Hello all, There's a numeric keypad app for the iPhone/iPod Touch called NumberKey, or NumberKey Lite (for the free version), that I'd like to ask list members to check out for accessibility. This utility app made by Balmuda works for both Windows and for the Mac, and allows you to use the touch screen of your iPhone as a numeric keypad for your laptop. This is handy for data entry, but has broader implications for Mac users because you can use it to run VoiceOver's NumPad Commander and take advantage of its additional features and shortcut customization if you are using a Mac laptop without an embedded numeric keypad -- in other words, any MacBook made after about November 2007, any MacBook Pro manufactured after February 2008, and any MacBook Air or unibody MacBook or MacBook Pro. A Mac user who needs to use VoiceOver's shortcuts with fewer keystrokes from a laptop can now do so. Furthermore, if you use programs that use the numeric keypad, such as the music composition program Sibelius, you can run these entirely from a laptop using the iPhone or iPod Touch for the numeric keypad via this program. Finally, I suspect that it's also possible for people who are running Windows on their Intel Mac laptops with VMWare's Fusion to use the numeric keypad for screen readers that use the insert key; currently Mac laptop users need to remap functions to other keys using either a third-party application like Spark, or by using the Fusion preference settings. However, this is a secondary capability that would require checking by someone using this set up.
To use the application you must download the NumberKey Connect software for your version of either Mac OS X or Windows from Balmuda's web site and start it running on your computer. There's a separate version for Tiger, so make sure to get the correct version of NumberKey Connect from the download page. Your iPhone or iPod Touch must be using the same wireless network as your computer. When both the app is running on your iPhone and NumberKey Connect is running on your laptop, you'll be able to see and connect to the your iPod device in the NumberKey Connect window. If there is no wireless network present, you can create an ad hoc Computer-to-Computer network using the "Create Network" menu option from the AirPort menu on your menu bar. Basically, instead of selecting a wireless network to join, you select the "Create Network" option and type in a name for the Computer- to-Computer network you want to create in the text box for the "Create a Computer-to-Computer dialog window that pops up. The default name will be <user name's> MacBook or something similar. You can also select the wireless channel you want to use on the pop up button (or leave this on the automatic selection), and check the box if you want to require a password. Then, on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you join a wireless network named <user name's> MacBook, and launch the app. Once you've launched the app on the iPhone or iPod Touch and have started the NumberKey Connect on your computer, the software will identify your iPod and let you press (VO-space) the connect button. If there is more than one iPod running the app, you'll be able to select the device you want to use from a pop up button, and can also designate a particular iPhone or iPod Touch as the default device to use with this app. I tried this out with a friend's iPod Touch half a year ago when I was looking for a numeric keypad so I could use NumPad Commander with my new MacBook running Leopard. Once the app is running on the iPod Touch or iPhone, you can do everything accessibly running the NumberKey Connect program on your Mac. For example, if you turn on keyboard practice mode (Control-Option-K), every "key" you touch on the surface of the iPhone/iPod Touch's numeric keypad app gets announced, so you learn their positions. If you have a TextEdit window open and your verbosity set to announce character inputs, you'll hear each number or operation of the keypad announced as you touch the surface. Since then Balmuda has come out with a free version of the app. The paid ($1.99) version of the app allows you to flick to a second cursor screen that has the six-pack set of escape, home, page up, delete, end, and page down keys, and also use the inverted T set of cursor arrow keys. These also work with VoiceOver. If I'm in TextEdit mode and I've used the number pad to enter numbers or math operations, flicking to the cursor screen and touching the left or right arrow key position on the iPod screen will announce movements of the cursor through my numeric entries in TextEdit, just as using the cursor keys on my MacBook would. Again, it was easiest to learn the positions of the keys on the screen surface by turning VoiceOver keyboard practice mode on. For the numeric keypad screen, pressing the clear button in the upper left is the same as pressing the escape key on your Mac to turn keyboard practice mode off. I'd be really curious to find out how people experience this on the iPhone, especially Mac laptop users. If there's anyone running Sibelius or other program that uses the numeric keypad, I'd love to know whether they can run this on a laptop with this app. And people who run Fusion can also check this out. I don't have an iPhone myself, but this is something that is likely to be usable if VoiceOver gets put onto the new version iPod Touch. Also, note that Mac users with motion disabilities may be able to use this to take advantage of NumPad Commander and use a laptop. Although I did get an external USB numeric keypad (that works in with Macs, Linux, and Windows) for my MacBook, this app lets you use a numeric keypad without using a USB port. That's a bonus for the new Mac laptops. Here are the links: • NumberKey Free app at the iTunes Store: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=310129994&mt=8 • NumberKey app ($1.99) at the iTunes Store: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=291672903&mt=8 • Balmuda web page describing NumberKey: http://www.balmuda.com/en/laboratory/numberkey/ This main page points to the overview. Go to the Download page link to get the NumberKey Connect software. The table lists downloads for Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), Tiger (Mac OS 10.4), and Windows (Vista or XP). Go to the row entry line for Version 2.0 (for the paid version of the app) or for Free (for the free version) and right arrow to the appropriate column (in succession: Leopard, Tiger, and Windows) to download the correct version of the software for your machine. • Sibelius blog entry about using NumberKey app with a Mac laptop http://www.sibeliusblog.com/tips/iphone-ipod-touch-numeric-keypad-sibelius/ Cheers, Esther --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
