#iACast 48 – An Interview With Hooke Audio

Hooke Audio Logo

The National Federation of the Blind convention brings people together to network and to discuss all new technologies. Though we have had the chance to unbox and review the Hooke Audio headphones, we have had the pleasure to sit down today with Anthony and Justin of Hooke Audio to talk more about the amazing 3D audio headphones.

We will be posting this podcast twice. We recorded this on the Yeti Pro, and on the Hooke Verse headphones to compare the audio in a podcast setting. This version of the podcast was done on the Yeti Pro, and the other version will be up soon.

We would like to thank everyone at Hooke Audio for letting us try the Hooke Verse headphones, and we urge all of our listeners to look at and possibly purchase these headphones. While there are limitations to the Hooke Verse, the possibilities are endless for future updates.

Hooke Audio Website

iA UnboxCast 6 – Hooke Verse

Hooke Audio Logo

On this episode of the UnboxCast, Aleeha, Michael, Jason, and T. J. Meloy unbox the Hooke Verse headphones. We also discuss setting up the headphones, and show how accessible the Hooke Verse app is.

Hooke Audio

#IACast 47 – Pre-#NFB17

NFB Logo

In this episode of the iA Cast, Michael, Aleeha, Scott, and Rich discuss what is to come during the NFB convention for 2017. We also discuss what sessions we plan to visit during this episode.

National Federation of the Blind Agenda in HTML

NFB Twitter Hashtag is #NFB17

#iACast 46 – Lets Go Face The Music

Garageband icon showing guitar.

On this episode of the iA Cast, Aleeha talks with Jason Earls, T. J. Meloy, Matt Dierckens, and Aaron Linson about their backgrounds in music and what software they use to create and produce music.

Mentioned Music Software

Hooke Audio – 3D Binaural Microphone for iOS

Hooke Audio Logo

In the past, 3D audio recording has been something that many have not had access to. It seems that we are now seeing many different products on the market that can do 3D audio, and Hooke Audio is one company that provides such a solution. Thanks to the great folks at Hooke, the iAccessibility Management Team has had the opportunity to use the Hooke Verse headset and record several demos using the iOS app. We will soon have demos of the headset’s recordings on the iA Cast podcast, but I wanted to talk today about the Hooke Audio app and how amazingly accessible it is.

How The App Works

To explain how the app works, I must first explain more about the Hooke Verse headset. The Hooke Verse is a Bluetooth headset that can record in 3D, also known as Binaural, audio, which means that the sound can come from any angle instead of just left or right. The Hooke Verse headset appears to use specific APIs to communicate with an iOS device, like an iPhone, to send audio from itself to the device. From what I can tell, the Hooke Verse does not contain the same recording technology as many headphones, because it is not able to be used to make calls or use with TeamTalk or FaceTime on iOS. Once the user initiates recording in the Hooke Audio App, the headset will start recording in 3D audio. Recording in iOS does require the Hooke Audio app, but you can use the share button in the app to send the recordings to other apps.

Hooke Audio Accessibility

One of the big advantages of the Hooke Audio app is that it is fully accessible with VoiceOver. Hooke has worked very closely with the Blind community to make their app and device as accessible as possible.

When you enter the Hooke App for the first time, you will be guided through a tutorial on how to set up and use your headset. Please read through this tutorial as there are some interesting suggestions on how to properly use the headset.

Typically, we would explain where to find the buttons in an app in our reviews, but I think you will find a pleasant surprise when you open the Hooke app for the first time with VoiceOver on. I personally am a visual app user, but I found it very easy to learn the app with VoiceOver when I opened it and it showed me a dialog explaining how to use the app with VoiceOver.

Conclusion

Hooke Audio has created a great headset and companion app for recording 3D audio. I would like to see it have more features that worked with other apps like GarageBand and have AudioBus support, but I think that this is a great start to something that makes an iOS device into more than what it was designed for.

We will be reviewing the headset itself in great detail in a future article and in several podcast episodes.

Link to Hooke Audio

 

#iACast 45 – Test it up to 11!

iOS 11

On this episode of the iA Cast Aleeha, Jason, and Michael discuss the iOS 11 beta and share their thoughts on the first build. iOS 11 beta 2 for developers has been released since this recording bringing a lot of fixes while also introducing a few new bugs. The public beta for iOS 11 has also been released at beta.apple.com. Head over there to enroll your device.

