Filed under: iPod Family
New nanos to get spoken menus
One of the interesting minor details on the iPod nanos released today is the inclusion of some new accessibility features. There's even an Accessibility section on the spec page, which notes the addition of spoken menus and an alternative larger font. The spoken menus "allow listeners to hear many of the names of menus, song titles, and artists without viewing the screen." While this is clearly a boon to those with some visual disabilities I suspect it could also be handy to other folks as well, since it will presumably allow changing song, playlists, etc. without looking at the screen, which would be really nice while driving. According to Infinite Loop a nano with this feature turned on will even inherit your Mac's VoiceOver voice. Unfortunately, it's not clear if other iPods or the iPhone will also gain this feature at some point.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
waiownsyou said 8:43AM on 9-10-2008
Who cares, I want shake to shuffle on my iPhone 3G... here's to surprises on 2.1!
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Tom said 9:36AM on 9-10-2008
I'm sure lots of people will care, it's a big (and challenging) step for Apple to be making their iPods more accessible - So I'm impressed with their recent changes at least!
Murray Stevens said 9:12AM on 9-10-2008
I would really like a large font on my Touch so that I can see the track name that is playing while it sits in the adapter I use in my car.
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Speed8ump said 10:24AM on 9-10-2008
How long do you think it will be before the shuffle comes back with voice control? The screen has got to be one of the more expensive parts of the nano. I'm betting they want to play around with voice control so that they can get rid of it. Smart move if they can make it not suck.
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DaveAronson said 11:15AM on 9-10-2008
Voice *control* will probably take quite a while; for now, AFAIK, none of them take any audio *input* (except obviously the iPhone). (Disclaimer: I haven't been watching the newer features closely. For all I know, some might. Certainly mine doesn't.) Adding spoken "display", OTOH, is a logical extension for the entire line, and especially the Shuffle. It should be quite doable w/o any new hardware.
Josso said 11:05AM on 9-10-2008
I care!!
Especially for my grandmother - she is blind, and love reading books. We've considered buying her a iPod, but didn't cause of the menu.
I'm pretty sure we'll do it now. :)
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Shawin said 11:26AM on 9-10-2008
Does the iPod Touch update have Accessibility options as well. It's on my iPhone that I wish sms text was larger. My parents can't read anything right now. (Maybe that's a good thing though. lol.)
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totoro said 11:29AM on 9-10-2008
I'm guessing it doesn't speak in "Alex"'s voice-that one is pretty storage/memory intensive.
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Dave S said 11:48AM on 9-10-2008
Apple - it a wonderful thing to do but its only halfway.
I've tried to help my blind sister in law setup itunes on her XP laptop (unfortunate I know) along with her reader program "Jaws".
It just doesn't work, you can't make playlists, or copy tunes to the pod without dragging and dropping.
If I'm wrong, someone please post a response, I'd love to help her use the Shuffle someone bought her.
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Ed said 12:54PM on 9-10-2008
Can you get it to sync automatically when the iPod is inserted?
I did something similar for my Dad, who's blind. But I couldn't use iTunes. I got an iPod shuffle and used a program called AutoRun and Shuffler and some Python script so that when the iPod is inserted, it would automatically purge the old files, copy the new files and rebuild the database.
Sabon said 2:39PM on 9-10-2008
Yes you are wrong.
There is File -> Add to Library. On Macs it is Command-O. I don't know what it is on Windows computers, probably ALT-O. I then asks where to import them from. There must be voice controls for ALT-O.
Also, if you are importing from a CD you just put in the CD and tell iTunes to import from there.
Jash Sayani said 12:35PM on 9-10-2008
Voice-command iPod. Nice Apple.!
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James Jolley said 4:42PM on 9-10-2008
As a blind user myself this is significant. I will be certainly trying out this functionality.
Regarding Itunes under windows, there are a set of JAWS scripts available from www.tandt-consultancy.co.uk I think the URL is. In any case, google JTunes and your on your way.
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mtt said 10:04PM on 9-10-2008
I think the audio prompts are a great idea, but I have another reason I want them. I would like to have a way to have the iPod/iPhone announce the name & artist of the track currently playing. If the player is on shuffle, surely we've all had songs play that we didn't recongnized, but it wasn't worth digging out of our pocket or breaking our stride to read the display. How about pressing & holding the pause button would have the player read aloud the track info?
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jonico said 10:09PM on 9-10-2008
Spoken menus are nothing new to the ipod, at least if you running Rockbox on your ipod. http://www.rockbox.org/
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