voiceover during a call and Apple Accessibility emails to me
Hi Alex and Grant, I also have this issue on my iPhone 4S with iOS 6 and you are correct, Grant, this was not a problem in iOS 5 and apparently it affects only a relatively small number of iOS 6 users right now. I had a pretty comprehensive email exchange with Apple Accessibility about this since I consider it a very annoying and important bug. I was told to try and switch off SIRI as apparently this is caused by something else using the audio on your iPhone. When I did turn off SIRI and made a speakerphone call to my credit card inquiry line at first there seemed to be little difference except that I seemed to be able to turn the call volume down way lower than before when pressing the volume down button during a call only lowered the volume slightly. However even with volume set to 100% using the rotor VO came out very quietly. I then turned the volume way up with the volume buttons and suddenly Voiceover came out loud if not exactly clear and it seems to fluctuate a lot for me when I press different numbers. Some are loud and clear and others are not so loud and a bit fuzzy. I then turned SIRI back on and experienced the same behavior. I reported this all back to Apple and was told in a reply that they are investigating this. Overall after I urned off SIRI and then turned it back on I can use the speakerphone a bit better, I just have to turn the volume up fairly loud with the volume buttons. I know VO volume is supposed to be independent from call volume and I can't do this if I am anywhere near people, but it's at least a bit better now and anybody who has problems with this please try turning up the call volume when on speakerphone, make sure you don't cover the top fo the phone with your hand as this causes the call to switch back to earpiece. I'd suggest you try it first before you turn off SIRI, but if it doesn't make a difference turn off SIRI and try it, then turn it back on and by all means, do report this to accessibil...@apple.com so they get a better understanding of the scope of this. For those who are interested in hearing it from the horse's mouth, here is part of the email thread: Message from Apple: Hello, Sieghard, Your response clarifies that you are accessing the features correctly. The Viphone site confirms that you are not the only 4/4s user experiencing this behavior... and also that you are acting as spokesperson for several of these, which we appreciate. All details from your reply have been forwarded to the team investigating this issue. It is possible that you will be asked for some specific information about what's on your phone, or details of how it is configured; because the number of 4/4s owners affected by this behavior in iOS 6 is small, it is possible that the behavior is related to something else installed on your phone, or an unexpected combination of configurations. You may discover common threads of this nature while discussing the problem with others; the things that would be most likely to be involved would be things that use the iPhone's audio and speech generation subsystems. either specialized or relatively uncommon software add-ons, or something in the way you and others have configured settings that would be different than that 'normal' or most obvious ways. So if anything of this sort comes to your attention, it may help our team to hear of it. So far, no one on the team has been able to reproduce the problem, using equipment that has no additional software installed. We'll let you know if we have additional questions, or if a possible workaround needs testing; because we cannot reproduce the problem, we may in future ask you to try one thing or another. For now, there is no need to reply unless additional information comes to light; we will be back in touch when appropriate. Thank you. Apple Accessibility Message 2: Sieghard, Something I may not have asked, that could be a factor: do you have other assistive software that uses the speaker turned on? Siri, perhaps, or other software you've added to your iPhone that speaks or gives audio prompts while you are using the phone? Thanks, Apple Accessibility My reply: Hello, I do use and have always used SIRI from day 1. However, in iOS 5 the volume problem did not exist. I can't think of anything else I use and in any case, I did do a factory restore a few days after I upgraded to iOS 6 as I had a few other minor issues and I setup my phone as a new phone. I had this volume issue with calls even before I installed a single third-party app after my restore so I don't think this would be the problem. Regards, Sieghard Apple's reply: Hello again, Sieghard, Thanks for the quick response. Siri counts as a possible component of the problem, even though it's ours, and even though it works great, and predates iOS 6. ANYTHING that uses the sound subsystems is of interest. Because most iOS 6 owners seem not to have observed this problem (whether it's because they haven't noticed, or haven't
