Triple-click Home

Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 14: Now, Peter

Welcome to our 14^th episode of Triple-click Home. We begin this show with a very important announcement from Pete Bossley. Other obligations require Pete to leave our podcast family for the forseeable future, and we will truly miss him. Never fear, though. He might just show up again sometime. That being said, the show must go on. Alena takes the lead role this month, and Buddy interviews David Ward about his exciting new Braille Sonar Reference app.

The Big Stories

One year, four departed execs, and a lot to be determined for Apple

So, what is Apple’s next big thing going to be?

iPhone and innovation: Is hardware the only place Apple can go to keep up the buzz?

The worst app Apple ever made

Apple App Store hits 40 billion downloads; 20 billion in 2012, alone

three reasons why apple stocks have plummeted

In iPhone vs. Galaxy battle, Apple still way on top

A possible explanation for the iOS New Year’s Do Not Disturb bug

Verizon prepared to follow T-Mobile’s lead if ending phone subsidies proves profitable

Walmart now offers iPhone 5 on Straight Talk’s no-contract unlimited plans

T-Mobile USA to soon sell iPhones, cut subsidies

Apple needs to get serious about Siri

Siri why aren’t you sassy?

Amazon MP3 store now available to iPhone users

Be sure to check out Amazon’s Instant Video app for streaming movies and TV shows as well.

Facebook Rolls Out Free Voice Calls Through Messenger App For U.S. iPhone Users

Former Windows Chief Sinofsky Caught Using an iPhone

Mailbag

From Jenine Stanley:

Hi Gang,

This is one of those stories that’s just so, well, disgusting, it deserves telling. Can’t wait to hear where this one goes from your perspective either.

I got my I-Phone 4S in December 2011 and the first thing I got for it, even before I got the phone, was an Otterbox Defender case and Speed dots. I took said case to the Apple Store and had the salesman put it on my shiny new phone. Yay!

The case is starting to show some wear with the rubber not staying as tight as it once did but other than that, it’s never been off my phone, until …

I was in Manhattan recently for work and a short vacation with friends. I was heading back to the airport and had to take a car service from Midtown to Islip airport. For those who don’t know, this is about a 45 minute drive on a good day.

I’d been feeling less than my best throughout the vacation and that morning I was really not feeling well at all but thought it might pass as these things do.

As always I had a slight dread not knowing the car service and how they would react to my guide dog.

No problem! Carmel Transportation was great and if you’re ever in NYC, call them. They have a marvelous number 666-6666.

The driver was nice, appropriate about the dog and off we went.

About 20 minutes into the ride, I started to get that feeling, you know, the one that says, Uh-oh, I think I’m going to be sick.

I started to get out one of the ubiquitous plastic bags all guide dog handlers have stuff into every pocket they own. Alas, not fast enough though.

The remains of the delicious pizza I’d had the night before soon covered my lap and dowsed my precious phone!

The phone was plugged into an external battery at the time and the headphones were in.

After apologizing to the driver and trying in vain to clean myself up a tad, I removed the phone from my lap and began to wipe it off. Wow!

Luckily, the driver was great about the whole thing and stopped at a gas station, helped me get my suitcase out so I could change clothes and of course cleaned the back of the car.

In the meantime, my poor guide dog was trying to get as far away from me as he could. Guys don’t handle barfing chicks well you know.

The phone still amazingly enough worked. It was a bit slow on the response but I figured this was because the screen was beyond filthy. I carefully cleaned it with a wet paper towel, then with hand sanitizer.

I wanted to get the case open but couldn’t do that because really you need either good fingernails or a flathead screw driver for this and I had neither.

Once I got home and showed the phone to my husband, he confirmed how disgusting it looked, which meant that some of the substance had gotten inside the case. OK, no big deal. I finally got the case off and cleaned the phone thoroughly. It works fine now but I do need a new case and speed dots screen because, well, apparently vomit is quite staining. Pizza vomit more so.

To top this off, the last leg of my flight home was cancelled due to weather and I ended up staying overnight in Baltimore. Not horrible as I did get to shower and clean up a bit more but …

You know how once you smell something, you keep on smelling it even if all evidence of it is gone? Well, I swore everything I owned, touched or thought about for the remainder of that trip wreaked of vomit.

The truly funny part though happened on my flight home, finally.

I was sitting there playing 7 Little Words when the man in the seat next to me said, “Oh, we have the same case.”

Now this either sounds like a bad commercial or an even worse pick up line.

I explained that yes, I’d had mine for over a year and despite it, uh, falling into a puddle of vomit in the subway, (revise, revise, revise) it still protected the phone well. And by the way, did he know how to get the case open?

“No, my wife put it on for me.” He said.

Somehow I don’t think Otterbox will be wanting this testimonial for their web site but in case your phone is immersed in vomit, if you get it out quickly, your Defender case will do a nice job of protecting it.

***

Markus writes:

Hi again, guys!

