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On this episode of iA Cast recorded on December 21, 2015, I discuss the following topics.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
This week on the iA Cast, we discuss the following topics.
Many writers at iMore have stated that Mac OS X is not designed to be a touch based operating system. This is because the programs are not built to work with a touch interface, but what if a team were to build apps for iOS that did the same as Mac OS X but for iOS? If these apps were built for the iPad, then the user could use the pencil for an easier touch experience in selecting files rather than using their finger. The Apple Pencil offers a very precise tool for manipulating objects on the iPad Pro, and it would be logical to speculate that it would be an essential tool for bringing full Mac OS support to an iPad or iPad Pro near you.
This weekend I received my Apple Pencil, and the first thing I did was get my iPad Pro and pair it with the Apple Pencil. The process is very simple and will take less than a minute. Here is how you pair the two devices.
The Apple Pencil has a magnetic cap on the end opposite the nib. You will feel a metal ring, and the cap will be above that ring. Simply pull the cap off the back of the pencil and you will see a Lightning connector. You can pair your Pencil by either plugging that lightning connector into the iPad Pro and have it stick out the bottom of your iPad, or by using the adapter that comes with the pencil. This will allow you to plug a lightning cable into the pencil, and then into the iPad. This will make sure you don’t hit the pencil breaking the lightning connector on it. This would be the best for charging, but to pair it is just simple to plug the pencil right into the iPad for a few seconds.
Once you plug the Pencil into the iPad Pro, you just have to wait until a pairing dialog appears. Once it does, double tap on the pair button to pair your Apple Pencil, and you will be ready to write in the Notes app or other apps that work with the device. When the battery gets low on the pencil, the iPad will tell you to charge the pencil by using a method mentioned above.
We will soon have an article here on iAccessibility’s website discussing how to do more with the Apple Pencil with VoiceOver, so keep checking back to learn more about this amazing device. We will discuss how to use it with drawing apps, and how to navigate the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil.
iOS has been changing a lot this year, and Apple has seeded beta 1 of iOS 9.3 to developers. iMore has written a great question and answer post on this update and you can read it by going to the link below.
Amazon has created many devices over the years for reading books, but their latest Kindle devices have proven to be very successful. This week I upgraded from the Kindle Paperwhite to the Kindle Voyage which has new features and better low vision accessibility improvements. Here is what you can expect from the Voyage.
The Kindle Voyage is a small 6 inch e-reader with a glass screen and a magnesium back with the Amazon logo on it. The Voyage has a button on the back and a Micro-USB charging port on the bottom of the device. There is no speaker on this device, so it does not support speech, but there are apps for iOS and Android to help with reading e-books with speech. The Voyage contains a back light like the Kindle Paperwhite, but the Voyage can adjust the backlight to fit the reading environment that you are in. The Voyage also has a screen that is glass instead of plastic, and the glass goes all the way to the edges unlike the paper white where the screen is inset into the case.
The Voyage contains the same Kindle software and operating System as other kindle devices, but since it is running on the Voyage it has a higher resolution and better backlight, so text is sharper, and with Amazon’s new Bookerly font you get a nice clear reading experience. The Kindle software allows for the reader to enlarge the text to be very large, in fact you can make the device only show a few words at a time.
While the Kindle Voyage does not work for all users, especially those requiring speech, it does work if you are seeking a device for reading if you have low vision. I would suggest though that you purchase your books on your mobile device, or from a computer and then sync them to the Voyage as the bookstore does not zoom in on the Voyage.
Late last year, Apple released the new Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6s. This battery was created for the iPhone 6s only as the 6s Plus contains 1/3 more battery power than the smaller phone. So is this case worth spending $100 for better battery life, and is it worth the hump on its back?
The iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case comes in at a size similar with the 6s, but adds a small amount of space at the bottom that contains its own lightning port, and puts the speaker on the front along with the microphone. The headphone jack is still on the bottom as well.
The case also contains a hump on the back that contains the battery pack. This is a change compared to the Mophi cases as the Mophi cases make the back of the phone the same thickness throughout the design where there is no hump on the phone or case. The hump really doesn’t add much of a difference how you hold the phone, in fact, the hump on the back adds extra grip for the iPhone which can help some hold their phones better.
The color of the Smart Battery Case comes in either charcoal or White, which limits you to how your phone would look, so if you have the space grey phone then I would go with the charcoal, but it is up to you to customize your phone as you like it.
The Smart Battery Case promises 18 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video watching, which is nearly doubled the amount that is offered on the built in battery on the 6s. The way this case works is that you use the battery on the case first and then your phone will then use its battery. You can even see your case’s battery in Notification Center under the batteries notification widget. When you plug your phone in to charge your phone will charge first, and then the case will finish charging.
While the iPhone 6s Plus has more battery built in, it is still a big phone, and not everyone needs a big phone. If a smaller phone is for you then this case adds a new way to keep your phone charged and is officially from Apple. If you do have the 6s then I highly recommend this case if you don’t already have a way to keep your phone charged as the 6s does burn through battery life fairly quickly.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.