Should there be a new Apple Watch in 2016?

January 4, 2016 by Michael Doise

Apple has a release cycle of a new product each year whether it be computers, phones or other hardware, but does Apple need a new Apple Watch this year?

Advantages of a new Apple Watch model

The advantages of a new Apple Watch this year would be that Apple could put a new processor and memory on the watch, making WatchOS faster and more responsive. They could also allow for better software features on WatchOS 3 as well.

Disadvantages of getting a new Apple Watch model

While it would be cool to see a new watch, you also have to look at the market. Will people want to buy a new Apple Watch, or will they just want to keep with their current model. If you own a sport model of the watch an upgrade is reasonable, but the steel and edition models of the watch are a little more difficult to justify upgrading. The other thing to consider is if Apple decides to keep the same band attachment mechanism. If Apple decides to change how the watch works with bands, then all bands purchased last year and during the beginning of this year will not work on the new watch.

Conclusion

While it would be cool to see a new watch, I don’t think they really need to put out a new model of Apple Watch until 2017. This is because people are just now getting used to wearing their current model, and will have to adapt and adopt a new way of using and wearing the Apple Watch if one becomes available. As mentioned earlier, you may need to get new bands for the new model, and they will cost as much as the first watch you have purchased. I again think that coming out with a second model in March would not be a good idea for Apple, but I do think they could get away with coming out with a watch when the new iPhone 7 becomes available. It would be a neat companion product. Get your iPhone 7 and your new Apple Watch.

What do you think? Do you think Apple should make a new Apple Watch model this year? Let us know in the comments or on social media.

Learning Xcode with VoiceOver

January 4, 2016January 4, 2016 by Michael Doise

Are you a blind or low vision user of the Mac and want to know if you can use Xcode to build apps for iOS or for the Mac? Alex Hall over at AppleVis has written a great guide to show new readers how to use Xcode with Apple’s screen reader VoiceOver.

A VoiceOver User’s Guide to Xcode

Does Texture live up to all of the hype?

December 31, 2015 by Michael Doise

Texture is a new app to allow users the ability to read magazine articles from any magazine with only one subscription, which seems like a great deal. So, as we always do, we ask the question, Can you use that app for that?

How this app works

Texture essentially takes printed magazines and puts them into a format where a person can read articles from different magazines for a single subscription price. The app lets you sign up through Facebook and lets you try the service for 7 days for free.

Is Texture accessible?

When I tried to sign up for Texture, I was able to find all buttons and text fields with VoiceOver and had no problems. A few buttons were poorly labeled, but it was possible. I was even able to pick which magazines I liked at the time of sign up. Once I signed up and in was when the problems began.

The getting started screen presented a picture where there appeared to be links and buttons embedded in places that VoiceOver could not detect. Many other buttons on this screen were not accessible or had incomprehensible labels as well.

Once I made it to the main screen I could find and select a magazine to view. Once I opened a magazine I found out the truth of this app. Each magazine is scanned, and therefore will not read with VoiceOver. If you are low vision, then you can pinch to zoom each page, which works ok, but VoiceOver users should not waste money on an app that does not provide accessible content.

Conclusion

While it is cool that Texture offers the ability for users to read and subscribe to multiple magazines under one subscription price, it does not allow for VoiceOver users to enjoy content from this service. While low vision users will find the service accessible with Zoom and pinch to zoom, VoiceOver users will have no reason to even sign up for this app.

iTerm2 for Mac – a very decent terminal replacement

December 25, 2015 by Michael Doise

A friend told me about an app today that I wanted to try called iTerm2 for the Mac. This app is a terminal replacement app that lets you write to the Macintosh terminal and execute commands with text. While this is a developer based app I feel it is worth mentioning here at the iAccessibility report as we review all sorts of apps for different platforms.

How does iTerm2 work?

iTerm2 for Mac opens an area where you can write commands to the computer just like the built in Apple terminal application. The advantages of iTerm2 is that it allows for recappable hotkeys, and for the user to open more than one tab, which the terminal app does not do. There are probably many more features to this app, but these are a huge highlight to its benefits over the built in app.

