13 reasons why I want an Apple Watch:
Opinion
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I cut my own hair last week. I purchased the Elite Pro electric hair clippers through Amazon, and unpacked the much anticipated and quickly sanitized cardboard box. My overly long, unruly, very silver hair felt yucky and gross. It was time to shed the extra weight. I plugged in the clippers, stripped off my shirt and sat on a low plastic footstool over the tiled kitchen floor. Now, I was poised and personally empowered to do great damage. This was going to be fun! I drove those clippers across my locks like a 1965 Ford Mustang. What was the worst that could happen?
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The influx of new notetakers at the last couple of CSUN conferences is great to see. More choice is always a good thing, as is having fewer, and lighter, devices to cary around to get things done. But what about iOS? Apple positions its iPad Pros as a way to take better notes and a great way to get rid of things on your desk in their latest adds.
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In what could soon be coming as the first of its kind, Humanware appears to be developing a new braille display and app for synchronizing notes with iDevices. In late April, an app hit the App Store called Brailliant Sync. According to the description by Harpo, the app is designed "for synchronizing notes between Gmail, IMAP and similar servers and Brailliant 14 Braille devices." This tells us 2 things.
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Over the last couple years, I’ve come to a conclusion about life as a blind person: it isn’t the physical lack of sight that’s the biggest difficulty I face; but rather, it is attempting to overcome peoples’ negative stereotypes and misconceptions about what I can—and cannot—do that is the real problem.
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My book collection takes up no space. With my phone in my pocket, and wearing my AfterShokz headset, I have hundreds of books to keep me occupied wherever I go. And when I buy new books, I don't need to worry about whether I have enough room for them on the shelves.
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Whether on my iPhone or my Mac, I encounter accessibility issues pretty much daily.
Yes, much of it is the usual---mouse-centric controls, unlabeled buttons, and images without ALT text---commonplace issues that have been highlighted for years. I don’t want to minimize these issues, but I view them as minor. They are well-known. They have names. We can talk about them in discussions with developers. Free utilities are readily available to help find them.
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In late April, Apple began offering the opportunity for users to explore and experience Apple Watch's accessibility features at try-on appointments. After confirming that my local Apple Store had a Watch set up and ready (all stores should now have Watch units available for accessibility demonstrations, but my appointment was at the beginning of the rollout), I went into the store to check the Apple Watch out for myself.
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Intro
For years, I've used bone conduction headphones from [Aftershokz](http://www.aftershokz.com]. A few weeks ago, I got myself an early Christmas present: a set of Apple's AirPods, the wireless earbuds Apple released in late 2016. I'd heard a lot about AirPods, and had held a set some days prior to my purchase, which physical handling finally pushed me over the edge and sent me to the nearest store that had my new toy in stock.
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I've used an iPhone since 2007. I should know how to use the alarm feature by now. No such luck. My spouse and I use our Bose Wave Radio as our main alarm. I use my iPhone alarm only on rare occasions when I get up earlier than she does.
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Intro
For a long time, I've wanted an Apple Watch. I held back for several reasons, not the least of which was because I didn't know if it was worth the money. When a tiny little watch costs around the same price as the latest iPad, it gives one pause. If you're in the same boat, I hope this post will be of some use. If you've never wanted an Apple Watch at all, I encourage you to read on. I've been as fair and unbiased as I can be, so you'll find plenty of criticism and honest assessment. You might, though, discover aspects of this device you never thought of before.
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As the power and versatility of iOS devices sinks in, many users invariably ask veteran iPhone and iPad enthusiasts about Bluetooth keyboards. As someone who's dabbled with Bluetooth keyboards since the addition of external keyboard support hit iOS, I've handled my fair share of these accessories in both my role as an assistive technology instructor and just a tech enthusiast on the internet. Just like with apps and web resources, it's almost impossible to work with or even hear about every example or even every type of Bluetooth keyboard, let alone every model.
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My spouse uses Yahoo mail. (Shudder! I know.) Recently she complained that there’s no way to open an attachment when viewing her Yahoo mail in Google Chrome on her Windows 7 laptop. She’s right - Chrome forces you to download an attachment to a temporary location before you can open or print it.
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After two years of rumour, speculation, and hype, Apple's AirTag has finally arrived; and my early impressions and experience suggest that it might have been worth the wait if you are blind or low vision - most particularly so for those who use an iPhone 11 or iPhone 12.
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The News Quandary
In June, Apple unveiled its News app, which pulls together news from around the web and lets you read it all in one place, like an RSS reader. Unlike traditional RSS services, though, News can get an idea of what sources and topics interest you, then pull articles from everywhere that it thinks relate to the things you like. It's a curated news service, rather than the simple pipe of RSS feeds. In other words, instead of getting every article published by sources you follow, News gives you interesting articles from a wide array of sources.
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Apple's commitment to accessibility has made life easier for large numbers of visually impaired and other disabled people. Gone are the days of buying a Nokia phone and having to send it away and wait weeks for Talks to be installed. We have devices that we can use immediately after buying, without installing an expensive screen reader. Our devices include accessibility settings to accommodate several different disabilities.
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We are thrilled to unveil our inaugural Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card, which provides valuable insights into the experiences and opinions of visually impaired community members who rely on VoiceOver, Braille support, or the low vision features on Apple devices.
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I told myself that I didn’t want an Apple Watch.
I told my family and friends that I didn’t want an Apple Watch.
I wrote and tweeted about how I didn’t want an Apple Watch.
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Traditionally, it's any new iPhones which are the highlight of Apple's fall product launches. However, for this year's “Gather Round” event, it was the Apple Watch Series 4 which was the star of the show for me. It was in my opinion the most ground-breaking in terms of product evolution; and, whereas I was somewhat underwhelmed by the three new iPhones, the Apple Watch had me impressed and perhaps even a little excited.
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Welcome to the April 2017 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, our monthly series which aims to highlight what's new and noteworthy on the AppleVis website. Below, you'll find a selection of the best content posted to AppleVis - from new app entries, to app updates, to the latest news and podcasts. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.