I've played with it a little. Seems that I had trouble opening some apps when it was enabled. I would double tap on the app, but the app didn't open for some reason. I'll have to play with it a bit more. Sent from my MBP
On Nov 15, 2011, at 4:38 PM, Red.Falcon wrote: > Hi all! > Well some of you have said you've got Motor-control problems! > So I wonder if this would work with vo! > But it is Apple doing there thing! > Colin > Qapla! > Chegh chew jaj Vam jaj Kak > http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/apples-assistivetouch-helps-the-disabled-use-a-smartphone/ > > Apple’s AssistiveTouch Helps the Disabled Use a Smartphone > > Plenty has been written about the new iPhone 4S, with its voice-controlled > virtual assistant Siri, and about iOS 5, its software. > > But in writing a book about both, I stumbled across an amazingly thoughtful > feature that I haven’t seen a word about: something called AssistiveTouch. > > > The Times’s technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the > industry in his free, weekly e-mail newsletter. > Sign up | See Sample > Now, Apple has always gone to considerable lengths to make the iPhone usable > for people with vision and hearing impairments. If you’re deaf, you can have > the LED flash to get your attention when the phone rings. You can create > custom vibration patterns for each person who might call you. You can convert > stereo music to mono (handy if you’re deaf in one ear). > > If you’re blind, you can literally turn the screen off and operate everything > — do your e-mail, surf the Web, adjust settings, run apps — by tapping and > letting the phone speak what you’re touching. You can also magnify the screen > or reverse black for white (for better-contrast reading). > > In short, iPhone was already pretty good at helping out if you’re blind or > deaf. But until iOS 5 came along, it was tough rocks if you had motor-control > problems. How are you supposed to shake the phone (a shortcut for “Undo”) if > you can’t even hold the thing? How are you supposed to pinch-to-zoom a map or > a photo if you can’t even move your fingers? > > One new feature, called AssistiveTouch, is Apple’s accessibility team at its > most creative. When you turn on this feature in > Settings->General->Accessibility, a new, white circle appears at the bottom > of the screen. It stays there all the time. > > When you tap it, you get a floating on-screen palette. Its buttons trigger > motions and gestures on the iPhone screen without requiring hand or > multiple-finger movement. All you have to be able to do is tap with a single > finger — even a stylus you’re holding in your teeth or fist. > > For example, you can tap the Home on-screen button instead of pressing the > physical Home button. > If you tap Device, you get a sub-palette of six functions that would > otherwise require you to grasp the phone or push its tiny physical buttons. > There’s Rotate Screen (tap this instead of turning the phone 90 degrees), > Lock Screen (tap instead of pressing the Sleep switch), Volume Up and Volume > Down (tap instead of pressing the volume keys), Shake (does the same as > shaking the phone to undo typing), and Mute/Unmute (tap instead of flipping > the small Mute switch on the side). > > If you tap Gestures, you get a peculiar palette that depicts a hand holding > up two, three, four, or five fingers. When you tap the three-finger icon, for > example, you get three blue circles on the screen. They move together. Drag > one of them, and the phone thinks you’re dragging three fingers on its > surface. Using this technique, you can operate apps that require multiple > fingers dragging on the screen. > > To me, the most impressive part is that you can define your own gestures. In > Settings->General->Accessibility, you can tap Create New Gesture to draw your > own gesture right on the screen, using up to five fingers. > > For example, suppose you’re frustrated in Google Maps because you can’t do > the two-finger double-tap that means “zoom out.” On the Create New Gesture > screen, get somebody to do the two-finger double-tap for you. Tap Save and > give the gesture a name—say, “2 double tap.” > > From now on, “2 double tap” shows up on the final AssistiveTouch panel, > called Favorites, ready to trigger with a single tap by a single finger or > stylus. (Apple starts you off with one predefined gesture already in > Favorites: Pinch. That’s the two-finger pinch or spread gesture you use to > zoom in and out of photos, maps, Web pages, PDF documents, and so on. Now you > can trigger it with only one finger.) > > I doubt that people with severe motor control challenges represent a > financially significant number of the iPhone’s millions of customers. But > somebody at Apple took them seriously enough to write a complete, elegant and > thoughtful feature that takes down most of the barriers to using an app phone. > I, for one, am impressed. > > And I’d also like to hear, in the Comments, from people who actually use > AssistiveTouch. How well does it work? > > > > > -- > 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. -- 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.
