I keep all my contact and calendar information on Google. Google is convenient, ubiquitous and easy to use. when I brought my new iPod Touch home, I was excited to set up my e-mail, contacts and calendar on the device. Setting up my e-mail went smoothly enough. The difficulty begin when I tried to sync my contacts and calendar. There was no easy way to do this. After searching the web a bit, I found a fairly complicated workaround. This trick involved syncing Google with Plaxo and then Plaxo with Outlook and Outlook with iTunes. It was a cranky process at best.
Apparently, Google has now come to some kind of arrangement with Microsoft that allows you to sync your contacts and calendars between Google and your iPod. What does Microsoft have to do with it? I have no idea. It’s not really that important.
Noy, you can Set Up Your iPhone or iPod Touch to do this quite easily. Google has posted some instructions that are quite easy to follow. I took about five minutes complete the whole process. It’s a Jacob a short while longer to complete the process. I believe there are ways to choose which of your Google calendar, but there are no ways to sync only particular groups of your contacts.
The iPhone calendar and contact apps are neither very accessible nor very inaccessible. Apple always uses a very clean interface, so you don’t have to worry about dealing with clutter. Unfortunately, these apps do not offer landscape mode, adjustable font sizes, zoom, or alternative color schemes. I have posted about these issues on the iPhone before and have even passed my concerns on to Apple’s accessibility team. Hopefully, they will address these issues in future versions of the iPhone operating system.
Read about iPhone accessibility here.
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Tim,
Hey – I’m legally blind also and thinking about purchasing an iPhone this summer after my Verizon contract is up. Your site has really helped me research the pros and cons of an iPhone in terms of accessibility.
I think your four areas for accessibility are right on the mark. I would be interested in advocating accessibility features on iPhone to Apple, but I need to learn more first. Plus, the new 3.0 upgrade and new hardware coming out in summer is likely to change things significantly (landscape for basic apps, better camera/potential video,
I have played around with the iPhone and realize that the Safari zoom function can help with seeing Google calendar for instance, but I’d really like to see a complete OS zoom accessibility, like the iMac OSX.
I was thinking that a special “zoom” buttom off in the far corner – like the top left corner in both landscape and portrait mode – that when held down with left thumb and joined with the right hand making zooming gestures would be a great way to allow for total zoom accessibility within any app. It would be similiar to using command + mouse click wheel for zooming on an iMac.
Also, I want a video camera on the iPhone for viewing distant signs. I would like to be able to add a real lens hardware that could physically mount (or be clamped) to the iPhone directly over the video camera lens in order to get more zoom than a digital zoom could do.
Thanks for you awesome work. Someday these types of devices will really level the playing field for legally blind individuals like us. It’s exciting to see technology meet the unique needs of individuals.
Fred,
I am glad you found your way here and are finding the site useful. Keep those ideas coming.
Tim