Mosen Consulting and new Apple goodies

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Hello everyone, as I write this, it’s the 7th of September here in New Zealand. But we’re eagerly awaiting the US getting to the 7th, so we can find out about new Apple hardware. This will include at least two new iPhones as well as the possibility of new Apple Watch and mac hardware.

On the software side, we’ll get a release date for iOS 10, tvOS, watchOS 3, and MacOS Sierra. There may well be additional information provided about those operating systems, particularly with regard to how they might take advantage of new hardware.

You can of course watch Apple’s presentation at 1 PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific, 6 PM UK, and bright and early at 5 AM in New Zealand by using Safari on your iOS or mac device, or using the Apple Events app for Apple TV.

Here’s how Mosen Consulting will be helping you make sense of all the new Apple news.

Special Episode of The Blind Side

If you’ve not caught up with the news about our new podcast, The Blind Side, it is now available exclusively as a podcast and an episode comes out once a week most of the time. If you’re not subscribed yet, you can get the direct RSS feed to paste into any pod catcher by visiting The Blind Side’s web page, or you can simply search for The Blind Side in most pod catchers and subscribe to it that way. We’re also to be found on Serotek’s iBlink Radio app on many devices, including Apple TV.

Right after the Apple event, we’ll be recording a special edition of The Blind Side Podcast for publication that same day. We’ve assembled a fantastic team, which includes:

  • David Woodbridge, someone who continues to make an outstanding contribution in helping the blind community make sense of Apple stuff with his numerous podcasts and guides. For him, the Apple event is on at a crazy 3 AM, but you can be sure he’ll be up and about.
  • Jeff Bishop, who always has a good handle on new technology and has been pounding away on the iOS beta builds.
  • Heidi Mosen, who will be watching the Apple event very closely for all the information that is communicated visually via slides. So even if you sat through the presentation, she’ll tell you things you weren’t able to ffind out audibly. She’ll also be ready to give you detailed, blind-friendly descriptions of precisely what all the new hardware looks like.
  • And I’ll be there as well.

You can be sure the discussion will be both lively and informative, and we won’t shy away from looking at the ramifications of the lack of a headphone jack in the new iPhones and how Apple may or may not have handled the potential pitfalls of the jack’s removal.

So why not be prepared. Subscribe to The Blind Side today so you get the big Apple episode tomorrow. It’s free, and people like free.

NZ iBug Call

As a service to New Zealand’s blind iPhone users, Mosen Consulting hosts a monthly conference call for New Zealand’s blind iPhone users. There’ll be a special call to discuss the Apple event on Thursday evening, 8 September, at 7:30 PM. If you live in New Zealand, check out the NZ iBug page for further details.

RNIB Connect Radio

If you listen to RNIB Connect Radio, I’ll be guesting with them later in the week to provide analysis of the Apple event. Stay tuned to them for further details.

Tek Talk Presentation on iOS 10

On Monday 12 September at 8 PM Eastern, I’ll be the guest at the Tek Talk presentation on Accessible World, discussing my new book, “iOS 10 Without the Eye”. We expect the release of iOS 10 to be extremely close by that point, so I’ll be talking about, and discussing many of the new features from a blindness perspective. I hope to see you there. Accessible World use the TCConferencing software, which you can install from the room’s page if you don’t have it yet.

“iOS 10 Without the eye”

And speaking of “iOS 10 Without the Eye”, it will be ready for release just ahead of when iOS 10 hits the net. Thanks to the large numbers of you who’ve already pre-ordered. If you’d like a comprehensive, well-organised reference book on the new OS from a blindness perspective, secure your copy today so you have it handy for the update.

“The Apple of Your Eye”

Finally, there’ll be a substantial update to our book, “Apple TV Fourth Generation with VoiceOver”, covering the many new features in tvOS. There are some really worthwhile VoiceOver additions as well as the mainstream enhancements. If you subscribed to our plan for free updates to the book until the end of 2016, you’ll get the book automatically when it’s released. There are so many changes in it that I’d just recommend re-reading the whole thing.

And I have to say, that title is the worst, most uninspiring title I’ve ever come out with, even though it’s factually accurate and descriptive. So the new version of the book has a better name. It’s called, “The Apple of your Eye, using Apple TV 4th generation with VoiceOver”.

I hope this combination of free and paid resources will help you make the most of what Apple has to offer, or in the case of the new iPhones, whether what’s being added will add enough value for you personally to compensate for what’s being taken away.

Thanks so much for your ongoing support of our work at Mosen Consulting. We really do appreciate it a lot.