Despite Apple’s leading efforts in accessibility technology, I have always found iTunes extremely hard to use. Apple’s major focus has been on VoiceOver and screen reader software compatibility. There are many visually impaired computer users out there (and right here) who have not made the switch to a non-visual interface, preferring to rely...
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Wikipanion is a feature-rich access point Wikipedia on the iPhone. it has an intelligent, well thought out interface. Besides support for multiple languages, Wikipanion has smart search and bookmarking features. you can also e-mail your search results to disbelieving friends. Wikipanion is also quite accessible. Not only is the font size adjustable, but you can...
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A website, arc90 lab, offers an amazing tool, Readability, that makes web sites easier to use. Officially an experiment, Readability is a bookmarklet that strips away clutter and reformats the main content of a website so that it is easy to read. Readability is a browser bookmarklet (sort of like a bookmark on steroids). You...
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The Cost of Ink or Why History Trumps Common Sense Open up Microsoft Word or most web sites and the type is laid out in black against a white background like most books or newspapers. Like most books or newspapers? Why? Dark ink on white pages made more sense than white ink on dyed pages...
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Call me crazy. I carry my own meteorologist around in my pocket. I check the temperature, outdoor conditions and the forecast several times a day. I guess I am crazy. But the iPhone’s Weather App is a great personal meteorologist. Well designed,, it lays out lots of information in a simple, easy to read...
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To keep track of all the blogs I like to follow, I use Google Reader. It has a nice clean interface and works in any browser from anywhere. So, I naturally wanted to check this out for the iPhone. Like most of Google’s online applications, access to Google Reader is through its mobile web...
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Following my earlier review of free Twitter apps on the iPhone, Accessing Twitter from the iPhone, a reader suggested I check out his favorite Twitter app, Tweetie. Tweetie is a feature-rich Twitter app that has added a couple of valuable accessibility features in its latest release, making Tweetie worth the $2.99 price tag. If you...
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WritePad is a handwriting recognition engine for the iPhone from Phatware. WritePad is the free basic app that powers Phatware’s more functional suite of apps, WritePad Affairs, WritePad Events and WritePad Notes. WritePad Supports iPhone and iPod Touch 2.0 or later WritePad is a new custom editor for iPhone that utilizes handwriting recognition input...
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Earlier today, I reviewed several ways to access Twitter on the iPhone, Accessing Twitter from the iPhone. I compared the TwitterFon and Twitteriffic apps with Twitter’s mobile web site. How accessible is Twitter on the iPhone? Besides receiving tweets as expensive text messages, there are multiple iPhone apps that access your Twitter stream as well...
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Twitter calls itself a a microbloogging service. What the heck is a microblog? Basically, it is a mix of blogging, text messaging and emailing. The New York Times’ David Pogue offere his take on Twitter in Twitter? It’s What You Make It. Pogue is right. Twitter is in the eye of the beholder,...
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A few days ago, I had begun to despair that my attempt to bring about more iPhone accessibility would be a long, lonely waste of time. Apple has been unresponsive to my campaign. Few contacted developers responded to my suggestions. I turned to a few iPhone developer forums. At rirst, I had little luck...
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As you can tell, I am a big fan of WordPress, which I use to publish this blog. But I am not always at my desk when a good idea for a post strikes. I have been looking into ways to blog on the go, so to speak, even if that just means while...
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As seen on the Talking Books Librarian, the American Foundation for the Blind’ is conducting a Survey on Small Screen Visual Displays at http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?Mode=Survey&SurveyID=101. Taken from the website: AFB TECH, the technology arm of the American Foundation for the Blind, is currently working to establish standards to improve the readability of small screen visual displays, and...
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Fliq Notes is of my favorite iPhone apps. Not only is it versatile and useful, but it’s also quite colorful. This app is designed allow you to, organize and share your notes. in other colorful and intuitive interface which is remarkably accessible. Fliq Notes is part of a suite of applications, both for your...
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Next in my series of iPhone app accessibility reviews is EasyWriter. The main feature of EasyWriter, as its programmers put it, is: EasyWriter makes it easy to write emails using a bigger keyboard in landscape mode. Easywriter has one other accessibility feature that the default Mail program lacks; multitouch zoom. Between landscape mode and the zoom,...
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