in the satellite imagery right over the top. It was a thing of beauty.

So I dragged until my view was looking down on Space Camp next door to the hotel. And the images tiled in until I was looking straight down on the Saturn V, just off at a slight angle, with its shadow on the ground. My jaw was on the table. The view was better than out my hotel window.

I bought my own first-gen iPhone a few weeks later. After upgrading to an iPhone 3, I kept the first-gen iPhone in its original box until I finally sold it in a yard sale last year. I got $50 for it, which I understand is a bargain. Some first-gen iPhones sell for much more.

I've only scratched the surface when it comes to pictures on the iPhone. When I first got mine in 2018 I was still very skeptical of the camera and photos apps, even though my brother got an iPhone long before me and he is also a VoiceOver user. He took a lot of photos with it, and probably still does. Keep in mind that apps such as Seeing AI weren't out yet. Or at least I knew nothing about them. But the fact that VoiceOver users can even interact with these apps at all is pretty nifty. Having said all that, gotta go get my day started.

TLDR: I've had a lot of Apple products through the years, ranging from an iPod touch, iMac, various iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBooks. I just want to preface this by saying I'm not bragging.

I guess my introduction to Apple was in 2008. We were going on a holiday to America and dad bought mum and I iPods. Mine was a green iPod shuffle. I later heard about the iPod touch back in 2009 or 2010, I thought VoiceOver was a really cool concept. I had enough vision to use it normally, though. I had the iPod touch 2nd generation, 4th generation and 5th generation.

We got our first iMac for my 13th birthday in 2010. I was really into photography at the time. I remember my friends and I all crowded around the iMac and played with Photo Booth. I think we got that computer because our old Windows laptop was on its last legs. At some point, dad had a 2011 MacBook Pro but that died in 2015. I remember messing around in GarageBand.

I got my first iPhone maybe around 2013, I was 16 at the time. It was a hand-me-down from my dad. I loved that phone.

In 2014, I got my first MacBook for Christmas. It was a MacBook Air. I adored it and reluctantly upgraded to the 2019 MBA. I got the M1 MBA with the intention of trying music production, but we're only just getting along now.

I got the very first generation of the Apple Watch for my 18th birthday in 2015. I couldn't connect it to my iPhone 4s, so I bought an iPhone 6 64gb.

I used that phone until 2017, where I used a Samsung S8 for around 6 months before deciding Android wasn't for me and heard about SeeingAI at a program through Vision Australia. I bought an iPhone 8+ and loved that thing until I lost my vision in 2020, where it began getting slow and the size was too annoying for a VoiceOver user. I bought the iPhone 12 Pro 256gb, because I'm a podcast hoarder. I may upgrade to the iPhone 14 Pro this year.

I've also had a few iPads - I got the iPad 4th gen in 2012, the iPad Pro 10.5 when I started university in 2017, and I just recently bought an iPad 9th generation (we're not getting along so I'm not sure what to do with it).
I've also had a few Apple Watches throughout the year. Series 0, Series 3, and I got the SE in 2020 for my birthday. I really, really love the Apple Watch SE.

My first 'smart' phone was purchased in 2010. Before this, I was rocking a Samsung Messager II. Please note that is not a typo, it was actually called 'messager and not messenger.
Anyways, in 2010 I was officially and legally blind. Not fully... yet, but quickly getting there. So while I had some working vision left, I began researching phones with voice feedback. Eventually I learned about this 'new' OS for 'smart' touch screen phones called 'Androids'. I learned about 'TalkBack'. And I eventually would pick up my first Android (a LG Optimus) from a provider called 'metroPCS'. I believe they are owned by T Mobile these days, but I digress.

I used that LG phone for about a year or so, rocking Android 2.2 (I think?) called Frozen Yogurt (FroYo). I then upgraded to a T Mobile HTC Glacier I 'believe' was running Android 4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich). This HTC had a little joystick-like button about where iPhones Home button is located, which made navigating around the phone a bit easier. Still I could only do some basic activities on it overall. One of them being watching YouTube vids. I watched all I could about Android and iOS accessibility.

In 2012 I switched to Verizon and picked up my first iPhone, a 4S. This would be the first iPhone model that had Siri on it.

Using this phone was like winning the lottery. True story. I could do so much more, and everything was so fluid in iOS back then. I think the iOS version was 5.1.1. It was the last version that shipped with Google Maps and Apples own YouTube app pre-installed.

I loved this phone. As I said I could do much. I learned (through YouTube and lots of Trial and Error) how to text, read and write emails, surf the inter webs, take selfies, use assistive apps to look up information via the camera, and even enjoy multimedia like audio books, podcasts, and audio described content.

Not to mention some early interactive fiction games....

Over the years I have gone up the chain, more or less, from an iPhone 4S to my current iPhone SE 2nd Gen. And I am looking forward to the iP15 when its released.

Thanks for reading and apologies for my scattered recollection. Its late and I am old and sleep deprived. 😳

Hi. Yes I agree with others please read before sending. I learned that the hard way when a former supervisor at a previous internship told me my texts didn't make sense. Anyway now onto my apple story. :)
I first had an iPod back in high school either 2004 or 2005. It was one of those old iPods with one of the scroll wheels and you downloaded music from iTunes on a computer. Now that iPod is obsolete and collecting dust in a drawer. I had various flip phones including one where the numbers spoke. There I was typing and memorizing how many times to press each number so I can text. I put the phone on a CCTV. Oh Yeah and you can't forget good old speed dial. :)
In summer 2013 I went to a friend's house for an afternoon. She let me play with voice over on her iPhone 4S. She told me how Vo could identify who is calling and I immediately wanted an iPhone. I got my first iPhone on Aug 17 2013 and spent a week getting things set with it regarding voiceover and many duplicate contacts. Ever since then I never looked back. I had an iPhone 5, 5S, 6S, 10R, and now the 12. I recently helped my mom with features on her iPhone 14.