Getting Started With iOS and iPadOS

Are you receiving too many announcements from Apple? Have no fret as Thomas Domville shows us how to stop Apple notifications for announcements, special offers, music, TV and more. So, take in charge of your subscriptions as you can disable these types of notifications or pick and choose which you want to keep receiving.

Does your iPhone keep running out of cellular data before your month service is up? Do you feel like your cap is too restrictive , but can't afford to upgrade to a more expensive iPhone contract?

If you're tired of running out of data every month , follow as Thomas Domville shows us a few tips to track and save cell data onto your iPhone so that you never hit your limit again.

In this episode, Thomas Domville discusses how to turn off repeated text message alerts on iOS and iPadOS. By default, your device will send a second notification alert two minutes after you receive a text message if you don't check it right away. This feature is designed to help ensure that you don't miss any important messages, but some users find it to be more annoying than helpful.

If you're one of those users, don't worry, it's easy to turn off repeated alerts. Here's how:

1. Open the Settings app and double-tap Notifications.
2. Double-tap Messages, and then double-tap "Customize notifications" at the bottom of the page; note that you can quickly jump to this button by performing a four-finger single-tap near the bottom of the screen.
3. Double-tap "Repeat Alerts," and select "Never" to only be notified of an incoming text message once.

In this episode, Thomas Domville shows us how to turn on the Mac-like startup and shutdown chimes that are available on all iPhone 14 and newer models. To do this, go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual, and double-tap the "Power on and off sounds" toggle.

Note that as this option is facilitated by the iPhone's boot rom, the read-only code responsible for starting the iPhone and initializing iOS, it is limited to the iPhone 14 and newer devices. See this article for more information: How to enable the iPhone 14 boot chime

In this podcast, Thomas Domville showcases the new “Unlock with Apple Watch”” feature introduced in iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4 that allows the iPhone to use an unlocked and authenticated Apple Watch as a secondary authentication method; making it easier to unlock an iPhone when you're wearing a mask. When this feature is enabled in Settings > Face ID & Passcode, you will not need to take off your mask or enter a passcode to unlock your iPhone. Note that a full Face ID facial scan or a passcode will still be required to authenticate Apple Pay or App Store purchases.

In this podcast from his series looking at some of what's new and notable in iOS 15, Thomas Domville Shows us Live Text, a feature that allows you to quickly recognize text and select, copy, paste, and lookup in both the Camera and Photos app.

Here’s how Apple describes Live Text:

Intro

When iPhone X was released, it introduced a few swipe gestures to replace the Home Button. In iOS 12, Apple brought similar gestures to iPad, even the models that still have a home button. It seems like this new way of doing things is here to stay, so I wanted to try to demystify it. The below applies to all iOS and iPadOS devices I know of, running version 12 or newer.

In this podcast from his series looking at some of what's new and notable in iOS 15, Thomas Domville introduces us toHide My Email.

Available to iCloud+ subscribers, Hide My Email builds on the idea of Sign in With Apple by providing you with unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox and can be deleted at any time. This can be particularly useful if you need to give a company an email address, but are concerned that they will share the address with others who will use it for advertising purposes.

Are you wanting to share a folder from your iCloud Drive with your family, friends or co-workers? Join Thomas Domville in how to use iCloud folder sharing in iOS.

In this podcast from his series looking at some of what's new and notable in iOS 15, Thomas Domville introduces us to iCloud Private Relay.

iCloud Private Relay ensures the Safari traffic leaving your device is encrypted - so no one can intercept and read it - and it puts all your requests through two separate internet relays. The result is that no one, including Apple, can see who you are or what sites you are visiting.

In this first podcast in a multi-part series, Thomas Domville gives us an introduction to Siri Shortcuts on iOS.

How to Find a Siri Shortcut Created by an App Developer:

1. Open Your App of Choice.
2. Navigate to and open the app's settings.
3. Navigate to Siri Shortcuts and double-tap.
4. Find the Shortcut you Want to Use and double-tap.
5. Navigate to Start Recording and double-tap.
6. Navigate to the Done button, at the top-right corner of the screen, and double-tap.

And/Or

1. Open Settings.
2. Navigate to Siri and Search and double-tap.
3. Navigate to All Shortcuts and double-tap.
4. Find the Shortcut you Want to Use and double-tap.
5. Navigate to Start Recording and double-tap.
6. Navigate to the Done button, at the top-right corner of the screen, and double-tap.

Note: Siri Shortcuts requires iOS 12 or later.

In this second podcast in a multi-part series, Thomas Domville gives us an introduction to Siri Shortcuts on iOS. ‎Shortcuts on the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/workflow-powerful-automation/id915249334?ign-mpt=uo%3D8%26amp%3Buo%3D8 Note: Siri Shortcuts requires iOS 12 or later.

