• 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

If you find Lioncourt.com a useful resource and would like to help support the site, there are a couple of ways you can do so. You can make a donation by clicking the "Donate" button at the top of most pages, or you can shop for Apple and related products in our new Mac-cessibility Shop. We’ve teamed up with Amazon.com to bring you Macs, iPods, and accessories. We will be adding items to the shop regularly, so check back often.

As always, your support helps keep this site going as we try to provide a comprehensive resource for Macintosh computing for the blind and visually impaired. Thank you for your support.

Today, Apple released the fifth major update to its Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system for Macintosh computers. 10.5.5 offers a wide array of fixes, as well as improvements to stability, reliability, security, and much more.

A note in the knowledge base article about 10.5.5 notes that the update "IMproves speech dictionary." This may be specifically useful to VoiceOver users, as well as to those who use the Mac’s built-in text-to-speech for other applications.

Frequently, accessibility improvements or fixes are found in these updates, though they may not have been documented in the release notes. If we find any such changes, we’ll report them here.

You can update your system through the "Software Update…" option in your system’s Apple menu, as usual. To read about the changes in this update, click here.

Apple Inc. will be releasing two new varieties of earbuds for their iPod line of digital music players next month. The standard set will be priced at $29, while a higher-quality in-ear set will set you back $79. Both will include controls to play, pause, and skip through currently playing music on your iPod. Additionally, both sets will be equipped with an integrated microphone which will allow recording directly to your iPod. Chapter markers can be set in the recording, for easier navigation of longer recordings.

Coupled with the new accessibility features of the iPod nano, this gives visually impaired users a quick and easy way to record notes for themselves, such as phone numbers or appointment information. Previous iPod models provided recording capabilities, but these were tied to hardware devices that attached to the iPod’s dock connector.

And, of course, with recording input now being routed through the iPod’s mini-jack, we’re sure to see an array of third-party products, such as higher quality or more sensitive microphones, released. College students could record lectures right to their iPod, without the need of a separate digital audio recorder.