Sorry I have not posted for awhile. I had medical problems, but I am fine now.
So I am now on a hunt for accessible recipe apps. I am doing rehab therapy for the kitchen and learning to cook. This would be why I need the recipes. I was able to get two very accessible apps. I have yet to make anything from either of them yet. I have to check and make sure that they are not to hard and that I have the proper equipment to do things. I am working on that. I am very excited about the apps though.
I will let everyone know how it works out for me. Hopefully it is all good. I am going to go. I will be back in a few weeks again. Next week is Christmas and the following week is New Year's Day. Later all.
Learning Things
So I am always learning things with my computer, iPhone, and iPad. It does not always work like it is supposed to right away, but it eventually gets there.
I downloaded a app and learned today that it will only work if there is an internet connection. Now I am attempting to get something else to work like it is supposed to. I will get it to work eventually. I get so frustrated with technology sometimes. It does allow me to live much more independently though.
If it was not for my iPhone, I do not think I would be as good off as I am. The phone allows me to identify colors and paper bills. It is also a GPS and so much more for me. I love it. I am not sure how life would be for me without technology.
I am able to post on Facebook, Skype, and check email from my phone, computer, and tablet. All of these things are necessities to me and are not just items I have for fun.
Sorry about the rant I just wanted to get away from talking about the MAC and iPhone. Until next week, later.
I downloaded a app and learned today that it will only work if there is an internet connection. Now I am attempting to get something else to work like it is supposed to. I will get it to work eventually. I get so frustrated with technology sometimes. It does allow me to live much more independently though.
If it was not for my iPhone, I do not think I would be as good off as I am. The phone allows me to identify colors and paper bills. It is also a GPS and so much more for me. I love it. I am not sure how life would be for me without technology.
I am able to post on Facebook, Skype, and check email from my phone, computer, and tablet. All of these things are necessities to me and are not just items I have for fun.
Sorry about the rant I just wanted to get away from talking about the MAC and iPhone. Until next week, later.
Apps
I am back once again. I have done some research and found out something.
I looked up how many apps fit in a folder in IOS 7. This is what I found out about it. Each folder can have up to 14 pages. Each page can have up to 9 apps on it. So each folder can have up to a 126 apps in it. That is insane. I was wrong last week when I talked about the folders. I was able to find a tutorial on the topic and found this out. WOW!
I just wanted to correct what was previously stated. Later.
I looked up how many apps fit in a folder in IOS 7. This is what I found out about it. Each folder can have up to 14 pages. Each page can have up to 9 apps on it. So each folder can have up to a 126 apps in it. That is insane. I was wrong last week when I talked about the folders. I was able to find a tutorial on the topic and found this out. WOW!
I just wanted to correct what was previously stated. Later.
IOS 7
I know that I am talking about the computer, but I feel the need to talk about IOS 7. IOS stands for internet operating system. The I really does not mean internet like it use to. Now IOS really is Apple's mobile operating system.
First I will talk about Siri. Siri is smarter then ever now. You can ask Siri almost anything and the phone will give you an answer. The biggest thing that Apple has done is give Siri a male and female voice. Both are very human sounding and you can choose either. I have the male voice for both my phone and iPad. I can switch it to the female whenever I want though. I am not locked into just the male.
Next I will talk about the folders. Now you can put more then 12 apps in a folder. I am not sure how many pages will appear in each folder, but now you can have multiple pages with 12 apps to a page. So you can put more then 12 apps in a folder. That is awesome.
I will talk more about either the computer or the new IOS, I am not sure which though. Till then, later.
First I will talk about Siri. Siri is smarter then ever now. You can ask Siri almost anything and the phone will give you an answer. The biggest thing that Apple has done is give Siri a male and female voice. Both are very human sounding and you can choose either. I have the male voice for both my phone and iPad. I can switch it to the female whenever I want though. I am not locked into just the male.
Next I will talk about the folders. Now you can put more then 12 apps in a folder. I am not sure how many pages will appear in each folder, but now you can have multiple pages with 12 apps to a page. So you can put more then 12 apps in a folder. That is awesome.