In this third and last podcast in a multi-part series, Thomas Domville gives us an introduction to Siri Shortcuts on iOS. Shortcuts on the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/workflow-powerful-automation/id915249334?ig... Shortcut: Quiet Time On https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1bf387c592fc431ca42deb9101053611 Shortcut: Quiet Time Off https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c958ee874c6f4cfe811b5c2408d78ae0 Shortcut: Weather Forecast For Lee’s Summit https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/81b00bc992c24cb999a437f67742f55e Shortcut: AppleVis News https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1c5a0c6511ba415b94d5c0703b3ad0e5 Note: Siri Shortcuts requires iOS 12 or later.

In this episode, Thomas Domville shows us how to use QuickPath, a native swipe keyboard new in iOS 13 that allows you to type by sliding your finger across the onscreen keyboard.

To use this feature, make sure you're using either Touch Typing or Direct Touch Typing as your typing mode, and rest your finger on a key. Then, after you hear a tone, slide it to the general location of your next intended key. For example, to type the word "Hello," rest your finger on the letter H, and when you hear the tone, slide it to the general location of the letter E, followed by the letters L and O. If the wrong word is predicted, press the Delete key, and it will be deleted.

To turn this feature off, go to Settings > General > Keyboard, and double-tap the "Slide to type" switch. Additionally, you can quickly turn this feature on and off by adding it to the VoiceOver rotor in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Rotor > Rotor items.

In this podcast, Thomas Domville introduces us to the expanded VoiceOver Recognition features of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.

These use on-device intelligence to recognize key elements displayed on your screen to add VoiceOver support for app and web experiences that don’t have accessibility support built in.

VoiceOver Recognition offers the following features:

VoiceOver Recognition: Image descriptions
VoiceOver reads complete-sentence descriptions of images and photos within apps and on the web.

VoiceOver Recognition: Text recognition
VoiceOver speaks the text it identifies within images and photos.

VoiceOver Recognition: Screen recognition
VoiceOver automatically detects interface controls to aid in navigating your apps, making them more accessible.

Introduction

There has been quite a bit of discussion and debate of late around the merits of iOS and Android, and this has coincided with my own journey into using Android. In February this year, after thirteen years using iPhones, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S23. I had long been curious about Android and had dabbled with it over the years, primarily as my work phone. I had never really picked it up and used it as my primary day to day phone though, at least not since I spent a month with a Nexus 4 way back in 2016. This time, I genuinely planned to give it a real go. I envisaged myself sticking with it for a full year, before deciding what I want to do next.

For context, while I have some limited vision, I am very much a screen reader user, with VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. I have also tried CSR, also known as Jieshuo, on the Android side. I do not use Braille, so will not be delving into that aspect here.

For iOS 18, macOS Sequoia

Intro

If you have multiple Apple devices, you may know that there are many features that allow them to integrate with each other to keep content up-to-date across all of them. In this guide, I will give an overview of how iCloud, the service that facilitates this interconnection, can help you manage and sync your content, as well as how it can help protect your privacy and security. The good thing about it is once you have a few things set up, features largely work automatically with very little additional interaction required from you, the user.

Terminology

iCloud is the Apple service that allows Macs and iOS devices to keep content in sync between them. By default, you get 5GB of free storage space, upgradable up to 12TB, to store data such as documents, photos, emails, contacts, calendars, and more. With any paid storage plan, you get several additional features marketed collectively as iCloud+.

What Is This Rotor Thing?

The VoiceOver rotor is perhaps the most difficult aspect of VoiceOver to get used to because it is not a concept used in other screen readers. It is basically a way to use the same two gestures--an up and down swipe with one finger--to perform multiple tasks. That is, an up or down swipe will do the action set in the rotor, and the rotor can be set at any point. The rotor is used for reviewing text by word or character, changing the typing mode, adjusting VoiceOver's volume, changing options, accessing handwriting or braille screen input, editing text, and spellchecking. It can be used to move by many different elements, such as link, heading, form control, and the like. At any point, the rotor options will only be those that are valid for the current context. For instance, many web pages will allow navigation by heading, link, landmark, and more, while a page in settings may offer only headings.

In this update to his previous podcast episodes on braille, Scott Davert gives us some general information about braille displays as they relate to their use with iOS devices. He then talks about connecting a braille display using USB and then Bluetooth. Further, the braille menu under VoiceOver Settings, navigational commands, text input, how to set up auto scroll, and how to get additional help are all covered.

Links mentioned in the episode include:

Apple's support page covering Common braille commands for VoiceOver on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod

Apple's support article listing Bluetooth keyboard commands for iOS and iPadOS

Intro

Each year in June, Apple previews the next major versions of iOS and iPadOS, along with updates to its other software platforms, at its World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). At this event, Apple announces and demonstrates a select number of headlining new features, and makes prerelease versions available to developers so they can test the new software and provide feedback before the public release in September.

This is important because when substantial feature additions and changes are made to operating systems as intricate as iOS and iPadOS, many bugs will also be introduced. This can include issues with how third-party apps and accessories interact with the operating system, making thorough testing by developers crucial.