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AT&T Describes How to Fix iPhones in Arizona Whose Time Fell Back by One Hour on Nov. 7

November 7, 2010 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

While Arizona did not observe the Sunday end of Daylight Saving Time, some iPhones in the state configured with default settings did, falling back an hour along with those in the Pacific time zone.

April, an AT&T customer service representative, reported that the issue involves the configuration of time zone support in the iPhone’s Mail, Contacts and Calendars settings. By default, time zone support is on and set to Cupertino.

April provided the following instructions for disabling time zone support, so that this information can be obtained from AT&T’s network:

These steps will work for sighted users who are not running the VoiceOver screen reader for the blind. Instructions for blind users follow.

  1. Tap Settings on the Home screen.
  2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
  3. Tap Time Zone Support.
  4. Tap the button to turn Time Zone Support off.

If you are a blind iPhone user who relies on Apple’s built-in VoiceOver screen reader, follow these steps to turn off time zone support:

  1. Press the Home button to move to the Home screen.
  2. Flick left or right to locate the Settings icon. This will be found on the first page of most iPhones.
  3. Double tap Settings.
  4. Flick right several times to locate Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
  5. Double tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
  6. Flick right until you locate “Time Zone Support, On.”
  7. Double tap “Time Zone Support, On.” You are now in the time zone support window.
  8. Flick to the right a couple of times to find a button labeled “Time Zone Support, On.”
  9. Double tap the button to turn this feature off. The iPhone will now pull all its time zone information from the cellular network.

Once the time zone support setting has been deactivated, close the settings screen by pressing the Home button and test the time change by following these steps:

  1. Press and hold down the Sleep button on the top of the iPhone for two seconds.
  2. Double tap the Power Off button. Single tap the button if you are not using VoiceOver. The iPhone will announce it is shutting down.
  3. Wait 5 or 10 seconds.
  4. Hold down the Sleep button for two or three seconds to start the iPhone.
  5. Allow 10 to 15 seconds for the iPhone to fully power up. If you use VoiceOver, its active status will be announced.
  6. The iPhone starts in a locked state, with the current time shown. Flick to the left a couple of times to hear it announced. Flick to the right twice and double tap to unlock the iPhone and go on your merry way.

As always, comments, corrections and all constructive feedback is useful.

Categories: iPhone, tips • Tags: , , , ,
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Let Your Voices be Heard at Foursquare

November 3, 2010 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

The popular Foursquare iPhone app used all over the world to check into and learn about new places is usable by blind people, but it’s accessibility could be significantly improved by the developers.

A new topic was posted Tuesday on Foursquare’s Get Satisfaction forum asking for labeled buttons, fields and other controls to reduce confusion and make the iPhone app easier to use for blind people who rely on Apple’s built-in VoiceOver screen reader.

We ask all who regularly read this journal or follow us on Twitter to review this topic and leave your own comments. This app has featured many unlabeled controls for a long time now. It’s only through vigorous participation that we’re going to get Foursquare to pay attention to our concerns and fix the accessibility issues.

Categories: accessibility, advocacy, iPhone • Tags: , , ,
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Going Fishing with oMoby

November 2, 2010 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Karen brings me an interesting grocery package to identify with oMoby. A demonstration and discussion of iPhone camera orientation follows.

Follow these steps to use oMoby:

  1. Locate oMoby on your Home screen and double tap its icon to launch the app.
  2. Four-finger flick down to move to the bottom of the window, where you will find the Settings button.
  3. Flick left once and double tap the Take Photo button. Options for adjusting the camera are shown.
  4. Four-finger flick down to the Take Picture button.
  5. Orient the iPhone in the vertical position with the Sleep button on the top and the Home button on the bottom to take the picture in portrait mode. If a wider view is needed, orient the iPhone 90 degrees to the left, counterclockwise, of the vertical position so that the Home button is on the right to take the picture in landscape mode.
  6. Place the camera against the object to be identified and gradually move the iPhone upward to a distance of six to 12 inches. If you know you have good lighting, you may want to try allowing the camera to auto focus. Stop moving upward when you here VoiceOver say “auto focused.”
  7. Double tap the Take Picture button. A camera sound is heard and a snapshot of the object is taken.
  8. Four-finger flick down to the Use button and double tap it to have oMoby upload the picture for analysis.
  9. Flick left and right around the screen until you locate the newest entry in the list that says “searching.” Once the object has been identified, another screen will appear containing the identity of the object along with a lot of search results you may not find useful. Use the two-finger scrub gesture or find and double tap the Back button to return to the list of identified objects.

