• RT @ppatel Webaim is conducting a screen reader user survey o gather more definitive data on screen reader users: http://tinyurl.com/3rmwte # 2008/12/18
• News: Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.6 http://www.lioncourt.com/?p=250 # 2008/12/15
• Retweet: @cookiecrook BusinessWeek: Apple is greener than Greenpeace says. http://tinyurl.com/57v4fp # 2008/12/08
• 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

Today, Assistiveware released their first product under the Convenienceware banner, version 1.5 of their popular GhostReader.

GhostReader converts text to speech, both in real-time or sending the output to iTunes/iPod/iPhone compatible formats for easy playback on the go. It works with a variety of document formats, and can speak selected text in any application. It is available in multiple languages and includes high-quality voices.

This update offers new voices for Czech, Polish, Swedish and Finish languages, enhancements to previously available voices, a pronunciation dictionary, direct exportation of documents to iTunes at different encoding qualities, support for more document formats, and iTunes exports are now handled in the background. Other minor enhancements and bug fixes are also included.

GhostReader V1.5 is available as a free upgrade for existing users, or may be purchased for $39.95 US from Convenienceware.

Mac-cessibility Quick Tips is a feature of Lioncourt.com to provide brief tips and tricks to assist blind and visually impaired Mac users improve their Apple experience. Not all tips will be specific to VoiceOver, and most will work on either Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Now for this week’s tip!

When navigating the Songs table in iTunes, you can quickly move the Play Target to the currently selected track by pressing Enter. The track will immediately begin playing. Using the Spacebar will only pause the currently playing track, or start playing the track which is currently marked with the Play Target, regardless of which track is selected. The Play Target can be found in the Status column of the Songs table.

Apple Inc. today announced that a team of Apple executives, led by CEO Steve Jobs, will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. This year’s WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.

WWDC 2008 will offer over 150 information-rich sessions and labs where Apple engineers will go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power OS X iPhone and OS X Leopard. Developers can bring code to the labs and work one-to-one with Apple engineers, applying development methods and best-practices gained from sessions to enhance their applications.

In the past, Apple has used WWDC to announce some additions and improvements to access technologies in their products. At this time, we do not have any information that this will be the case at this year’s conference, but Apple is always surprising us.

On Thursday, 15/May/2008, Apple Inc. will be opening its third Apple retail store in Boston, Massachusetts. The new store, located at 815 Boylston Street, will open its doors to the public at 6:00 PM. Like most grand-openings, T-shirts and other give-aways will be available to those who attend the event while supplies last. The Boylston Street store is one of the largest Apple Stores, sporting three floors.

Apple retail stores are a great place to get a hands-on experience with Mac OS X and VoiceOver.