Bring Your Adventures to the Mac

iAccessibility Logo

Everyone likes games, and when gaming is accessible they are even better. MUDs have been an accessible way for people to play games online with friends for a long time, but there has been a lack of accessible MUD clients for the Mac. This week, iAccessibility is proud to announce that there is now a MUD client that everyone can use and it works on the Mac. Yesterday, iAccessibility released MUDAbility a low priced MUD client for macOS that works with or without VoiceOver. While this is the first release, we plan to update the app frequently and often to give you the most features possible. Our plan is to have it ready for the Mac App Store soon. If you are interested then head over to https://iaccessibility.net/downloads/mudability-accessible-mud-client-for-macos/

#iACast 44 #WWDC17 After Party

WWDC17 poster

On this episode of the iA Cast Aleeha, Michael, Jason, Aaron and T. J. discuss the latest news from Apple’s yearly WWDC conference. Here is what was covered in the episode.

What the iA staff would like to see from #WWDC17

WWDC17 poster

Each year, Apple announces their latest software at their Worldwide Developer Conference, and WWDC 2017 starts today. the management staff here at iAccessibility has written down what they would like to see, and is written below.

Matt’s wishlist

Monday, June 5 is Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) where we will most likely see some new hardware and software. Here are a few of my hopes for tomorrow’s conference announcements.
iOS

  1. Updated Braille translation support – I should be able to type quickly on my Braille display without waiting for the operating system/display to sync with each other.
  2. Siri – Hopefully in iOS 11, Siri will be able to support more third party applications with Siri kit. I would love to be able to say, “Hey Siri, Play podcasts with Overcast,” or, “Hey Siri, play my Audible Book.” Also, while using Hey Siri, you should be able to continue to speak to Siri after you’ve asked it a question. This should be true for which ever device, especially if the rumour is true about Apple releasing a Siri speaker.

MacOS

  1. No more lag — personally, there shouldn’t be any lag when moving with VO, whether it be in Safari, Pages or Textedit. At the moment there is also a lag when switching activities with both apple voices and Vocalizer voices.
  2. “Hey Siri,” – Apple is always about the “universal experience across devices.” Hopefully in the next version of both MacOS and TVOS we see “hey Siri” added.

These are just a few things I would love to see at today’s event. It will be great to see what’s added in the upcoming operating systems.

Jason’s Wishlist

As we all know, Apple’s WWDC conference is happening on June fifth. Here are some things I’d like to see.

iOS

I’d like to see Apple put the “Pro” into iPad Pro. From Apple’s website: “iPad Pro is more than the next generation of iPad — it’s an uncompromising vision of personal computing for the modern world. It puts incredible power that leaps past most portable PCs at your fingertips. It makes even complex work as natural as touching, swiping, or writing with a pencil. And whether you choose the 12.9-inch model or the 9.7-inch model, iPad Pro is more capable, versatile, and portable than anything that’s come before. In a word, super.”

For me, two things come to mind that would make the iPad “super.” 1. Finder for iOS, and 2. xCode for iOS. If apple wants the iPad Pro to be an “uncompromising vision of personal computing,” adding those two features to iOS would, I think, really help Apple meet that goal.

Siri

I’d like to see Siri get smarter, and more capable.

More app categories being added to Siri kit would be nice, especially if Apple is indeed going to announce a Siri speaker.

I think Siri needs to have a more natural conversation stile than it currently does, and that stile should be hands-free. We can already say something like “Hey Siri. What’s the weather?” And it’ll respond. But if you want to ask something else, you would keep having to say “Hey Siri.”

Maybe Siri could listen for a couple seconds to see if you have something else to ask before waiting for the “Hey Siri” command again?

I can already see a downside to my idea, but it leads me to the last thing I’d like to see for Siri, and that would be to improve Siri’s ability to only respond to your specific voice.

Conclusion

These are just a few things I’d like to see announced at WWDC. Will they happen? Well, all I can say is it’s going to be fun to watch it and find out.

Michael’s Wishlist

WWDC is one of my favorite announcements of the year, and I can’t wait to see what Apple brings us today. There is so many things that I would like to see them release today, so I will separate them out by OS.

iOS

  1. I have to agree with what Jason said about the iPad Pro. I would really like to see this become more of a Pro device for dev and others.
  2. I would like to see a full file system come to iOS
  3. I would like to see full audio support come to iOS where multiple media types can play at the same time, so I could have TeamTalk and music playing at the same time, or have recording from multiple inputs work.
  4. Better support for Siri to learn new skills
  5. Removal of Apple Music Cache files. You can do this on Android, so iOS should have this as well.
  6. less use of iTunes to get items like Ringtones on your device.

macOS

  1. Support for, “Hey Siri”
  2. Support for touch screen macs

WatchOS

  1. Allow the watch to unpaid and pair with different phones.
  2. Speed improvements
  3. Siri Improvements

Windows

  1. Support for iMessage for Windows

Android

  1. Support for iMessage
  2. Support for Apple Watch
  3. iCloud contacts and sync for Android

While I am sure much of my list will not be on the list for today’s event I can hope that some things will make it to reality.

Conclusion

I think our team has put together some awesome ideas of things we would like to see today at WWDC, and we will see what we get in an hour.

WWDC 2017 – Apple

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