Accessibility

So the big question is, Can VoiceOver work with this app? The surprising answer here is yes. When I opened the iTerm2 app I turned on VoiceOver and VO read the entire screen to start. VoiceOver would then read back what I typed, and then would read the output to that when I pressed enter to execute the command. This is very nice when you try to list the contents of a folder or when you are doing something that you need to have read immediately. For low vision users the app is in white on black to start, so it is a very high contrast solution for low vision users.

Conclusion

While there is already a built in app for administrating the computer from the command line, iTerm 2 provides more features and the ability for power users to work more effectively. This app also offers more blind and low vision users the ability to use a terminal app with high contrast and VoiceOver support.

Cortana, Microsoft’s Personal assistant for iOS

April 19, 2016December 10, 2015 by Michael Doise

Microsoft has created its own personal assistant for iOS, and its name is Cortana. Cortana is a character from the Halo video games that assists the main hero on his quests. She is an AI that works within the main character’s helmet, which is why Microsoft chose to use her name for its personal assistant. Also they chose this because she is one of the coolest video game characters ever. The question we must ask though is if Cortana is accessible for iOS. At the time of this writing the answer is yes. Cortana contains accessible buttons, and images that contain alt text. The microphone image was labeled correctly, and everything worked extremely well with VoiceOver.

Is Cortana useful for iOS?

While Cortana is useful in windows 10 and on the other windows devices, it is not as useful as Siri can be on iOS. While Cortana is new and flashy, it still takes longer with or without voiceover to find information as with Siri. For one you have to be in the app and find the microphone button to speak into Cortana and you also must then flick to find the result you are interested in.

Since Siri is built into iOS you can simply hold the home button to do the same thing instead of having to open an app. I would say that Cortana has the same usefulness as Google Now, but it also depends on if you have used the Microsoft or Google ecosystem before iOS.

Conclusion

Cortana for iOS is the third personal assistant for iOS, but it really does not add any new features that are already offered by Siri and Google Now. This app works really well if you are based mostly in the Microsoft world, but really shows limitations when compared to the other two assistants since Siri is built into the phone, and Google Now contains more options and features than what can be done with Cortana.

Another New Beginning

December 6, 2015 by Michael Doise

Once before, iAccessibility was hosted on a WordPress site. We since made the switch to Squarespace due to limitations in configuration, but we have since determined that Squarespace does not meet our needs as far as Accessibility. Because of this, we have decided to move iaccessibility.net back to WordPress. We are still in the middle of moving all of our content to the new site, so please bear with us as we complete the transition.

Is it an iPad Pro, or is it just a big iPad?

February 16, 2016November 21, 2015 by Michael Doise

So recently, Apple released the iPad Pro, and promised that this device would be a computer alternative, so have decided to do as many have done and try to use the iPad as a main computer. In many wyas, the iPad Pro has things that are better than an iMac or Macbook, and in some ways the iPad Pro is not. In this article we will explore how it is better and how it is not.

Why the iPad is a computer Aleternative

The iPad Pro comes with a beautiful 12.9 inch Retina display that looks amazing for web design and other professional and creative ventures. The on screen keyboard is no longer the basic iOS keyboard we have come to know, but is now a full featured keyboard with a number row and the punctuation in the correct places. You can even press the shift key and find the question mark or number row characters as you would on the computer. The current version of iOS also contains more keyboard shortcuts like Command Tab to switch between apps.

Safari on the iPad Pro also behaves more like Safari on the computer. I am actually writing this article on my iPad Pro, and have full access to the Squarespace tools as if I was on my Macbook. The only thing I did not see is how to drag and drop items into the correct places.

The Sound quality on the new iPad Pro is amazing, in fact it really rivals the sound quality on many desktop computers.