Download, Play or Pause – Going Fishing with oMoby

Categories: iPhone, tips
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Music Identification iPhone App to Get Restored VoiceOver Accessibility

October 31, 2010 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

New versions of Shazam Entertainment’s music-identification iPhone apps will restore VoiceOver accessibility for blind listeners.

23-year-old blind computer programmer Jason White said the inaccessible Shazam update interfered with VoiceOver on his iPod Touch even after switching away from the app, forcing him to completely close the app in order to restore VoiceOver accessibility.

“When I attempted to use Shazam, speech from VoiceOver ceaced or was extremely sluggish,” White said. “I was quite disconcerted when the problem first occured, because I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t tell if Shazam was causing VoiceOver to freze, or whether the entire unit had just frozen, since Voiceover is my primary access method to the iPod.”

Peter Mahach, a 14-year-old blind iPhone user from Poland, said he used Shazam to identify the music in sound clips he enjoys collecting.

“shazam was a really great tool which allowed me to identify a sound clip and listen to the full version of the song via YouTube,” he said. “When shazam 3 came out, it did get expanded but also got considerably more unlabeled buttons and the youtube feature, which before would load up the first match now displayed some search results, and if you tapped on one it did absolutely nothing.”

Mahach said Shazam became inaccessible after a recent update, and he has missed the ability to use the app.

“I did have issues with voice over stopping speech when the app began tagging, so what I did to stop recording was disconnect my headphones from the iPod which effectively caused the app to stop recording and identify the song,” Mahach said. “Now the app completely stopped being usable for the moment and if I need to identify something I have to fall back on trying to hear as many words of the song as possible, then googling for them.”

Shazam Entertainment got bug reports from customers about audio management issues and crashes after the update.

“When we implemented version 3 of our application on the iPhone, it was a very big scope, there were a number of bugs, a few people complained about crashing and one of those bugs was that VoiceOver stopped working,” said Roy Rosenthal, legal counsel for Shazam Entertainment. “When the microphone is on, the app can’t also implement VoiceOver. We actually have a copy of a long e-mail from someone who voiced this concern. It was the only one we did have, but our fix to it was go into your Shazam settings and turn off your microphone.”

Rosenthal said the company moved fast to squash the bugs.

“As of two days ago, we submitted version 3.1 of Shazam Free, and that has fixed the bug,” Rosenthal said. “VoiceOver will be back in as soon as the approval process goes through, which usually takes three days to a week on Apple’s side.”

Rosenthal said the VoiceOver fix will find its way into the paid-for Shazam Encore app on its next release, version 3.1.1, slated for the middle of November.

He said the company values customer feedback.

“It’s frustrating for us, because the bigger complaint we were getting from customers was that it was crashing and, so, we scrambled like crazy to fix that and that’s why 3.1 is coming out so quickly,” Rosenthal said. “I think we have a good reputation with our users and we’d like to keep it that way, so if there are issues of accessibility out there we’re going to act pretty quickly to take care of those.”

Categories: iPhone
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Touch Typing Your Way to New Apps and Social Networking on the iPhone

October 28, 2010 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Kevin Chao demonstrates shopping in the iTunes App Store, posting to Twitter and sending a text message by entering text on the iPhone’s virtual on-screen keyboard using the touch typing method.

Follow these steps to switch between “standard typing” and “touch typing” modes:

  1. Move to a field that requires typing and double tap to start editing.
  2. Positioning two fingers on the screen, twist them like a dial several times until you hear “Typing Mode” spoken.
  3. Flick up or down to toggle between “standard typing” and “touch typing” mode. Standard typing mode is the default, which requires double tapping or split tapping on everything in order to type. Touch typing, which is the mode being demonstrated in this podcast, allows automatic entry of text as soon as the finger is lifted. Touch typing mode can be faster for advanced users.

Download, Play or Pause – Touch Typing Your Way to New Apps and Social Networking on the iPhone

Categories: iPhone, podcast, tips
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Exploring the Neighborhood with Sendero GPS LookAround Version 1.1 for the iPhone

October 28, 2010 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Sendero Group offers a $5 iPhone app that aims to help blind people navigate outdoors using their iPhones.

After installing the LookAround app, following these steps makes a great deal of information about the user’s surroundings immediately available.

  1. Orient the iPhone so that its screen is facing up toward the sky, the back is facing the ground and the power button is facing away from your body.
  2. Find Sendero GPS on the Home screen and double tap it to launch the app.
  3. Shake the iPhone to hear the direction you are facing, your address, nearest cross street and closest point of interest.

Download, Play or Pause – Exploring the Neighborhood with Sendero GPS LookAround Version 1.1 for the iPhone

Categories: podcast, travel
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