Different topic, different e-mail.

There is a VoiceOver bug which has quietly annoyed me since iOS 6 and I would like to know how the rest of the community thinks about this. I have e-mailed Apple Accessibility but God knows when and if this will be fixed.

When I open a page with an editing field – be it an e-mail, a message, a new Tweet in Tweetlist Pro or Status Report, VoiceOver says: “New message, to…” and then immediately jumps back to the first element on the page.

I then have to go back to the editing field. I find this quite annoying.

How about you?

And here is a suggestion which I have mentioned to Apple Accessibility but, again, no comments on whether this is going to happen or not: A VoiceOver gesture to turn it on and off.

Even for us VoiceOver users there are apps which can be used better when VoiceOver is turned off. Some apps don’t work at all with VoiceOver turned on but are useable for us when it is turned off.

I have the feeling that I use the Home button on my 4s more often than my wife (who can see) uses the button on her 3Gs. Just as well! The 3Gs used to be my phone and the Home button sometimes needs a second press to react.

I would welcome a finger gesture to turn VoiceOver off and on again – parallel to “Triple Click Home”. Oh, we’ve got to keep that, because otherwise you would have to change the name of your podcast! “V-Swipe”

or something like that would sound a bit strange. 😉 What do you guys think about this?

And now that I have mentioned apps without VoiceOver, I would like to give you a list of my (personal) favorite apps which I use without VoiceOver.

After all, we all talk a lot about what we expect from our devices but hardly ever mention how we could adapt to make things work – even without VoiceOver.

djay for iPhone by algoriddim

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/djay-for-iphone/id424492403?l=en&mt=8

A fantastic music player with playlists, crossfade, real-time effects and real-time scratching on the turntable. Apparently, and this is something I have not tried yet, one can split the audio signal and pre-listen to tracks inkl. VoiceOver before sending them through the master volume control. Otherwise VoiceOver has to be turned on again to make changes to the settings, effects, etc.

SoundPrism by Audanika GmbH

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/soundprism/id386833491?l=en&mt=8

An on-screen synthesizer which is super easy to use. However, VoiceOver has to be turned on again in order to change the instrument; furthermore, the buttons are not labeled properly. But the playing itself works excellent.

Echo Piano™ by Ting Wang

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/echo-piano/id378718173?l=en&mt=8

An on-screen-piano. I haven’t had this for very long but it seems to be pretty straight forward.

ThumbJam by Sonosaurus LLC

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/thumbjam/id338977566?l=en&mt=8

And, of course, the mother of all on-screen-bands! I am happy that the developers seem to know how to spell the word “accessibility”. With an update last year, the app is now useable with VoiceOver turned on. I still prefer when it is turned off though. Downside to this is the immense use of the Home button.

iAmGuitar by savageApps

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/iamguitar/id407752080?l=en&mt=8

The selection of the guitars is hit and miss; however, the strumming and picking and playing different cords works just fine. A nice little guitar in the shape of my iPhone! I must e-mail the developer and tell them about the inaccessibility of the settings section. Hey, but for playing around and songwriting one doesn’t need to make any changes. I love this app.

CarTunes Music Player by Ryan Oksenhorn

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/cartunes-music-player/id415408192?l=en&mt=8

This app surprised me a few weeks ago. I found it through App of the Day and was quite interested when I read about – easy control with the swipe of a finger. And this is what it is, a music player which wasn’t developed with blind people in mind at all but which works just wonderful!

Single-finger swipe right – previous track.

Single-finger swipe left – next track.

Tap anywhere on the screen – Play/Stop

Put one finger on the screen and drag it up or down (like moving an app but without the first single tap) – Volume up and Volume down Single-finger swipe up – selection of media. Now we have to turn on VoiceOver to select our music. Once that has been don, we can turn Voiceover off again and listen to our playlist without VoiceOver’s announcements.

Epic! I love it!

That’s all from me for now. All the best,

Markus

***

And another email from Markus reads:

Hi Guys!

First of all I would like to wish you all a happy and successful 2013. I am amazed hoch much effort is put into the SeroTalk network and I specifically enjoy your podcast.

Informative, entertaining, just exactly the way I like podcasts! 😉

In episode 12, Alena said she would love a sort of stand or holder for the iPhone when using OCR apps. I’ve got good news for you!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/scanbox-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-portable-scann

I had heard about this project last May but couldn’t order one as they were only presenting the project on KickStarter.com

I think it might be worth getting in touch with those guys.

I know another guy from a German Apple mailing list; he is a retired engineer and designed such a stand as well. Let me know if you would like to get in contact with him.

Keep up the good work! All the Best,

Markus from Galway (pronounced Gallway), Ireland

Interview: Braille Sonar Reference App

This month, Buddy Brannan visits with David Ward of At Your Fingertips about his new Braille Sonar Reference app for looking up Braille contractions. This is bound to be a great resource for all and information regarding the Unified English Braille code will be included in the future.

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them: