Triple-click Home

Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 29: Eat Something

To help remake accessibility training as we know it, visit http://www.a11y.tv to view training subscription options and make your contribution to EZFire’s A11YTV funding campaign.

Welcome to the post-April-Fools, pre-WWDC edition of the Triple-click Home Podcast. This month, Jamie Pauls takes the host’s chair and Lisa Salinger fills in for an ailing Buddy Brannan. Their discussion of the top news stories of the month includes many twists and turns this time around, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Top of the News

Everything to know about iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 (Roundup + New Details)

Lisa recommends the book Cell by Robin Cook

Audioboo / This is got to be the weirdest android voice I have ever heard!

By the numbers: a breakdown of Apple’s Q2 2014 earnings call

Apple v. Samsung jury foreman says the “consumer is the loser”

Nobody knows why Apple would buy Beats, but plenty of people are guessing

Dr. Dre & Jimmy Iovine expected to become Apple executives as part of Beats acquisition

What if Apple bought Beats not for headphones, but wearables?

Lisa reviews the FitBit in our 2013 holiday special

Walgreens & Walmart testing iBeacons, Motorola Solutions launches iBeacon marketing platform

Spotlight: Spring Cleaning

Spring is in the air! It’s the time of year when we throw open the windows and throw out everything we’ve collected over the past year and decide we no longer need. Why not do the same with the apps on our i-devices?

Spring Cleaning iOS: Simple and Essential Maintenance Tips for iPhone & iPad

Community Focus

Journey towards accessibility: We are home!

TestFlight » Fleksy on iOS Beta Recruitment

Sendero Group and RNIB Partner to Release Full-Featured GPS App for UK Users

My Initial Thoughts on the RNIB Navigator App

Accessibility options for iPhone and iPad — Everything you need to know! | iMore

Making DAW Software Accessible for Blind Audio Engineers and Musicians

Solo-Dx Comes to Accessibility Hound

Introducing Perkinput for iOS; the Newest Text Entry Alternative to the Keyboard for Braille Users

App Review: Talking Tuner

Jamie Pauls demonstrates a neat little app for tuning his guitar. He invites listeners to suggest similar apps that they find useful.

Mailbag

From Greg:

Hello all,

You guys have really out done yourselves this year. I nearly fell off my couch when I started listening to That Android Show and Triple Click Home. These are really some of the best shows you guys and gals have done. Keep up the good work.

Thanks,

Greg Wocher(Your friendly neighborhood BlindMan) 🙂

From Tony:

What a great job on episode28, lots of voices, snappy pace, and what made the episode for me were the drop INS. The app demonstrations are a great addition, and the app developer interview was so relevant. My hope is that this is the trend.

All the best,

Tony

Another from Tony:

Would you please consider discussing what closing an app really means? For instance, why is it that when I close Pandora, TuneIn, Hourly News, and other audio apps, once closed through the App Switcher, if I do a double finger double tap, audio resumes. Are the apps closed or just resting? Are they eating up battery life? Why bother closing them? If they have a stop button, isn’t that as effective as closing them? Doesn’t seem so. The only way I find to really put them to sleep is by turning off my phone. What’s up with that?

Thanks,

Tony

From Jenine:

Very nice guest hosts of TCH this time and love the app demos from Steve and Ana. Those are a fun addition and I grabbed Google Search which I wasn’t using and learned more about Google Maps which I was using but not lately.

OK, so do you guys have any un-fun hosts at Serotalk? 🙂

Jenine Stanley

Wrapping Up

Why your iOS device may be a better cable box than the Apple TV

Apple Store employees switching from iPod touch to iPhone 5s for EasyPay POS system

My Life Without A Smartphone

Contacting the Team

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

Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter

Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter

Follow John Panarese on Twitter

Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter

Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 27: Will You Be My Family?

This month, guest host Allison Hartley joins the Triple-click Home team to discuss the top news stories of the week. In addition to the news, Alena Roberts talks with Tom Green of Somethin’ Else, makers of Papa Sangre, Papa Sangre II and The Nightjar. As always, we include your feedback in the show.