I will talk more about either the computer or the new IOS, I am not sure which though. Till then, later.
Still Learning
So I am still learning the ins and outs of this new OS. After I blogged last week I got the new operating system. I am still learning stuff about it. Now I have Mavericks on my computer and IOS 7 on my phone and iPad. It is like having all new things without buying them. It all is different for me. I am still learning all of the new features. I will report on it more as I learn stuff.
Mavericks
I am sorry about last week, I was sick. So I will talk a little about Mavericks today. I have yet to download it, but it will be free when I do. That in its self is awesome. Not that it is a lot of money, but free is great. So Mavericks is the latest OS (Operating System). Along with the OS being free, some of the important apps are supposed to be free. Once I download it I will report on it. Later.
Simple Stuff
Ok so I totally forgot about this. It is very simple things, but I forgot about these.
First I will talk about switching between windows. To do this is very easy, just press the command key and the tab key. This allows you to switch and when you get to what you want just let go. Next you should know how to switch between tabs in Safari. Press the control key and the tab key. Just like with switching windows, do this till you arrive at the tab you want and let go.
Closing windows is also very easy. Press the command key and the letter q. This will close the window for you. To close a tab in Safari, press the command key and the letter w.
All of These are very easy and simple to master.
Till next week.Later.
First I will talk about switching between windows. To do this is very easy, just press the command key and the tab key. This allows you to switch and when you get to what you want just let go. Next you should know how to switch between tabs in Safari. Press the control key and the tab key. Just like with switching windows, do this till you arrive at the tab you want and let go.
Closing windows is also very easy. Press the command key and the letter q. This will close the window for you. To close a tab in Safari, press the command key and the letter w.
All of These are very easy and simple to master.
Till next week.Later.
More Mail and Voiceover
Sorry about last week. I was doing other things and just plain forgot about this. So i am going to talk a little more about mail.
As before voiceover is VO for short. What I really want to mention today is something that helps me greatly. So when I read a message, jumping between it and its content. You need to select the message you want first. Then when you select the message, press the VO keys and the letter j. This will jump the message directly to the content of it.It is a short cut and makes things go much faster.
Next I will talk about clearing messages. When you are done with a message just press the delete key. If there are multiple messages you want to get rid of press the shift key and the down arrow, to select them. Once that is done, press the delete key to remove them. If there is an entire folder of messages you want to get rid of, press the command key and the letter a. This will select all of them, then just press the delete key and this will remove all of them.
I will try my best for next week. Till then.
As before voiceover is VO for short. What I really want to mention today is something that helps me greatly. So when I read a message, jumping between it and its content. You need to select the message you want first. Then when you select the message, press the VO keys and the letter j. This will jump the message directly to the content of it.It is a short cut and makes things go much faster.
Next I will talk about clearing messages. When you are done with a message just press the delete key. If there are multiple messages you want to get rid of press the shift key and the down arrow, to select them. Once that is done, press the delete key to remove them. If there is an entire folder of messages you want to get rid of, press the command key and the letter a. This will select all of them, then just press the delete key and this will remove all of them.
I will try my best for next week. Till then.
IOS 7
I am back and this will be a short post. I know that I am talking about the computer, but I am going to divert from that a bit and talk about the new operating system on the iPhone and iPad.
So I have not done anything with it yet, but after this I am going to. As of right now, I can say that with what little vision I have it looks nice. I also really like the male siri voice. It does seem to make the app icons larger so instead of 4 on a line in a folder, there is only 3. Like I said I am going to go play around with it now. I will be back next week. Later.
So I have not done anything with it yet, but after this I am going to. As of right now, I can say that with what little vision I have it looks nice. I also really like the male siri voice. It does seem to make the app icons larger so instead of 4 on a line in a folder, there is only 3. Like I said I am going to go play around with it now. I will be back next week. Later.
