Welcome to the March 2024 edition of AppleVis Unlimited, your monthly digest of the latest and most notable content on the AppleVis website. This edition features a curated selection of community-submitted updates, including new app entries, updates, news, and podcasts.
New and Noteworthy App Entries
Callsheet: Find Cast & Crew (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Have you ever wondered “who is that actor?”, or perhaps “when was this movie released?”, or “what was the title of that one episode of that show I love”? Maybe you’re a film aficionado, and wonder “how old was this person when this movie was released”?
Have you wanted to answer those questions without being prompted to log in every five seconds? Without advertisements, and without auto-playing videos? Without relying on a multinational conglomerate that is trying to sell you things?
You’ll love Callsheet.
Callsheet is the best way to quickly look up information about the cast and crew in TV and movies. It respects your time, doesn’t try to sell you stuff you don’t need, and is designed to answer your questions quickly and easily.
Callsheet also has some novel features that your previous favorite database app does not:
- Prevent spoilers when watching TV shows by optionally hiding character names, episode counts, episode titles, or episode thumbnails. Don’t let yourself get spoiled on a character’s secret identity, or that they’ll leave the show quickly, by hiding those hints.
- Quick access to trivia, Wikipedia, parental guidance, and where to watch (provided by JustWatch).
- Pin shows, movies, or people for quick access.
- Find things you’ve searched for before using recent searches and search history.
- Easily see the age of cast members when a film was released right inline with the cast list
- Easily see the age of a person for each entry in their filmography
- Easily see the height of actors (when possible)
- Dark mode support
- VoiceOver support
- Alternate app icons for subscribers
- Automatic, no-login integration with the wonderful Channels app
- Experimental, no-login integration with Plex
Current Version: 2024.9 (March 22, 2024)
Callsheet: Find Cast & Crew’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Callsheet: Find Cast & Crew’s App Store page
Good food talks (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Good Food Talks empowers people with visual impairments and other reading difficulties to access and browse restaurant menus on their smartphones, in the way that most suits them and their vision.
Our app is designed to work with VoiceOver, Dynamic Text, and the other visual accessibility features that come standard on iPhones. Within the app itself, there are also two high contrast settings, as well as the option to read in OpenDyslexic font.
Simply type in a restaurant name, city, or postcode, or just click the “Near me” button. As you browse the menu, you’ll be able to build a shortlist of items you’re thinking of ordering. If you’re not yet in the restaurant, you can use the restaurant information icon to check opening hours, call the restaurant, or get directions on Apple or Google Maps.
Good Food Talks is already trusted across thousands of restaurant venues by some of the UK’s most forward-thinking pub and restaurant chains. Our service is and always will be free to access for all users. Restaurants pay a small subscription, which allows us to keep all of our menus fully up to date.
Current Version: 2.0.2 (February 28, 2024)
Good food talks’ AppleVis App Directory entry
Good food talks’ App Store page
PiccyBot (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Use PiccyBot to convert photos into spoken descriptions, pose questions in the text field, and zoom in for specific details. PiccyBot answers any image-related query with a clear calm voice.
Key Features:
- Photo to Voice: Instantly convert your photos into vivid spoken descriptions with a single tap.
- Voice-Activated Queries: Use your microphone to ask anything about your picture.
Enhanced Interactivity with PiccyBot:
- Ask Anything, Anytime: Pose questions about your pictures in the new text field and receive insightful answers.
- Zoom and Inquire: Delve into specific details by zooming into parts of the image and asking questions about particular aspects.
Unlock Premium Benefits:
- Experience PiccyBot without interruptions. Enjoy an ads-free environment.
- Enhance your image interpretation with personalised voice choices, adjustable voice duration, dynamic search engines, and seamless sharing of audio and detailed image descriptions.
Current Version: 1.8 (March 28, 2024)
PiccyBot’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Simple Scan • Quick Scanner (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Simple Scan is the quick, easy way to scan paper documents to optimized, searchable PDF documents (or images) and send them almost anywhere.
FEATURES
- Same great scanning functionality as Notes, but no need to clutter your notes data with one-off scans
- Creates high-resolution multi-page PDFs from your paper documents
- PDFs are searchable thanks to automatic Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Built for simplicity. Just scan and send – no document library
- Send scans via email or messages. Save to a file, or “Share” use to send to other apps via the system share sheet
- Set up custom destinations with pre-filled recipients for easy “Email to Myself” and other common uses
- Custom file destinations save scans directly to a pre-selected folder without extra taps
- Option to output as images (JPEG) instead of PDF
- Quality option to control file size
- Never any ads. Ever.
