8 September, 2007 @ 9:25 am by Holly
Apple Inc. has partnered with iBiquity Corporation to offer the Itunes tagging service. This is a service that will work with HD radio receivers that have a special tag button. This allows consumers to “tag” music heard on the fm dial for purchase in Itunes.
There currently have been a little over a hundred thousand HD radio receivers sold in the United States since it premiered in 2004 and the HD industry is set to spend around $250 million to get the technology known and introduced to a much broader market of consumers. HD radio technology allows for consumers to receive fm quality signals from conventional terrestrial radio. It is unknown at this time how accessible this service will be, but it sounds very intriguing.
Posted in Apple Inc., Apple News, iPods and iTunes | No Comments »
6 September, 2007 @ 9:40 am by Lioncourt
Apple refreshed their entire iPod lineup at a press event in San Francisco yesterday. Here’s a look at what was announced.
The iPod Shuffles have remained largely unchanged. The major difference in this lineup is the wider array of colours now being offered, and the "Red" model, proceeds from which will go to help fight AIDS in Africa. Accessibility on this model remains the same…which is, of course, quite good.
The iPod Nanos now offer video capability at the same resolution as the 5th generation standard iPods. Access to these devices is probably unchanged, though we cannot be certain at this point. They sport larger displays and a more squat shape.
The original iPod has been renamed the iPod Classic, and now comes in 80GB and 160GB varieties. It is available in both black and silver. Presumably, accessibility on these models will be as it was on the previous 5G models, which is not perfect but still extremely usable by blind music lovers. The Classics are $249 and $349 respectively.
The newest addition to the iPod family is the iPod Touch. The Touch looks remarkably like the iPhone and sports many of the same features except the mobile phone related ones. It has Wi-Fi capability, and the mobile version of Apple’s Safari web browser is included. The device is touch-screen operated and comes in 8 and 16GB varieties for $299 and $399 respectively. While no official word has come from Apple has yet, we can safely assume that the iPod Touch’s accessibility features will extend to about the same level as the iPhone, which is significantly limited.
Apple slashed the price on its 8GB iPhone to $399 and has discontinued the 4GB model, noting that everyone wants the additional storage. The remaining stock of 4GB models are being sold out from the Apple Store at $299.
Apple released version 7.4 of iTunes yesterday to support the new iPod models. Closed captioning is another new feature of the iTunes software. Whether other accessibility enhancements are available in this version, we’re unsure at this time, but will report back with findings should there be any.
Posted in Apple Inc., Apple News, iPhone, iPods and iTunes | No Comments »
5 September, 2007 @ 8:12 am by Lioncourt
Last week, we contacted Felt Tip Software about their Sound Studio product. Sound Studio is an advanced audio-editor for Mac OS X, and up until recently had been extremely accessible. In more recent versions, keyboard control for navigating the audio file had been removed from the program, detracting from its viability for blind audio editors.
Two days after we contacted them, the company released version 3.5.4 of the software which brought back much of the keyboard control. The program is a very powerful and attractive editing tool for blind Mac users, despite a few shortfalls, such as a lack of fine-tuning of your MP3 encoding options. Still, at $50, it’s hard to find much to complain about.
A trial is available before you buy. Check it out at FeltTip.com.
Posted in Apple Inc., Third-Party Products | No Comments »