Mail and Voiceover
I am back with more insight for all you guys. So today I want to talk about mail and voiceover. VO stands for voiceover in case anyone forgot.
First let me talk about the mailboxes. To enter the mailbox area, press the VO keys, shift, and the down arrow key. To enter any of the areas, this is what you do. Once in mailboxes, press the down arrow key to scroll to whatever mailbox that is needed. Once on it press the VO keys, shift, and the up arrow key. Not only is this the exact opposite of what is done to interact with things, it also stops the interaction.
Once a mailbox is selected use the right arrow to scroll to messages. interact with the messages and scroll with the down or up arrows to get to the message you want. Select the message and if you want to get rid of it, press the delete key which is located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. That is on a laptop computer, which is what I have.
Once a message is selected, scroll right to the message content area. Interact with with that then interact with that again and scroll to the right until you hear text, then interact with that.
Be careful though if there is more then one message in the thread, make sure you are over the address you want, then interact with it like I had said.
Do this repeatedly until you have gotten rid of or until all is checked.
Now I won't be able to blog next week. I might be able to figure out how to set this up to post the blog automatically. If not I will blog the following week. Later.
First let me talk about the mailboxes. To enter the mailbox area, press the VO keys, shift, and the down arrow key. To enter any of the areas, this is what you do. Once in mailboxes, press the down arrow key to scroll to whatever mailbox that is needed. Once on it press the VO keys, shift, and the up arrow key. Not only is this the exact opposite of what is done to interact with things, it also stops the interaction.
Once a mailbox is selected use the right arrow to scroll to messages. interact with the messages and scroll with the down or up arrows to get to the message you want. Select the message and if you want to get rid of it, press the delete key which is located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. That is on a laptop computer, which is what I have.
Once a message is selected, scroll right to the message content area. Interact with with that then interact with that again and scroll to the right until you hear text, then interact with that.
Be careful though if there is more then one message in the thread, make sure you are over the address you want, then interact with it like I had said.
Do this repeatedly until you have gotten rid of or until all is checked.
Now I won't be able to blog next week. I might be able to figure out how to set this up to post the blog automatically. If not I will blog the following week. Later.
Communacation
Another post from me yet again. So before I go into detail about other apps, let me talk about how certain apps talk with each other.
My favorite thing about this whole MAC thing is how well apps talk to each other. A good example of this is in contacts. If you know the birthdate of a certain person, you have to know the year they were born in, put the info on their contact card and it will show up in calendar.That is nice, no more forgetting when important people's birthdays are. I love this and the fact that it syncs up with my iPhone and iPad is great.
The next big thing is in mail. If you have a person's email on their card, it will be filled in for you. When you go to send an email to someone, just start typing their name or email address in the to field and it will be filled in automatically for you.Once again this works on the iPhone and the iPad. I also love this feature too.
Mail and calendar really do not interact much, but they will when needed to. I know that some are reading this thinking, why do I need all of those apps? Well the MAC comes with them, so there is no way of getting around it.
I know it may seem like a pain, but it really isn't. Besides if you have an iPhone, iPad, or both it is a lifesaver.
Till next week. Enjoy.
My favorite thing about this whole MAC thing is how well apps talk to each other. A good example of this is in contacts. If you know the birthdate of a certain person, you have to know the year they were born in, put the info on their contact card and it will show up in calendar.That is nice, no more forgetting when important people's birthdays are. I love this and the fact that it syncs up with my iPhone and iPad is great.
The next big thing is in mail. If you have a person's email on their card, it will be filled in for you. When you go to send an email to someone, just start typing their name or email address in the to field and it will be filled in automatically for you.Once again this works on the iPhone and the iPad. I also love this feature too.
Mail and calendar really do not interact much, but they will when needed to. I know that some are reading this thinking, why do I need all of those apps? Well the MAC comes with them, so there is no way of getting around it.
I know it may seem like a pain, but it really isn't. Besides if you have an iPhone, iPad, or both it is a lifesaver.
Till next week. Enjoy.