Simple Scan is free to download and try! To continue using Simple Scan, unlock Simple Scan Pro–available as a low-cost, annual subscription or a one-time lifetime unlock purchase.
Current Version: 2.0.1 (March 26, 2024)
Simple Scan • Quick Scanner’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Simple Scan • Quick Scanner’s App Store page
All recent app entries posted to AppleVis can be found at:
iOS/iPadOS
Mac
Apple Watch
Apple TV
Notable App Updates
Soundscape Community (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
Explore and discover the world in 3D sound.
Welcome to Soundscape Community.
We are a diverse consortium of organizations and individuals committed to improving access and inclusion for everyone, in partnership with a global community of users and open source developers.
We are delighted to make Soundscape Community available for people around the world. With the Soundscape Community app, you can immerse yourself in your surroundings and navigate effortlessly with its innovative spatial audio. The app calls out points of interest, individual markers that you have created or which have been shared with you, businesses and much more information by using audio placed in the environment around you so that you experience it as 3D sound when you walk or pass through different spaces and places.
Key features of Soundscape:
- Audio cues in 3D space that sound like they are coming from the direction of points of interests, parks, roads and other features in your surroundings.
- Track a specific point using an Audio Beacon on it to hear updates about where it is relative to you.
- Soundscape Street Preview helps you build a picture of a place virtually. You can “walk” down streets and roads and hear what is around each location as you explore.
- Buttons on the Home Screen can be used to explore further about what’s around you, whether in the real world or in Street Preview.
- To get the most out of the experience you will need a pair of stereo headphones that you feel comfortable wearing outdoors. For example, bone conduction headsets, Apple AirPods and in-ear open headphones have proven to work well. Soundscape is designed to live in the background and provide you with effortless ambient awareness; feel free to use it in conjunction with other apps such as podcasts, audio books, email and even GPS navigation.
Current Version: 1.1 (March 22, 2024)
Changes in Version 1.1
Optimisations and enhancements to the core Soundscape experience. Additionally, we are introducing the Recreational Activities feature designed to allow the offline creation and import of routes which can then be shared with a Soundscape Community user, and which provide more information and details of the environment and surroundings. This was developed in close collaboration with Mobility Instructors to support them in the teaching and development of orientation and mobility skills for the range of different people they work with, including those who are blind or have low-vision, or developing navigation and wayfinding capabilities for everyone.
Soundscape Community’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Soundscape Community’s App Store page
VoiceVista (iOS/iPadOS, Free)
VoiceVista is a critical application for the blind and low vision users’ community. It is built upon Microsoft’s discontinued and open-source project Soundscape (https://aka.ms/ossblog) and is licensed under the MIT License (https://github.com/microsoft/soundscape/blob/main/LICENSE.txt).
The app leverages advanced iOS audio technology and precise location services to empower individuals in developing a heightened sense of their environment. It offers reassurance in unfamiliar settings, assisting users in forming mental maps and confidently navigating their desired routes.
Current Version: 1.4.0 (March 16, 2024)
Changes in March
- Pin markers to top
- Markers ahead exploration
- Mute all button on the home page
- Enhancements to POI categories
- Improved dynamic wake-up monitoring
- Enhancements to GPS information callouts
VoiceVista’s AppleVis App Directory entry
Zanagrams (iOS/iPadOS, Free With In-App Purchases)
Exercise your brain during your downtime with this new unique twist on word-puzzles you’ve come to know and love.
Each puzzle contains six clues you’ll aim to find the one-word answers for. Each answer is broken-up into groups of two or three letters, presented as buttons in the lower portion of your screen, and jumbled for your brain-teasing enjoyment. Try to spell out each of the answers in the puzzle by tapping buttons to add them to your spelling.
Zanagrams will automatically detect if you’ve spelled any of the answers in the puzzle you’re working on, and any of the buttons you used to spell that answer will be permanently-disabled to narrow-down your choices. By the time you finish a puzzle, you’ll have used every button once.
Current Version: 1.1.4 (March 25, 2024)
Changes in March
- fixed bug causing some puzzles to occasionally be empty upon completion.
- retroactively fixes any puzzles affected by the aforementioned bug while retaining their scores.
- large behind-the-scenes performance improvements
- added some small animations to the UI to improve overall experience.
- Fixed a bug preventing some leaderboards from updating.
- Fixed a bug causing some puzzles not to reset after being completed.
- A small fix that corrects puzzles not being reset after completion, and the user’s official score being shown, regardless of the mode they just completed the puzzle in.
