Apple announced that they will be replacing their aging .Mac service with a shiny new MobileMe service, starting in July. This service includes an easy way to synch your address book, mail, calendar, and more across multiple devices, as well as 20GB of storage space online. The question is, of course, will it be accessible to VoiceOver users. We’ve contacted Apple on this point, and are awaiting a reply. We’ll update as soon as we know anything.

On Monday, APple took the wraps off of the longanticipated iPhone 3G. The phone sports a new design, better performance, 3G speeds, GPS, and a whole lot more. Most unfortunately, it does not seem to include any additional accessibility for blind or visually impaired users. It does, however, sport a cheaper price tag. Perhaps continued massive adoption by the world will convince APple to invest a little time in making this device more accessible.

Apple announced this week that Mac OS X 10.6 is code named Snow Leopard, and will be shipping in about a year. Unlike the last several versions of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard ill focus on improving the operating system and fixing problems, instead of introducing tons of new features.

There’s very little information at this point, but there are a whole heap of rumors. The most intriguing discusses the possibility that APple may move the entire OS, (presumably meaning the user interface portions), to Cocoa. This could potentially mean even better access across the board for VoiceOver users. Apple’s keeping quiet on this point though, if the rumor is true.

In all, though, this is good news for VoiceOver users. If Apple is focusing primarily on improving the exist architecture, that can only mean better access in the end.

Today, Apple release Ma OS X 10.5.3, which contains a significant number of enhancements and fixes for the operating system, including VoiceOver. Some changes in VoiceOver include:

• Braille Update 1.0 which enables GW Micro, HandyTech, HIMS, Nippon, and Papenmeier Refreshable Braille displays.
• Addresses an issue with Braille dot 7 and 8 underlining.
• Fixes an issue in which HTML page anchors may be ignored by the VoiceOver cursor.
• Fixes an issue that prevented Hot Spots from being used in text areas.
• Resolves an issue with spell checking in which VoiceOver may only announce the first misspelled word if there are multiple words spelled incorrectly.

We’ve also noticed that Voiceover no longer crashed in the "Get Info" dialog for folders and volumes when navigating to the "Sharing and Permissions" section.

There may be other improvements as well. We’ll keep you up to date if we find them. You can let us know as well.

As always, you can update to the latest version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard through "Apple Menu->Software Update".