Voiceover and Facebook
I am back again. Tonight I want to talk about voiceover and Facebook. It is worth mentioning that I was never able to use regular Facebook until my MAC computer. Before it I used the Facebook mobile website. Mobile sites worked very well on my PC, so I would use them. What mobile sites do, is that all the pictures and difficult things to navigate are taken out. The website is just stripped down to just text which makes it easier to navigate.
So I was very excited to use the real Facebook and not just the mobile site. I just figured this out on my own. I wanted to comment back to someone who commented on one of my posts. All that has to be done is you need to type in the edit box and then hit the enter button. Yes it really is that simple. There are pop-up boxes for friend requests, messages, and notifications. Next to each one of them there is a number of how many of them one has. To click on the one you need, just go over it and press the voiceover (VO) keys and the space bar to select it.
I have not done anything with the friend requests, because I do not get many of them. When I do, I usually take care of it on my iPhone.
As for the messages, you need to to select send new message if that is what you want to do. You will need to type the person's full name and depending on if there is more than one person with that first name, you will have to type the first letter of their last name. If you want to send it to multiple people, just separate each name with a comma, no spaces. Once people are typed in hit the enter key. Type in the edit box the message and then press the send button by pressing the VO keys and the space bar. To read a message, select who sent it to you and click on their name by hitting the VO keys and the space bar. Unfortunately messages cannot be deleted from regular Facebook. Well there is a way, but I do not know how to do it.
Notifications are the easiest to navigate. You just need to click on notifications and then scroll to the notification that is wanted and click on it. It will tell you if the notification is read and if you want to turn off notifications from a certain group or a certain app.
I hope this helps some what. I will type more next week. Till then.
So I was very excited to use the real Facebook and not just the mobile site. I just figured this out on my own. I wanted to comment back to someone who commented on one of my posts. All that has to be done is you need to type in the edit box and then hit the enter button. Yes it really is that simple. There are pop-up boxes for friend requests, messages, and notifications. Next to each one of them there is a number of how many of them one has. To click on the one you need, just go over it and press the voiceover (VO) keys and the space bar to select it.
I have not done anything with the friend requests, because I do not get many of them. When I do, I usually take care of it on my iPhone.
As for the messages, you need to to select send new message if that is what you want to do. You will need to type the person's full name and depending on if there is more than one person with that first name, you will have to type the first letter of their last name. If you want to send it to multiple people, just separate each name with a comma, no spaces. Once people are typed in hit the enter key. Type in the edit box the message and then press the send button by pressing the VO keys and the space bar. To read a message, select who sent it to you and click on their name by hitting the VO keys and the space bar. Unfortunately messages cannot be deleted from regular Facebook. Well there is a way, but I do not know how to do it.
Notifications are the easiest to navigate. You just need to click on notifications and then scroll to the notification that is wanted and click on it. It will tell you if the notification is read and if you want to turn off notifications from a certain group or a certain app.
I hope this helps some what. I will type more next week. Till then.
Voiceover With Safari
I am back. This time I want to talk about voiceover and Safari.
First let me explain what Safari is. It is the web browser on the MAC computer. PCs have Internet Explorer and MACs have Safari. There is not a lot of differences between the two. The only difference is one is MAC's version and the other is PC's. It works just like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
You can set up whatever homepage that is desired. Whether you want Google or Facebook or anything else.
To interact with the html you have to hit the VO (voiceover) keys, the shift key, and the down arrow. This will allow you to enter and interact with the web page. Once entered use the arrow keys to navigate around the page.
If you ever need it, go to the help menu. You get there by hitting the VO keys and the letter h. Once there scroll down to the Getting Started guide.
If you want to get to the bookmarks, you will need to go to the menu. Go to the menu by hitting the VO keys and the letter m. This will bring up the menu then use the right arrow till you come to the option that says bookmarks. Once there use the down arrow till you come to the web page you want and then press enter.
To add a bookmark to a desired page, press the command key and the letter l. This will take you to the address bar. Scroll left and use the VO keys and the space bar to open the menu. Scroll down till you get to the option that says add bookmark. Once on that option press the VO keys and the space bar to select it.
