Tomorrow, September 19, Apple will be releasing it’s first new version of iOS 13 for the public. This will be for the iPhone and iPod touch, while there will be a new iPad OS as well. As usual, I am going to link the information about these releases as far as what is new and the known bugs from my good friends at applevis:
The Accessibility Bugs Introduced and Resolved in iOS 13 for Blind and Low Vision Users
What’s New In iOS 13 Accessibility For Individuals Who Are Blind or Deaf-Blind
Happy Independence Day to those in the United States.
In celebration of the 4th of July and the NFB and ACB summer conventions, Mac for the Blind is, once again, offering a coupon for a 20 percent discount off of all of the audio tutorials and Apple Slices. Please use the coupon code, july20, during checkout to receive the discount from your order.
As usual, thank you for your continued support and interest in the audio tutorials and Apple Slices.
Happy New Year to all. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and holiday season.
We are continuing to offer a 40 percent discount on all of the audio tutorials and Apple slices. This is perfect for those folks looking to complete any of the series or for the new user who might have gotten some kind of Apple goody for the holidays. Please feel free to use the coupon code, holiday40 at checkout to take advantage of this special, w which will run into January!
After returning from vacation, I am finally catching up. Thus, within the last week, Apple has released the latest update to the iDevices, iOS 12, and the newest version of the Mac operating system, 10.14 Mojave. I have updated all of my devices accordingly, and I can tell you that these updates are all quite smooth and should pose no issues for those who are usually timid or nervous about making immediate jumps. There are, to my knowledge, no serious accessibility issues to be found and the bugs are minimal at best.
For an overview on MacOS Mojave,
the good folks at Applevis, once again, do a great job of summarizing them.
You can find a similar summarization for iOS 12 here as well
The summer is upon us again and in honor of the summer conventions for the National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind, as well as the celebration of Independence Day, there is a discount coupon on all the audio lessons.
Use this code today to save 10% off everything you buy in our store! NO Limit on amount of lessons purchased!
10% off discount code: SUM10OFF
This is a limited time offer, set to end without warning! Don’t miss out!
Mac lessons can be found Here.
On a number of occasions over the years, I have had people ask me if I would ever consider trying to run an online course of some kind in regard to the Mac or iOS. In fact, some people have repeatedly encouraged me to do so and have pointed me in the direction of a number of resources. I’ve certainly thought about it, but of late, this topic has come up to me by way of a number of current and former clients.
I am not completely sure what kind of an interest there would be out there for me to start such an undertaking, but, at the same time, I am certainly willing to do so. I think, in this day and age, an online course that would be live and also available for download would benefit both new and advanced users, no matter what platform we are considering. The success of the Audio Tutorial Series and Apple Slices honestly leads me to think there could be a segment of the population who would like to benefit from online course material.
With that said, I would like to get an idea from the community if there would be an interest in such courses. I would like some feedback from folks in regard to if they would be willing to attend such a course, what platform (Mac or iOS), and what areas they would want to learn about.
My initial ideas are an introduction to the Mac and VoiceOver, an introduction to iOS and VoiceOver, how to effectively web browse on the Mac or in iOS, and document handling on the Mac. There are surely other topics, but these are a few that come to mind.
If possible, I would ask folks to please spread this post to as many people and places as possible. I would like to start conducting courses over the summer and fall if, in fact, there is a serious interest from people in having me do so. As far as “pricing” or “cost” would go, my intentions are having some as being free for anyone, and others to require a “registration” fee. At the moment, however, I am not certain as to how this will work. This is in the early stages, so I first want to gauge interest before I plunge into the logistical side of the project.
I thank you all in advance for reading this post and helping to get the word out there on my behalf to the community.
For the holidays, I have added a new audio tutorial, “An Introduction to MacOS and Your Mac.”, to the
Mac lessons page.
This is a free tutorial for those who might have recently received or purchased a Mac for the holidays. This tutorial gives you an overview of the Mac operating system and the important applications and tasks that you will want to use on your system. At the risk of self-promotion, I also point out the various additional audio tutorials and Apple Slices that will assist you in your learning process.
To celebrate this holiday season, there is a discount on all of the
audio tutorial series
and the
Apple slices.
Use the coupon code Hol10 during checkout to receive a discount. There will also be some other holiday specials coming as we get closer to Christmas!
For those of you who kindly tweet and share these posts in regard to the audio tutorial and apple slices series, I truly appreciate it. I wish
everyone a merry Christmas, a happy holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year.
I am a little behind, but the
News page of the site
has been updated with the last Apple event. I just received my iPhone 8 a few days earlier and I am, as usual, just as impressed with it as I have always been with new iPhones.
I chose to go with the iPhone 8 at this point, though, as a new gadget guy, the iPhone X was surely tempting. It really came down to financial considerations at the moment, and, well, the reality is the iPhone X is probably going to be the form factor for future iPhones and will, thus, be perfected in the next versions.
I also ordered my Apple Watch Series 3. Basically, I felt it was about time to upgrade my original Apple Watch. Also, I find that Watch OS 4 with VoiceOver is not running as crisply as the early versions. I like the idea of the watch having a cellular connection as well. I will have the watch over the next couple of weeks.
As far as iOS 11 goes, it is always entertaining for me to read the usual email list chatter when a new version of the iOS comes out and you have the usual reactions that range from the over dramatic to the highly exaggerated, with actual facts and good information sometimes being lost somewhere in between. In sum, iOS 11 is fine. For those of you on the fence, unless you are a hardcore Braille user, the update is perfectly safe to install. There are reports of Braille problems that, depending on how much you utilize Braille, might be best for you to wait for the maintenance releases. There are, as with any new software release, some bugs that are documented by Applevis, but none that are show stopping at all.
The same exact thing can be said for MacOS High Sierra 10.13. There are no bugs that are serious enough that one should hesitate to update their Mac. Only in the cases of situations in which you might have a much older system that might be borderline for updating that one might want to think about not doing so. I’ve been Beta testing it all summer and it’s running on both my 2013 iMac and my 2017 Mac Book Pro.
Today, Apple released iOS 11 for all supported devices. I have just updated my iPhone 7 and am messing with it. However, in their usual, efficient and informative manner,, Applevis has a summary of what you can expect
which you can read here.
In that article, there is also a direct link to another article that addresses the known bugs from serious to minor in iOS 11.