Top of the News

The future of the Mac: What will the next 30 years bring us?

Why Apple ‘computers’ outselling Microsoft may not be fair, but is incredibly important

The real reason Macs never got in the enterprise

Apple maintains enterprise dominance; Windows Phone lags

Report: New content could arrive with new Apple TV “by Christmas”

The iWatch Will Not Be An iPhone On Your Wrist

Apple Reportedly Hires Sleep Expert For iWatch Team

Apple pledges $100 million in iPads, computers and other tools toward Obama’s ConnectED education program

Apple’s iPad Air Has The Longest Lasting Battery Among Current Tablets

News in iOS

7 New iOS 7.1 Details

5 problems a 5-inch iPhone solves for Apple

Verizon confirms ‘More Everything,’ brings price cuts, more data, global texting

Patrick Perdue demos Zoom IQ5 mid/side stereo microphone for iOS devices

Check out BackBlaze, a #VoiceOver accessible cloud backup solution.

An Overview of Five iOS Text Editors

Switching back to Windows

Spotlight: Games

Play a Free iOS Game and Help with University Research

‘Flappy Bird’ Creator: Game Was Pulled Because It Became an ‘Addictive Product’

mailbag

From Jenine Stanley:

So, I’m excited about the usability of the MicroWave audio editor for the Mac. I am stuck though on a couple concepts that don’t seem to be covered by the very well done manual. Where might I go to find more info about using this audio editor with Voice Over?

I’m particularly interested in the keyboard commands for selecting text. Everything else looks dandy but that one has me stumped.

Another from Jenine:

Loved the last show, as always but was thinking as I transition to the Mac, that it might be good to have a segment of your show that looks at the practical side of using Apple products. Here’s how it might go.

Let’s say we choose a task, like creating, editing and reading documents. Then we talk about the programs available, which we use and why, and how they might differ for someone coming from the Windows environment. I know you guys sometimes do this anyway but a more structured look might be helpful.

I, for example, am about to take on Pages. I can open a document to read or edit and see the places for headers, footers and body text but then can’t seem to get much further. I know there’s something I’m missing but just don’t know what it is.

Alena does a great job of pointing out things like Text Edit and the 1-page issue which is hugely helpful. Let’s have more of that.

I’m just glad I can finally understand what you all and David Woodbridge are talking about when it comes to Mac OS stuff now. I usually tuned out if it wasn’t IOS.

Keep up the good work.

Finally from Jenine:

I’m testing out a borrowed Macbook Pro and am down to only two major elements keeping me from the switch. I have to test it with my printer, but I see no issues there.

The Macbook is dated 2012 and is running Mavrix latest version.

I currently scan documents using Acrobat Pro for my scanning needs on my Windows7 desktop. Besides Docuscan Plus, are there other programs that work with the Mac?

References I saw on Applevis were no longer available in the app store.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

From Chris Nusbaum:

Hello to the Triple Click Home Team,

As always I very much enjoyed Episode 26 of the podcast. There was a lot of good information and commentary provided and the interview with Shannon Reese was enlightening. You and the whole gang at SPN provide a wonderful service to the blind community and I am very appreciative of it.

I would like to make a few comments and ask a question in response to some of the topics discussed in the most recent podcast. Firstly, I agree with and relate to the frustrations which Jamie and Buddy expressed about the Learning Ally app. The lack of a rewind/fast forward feature does make it inefficient and annoying; indeed, I find it makes reading my textbook take much more time than it should. If I am answering a question which requires information that is at the bottom of a page, I have to listen to everything on the page to get that information.
If I miss what I need once, I have to listen to the entire page yet again. After Jamie suggested this workaround, I downloaded the textbook onto my Victor Reader Stream and am finding that it is much better. Now there is some news on this subject which I would like to share. I called Learning Ally tech support today for an unrelated matter, but also told them about the issues mentioned above with the iOS app. The tech support specialist told me that they had heard this from many users and were adding a 10-second rewind/fast forward feature in the next app update.
The rep did not have a definite release date for the app update, as it is still in the testing stages. She assured me, however, that this improvement can be expected in the near future. This is definitely a sign of progress.

