• 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

No, Apple hasn’t set James Bond into the Mac OS X operating system quite yet. The "007" only refers to this being the seventh distinct security update for Mac OS X this year. Security Update 2008-007 fixes several vulnerabilities in both the Unix under-pinnings and the Macintosh OS. It’s recommended for users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger. For full details visit this Apple support page.

As usual, you can download the update from the "Software Update" option in your Mac’s APple menu.

Apple Inc. has issued an invite to the media for an event on 14/October. The invite reads only "The spotlight turns to notebooks."

It has long been rumored that Apple would release new or updated models of their MacBook line of notebook computers this month, so the announcement is not a surprise. It is also being conjectured that Apple will be introducing new pricing for its portables, including a model set to compete with the sub-$1,000 notebooks that have become an important part of the market in recent years.

We’ll bring you all the news and commentary on Tuesday.

The fourth Release Candidate (RC) version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 has been released and features some accessibility enhancements and bug fixes. While not perfect, this popular office suite of applications is a powerful tool to create complex word processing documents, spreadsheets, and more.

If you need to frequently use the Read-All feature of VoiceOver, (VO-A, or Ctrl-Option-A), this may not be the application for you, as that functionality still is inoperative in OPenOffice.org. The reason is that the application treats each paragraph as a separate control. If you don’t mind using another app, such as TextEdit or Bean for continuous reading, OpenOffice.org is a fantastic alternative to the inaccessible Microsoft Office, which Microsoft has still not improved.

You can download OpenOffice.org 3.0RC4 from www.OpenOffice.org

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!

Want to be able to rearrange the columns in Apple Mail’s messages table? It’s easy. In the "View" menu, select "Columns" and uncheck each of the column entries. Now,repeat the process to select the columns you want in the order you want them to appear. For example, if you want to see the Subject line, followed by the From field, followed by the date, you would add each of those in that order.

From now on, your message tables will display the way you want them to.