The battery life on the iPad Pro is amazing as well. I unplugged the iPad around 8 this morning and have played games and surfed the web on it all day and the iPad is still at 82% battery life. This does outlast the Macbook or Macbook Pro’s battery life.

Photos look great on the iPad Pro. You can get a good look at your high resolution photos that you have taken on your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus and they will look amazing on the iPad Pro.

Another advantage of the iPad Pro is that it will eventually get USB 3.0 support. The iPad Pro does not currently have any usb 3 accessories but iFixit has determined that there is USB 3.0 support built into the iPad mainboard.

How the iPad Pro is not like a computer

While the iPad Pro has many features that make it comperable to a computer, it still has its limitations.

The iPad Pro does not have XCode or the professional Mac apps for creatives. While the iPad software can support it, Apple will not add these programs to their iOS devices at this point.

Podcasting is still difficult on the iPad Pro because of sound and audio input limitations. I do not know if you can hook up a USB Mic to it yet. That will be tried shortly. This is still where the MacBook has an advantage.

Many also do not like the fact that the iPad still does not have multi user support. I think this may be coming in iOS 10.

The last major issue with the iPad Pro is the lack of a filesystem browser. Apple has added iCloud Drive support, but I believe that you will always need Internet Access for this to work.

Conclusion

The iPad Pro is really Apple’s best creative device. If you need a device with a filesystem and full podcasting support, then use a Mac. If you do not need these features and want a touch centric device, then the iPad Pro is best for you. If you want a good device to watch movies and TV Shows then the iPad Pro is amazing. I even use it as my home speaker system if I just want to fill a room with audio. The iPad Pro’s 4 speakers really are amazing to hear, and no writing can express how well these things sound.

The big thing is that you will not be able to write code for apps or create the most professional movies with this device, but you can start a project on it and do the heavy lifting on a Mac.

Please let us know what you think about the iPad Pro and write how you use it or not use it as a computer.

Introducing MLWordTips by MaLynWorks

December 4, 2015November 17, 2015 by Michael Doise

iAccessibility is proud to introduce our latest app MLWordTips. MLWordTips has been made by iAccessibility for MaLynWorks, and allows for the user to learn Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts. These tips and shortcuts are not specifically for screen reader users, but are useful for blind and sighted users alike.

Quick Tip: How to pair Magic Keyboard with iOS Devices

December 30, 2015November 6, 2015 by Michael Doise

The Magic Keyboard is the newest keyboard from Apple and it offers a new sleek and slim design. The nicest feature of the keyboard is its multiple uses with devices. This keyboard can be a wireless keyboard for iOS and Mac, or a wired Mac or PC keyboard.

To pair the Magic Keyboard with an iOS device follow the below instructions.

Make sure your keyboard is on. The keyboard now has an on/off switch instead of a button to make this easier.
Open the settings app
find the Bluetooth section
Look for Magic Keyboard and select it

You may also like to un-pair your keyboard or disconnect it for use with other devices. Here is how you do this.

Open the settings app
Find Bluetooth
Find your Magic Keyboard in the list
Find the More info or details button to the right of your keyboard and select it.
Find the disconnect for forget device option to un-pair your keyboard.

There will be more Magic Keyboard tips added here soon so keep checking back.

Home

November 6, 2015 by Michael Doise

Welcome

Welcome to iAccessibility! We have rearranged the top menu to bring back all of the articles from the original iAccessibility Report, and we will continue to offer articles in this format. We apologize for making it difficult to get to this content, but it has been fixed. We will also be providing new and more detailed content on Apple releases and iOS apps, along with information about other operating systems and their apps.

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Report

Nov 21, 2015

Advantages of a new Apple Watch model

Disadvantages of getting a new Apple Watch model

Conclusion

Like this:

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How this app works

Is Texture accessible?

Conclusion

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How does iTerm2 work?

Accessibility

Conclusion

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Is Cortana useful for iOS?

Conclusion

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Why the iPad is a computer Aleternative

How the iPad Pro is not like a computer

Conclusion

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Welcome

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