Now onto my question. There was discussion during the podcast about Twitterrific and, more generally, apps which are not compatible with iOS 7. I used and enjoyed Twitterrific on my old iPhone 4S running iOS 6. However, I found that it was not working very well at all when I updated to iOS 7. It would take a long time to load and the app would often crash altogether before it even loaded, kicking me back out to the home screen. I ended up switching from Twitterrific to TweetList when I was asked to handle the live tweeting of the NFB of Maryland convention, partly because of my lack of success with Twitterrific and partly because I found TweetList to work better with multiple accounts. I realize that this was on an iPhone 4s, which did not work very well with iOS 7 anyway. However, I now have an iPhone 5C. So, have you found Twitterrific to work better on the newer iPhone models? Does it load any faster or have better responsiveness with the new iPhones as compared to the 4S? If so, perhaps I will redownload Twitterrific on my 5C and see how it works. I look forward to hearing your feedback on this. Thanks for all you do; keep up the great work.

Blog comment from Jan Blüher:

Hello Triple Click Home Team,

I wondered why Alena cannot see the weather info in notification center although others can, and started a little search. It seems that the location services have to be enabled for the Weather app to make this happen: Settings; Privacy; Location Services. Maybe you try this.

Keep on going with the podcast. It’s a very nice show. I like it.

Blog comment from Chris McKnight:

I share your frustration with the touch screen controls and their inaccessibility to blind people. In particular with regard to home appliances, I agree go see them in the store for yourself and many times you can find them with raised buttons on those smooth front panels, which I was able to do with my new dishwasher and clothes washer/dryer units. I had the same problem with cooking ranges, however, where controls have no tactile buttons. My solution was to give up on any that had dynamic touch screen menu controls (like KitchenAid models), but I did buy a Kenmore model with smooth touch panel controls, but no menus to deal with. The solution? My sighted girlfriend affixed those little adhesive rubber markers right next to the buttons I needed to locate to control the oven, which I can use as landmarks to find the “buttons” I need. The bumpy markers are placed next to, and not on top of, the “buttons” because they are in fact touch sensitive, not pressure sensitive, so I didn’t wan t to obstruct the buttons from detecting my fingertips. This solution has worked for me and I’m able to independently control my new oven, no problem at all.
Great show, guys. Never miss an episode!

From Richard Applegate

If you want the weather summary to appear in your Notification Center, simply go into Setting/Notification Center and enable Today Summary.
You can disable the display of the obnoxious calendar as well.

Odds and Ends

HuffPost Tech – Why you should put down your smartphone and talk to a stranger

Time capsule containing Steve Jobs’ 1983 Apple mouse excavated

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them:
Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter
Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter
Follow John Panarese on Twitter
Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter
Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 26: The iCoffee

Welcome to the first Triple-click Home podcast of 2014. This month, Jamie Pauls joins Alena and Buddy to discuss the Apple news stories of the past month. John was unable to be a part of the Triple-click Home team this time around, but we trust that he will join us again next month. In addition to our plentiful crop of news stories, Jamie kicks off our new spotlight segment by talking with Shannon Reese whose daughter Eilish has Down Syndrome. Jamie and Shannon discuss the use of the iPad in Eilish’s education. Apps discussed in this interview include those from The Conover Company as well as a brief discussion of the augmentative alternative communication app Proloquo2Go Of course, our podcast wouldn’t be complete without your feedback, and we include that as well. Without further ado, let’s jump right to the …

Top of the News

Google Buys Nest for $3.2 Billion in Cash

CES 2014: Smart thermostat EverSense shows off ‘Aura’ iBeacons to intelligently adjust room temperature

CES 2014: iPhone/iPad Bluetooth accessories for the home & body dominate the show

Mac Sales Rose in 4th Quarter. Or Fell.