Zanagrams’ AppleVis App Directory entry
Recent News and Views
Wider Tech Discussions: AppleVis Forums Expand Beyond Apple
By AppleVis | March 19, 2024
Since our launch in 2010, AppleVis has been the premier online community for blind and low-vision users of Apple hardware, software, and services. Our forums have hosted countless conversations around vision accessibility, with members asking questions, exchanging knowledge and expertise, and generally assisting each other with making the most of Apple technologies.
As our community has grown, so too have the interests and needs expressed by our members. Many have voiced a desire for the opportunity to discuss topics that fall outside of our traditional Apple-centric scope, but still revolve around technology that enhances independence and quality of life for the visually impaired.
After carefully weighing community feedback, we’ve decided to expand the AppleVis forums by adding four new areas dedicated to:
- Assistive Technology
- Windows
- Android
- Smart Home Tech
The decision to broaden our boundaries was not taken lightly. We aimed to balance the potential benefits with being thoughtful about avoiding potential downsides that could detract from AppleVis’s core Apple accessibility mission.
Some of the key pros that motivated this move include:
- Tapping Into Collective Expertise: Our community members possess a vast wealth of knowledge and expertise that extends far beyond just Apple’s products and services. These new forum areas will allow that collective wisdom around assistive technology, Windows, Android and more to be shared and leveraged for the benefit of all.
- Trusted Voices: Many AppleVis members have built reputations as knowledgeable, trustworthy commentators. These new areas allow those voices to be heard on relevant non-Apple topics.
- Strengthening Our Community: For many, AppleVis represents more than just Apple talk - it’s a community. These areas present opportunities to connect over additional shared technology interests and experiences.
- One-Stop Discussions: Currently, conversations that stray from core AppleVis focus get redirected to other platforms like email or social media. Bringing a wide range of topics under one unified space could make it easier to maintain conversations in a single location.
Read more: “Wider Tech Discussions: AppleVis Forums Expand Beyond Apple”
Apple News
- Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 With Fixes for USB Hubs, Java Crashes, and More
- Apple Releases iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 With Security Updates and Bug Fixes
- Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.4, watchOS 10.4, and tvOS 17.4
This Month in Podcasts
AppleVis Unleashed March 2024: AirPod Fisher Price Edition
In this month’s edition of AppleVis Unleashed, Thomas Domville and Mike Malarsie discuss recent Apple news and other topics of interest. Topics featured in this episode include:
- Wider Tech Discussions: AppleVis Forums Expand Beyond Apple
- WWDC 2024 will show off Apple’s AI efforts on June 10
- Apple Developing New Accessibility Features for iOS 18 and macOS 15
- Apple reportedly considering using Google’s Gemini Ai engine into iPhones with iOS 18
- Apple Watch Series 10 could finally offer blood pressure monitoring
- Mass production of two new AirPods models to start in May, targeting fall release
- US DOJ takes on Apple in massive antitrust suit, after years of investigations
- Apple could be in trouble over DMA security warnings, as well as Core Technology Fee
- Be My Eyes Expands with Service Directory
Listen to “AppleVis Unleashed March 2024: AirPod Fisher Price Edition”
How to Disable Predictive Text Suggestions on macOS
In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to disable predictive text suggestions on macOS.
As you type on your Mac, macOS by default attempts to finish words and phrases it thinks you’re trying to type. If you find that hearing these suggestions spoken by VoiceOver is more distracting than helpful, you can turn them off by going to System Settings > Keyboard, clicking the Edit button under the “Text input” heading, and toggling the “show inline predictive text” switch off.
Listen to “How to Disable Predictive Text Suggestions on macOS”
eSpeak-NG: A Compact TTS Solution for Apple Devices
In this episode, Ida Grace introduces eSpeak-NG, a compact open-source software text-to-speech synthesizer available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Developed by Yury Popov, eSpeak-NG supports over 100 languages and accents. It is built upon the original eSpeak engine created by Jonathan Duddington. The app acts as a compatibility layer between the eSpeak NG library and Apple VoiceOver, enhancing accessibility for users with visual impairments.
Listen to “eSpeak-NG: A Compact TTS Solution for Apple Devices”
Also by Ida: Navigating iOS: Mastering VoiceOver Basics with VO Starter
Podcasts by Thomas Domville
Hot AppleVis Content
Here are some of the most talked-about posts from the past month:
Old topic revived after news that existing users will now require a subscription: Voice Dream Reader for iOS is now $59.99/year
- What are your thoughts on iOS 18? What would you like to see in terms of functionality and accessibility?
- New AI app for reading images: PiccyBot
- Brailliance - a new game by Wordvoyance
- Introducing Accessible Bible App for iOS and Mac
- A more positive spin on things
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Wishing you good health and happiness.
The AppleVis Editorial Team
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