Ok that is a ton of info for one post. I do not want to make anyone's head explode. I will explain more next week. Till then.
First let me explain what Safari is. It is the web browser on the MAC computer. PCs have Internet Explorer and MACs have Safari. There is not a lot of differences between the two. The only difference is one is MAC's version and the other is PC's. It works just like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
You can set up whatever homepage that is desired. Whether you want Google or Facebook or anything else.
To interact with the html you have to hit the VO (voiceover) keys, the shift key, and the down arrow. This will allow you to enter and interact with the web page. Once entered use the arrow keys to navigate around the page.
If you ever need it, go to the help menu. You get there by hitting the VO keys and the letter h. Once there scroll down to the Getting Started guide.
If you want to get to the bookmarks, you will need to go to the menu. Go to the menu by hitting the VO keys and the letter m. This will bring up the menu then use the right arrow till you come to the option that says bookmarks. Once there use the down arrow till you come to the web page you want and then press enter.
To add a bookmark to a desired page, press the command key and the letter l. This will take you to the address bar. Scroll left and use the VO keys and the space bar to open the menu. Scroll down till you get to the option that says add bookmark. Once on that option press the VO keys and the space bar to select it.
Ok that is a ton of info for one post. I do not want to make anyone's head explode. I will explain more next week. Till then.
More Voiceover Stuff
So I am back. Last time I blogged, I talked about voiceover keys. Don't forget when I mention voiceover I will refer to it as VO.
So I am trying to make this as simple as possible. The MAC is really easy to use as I am finding out. I go to do certain things and usually what I try the first time works.
So today I am going to talk about the Dock. This is along the bottom of the screen. It is kind of like the start menu on PCs. This is where all of the things that are opened are. You can set-up the Dock to look like you want it. I have 17 things in my Dock.
To get to the Dock, you need to press the VO keys and the letter d. This will take you directly to the Dock. To navigate through items in the Dock, you just use the left and right arrow keys. Once you get to what you want or need, you just press the space bar to open it. Yes it really is that simple.
Till next week, later.
So I am trying to make this as simple as possible. The MAC is really easy to use as I am finding out. I go to do certain things and usually what I try the first time works.
So today I am going to talk about the Dock. This is along the bottom of the screen. It is kind of like the start menu on PCs. This is where all of the things that are opened are. You can set-up the Dock to look like you want it. I have 17 things in my Dock.
To get to the Dock, you need to press the VO keys and the letter d. This will take you directly to the Dock. To navigate through items in the Dock, you just use the left and right arrow keys. Once you get to what you want or need, you just press the space bar to open it. Yes it really is that simple.
Till next week, later.
Voiceover Stuff
Ok I want to talk a little about voiceover. When I refer to things I will refer to voiceover stuff as VO for short. I am doing this because this is how the user guide refers to voiceover.
There are two keys that need to be held down to perform certain VO tasks. The two keys that need to be held down are the option and control keys. On a laptop they are located to the left of the space bar. There are 4 keys total and the option and control keys are the second and third keys.
The VO keys are very important to remember. They allow you to enter drop down menus and lists, to name a few things. They are used in conjunction with other keys. To enter menus and lists the VO keys are held down and you press the shift key and the down arrow.
The shift key is located directly above the VO keys. The down arrow is located to the right of the space bar, three keys over to be exact.
When these are held down, menus and lists can be entered.
This is the handiest thing to know about VO. Knowing this will help immensely. These keystrokes will allow you to use the MAC with VO.
I will talk more about this next week. Till then.
There are two keys that need to be held down to perform certain VO tasks. The two keys that need to be held down are the option and control keys. On a laptop they are located to the left of the space bar. There are 4 keys total and the option and control keys are the second and third keys.
The VO keys are very important to remember. They allow you to enter drop down menus and lists, to name a few things. They are used in conjunction with other keys. To enter menus and lists the VO keys are held down and you press the shift key and the down arrow.