Many Mac OS Users Not Getting Security Updates

Apple Pushes Developers To iOS 7

Apple Devices Flow Into Corporate World

Apple patent details optical image stabilization for iPhone cameras

T-Mobile’s ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card:’ they’ll pay your early termination fee to switch

Yahoo announces News Digest, a new iOS app that provides only essential news stories

A T Talk

SeroSpectives: This Year in Tech for 2013

SPN Goes to the UN

Update to Sendero GPS

Announcing the AppleVis Golden Apples of 2013

Digit-Eyes 2.0 has a completely NEW and simplified user interface design plus NEW other New features

Opinion

Opinion: What “three revolutionary devices” will the iWatch be?

Apple Knows Exactly What It’s Doing With Its iPhone Business

2014: The year of the iPhone-controlled everything

Mailbag

From Beth:

Hi, I have been researching and have found stuff about using accuators to do Braille instead of pins. Here are a few links.

Displaying Braille for Mobile Use with the Micro-vibration of SMA Wires

haptic posts on CNET

First-ever Braille smartphone could hit stores this year

The “Feel Screen”: The Pros and Cons of a Tactile Interface for the Next iPad (or iPhone?)

Blog comment from Zivan Krisher

During the podcast I think it was Buddy who stated that it is impossible to turn off Zoom while VoiceOver is turned on. This is not true. I’m a low vision IOS user and often use VoiceOver in combination with Zoom. When Zoom is turned on, double tapping 3 fingers becomes the Zoom toggle. and triple tapping 3 fingers becomes the VoiceOver toggle.

Wrapping Up

This Pressure-Sensitive Case May Change How You Use Your iPhone

The strange, shady world of $1,000 iOS apps

The 12 Apps You Should Delete from Your Phone in 2014

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them:
Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter
Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter
Follow John Panarese on Twitter
Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter
Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home episode 24: Luxury Versus Necessity

Help us turn two in this episode of the podcast as the Triple-click Home team discusses all things Mac and iOS includeing Mavericks, iWork and iOS 7. In addition to the news and possibly a rant or two, Jamie Pauls visits with Dmitriy Konopatskiy about the recent changes to the extremely popular image recognition app TapTapSee and what we can expect in future updates to the product. Here is a direct link to TapTapSee in the app store.

Top of the News

Apple Launches OS X Mavericks 10.9.1 For Registered Developers

Apple promises to bring back missing iWork for Mac features in six months

All The Changes In iOS 7.1 Beta You’ll Actually Notice

Sendero GPS LookAround for iOS gets a nice update and goes free:

A review of five iOS navigation apps

Voice Dream Reader, Truly a Dream App

Papa Sangre II on the App Store on iTunes

Blind Bargains: Review: Bring On the Horror With Papa Sangre 2

TapTapSee becomes a paid service

Apple and Samsung together account for… 109% of industry profits

Apple still tops in tablets, despite dwindling market share

Apple maps: how Google lost when everyone thought it had won

Pandora: iTunes Radio? Pshaw. We’re doing just fine.

iPad Air beats the iPad 4 by 80 percent in benchmark tests

iPad Air topped by Kindle Fire HDX in display quality test

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

Surprise! Apple’s now selling the iPad Mini with Retina display online

The Retina iPad Mini teardown reveals cross between iPad Air & iPhone 5s

Apple’s New Fingerprint Scanner Is An Epic Fail For Some

Mailbag

Dear Triple-click Home Team,

I am a vision impaired university student and would like to share my experience with using Windows on my MacBook Pro. For the most part Windows 7 runs the best I’ve ever seen it run on any computer, probably because it’s running on a Mac! I use both Boot Camp and VMWare Fusion 4 when working in the Windows environment when I have to. I only need to run Windows in the first place because of my Transformer, long/short distance viewer.

