Hi Olivia, Scott, Cara, and Others,
The only accessible way I've found to search for iTunes U content at
the iTunes Store is to bookmark a link to their Power Search options:
itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearch?
institutionTerm=&media=iTunesU
If you activate that link in a web browser you are taken to the power
search page at the iTunes Store, and even though it says "dimmed
image", you can tab into the search fields and type queries to run a
search, provided you know that the tab field entries are for Title,
Description, and Institution.
So, for example, if I use that as a bookmark, or copy the address,
and paste it into the Safari address bar (Command-L to go to address
bar; Command-V to paste) and then carriage return, my iTunes
application comes up with the iTunes Store in the Source list and
pointed to the Power Search Page for iTunes U. I have iTunes open
already and just Command-tab to switch from Safari to iTunes.
1. In iTunes, position yourself at the Search Text field. (You can
tab to it, or type Option-Command-F to go there directly).
2. Press tab. You'll hear "iTunes Store, dimmed image".
3. The next three tabs will take you to the text fields for Title,
Description, and Institution. You can type (or paste in) text for
any of these fields, but you won't hear VoiceOver speak. To search
for iTunes U content on history, for example, I could press tab twice
(first tab takes me to "Title", which I leave blank; second tab takes
me to "Description"), type in "history" without the quotation marks,
and then press carriage return. If I wanted to find content with
"history" in its description from a particular Institution, I could
have pressed tab a third time, then typed "Arizona", for example,
before pressing carriage return.
4. After you launch your search with carriage return, tab to the
Songs Outline to check the results. You can VO-keys right arrow to
read descriptions of the programs titles, content, etc. and press the
"Get" button the same way you press "Free" to get your podcasts
(e.g., route your mouse cursor to the VoiceOver cursor and use VO-
space).
You can launch multiple searches by tabbing back to the power search
window. Just remember that whatever you've typed before is still
there, but you won't hear VoiceOver speak, so delete your previous
search terms before you run a new search.
HTH. The easiest way to run this is to find a University web page
which has its own links to iTunes U, but you'd have to look all over
the web. But that's how I broke down the search syntax.
Cheers,
Esther
On Aug 11, 2008, at 1:08 PM, Cara Quinn wrote:
Hey there, I was wondering about this too! Honestly, I'm not
sure how we'd get at it though, as I believe it's in the area of
the ITunes store we can't view with VO?…
I haven't tried just typing in ITunes U or ITunes University or
some such lecture title into the search field yet though, so it's
certainly possible.
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Aug 11, 2008, at 9:47 AM, UCLA Bruins Fan wrote:
Hi Everyone,
A friend told me about a new feature available in Itunes called
Itunes University. Basically, the idea is that you can download
free lectures from colleges and universities and listen to them on
a computer or ipod.
I am wondering whether anyone has tried this and how well, if at
all, it works with VO?
Thanks, Olivia
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