AppleVis Podcast

In this podcast, Alex Hall demonstrates the use of Audio Hijack. This Mac app allows you to record audio from individual apps, the entire system, or any internal or external microphones you have. Better still, it can mix them together, apply effects, adjust volumes, live monitor, and more. If you do podcasts or anything else that requires recording more than one audio source at once, you can't go...

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra,  Michael Hansen and Thomas Domville talk with Hans Wiberg, creator of Be My Eyes. Launched internationally on 15th January 2015, the Be My Eyes app allows blind iOS users to connect with sighted volunteers via live video chat to ask questions about objects or situations that they have encountered. Hans provides some background to Be My Eyes, discusses th...

In this podcast, AnonyMouse gives us a walk-through and demonstration of Be My Eyes - helping blind see . This recently released iOS app offers to connect blind users with sighted volunteers over live video chat. Using the camera on the iOS device, the blind person can then ask questions about an object or situation that they need help identifying. Be My Eyes - helping blind see is a free download...

Voice Dream Reader was recently voted the Best Mainstream iOS App of 2014 in the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards . With advanced text-to-speech and a highly configurable screen layout, this powerful reading tool can be tailored to suit every reading style from completely auditory to completely visual, plus a synchronized combination of both. Voice Dream Reader supports reading PDF and Word documents,...

Update: Since recordomg, the name of this app has been changed from Bored-At-Work Blackjack to Blindfold Blackjack. In this podcast, AnonyMouse gives us a walk-through and demonstration of Blindfold Blackjack for iOS. Created by the authors of Blindfold Racer, Blindfold Sudoku and Blindfold Cryptogram, this game is designed for rapid audio play, and is fully accessible as it is self-voicing. Blind...

In this podcast, Steve Sawczyn discusses the Direct Touch Typing input mode first introduced in iOS 8 and shows how it works with VoiceOver.

In this podcast, AnonyMouse walks us through the process of setting up your iPhone for use with Apple Pay, the recently launched mobile payment and digital wallet service by Apple that lets you make payments using your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. Note: at the time of posting, this service is only available to US users.

In this podcast, Harrison introduces us to Grail to the Thief , a new interactive audio adventure for Mac, Windows and Linux. The game has been designed with the needs of the blind and vision impaired in mind, but can be enjoyed by everyone. It stars Hank Krang, a dirty thief from the near future who recently had a self-aware time machine called the Time Excursion Digital Interface, or TEDI, fall...

In this podcast, Alex Hall takes a look at the Chess application which comes preloaded on all Mac computers. This is a companion to his guide to the Chess app. You can use the Chess application to play chess against the computer or another person, or watch the computer play against itself. You can choose the level of difficulty for each game, get hints from the computer, and make moves using spoke...

In this podcast, Crayton gives us a walk-through and demonstration of QCast, a podcast manager and player for Mac OS X. QCast gives you an accessible and intuitive interface to subscribe and listen to your favorite podcasts. It’s features include: Listen to thousands of podcasts from all over the internet, right from your desktop. Automatically receive new episodes as they are posted. Search for n...

In this podcast, Khalfan Bin Dhaher gives us a demonstration of Inquisitor's Heartbeat for iOS, an audio game that catapults the player right into the 1300s at the height of the brutal Inquisition. Accused of heresy for being in possession of a forbidden book, Nicholas Eymerich, the game’s main character is imprisoned in the dungeon of a castle: he must escape from his cell and retrieve the precio...

In the first of a planned series of podcasts, Alex Hall introduces us to programming with Xcode by creating a new project, logging a line of code, checking that log, and carrying out some basic debugging. If you are unfamiliar with Xcode, it is an integrated development environment containing a suite of software development tools developed by Apple for developing software for OS X and iOS. The tex...

In this podcast, Scott Howell and Keith Watson sit down to talk about the popular Mac application, Keyboard Maestro . Scott and Keith discuss the giant steps taken by the developer to make the latest version more accessible with VoiceOver, what Keyboard Maestro does, and how you can use it to automate tasks on your Mac. There’s no easy way to describe Keyboard Maestro, but essentially it allows yo...

In this podcast, Jeffry Miller gives us a quick look at Disk Cleaner Pro , a Mac app that removes unnecessary files to free up hard drive space.   Disk Cleaner Pro can clear: Unused caches Unused logs Old email attachments Old downloaded files Unnecessary foreign languages The Trash Disk Cleaner Pro is a $1.99 download from the Mac App Store .

In this podcast, Eric Caron shows us how to use Amadeus Pro on the Mac to convert vinyl albums into digital files which can be played on your computer and portable devices or used to create an audio CD.    Eric’s demonstration includes editing the sound, dividing the recording into songs and moving the album to your iTunes Library.   This process requires a USB turntable.   Ama...

In this podcast, Cherokee Eagle gives us a walk-through and demonstration of LibriVox Audio Books , an iOS app that provides free access to over 10,000 audiobooks as well as thousands of radio dramas.   Each audiobook can be streamed over the internet or downloaded for later use. All LibriVox audio books can be freely listened to and shared. The LibriVox Audio Books app features classic best...

In this podcast, AnonyMouse gives us a quick demonstration of EyeNote , a free iOS app that offers quick and easy recognition of U.S. currency.   This app has been available for some time, but a recent update has added continuous  recognition, which has reduced the need to hold the iOS device still or capture a photo.   EyeNote works on the iPhone 3GS and greater, the 4th Generation...

In this podcast, David Woodbridge gives a demonstration of Airfoil for Mac , an application that allows you to play audio on multiple AirPlay devices simultaneously.   Send any audio from your Mac to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, iPhones and iPod Touchs, and even other Macs and PCs, all in sync! Use Airfoil with web-based audio like Pandora, music services like Spotify, Rdio, MOG, and WiM...

In this podcast, Scott Davert shares some basic tips and good practice for recording audio podcasts.   This should be particularly helpful for those new to podcasting, as Scott highlights a number of things which will make the recording process easier and less stressful and ensure that the resulting podcast achieves what was intended.   Although much of what Scott discusses is good pract...

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 ra...

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 multipla...

In this podcast, Steve Murgaski walks us through how to assign braille keyboard commands to VoiceOver actions. He also demonstrates how to change the way a braille display behaves through the Activity feature found in the VoiceOver Utility.

In this podcast, Scott Davert reviews and walks us through the new Bard Mobile app. Scott takes us through getting help, downloading content, playing of audio books, as well as some of the unique benifits for readers using braille displays to access braille content through this app. This app is a free download in the US App Store, and is only usable by eligible patrons of the National Library Serv...

In this podcast, Brandt Steenkamp gives us a walk-through and demonstration of  Audiobook Binder , a Mac app for converting your audiobooks from mp3 format to iPod-compatible m4b.   Audiobook Binder is a free download from the Mac App Store.

In this podcast, David Woodbridge gives us a demonstration of Battery Monitor , a Mac application that provides access to just about everything that you could ever want to know about the battery in your MacBook Pro or Air. This includes:   Display of the charge state in the Dock: This is useful if you cannot or do not like to use the display in the menubar of Mac OS X, e.g. when you have a sc...