One thing I would like to note about running Windows on a Mac is that a Mac battery, 7 hours, will be cut down to a Windows battery, 2-3 hours when running Windows on a Mac laptop. Of course one wouldn’t have to worry about battery life reduction when running Windows on a desktop Mac, but because I am a student, I need to be mobile.

One last thing I would like to note is that even when running Windows directly via Boot Camp, my MacBook Pro really heats up more than it would ever when using the Mac side of the computer – probably due to the intense graphics processing and operating system structure. Also, I noticed a few times last year that I got the Blue Screen of Death when directly running Windows. So i have to be careful not to put it to sleep to often when in the Windows environment, especially when I’m just seconds away from needing to use it in class.

Overall, in my opinion, I believe Apple handles the Windows environment really well and just to know when one wants to use the Windows environment, their going to get a Windows environment.

I would greatly appreciate it, and even more important, I believe a brief summary of this email would be good to include in the next Triple-click Home podcast for others to take note of.

From Michael

Michael’s World
Visually Impaired Student
www.mts.net/~wefour

Wrapping Up

Apple will now pay you for a water-damaged iPhone or iPad

The craziest things you can plug into your iPhone’s audio jack

Here’s What Happened When 17 Ordinary People Met Steve Jobs

Audioboo / 2013 DJ Marathon – The Karen Jacobsen Interview In Full

Sprint and Best Buy Team Up to Give Students a Free Phone Line for a Year!

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them:
Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter
Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter
Follow John Panarese on Twitter
Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter
Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 22: We’re S People

What should you do while you’re waiting for your i-device to update to iOS 7? Should you bite your fingernails? Repeatedly swipe your phone in hopes that Voiceover will give you some sort of a progress indicator? Why not listen to the latest episode of the Triple-click Home podcast? This month, Alena, Buddy, John, Derek and Jamie all weigh in with their thoughts on the iPhone 5c and 5s as well as iOS 7. Also, Alena Roberts interviews Jonathan Mosen about his new book, iOS 7 Without the Eye. Jonathan and Alena don’t just talk about the book, though. They discuss the state of accessibility in all of Apple’s products and even talk a bit about Android. Yes, you read that right–a discussion of Android on an episode of Triple-click Home. So sit back, don’t touch your i-device while it’s updating, and enjoy the podcast.

The music heard in Alena’s interview was provided courtesy of Andre Louis. Be sure to visit his Web site and purchase his music.

Apple’s overhauled iOS 7 is coming September 18 to an iDevice near you

New Default Ringtones for iOS 7

Apple announces the multicolor iPhone 5C, $99 for 16GB

Apple announces iPhone 5S: What you need to know

iPhone 5S sports new M7 processor to handle motion apps

Apple iPhone 5S camera promises bigger pixels, slow-mo, better image processing

iPhone 5S comes with Touch ID fingerprint scanner

Apple TV Software Update to Arrive Alongside iOS 7 on September 18

Apple TV update adds channels for Vevo, Disney, Weather & Smithsonian

Apple launches iTunes Radio on September 18

Apple’s iWork suite (plus iMovie and iPhoto) free with new iOS devices

For archives of Apple’s live presentations, visit Apple’s Events page

You must buy a new iPhone to use Apple’s now-confirmed trade-in program

Walmart will credit you up to $300 for your old smartphone

PayPal Beacon: Finally an Easier Way to Pay in Stores Than Swiping a Credit Card

Apple patent turns the iPhone into an intelligent universal media, ‘smart home’ remote control

Mailbag

This month, Laura writes us to say:

Hello, musicians:
Has anybody figured out how to use the iPad version of Garage Band with Voice Over?
I would really like to learn.
Thanks.
Laura Mulraney

The team has some great answers to this question so be sure to listen.

Regarding last month’s exploding phone article, regular contributor Jenine Stanley writes:

Funny that you should mention this book. As I download it to read, I asked my dear spouse if I’d see his name in it.

He worked for AT&T for over 35 years and was on the team that chased down some of the phone freaks during their heyday.

He was also on a team of inside hackers who got to try to break things for a living within The Phone Company.