The shift key is located directly above the VO keys. The down arrow is located to the right of the space bar, three keys over to be exact.
When these are held down, menus and lists can be entered.
This is the handiest thing to know about VO. Knowing this will help immensely. These keystrokes will allow you to use the MAC with VO.
I will talk more about this next week. Till then.
Eureka!
I know what I am going to do with this blog at least for awhile. I am going to turn it into a blog to help people with MAC computers, actually blind people especially. Although it will hopefully help both blind and sighted people. This inspiration comes from a video I watched. I thought who better to tell sighted people then an actual blind person. I hope this will help people learn the MAC and that way more sighted people will be able to help out the blind.
First thing I need to say, is that the MAC is ready to use right out of the box. You can technically do not even have to be sighted to start it up. It can be started with voiceover.
Voiceover is what allows everything on the screen to be read to a blind person. All MAC products have this technology on them. I use to have a PC, but made the change over and I am glad I did.
If you are sighted go to system preferences and then go to accessibility. Once there, there is an option for voiceover. Select that and the computer will start talking to you. There is also an option to turn voiceover on and off. Click this option and then all that has to be done is hit command f5 to turn it on and off.
This will help those who want to know get started. I will write more next week. I want to spread this out as much as possible. I won't talk all about it at once. Till next week, enjoy.
First thing I need to say, is that the MAC is ready to use right out of the box. You can technically do not even have to be sighted to start it up. It can be started with voiceover.
Voiceover is what allows everything on the screen to be read to a blind person. All MAC products have this technology on them. I use to have a PC, but made the change over and I am glad I did.
If you are sighted go to system preferences and then go to accessibility. Once there, there is an option for voiceover. Select that and the computer will start talking to you. There is also an option to turn voiceover on and off. Click this option and then all that has to be done is hit command f5 to turn it on and off.
This will help those who want to know get started. I will write more next week. I want to spread this out as much as possible. I won't talk all about it at once. Till next week, enjoy.
New Computer
Ok so I know that I have not blogged in awhile. It is not because I did not want to, I got a new computer and I have been trying to figure it out. I bought a MAC and love it.There are so many pros to it over my PC.
First it is so much easier then my PC. Using the different programs is so much simpler. When you do something one way, more than likely it works that way in other programs.It is very hard for me to screw something up with it.
Second, I have been doing 1 to 1 training at King of Prussia Mall at the Apple Store. All the employees I have worked with are terrific guys. They don't know voiceover very well, but they are trying. There is one guy that kind of knows voiceover, but even he is learning from me. It would be very easy for them to throw me to the wayside, but they are trying. The guys have all been wonderful to me. Together we are learning voiceover.
Let me explain what voiceover is. It is the technology that allows me to use my MAC. All MAC products come with it. From the iPhone to the iPad and even the computers. It allows people without vision or low vision to use their products. The nice thing about voiceover is that it is built-in to all the products.If it was not for voiceover, I would not be able to use my iPhone.
I can do so much with this computer. I love my MAC! I only wish that I would have gotten a MAC sooner than I did. Oh well.
First it is so much easier then my PC. Using the different programs is so much simpler. When you do something one way, more than likely it works that way in other programs.It is very hard for me to screw something up with it.
Second, I have been doing 1 to 1 training at King of Prussia Mall at the Apple Store. All the employees I have worked with are terrific guys. They don't know voiceover very well, but they are trying. There is one guy that kind of knows voiceover, but even he is learning from me. It would be very easy for them to throw me to the wayside, but they are trying. The guys have all been wonderful to me. Together we are learning voiceover.
Let me explain what voiceover is. It is the technology that allows me to use my MAC. All MAC products come with it. From the iPhone to the iPad and even the computers. It allows people without vision or low vision to use their products. The nice thing about voiceover is that it is built-in to all the products.If it was not for voiceover, I would not be able to use my iPhone.
I can do so much with this computer. I love my MAC! I only wish that I would have gotten a MAC sooner than I did. Oh well.
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