[Nfbwv-talk] Apple iPod update

[Darren Burton]

As requested by one of our members, I thought I would post some
interesting info about Apple iPod accessibility.  Please don't publish
or forward though, as I am putting this info in  AFB's AccessWorld
magazine.  

DB

Apple iPod Updates

On March 11, Apple announced the release of their new 3rd Generation
iPod Shuffle with VoiceOver.  The exciting news about this new iPod
Shuffle is that it can speak the names of the songs and playlists you
have loaded onto it.  It also speaks the names of the artists who
recorded the songs.  , and it can also announce its battery strength.
It uses a very high-quality synthetic voice, an Mac users will recognize
the voice as the Alex voice that is used by the Mac's built-in VoiceOver
screen reader.  This is Apple's second iPod product with speech output
capabilities, joining the iPod Nano 4th Generation, reviewed in the
January 2009 issue of AccessWorld (link to that article.)  

Speaking of the Nano, Apple has also released a free update to the
Nano's software, and our readers will be interested to learn that this
update has addressed one of the problems we pointed out in the Nano
article.  It now has a setting to allow you to turn off the "cover flow"
feature that shows the album cover for the song that is playing when you
turn the Nano sideways.  The problem was that when you did that, it
would say, "cover flow," and it would say "now playing" when you turned
it back, interrupting your music.  Now, you can turn that feature off
and never worry about your music being interrupted.

Priced at $79, the new 3rd Generation iPod Shuffle is also the smallest
digital audio player ever developed, measuring a tiny 1.8 by 0.7 by 0.3
inches and weighing only 0.4 ounces.  However, this tiny package holds
an impressive 4 Gb of your music collection or Audible.com audio books,
doubling the capacity of the previous iPod Shuffle.  Like previous
Shuffles, it has a convenient built-in clip so you can fasten it to your
hat or shirt while you are working out or working around the house.
However, it only has one control, a switch that slides from  off to loop
to shuffle, and it does not have the 5-way control found on previous
Shuffles.  Instead, the buttons to choose your music and control the
volume are actually on the ear buds that are included with the new
Shuffle.  About 4 inches down the cord from one of the ear buds is a
control with 3 buttons in a straight line, with the middle button for
play/pause and the outside buttons for up/down volume.  Apple has
cleverly designed the way they can be used to control your music and
produce spoken information about your songs and playlists.  A single
click of the middle button is play/pause, a double click is next track
or audio book chapter, and a triple click is previous track or audio
book chapter.  You fast forward by double clicking and holding the
middle button, and rewind is triple click and hold.  Pressing and
holding the middle button causes the new Shuffle to speak the current
song title and artist, and if you hold it until you hear a beep, your
playlists are spoken in order, and you click again when you hear the
playlist you want to hear.  To learn the Shuffle's battery strength, you
simply quickly turn it off and back on, and you will hear it speak your
battery level.

It is certainly an intriguing, fully accessible product, but having the
controls on the ear buds could be a problem for someone who might
misplace or break their ear buds, because replacement ear buds are $29.
Also, although you can listen to music with other standard headphones,
you cannot choose the songs or playlists you want to hear.  Some people
may also not prefer the ear bud style of headphones, because they stick
inside your ear and can be uncomfortable.  A little Internet searching
revealed that a company called Scosche claims to be developing AN
IN-LINE ADAPTOR TO allow OTHER STANDARD HEADPHONES to WORK WITH THE NEW
Shuffle.  However, the product is still in the early stages and does not
have a price or launch date.

To learn more about the new 3rd Generation iPod Shuffle from Apple's
Website, go to: 
http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/voiceover.html



Darren Burton
National Program Associate, Technology
AFB TECH
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
949 Third Avenue, Suite 200
Huntington, WV 25701
www.afb.org
Phone: (304) 523-8651
Fax: (304) 523-8656
E-mail: dburton at afb.net
Expanding possibilities for people with vision lossTM