He tells me that the recent revelations regarding NSA are nothing new at all. And that’s all he can tell me as he’s still under certain orders never to talk about what his team did.

He will tell you though that his time on those projects was a geek’s dream.

Jenine Stanley

Triple-click Home Team App Picks

Here is a link to the Apple II e emulator discussed on the podcast

New Podcast: Codename Cygnus for iOS: Play the Hero in your own Secret Agent Drama

Audioboo / Here’s an all too common sound, hopefully redone in a cool way: Tritone

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them:
Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter
Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter
Follow John Panarese on Twitter
Follow Derek Lane on Twitter

Follow Jamie Pauls on Twitter

Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter

Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 20: A Scary Space Odyssey

Since Buddy Brannan was unable to join us for this month’s episode of Triple-click Home, Jamie Pauls joins Alena Roberts and John Panarese to discuss the top news stories of the month. The team has some app recommendations to share along the way, and Alena rounds out the show with an interview with the developer of the Voice Dream app for reading books and many other types of documents on your iOS device.

Apple Took Three Days to Tell Developers About a Site Hack

Researcher claims he told Apple of Developer Center vulnerability but didn’t maliciously steal data

iOS 7 preview: Siri gets a new look, access to settings, more services, still no predictive results

Nobody Has Tried The Real iOS 7

With Its Acquisition Of Locationary, Apple Zeros In On Maps, Big Data And Competing With Google

With all of our talk of travel, John recommends All Access: Talking Menus.

Apple acquires navigation service Hopstop

HopStop for Windows Phone Scrapped Following Apple Deal

States Combat Cell Phone Use On The Road But Deaths Persist

How Will Apple Handle Verizon’s iPhone Shortfall?

Comparing T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon’s Upgrade Plans

Here’s all the evidence that Apple is making an actual TV—and the remote will likely be your hand

iPad mini 2 with Retina display won’t be released this year?

Recharging iPhone blamed for another serious shock in China

You Won’t Need a PIN When You Pay for Everything with Your Face

Apple should lead the move to DRM-free ebooks

How to request a refund for an iTunes or App Store purchase

App Updates: Fleksy Version 1.8 links favorites with contacts, improves responsiveness and accuracy, and adds themes There is also a new update to MBraile

Seeing Eye GPS: a Turn-by-Turn GPS application for the iPhone Developed Specifically for the Blind

Listen to Joe Steinkamp’s interview with the developers of the iOS game Solara on SeroTalk Podcast 162

Alena has been playing with the crossword game Word Shuffle.

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them: Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter Follow John Panarese on Twitter Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 19: A Stickler for Sequence

This month, Joshua Loya joins the Triple-click Home team to talk about all things related to Apples WWDC Keynote. Stories discussed in this podcast include:

What Apple revealed at WWDC 2013

Apple’s WWDC 2013 keynote video now live

WWDC 2013, A Lot of Announcements | MacForTheBlind

David Woodbridge Technology Blog: Talking Tech for June 11 – Apple WWDC 2013 Keynote – my notes

Which Macs, iPads and iPhones will get Apple’s new goodies?

Apple posts OS X Mavericks preview page

iOS 7 tells Apple users to ‘get excited’ again, says analyst

Apple’s new products won’t cheer investors, says analyst

Hands-on with the new Apple iOS 7

Fleksy keyboard page seems to indicate that Apple will allow third party software keyboards in iOS 7?

iOS App Store will update apps automatically, offer location and age categories

Passbook for iOS 7 to support scanning QR codes

The iPhone finally gets call-blocking in iOS 7

Lawmakers are cautiously optimistic about iOS 7’s ‘Activation Lock’ feature

Apple announces ad based iTunes Radio, ad free for iTunes Match subscribers

Apple’s latest creation is a woman named Mieko Haire

For Apple, an inflection point

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them: Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter Follow John Panarese on Twitter Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter Thanks for listening!

Do you enjoy our SPN Podcasts? You can help us out a whole lot by taking this very short survey.

