Update, 7/5/2014, 4:02 PM CDT: Members of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) have just passed Resolution 2014-12 at their annual national convention. The resolution calls upon Apple to work with the NFB to develop standards and policies to ensure the accessibility of all iOS apps. The full text of the resolution, as well as our original blog post, is below.
iOS and iPadOS Apps
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The sun was warm and bright that Friday morning in Southern California. From our fourth grade classroom, my friends and I were already anticipating lunch and recess. An adult walked in, whispered to our teacher, and we immediately lined up and were on our way out the door. As we walked, we saw children pouring out of every classroom, all heading in the same direction. Something was odd. Everyone squeezed into the school auditorium and quickly found seats. I took my place on the right side, in one of the first rows. Up front, on a heavy institutional wooden chair, sat an old Philco radio.
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Apple has announced the winners of its 2024 Apple Design Awards, which honor excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design across seven categories: delight and fun, inclusivity, innovation, interaction, social impact, visuals and graphics, and a new spatial computing category. The winners were chosen from 42 finalists.
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I have a love-hate relationship with Siri.
When I tell Siri to set my alarm just before I go to bed, I appreciate the convenience of being able to simply tell my phone something and it get done. I’m the type of person who might possibly sleep through my first alarm, so I set several as an extra precaution. When I wake up and am sure I’m out of bed, I tell Siri, “Turn off all of my alarms,” and go on with my day. The same goes for setting my monthly hair cut appointments; almost always, it just works.
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I was a late adopter of the iPhone technology. I thought I didn't need ANOTHER gadget to keep track of. It wasn't until I heard some friends discussing their iPhones that I realized that an iPhone could replace many of the gadgets I used. Not only did the iPhone cut down on the number of gadgets I needed to carry, but it saved me money too!
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The March vote for induction into our iOS App Hall of Fame was a landmark for being the first ever where every single nominee received multiple votes. It also saw the clearest winner, with ooTunes Radio gaining significantly more votes than all the other nominees.
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Groupon is one of the world's leading providers of daily deals - offering discounts of up to 90% on all the things that you love, such as fun and exciting experiences, restaurants, theaters, spas, shops and more.
Unfortunately, the latest update to its iOS app has introduced some significant issues for VoiceOver users, making browsing of deals frustrating and time consuming.
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I've just added a new page to this site that lists iOS apps developed specifically for the blind or people with low vision.
With the benefit of hindsight, this seems like something that we should have done some time ago, but they do say better late than never ... right? <smile>
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At the end of each month, members of the AppleVis Editorial Team take a look at all the apps that have been posted to the site during that month—either for the first time, or where there has been a significant update—and decide which of these they think is the most noteworthy.
The AppleVis Editorial Team app picks of the month for July 2014 are as follows:
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We are pleased to announce that the latest iOS app to be inducted into our App Hall of Fame is Pandora Radio.
Pandora Radio is free personalized radio that only plays music you’ll love. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a custom "station" that plays similar music.
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Update #1
In reply to a question from us on Twitter, it’s been confirmed that active development will cease on all of the current audio games from Somethin’ Else and not just Papa Sangre.
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We are pleased to announce that the latest iOS app to be inducted into our App Hall of Fame is Papa Sangre.
In a very tight vote, Papa Sangre edged out a number of other iOS games to become only the 14th inductee.
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Papa Sangre II has just arrived in the iTunes App Store. This much anticipated follow-up to the Papa Sangre game from 2010 is the third audio only game release from Somethin’ Else. If this latest adventure follows in the footsteps of the two previous games, it is certain to be a hit with blind iOS gamers.
Papa Sangre II is a horror game that takes as its starting point a macabre concept: your own death.
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Papa Sangre II, the wildly popular audio game, will be free to download in the app store for one day on Thursday, March 27, 2014 local time.
Somethin Else, the developers behind Papa Sangre II and The Nightjar, recently announced that last week, Papa Sangre II won the “Excellence in Sound Design” award at the 2014 International Mobile Gaming Awards. Papa Sangre II was also rated the #1 iOS game of 2013 by MetaCritic.
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Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), and we are asking everybody to use this as an opportunity to reach out to iOS and OS X developers - to either encourage them to make their applications accessible and usable by the vision-impaired; or to show your appreciation for applications which already are.
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We were recently contacted by the developer of Photogenda, which is described as a visual quick-dialler app for the iPhone.
The idea for the app came when the developer saw his father struggling to read the names of contacts on their iPhone. Its main goal is to simplify and speed-up calling, messaging and FaceTime connections with your contacts. It allows you to create customized groups and see your contact's photos as big as you want.
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I'm basically lazy. If technology exists that lets me spend more time sitting on my butt, I'm all over it. I control my thermostat with an app, use Google Hangouts for virtual meetings, and don't remember the last time I walked to a mailbox—that's why God invented email.
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If you are a Navigon user, I would encourage you not to update to version 2.0 just yet.
I've updated to this new version and am experiencing major problems.
The update installed fine. I was then required to select which map areas I wanted to download. The download took quite some time, and at various stages VoiceOver became unresponsive.
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I was sitting in my office. The lease had expired, the air conditioner was broken, and a fly crawled across my arm. I slapped him with the open palm of my hand and sent him out of the game.
Someone knocked at the door.
“It’s open,” I said.
I heard a dog’s claws on my linoleum floor, then a lady in high heels. She smelled pretty as a rose, and her dress swayed like tall grass in a cool summer breeze. The dog led her to a chair. She sat.
“I’m lookin’ for somebody to help me find something,” she said.
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Introduction
Apple's iOS operating system doesn't suffer from a paucity of ebook readers.