Re: voiceover during a call and Apple Accessibility emails to me
Sieghard, I also experience this, but what I have wondered is if VO in fact is switching not just volume levels, but perhaps from the speakerphone mode to the earpiece. I am not sure this will be easy to confirm, but I might be able to try with a microphone. Of course I could be wrong, but it just seemed to me this is a possibility. On Oct 20, 2012, at 4:00 AM, Sieghard Weitzel siegh...@live.ca wrote: Hi Alex and Grant, I also have this issue on my iPhone 4S with iOS 6 and you are correct, Grant, this was not a problem in iOS 5 and apparently it affects only a relatively small number of iOS 6 users right now. I had a pretty comprehensive email exchange with Apple Accessibility about this since I consider it a very annoying and important bug. I was told to try and switch off SIRI as apparently this is caused by something else using the audio on your iPhone. When I did turn off SIRI and made a speakerphone call to my credit card inquiry line at first there seemed to be little difference except that I seemed to be able to turn the call volume down way lower than before when pressing the volume down button during a call only lowered the volume slightly. However even with volume set to 100% using the rotor VO came out very quietly. I then turned the volume way up with the volume buttons and suddenly Voiceover came out loud if not exactly clear and it seems to fluctuate a lot for me when I press different numbers. Some are loud and clear and others are not so loud and a bit fuzzy. I then turned SIRI back on and experienced the same behavior. I reported this all back to Apple and was told in a reply that they are investigating this. Overall after I urned off SIRI and then turned it back on I can use the speakerphone a bit better, I just have to turn the volume up fairly loud with the volume buttons. I know VO volume is supposed to be independent from call volume and I can't do this if I am anywhere near people, but it's at least a bit better now and anybody who has problems with this please try turning up the call volume when on speakerphone, make sure you don't cover the top fo the phone with your hand as this causes the call to switch back to earpiece. I'd suggest you try it first before you turn off SIRI, but if it doesn't make a difference turn off SIRI and try it, then turn it back on and by all means, do report this to accessibil...@apple.com so they get a better understanding of the scope of this. For those who are interested in hearing it from the horse's mouth, here is part of the email thread: Message from Apple: Hello, Sieghard, Your response clarifies that you are accessing the features correctly. The Viphone site confirms that you are not the only 4/4s user experiencing this behavior... and also that you are acting as spokesperson for several of these, which we appreciate. All details from your reply have been forwarded to the team investigating this issue. It is possible that you will be asked for some specific information about what's on your phone, or details of how it is configured; because the number of 4/4s owners affected by this behavior in iOS 6 is small, it is possible that the behavior is related to something else installed on your phone, or an unexpected combination of configurations. You may discover common threads of this nature while discussing the problem with others; the things that would be most likely to be involved would be things that use the iPhone's audio and speech generation subsystems. either specialized or relatively uncommon software add-ons, or something in the way you and others have configured settings that would be different than that 'normal' or most obvious ways. So if anything of this sort comes to your attention, it may help our team to hear of it. So far, no one on the team has been able to reproduce the problem, using equipment that has no additional software installed. We'll let you know if we have additional questions, or if a possible workaround needs testing; because we cannot reproduce the problem, we may in future ask you to try one thing or another. For now, there is no need to reply unless additional information comes to light; we will be back in touch when appropriate. Thank you. Apple Accessibility Message 2: Sieghard, Something I may not have asked, that could be a factor: do you have other assistive software that uses the speaker turned on? Siri, perhaps, or other software you've added to your iPhone that speaks or gives audio prompts while you are using the phone? Thanks, Apple Accessibility My reply: Hello, I do use and have always used SIRI from day 1. However, in iOS 5 the volume problem did not exist. I can't think of anything else I use and in any case, I did do a factory restore a few days after I upgraded to iOS 6 as I had a few other minor issues and I setup my phone as a new phone. I had this volume issue with calls even
