• Retweet: @vmwarefusion : Fusion 50% off today, one day only. Details: http://is.gd/9Gqi Coupon code "CyberMondayDeal" # 2008/12/01
• It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States. We're thankful for Apple's commitment to accessibility in their products. # 2008/11/27
• We've added social bookmarking and "Send this to a Friend" to the Mac-cessibility Site as a trial. Let us know what you think. # 2008/11/27
• Apple released Safari 3.2.1 today. No known accessibility changes, but a good update to have nonetheless. Stability is the focus. # 2008/11/25
• News: Comparing Accessibility of the Big Three Operating System http://www.lioncourt.com/?p=247 # 2008/11/21

The Screenless Switchers Podcast have posted their latest episode. Darcy and Holly are joined by Josh de Lioncourt to discuss the announcements from Apple at Steve Jobs’s keynote address this morning, along with commentary on what these announcements mean for the blind and visually impaired community. They also touch on other topics, including commitment to accessibility by third-party developers, and accessible games.

You can subscribe via iTunes or get the latest episode at www.ScreenlessSwitchers.com.

Today, Apple released details on many new products. Here’s a brief rundown on what we know so far, and what it may or may not mean to blind or visually impaired users.

• iTunes Movie Rentals — Apple released a new version of iTunes today with support for movie rentals. Movies will begin showing up in DVD quality, complete with 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. No word yet on whether this update provides any accessibility improvements, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.
• New AppleTV — AppleTV got a major overhaul. It no longer requires a computer to stream content, and you can buy or rent media from the iTunes store directly from the set-top box. No word on whether the AppleTV is accessible, though we are still optimistic that it may be in a future version, given that it is running a version of Mac OS X, and certainly has the horse power for speech output.
• iPhone Update — The iPhone got a huge number of improvements, and we heard once again that the SDK for developers should be available at the end of February. Once the SDK is available, third-party developers may be able to work on access solutions for blind or visually impaired users, and we are still hopeful that Apple may be working on this as well.
• MacBook Air — The MacBook Air is a new addition to the APple line of notebook computers. It provides far more power than notetakers and other portable assistive devices at a substantially cheaper price tag. The device is 0.76 inches at it’s thickest point, and an astonishing 0.16 inches at it’s thinnest. It includes WiFi, BlueTooth, USB, and much more. Since it is running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, it includes VoiceOver, and thereby is in a great position to compete with other ultra-portable products from companies like Freedom Scientific.

As more information is available on accessibility features or issues with these products, we’ll keep you up to date.

Adium is a popular alternative to iChat, and supports multiple instant messaging protocols such as MSN, AIM, and Yahoo. Until now, the program has suffered from a variety of accessibility issues with VoiceOver, but that is all about to change.

This morning, we received a statement from Evan Schoenburg of the Adium development team. Here’s What Mr. Schoenburg had to say:

The Adium team is dedicated to supporting the blind and visually impaired community and is proud to note that the next version of their free, open source instant messaging client, 1.2.1, will have unprecedented support for VoiceOver and other accessibility devices. Previously, incoming and outgoing messages could be spoken aloud as they occurred, and the contact list was fully accessible. The contents of chat windows will now be accessible, as well. We plan to continue to improve accessibility to allow everyone to use Adium to its fullest. Adium 1.2.1 is slated for release in the near future, and a beta is currently available at http://beta.adiumx.com.

We’d like to thank the Adium team for their efforts, and we encourage you to let the team know that you appreciate their dedication and commitment to accessibility.

ProToolsPetition.org posted an update this morning from DigiDesign, developers of the ProTools audio engineering application for professional sound and recording engineers. In essence, DigiDesign is reaffirming their commitment to accessibility, and will be undertaking a two phase project to provide access to ProTools with VoiceOver. The first phase will take most of the year, as the ProTools engineers migrate to a new graphical architecture for the software. Once that process is complete, they will begin the work that will allow the graphical elements of the software to properly identify themselves to the operating system. This second phase is expected to take a few years in all, and DigiDesign expects that VoiceOver compatibility will emerge gradually over the span of several releases.

To read the full update, visit www.ProToolsPetition.org.