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 18: Could You Try That in Less Words?
Welcome to another jam-packed episode of Triple-click Home. This month, John Panarese takes the wheel and is joined by Alena Roberts and Buddy Brannan. Along with a discussion of the current crop of news stories, Jamie Pauls talks with Brian Kevelighan about the Aftershokz Bluez bluetooth bone conduction headphones. We also feature a listener email, so stick around and enjoy the show!

Top of the News

Apple reveals details of 50 billionth App Store download

Apple faces questions over alleged tax evasion

A popular Office for Mac version reaches the end of the support line

Microsoft improves Skype on the Mac

Apple tightens App Store rules, now rejecting more app discovery services

iMacs get new cheaper, smaller flash storage options

Hardware Review

This month, Brian Kevelighan reviews the Aftershokz Bluez Bluetooth bone conduction headphones. He isn’t the only one who is in love with them. The Triple-click Home team share their opinion of these headphones as well.

iOS News

Google announces Hangouts messaging service coming to iOS, Android, and desktop today

T-Mobile: No iPhone discount lasts forever

Siri update prompts users to be brief

Low-cost iPhone rumor reignited by Apple supplier’s hiring spree

Apple Having Trouble Signing New Carriers Because of iPhone Subsidy and Minimum Purchase Requirements

Mailbag

Hi folks,
Thanks again for another very informative & witty podcast.
You all could form the Blind Tech Comedy club.
I have to tell you of my mac transition.
My Mother passed away 2 years ago, June 30. I wanted a diversion & a new computer. I got tired of all of the SMA upgrades. Therefore, it left me with the concept of learning to use the Mac OS. NOt only was I learning a new OS, I was learning a new screen reader. Originally, I paid the $99 for the one on one instruction through the apple store. I found the noise & lack of knowledge by the in store trainers discouraging until I met a lady who introduced me to macvisionaries. Between macvisionaries & Iblink radio, I have gotten more information than I could have ever paid for.
As you were talking about your first experience with a screen reader, I have to relay my own experience. I started with DOS 5.0 & found a shareware program called BPop. It was not a fully functional screen magnifier. It would allow me to engage it after I had typed something in order to proofread it. If I had made a mistake, I had to count spaces & lines in order to correct it.
Living in Florida at the time, I was in a close proximity to what was then Henter Joyce in St. Petersburg Florida. I actually met Ted Henter. I found within my budget through considerable cutbacks at the time the $295 to purchase Magic 1.27. It magnified my DOS screen & brought Windows 3.1 in 2x mode. I also received training through the state of Florida on the Vert screen reader along with word perfect 5.1.
Fast forwarding to today, I still have my windows computer yet pull out my mac for everything.
I am by no means an expert, yet am proficient enough to do what I need to do & am very satisfied with my decision to learn the Mac OS.
Like Jamie, I too, am a manual reader. I try to absorb what my given appliance or piece of electronics will do like a sponge. All of the resources you listed are very much appreciated. Your work does not go for naught. I also have a suggestion. Is it possible to take topics from the mac visionaries list with the most responses & expound on the subject matter? Some of them are very lengthy, yet very informational. I don’t read everything primarily, because I don’t have the time to read email all day. However, I find their listers very helpful & interactive.
The applevis site is also a good resource, however, I find some on that site who whine if something isn’t handed to them. Thank you also for your interview with the gentleman dealing with the Earl app. I am not necessarily one who believes everything needs to be free, however, I am tentative to subscribe to their service without knowing how viable they will be. I see their monthly price point to be very affordable, yet my Kansas City paper is not part of their content due to their web subscription policy. I do use newsline & am glad to see a for profit company give them direct competition while making it safe for those who spend a lot of time commuting.
It sounds as if they are following the model of Flexy, using the blind community as a means to test their app & service, yet eventually marketing to everyone.
We have come an extremely long ways from the specialized equipment costing several thousand dollars to main stream technology accessible to everyone.
Thank all of you for your tireless efforts & your dedication to making the world we live in technologically easier to live with.
Sincerely,

Pamela J Francis

Wrapping Up

Feature Writer Alena Roberts – Kindle Books are Finally Made Accessible to People with Print Disabilities

Extensive run through of the now accessible iOS Kindle app with VoiceOver

iOS App Voice Dream Reader now half price at $4.99 for limited time.

