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by MATP Staff Member M. Catherine McAdam

Ok, I finally updated my iPod to IOS 8.1.2.  I’m not a big fan of change once I get to learn a helpful technology, at least I’ve noticed that more as I get older! I also believe in waiting for the bugs for most updates to clear a bit, but I took the plunge!

Jonathan Mosen released his book iOS 8 Without the Eye before some bug fixes, but it is very worth the read! Maybe you’ll have a better experience when you hear all those different languages pop up on your screen after this new software is loaded, as he warns you not to panic and explains that your device knows what language you previously were using.

There is one major glitch remaining if you use a blue tooth key board with voice over on your I device.  You may find that you can’t seem to type when in an edit field.   Try pressing the right and left arrow keys, and you’ll hear quick nav off, and you should be able to type in any edit field. This has not been corrected with the 8.1 update but is still widely discussed as a concern and is definitely on my wish list. Bluetooth-keyboards-and-voiceover.

There has been a lot of excitement about using a simulated braille key board in this new release, but I find it spatially challenging and am not yet a fan, would love to hear from others.  It certainly is exciting that this is even an option and of course there are already ideas about how to improve it.

More information about braille input.

Now, there are at least four things you may find worth the change. It is much easier to delete emails from any provider with a simple swipe up, and our friend Siri will now tell you what song and artist, is playing on your radio, just ask “what’s playing”.

A bit more seriously there is a health app where you can create emergency contact and medical information. (not sure the dash-board is accessible so my wish is that it will keep improving…). And several people are pleased with changes to the zoom feature.

Here are two older articles worth checking out.

• 25-things-you-can-do-on-ios-8-that-you-couldnt-do-on-ios7
• 7 features for visually impaired-ios-8

What’s been your experience with updating your IOS device?

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