AppleVis Podcast

In this podcast, David Woodbridge takes a look at the recently released iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display. After a physical description of each, he talks us through the initial setup on iOS 7, VoiceOver navigation and the multi-tasking gestures which are specific to the iPad.

In this podcast, Bryan gives us a walk-through and demonstration of TimeTuner Radio Alarm Clock, a full-featured radio alarm clock for iOS.   TimeTuner Radio Alarm Clock is a 99 cents download from the iTunes App Store.

In this podcast, Orinks gives us a quick demonstration of A Dark Room, a text-based RPG for iOS.   The developer of this game is so keen to limit spoilers, that the only information they provide about the game is: “awake, head throbbing, vision blurry.”   The game combines interactive fiction with resource management. You start off with nothing and work to create a village which will range in size the farther you go.   A Dark Room is a $1.99 download from the iTunes App Store.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Thomas and Scott are joined by Jesse Vigil and Diana Hughes of Psychic Bunny, developers of the FREEQ audio game for iOS.   In addition to talking about the game and its background, Jesse and Diana tell us how advocacy from blind gamers alerted them to iOS accessibility and ultimately resulted in FREEQ becoming accessible.   Another very positive outcome to this advocacy was a great blog post written by Diana on the Game Developer Magazine website: 5 Things We Learned About Developing An iOS Game for Blind Players

In this podcast, AnonyMouse gives us a walk-through of Overcast, Simple Weather, a free and fully accessible weather app for iOS.   Overcast is designed to give a very quick overview of the current weather conditions and forecasts for the day and for the week.   Weather data is provided by forecast.io. This data comes from a variety of sources, and is made more accurate by statistical modeling. In many locations, hyper-local forecast information is available.   Overcast, Simple Weather is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

In this podcast, Scott Davert gives us a walk-through of Radium ~ Perfect Internet Radio, an iOS app that claims to be the most beautiful and intuitive internet radio player you’ll ever use.   Radium’s database of 8000+ high quality stations, Smart Equalizer and built-in Wish List make listening to your favorite radio simple. Find stations in real time by name, genre or region, and tune in to your favorite radio stations with a single tap.   At the time of writing, Radium ~ Perfect Internet Radio  is available for free from the iTunes App Store. However, it was until recently a paid app, so it’s possible that it may not stay free forever.   There is also a Mac version of Radium available from the Mac App Store. An AppleVis podcast about this is also available.

In this podcast, Bryan gives us a detailed walk-through of Cribbage Pro, an iOS version of the classic game where 2 players race to be the first to reach 121 points.   For the unfamiliar, cribbage is a card game, usually for two players, in which the objective is to play so that the pip value of one's cards played reaches exactly 15 or 31.   This app allows for either single or multiplayer.   Cribbage Pro is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

In this podcast, Jessica demonstrates how to use Siri to set more specific times in the iOS clock and reminders apps. This is a workaround for when you need a countdown to include seconds or an alarm/reminder to be at a time that isn’t rounded to the nearest 5 minute increment.

In this podcast, Bryan gives us a detailed walk-through of UK Bus Checker – live bus times and route maps for every stop.   UK Bus Checker provides information for every one of mainland UK's 300,000 bus stops. It will tell you when buses are due and where they are going. And, in many towns and cities, this information isn't just scheduled times, it's real live countdown information from GPS-tracking of the buses. Once on a bus, the app can also alert you when you have arrived at your desired destination.   UK Bus Checker – live bus times and route maps for every stop is a £2.99 download from the iTunes App Store.

In this podcast, Cherokee Eagle gives us a walk-through and demonstration of Loony Libs, an iOS version of a word game that you may know as Mad Libs.   For the unfamiliar, Mad Libs is a phrasal template word game where you are prompted to substitute nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. for blanks in a story. You don’t know what words surround the blanks, so after entering your words you can end up with a comical or nonsensical story.   Cherokee Eagle has recently demonstrated another Mad Lib game for iOS, Wordventure.   Loony Libs is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

In this AppleVis Extra, Thomas and Michael speak with Josh of Draconis Entertainment about their new iOS app called DoItWrite. This app is a $1.99 download in the US App Store. DoITWrite, as descried by the developers, is an educational tool and game to teach visually impaired users of iOS 7's VoiceOver screen reader how to draw printed letters and numbers for use with VoiceOver's handwriting feature in iOS 7.

In this podcast, Cherokee Eagle gives us a walk-through and demonstration of using iTunes and iRinger to create a ringtone from music in your iTunes library.   iRinger is a free application for the PC that enables you to quickly and easily create ringtones and text tones from virtually any music or video file that you own. These can then be exported to iTunes, where you can transfer them to your iPhone. In this example, Cherokee Eagle first uses iTunes to create a music file which is the correct length and starts and ends at points which make it suitable for a ringtone.   This demonstration is carried out on a PC running Windows XP and using Jaws.

In this podcast, Cherokee Eagle gives us a walk-through and demonstration of Wordventure, an iOS version of a word game that you may know as Mad Libs.   For the unfamiliar, Mad Libs is a phrasal template word game where you are prompted to substitute nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. for blanks in a story. You don’t know what words surround the blanks, so after entering your words you can end up with a comical or nonsensical story.   Wordventure is a free download that comes with 3 Mad Lib templates. Additional Mad Libs are offered as in-app purchases for 99 cents each.

In this podcast, Alex Hall gives us a quick walk-through of iTunes Radio on the Mac.   iTunes Radio is a free service offered by Apple and is available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV. If you are in one of the countries where this service is offered - USA and Canada at the time of posting - you’ll have access to more than 250 DJ-curated and genre-focused stations. Your stations evolve based on the music you play and download. So the more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more iTunes Radio knows what you like to listen to.   More information about iTunes Radio can be found on the Apple website.

In this podcast, Cherokee Eagle demonstrates the AirDrop feature that was introduced in iOS 7 and allows you to share items between supported devices. AirDrop is a method of transferring files wirelessly. It has been available on the Mac since OS X Lion and arrived on newer iPads and iPhones with iOS 7. The iOS implementation allows users to easily share photos, videos and other supported documents to anyone nearby who is using a supported iOS device or Mac.