Prizmo – Scanning, OCR, and Speech

Looktel Money Reader Gains New Currencies

Bill Gates: Steve Jobs was better at design than I was

Contacting the Team

The Triple-click Home team would love to hear from you. Here is how you can get in touch with them:
Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter
Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter
Follow John Panarese on Twitter
Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter
Thanks for listening!

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Listen to Triple-click Home Episode 15: Swear On That

It’s hard to believe, but here we are at episode 15 of the Triple-click Home Podcast. In this show, Buddy Brannan and Alena Roberts are joined by Jamie Pauls to discuss the top news stories of the month. We also have an interview and an app review for you this time around, so enjoy!

The Big Stories

iOS 6.1 out:  Questions and answers

Apple releases 6.1.1 software update to fix iOS 6.1 connectivity problems

iOS 6.1 brings back bug that gives anyone access to your contacts, photos

Now all that’s left is Apple: Macmillan reaches e-book pricing settlement with the DOJ

Google Could Pay Apple $1 Billion Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS, Report Says

Insiders “now confident” Apple will launch lower-priced, lightweight iPhone as early as June

Report: Apple Prepping Curved Glass Smartwatch

Here’s why Apple needs an iWatch badly, but likely won’t make one

Apple working on technology to benefit hearing aid wearers

ZFS-loving Mac users demand support in OS X 10.9

Why do iPhone and iPad users jailbreak? Freedom

Interview: TapTapSee

The object recognition app TapTapSee has taken the blind community by storm. Alena Roberts and Jamie Pauls interview Brad Folkens, CEO of Net Ideas, LLC about the company, the app, and possible future offerings.

Download TapTapSee from the app store

Follow TapTapSee on Twitter

Resources and AT News

Get a List of Siri Commands Directly from Siri

Use These Special Siri Commands When Dictating Text On iPhone Or iPad [iOS Tips]

What’s Your Type? A Key to Input Methods for VoiceOver Users

New Tech Doctor Podcast Entitled: “iPhone Typing Competition” Listen at your own risk.

New Tech Doctor podcast entitled: BrailleTouch

Febooary 8: Review of AFB AccessNote iPhone app

App review by Lisa Salinger: Amazon Cloud Player

In this month’s app review, Lisa Salinger takes us on a quick tour of the Amazon Cloud Player. She discusses purchasing, downloading and playing content.

Wrapping Up

AI Squared has released ZoomText for the Mac

iPad app replaces physical Bible in New Jersey swear-in ceremony

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

Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter

Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter

Follow John Panarese on Twitter

Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter

Follow Jamie Pauls on Twitter

Follow the SeroTalk Podcast on Twitter

Thanks for listening!

 

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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

More Stories and Our Apps of the Month

Book Review: All You Need and Want to Know about iMessaging

New: Draconis Entertainment Releases a New Mini Title for Mac OS X – SilverDollar

Happy birthday, Lisa: Apple’s slow but heavy workhorse turns 30

This month, Alena recommends TapTapSee, an object recognition app that is easy to use and apparently quite accurate.

Buddy is intrigued with, but a bit confused by VoiceVision, an app that is supposed to help identify colors through sound.

Alena is still enjoying the game 7 Little Words as well as Hourly Quiz, which she considers to be another enjoyable game.

John hasn’t had time to play with apps much this month due to some health issues in his family.

Remember to check out AppleVis for lots of great recommendations.

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:

Follow Alena Roberts on Twitter

Follow Buddy Brannan on Twitter

Follow John Panarese on Twitter

Follow Triple-click Home on Twitter

Thanks for listening!

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download