“The iPhone 7 is very close and the all singing all dancing iOS 10 will come with it,” Gordon Kelly writes for Forbes. “But right now most iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users are on iOS 9.3.4 and Apple has confirmed to me it contains a nasty surprise that, for millions, will never be fixed.”
“The problem in iOS 9.3.4 is an incompatibility between VoiceOver and voice dictation which is hitting disabled and, in particular, blind users hard,” Kelly writes. “In short: with VoiceOver enabled (it describes everything on your screen with a triple press of the home button) voice dictation is broken producing duplicate and often muddled words – notably when quick replying to messages in the notification centre.”
“Perhaps the most interesting aspect to all of this, however, are claims this feature has been broken since the original launch of iOS 9 in September 2015 and Apple has not attempted to fixed it in any subsequent upgrade,” Kelly writes. “The good news is the bug will be fixed in iOS 10 (and is already fixed in the latest iOS 10 public beta). The bad news is there are no plans to fix the bug in iOS 9 and with iPhone 4S, iPad Mini, iPad 3rd gen and iPod touch 5th gen users not entitled to iOS 10 upgrades, users of those devices will be left with the bug until they buy something new.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like it’s time to upgrade your hardware, guys and gals! 😉
Seriously, why can’t Apple – a company known for their excellent and comprehensive approach to accessibility – do the right thing for the affected users and fix the bug in an iOS 9.3.5 update?
Do the right thing, Apple.
May be a matter of “can’t” vs “won’t”.
I wish I could delete the post above. Of course Apple could fix this.
Wow, yeah. I read your comment backwards and clicked 5-stars. Totally seems like they could, but choose not to.
You’re right, Spark. Apple could fix it – and, of course, they already have! The fix is in iOS 10.
So, you’d imagine they could fix that for iOS 9.3.5. There’s no way it can be that hard to fix. Otherwise it looks like a case of planned obsolescence.
Can we please start differentiating these two companies? “Apple Computer” had a great reputation for quality. Apple, Inc. simply does not. The differences are stark.
Apple Computer was derided by 80% of computer users for most of its existence as underpowered toys. I think you may have some rose tinted glasses. All in all, I think most of what Apple makes IS very high quality when viewed in broader contexts. Their flaws (which always existed) are magnified because a larger user base and an active press that benefits from writing anything about Apple, and especially something negative.
I can’t think of who has a better reputation. Care to tell us?
Microdelatewayompaqqahpsusacernovo.
Yep, if if you put all those companies together and gave them double the money they made in a year, they’d still never be as good as Apple Inc, or Apple Computer.
And that’s no bull.
NOT…GOOD…APPLE. A lot of persons with disabilities do not have the bucks to upgrade, so they may be left out in the cold. For a company that has always been at the forefront of accessibility, this is not good.
A real cheap shot move by Apple. I expect nothing less from Tim Cook’s Apple.
As we expect no cheap shot left unturned by you.
Your opinion has been noted and discarded.
Pretty much how everyone else treats your posts here then.
Arguing is for the birds. The fact is that Apple can fix this, and it should. No two ways about it. It’s very bad to leave people with something broken, and if Apple is true to wanting to leave the world a better place than it found it, then making life harder for people with disabilities is something Apple should definitely be doing.
No-one is asking Apple to hand out free iOS devices, even if Microsoft still lets you download the full free version of Windows 10 if you download the version for people needing the accessibility features in Windows 10.
Which doesn’t truly cost Microsoft anything anyway – they’re not giving our Surface PCs, are they.
So. Leave the cheap shots and the discardings themselves be shot and discarded to one side.
Let us compute in peace.
Over’n’Out.
If only others could hear your plea. How one presents one’s arguments in civil fashion, while maybe not agreed with, will get some measure of a respectful reply.
The definition of a troll is one who will never be civil, only insulting, under any circumstances, like the infantile Mac The Dullard Knife. In fact they thrive on flaming adversity, annoying the hell out of people, and juvenile discourse. This sort of human dreck should be unceremoniously shown the door by MDN.
Well said, peter.
Also – when I said:
“…and if Apple is true to wanting to leave the world a better place than it found it, then making life harder for people with disabilities is something Apple should definitely be doing..”
I obviously meant “…then making life harder for people with disabilities is something Apple should definitely NOT be doing..”
Keep up the good work.
I know I won’t be buying the iPhone 7. The loss of the headphone jack is just too much for me. Analog headphones ofter flexibility, reliability and a much better price/performance ratio. Digital headphones cost considerably more for a good set because they have a DAC and an amplifier built-in, which drastically increases the cost. A $30 pair of Bluetooth headphones will sound horrible, while a $30 of wired headphones will sound fine. It’s a pain to use a pair of Bluetooth headphones with multiple things and they’re just one more thing to have to charge. Lightning headphones can only be used with post-2012 iOS devices.
My next smartphone will be an Ubuntu phone. I just hope some more vendors will get on board with Ubuntu because there are only two Ubuntu phone vendors and the moment, and they both seem to be sold out: http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/devices
Lightning headphones are just the latest example of Apple dragging people kicking and screaming into the future. They did it by dropping floppy drives, they did it by dropping built in CD/DVD drives, they did it by simplifying and reducing laptop connectors. And now they’re doing it with lightning headphones. So many additional technologies are possible with lightning – active noise cancellation with multiple modes; the ability to have sound customization chips in the headphone wire; better quality audio chips to improve driver response. All this (and more) is possible by replacing the dumb 3.5mm jack/co-ax cable with the smart lightning cable.
Joe, please report exactly what Lightning headphones you own today. Because there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying all these mind-blowing improvements right now. You got the lightning port already, why do you use the old analog port?
Could it be perhaps that users actually like the reliability and compatibility that integrated analog audio connections enable?
Abandoning the international standard minijack is as stupid as Apple’s attempt at pumping up sales of its own brand of display by bastardizing DVI with a proprietary connector, ADC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Display_Connector
To me, Apple’s mistake then was not trying to make it a standard. If they released the spec and charged little or no royalty, it would’ve gained wide use, because who wouldn’t rather plug in one cable instead of two?
The difference is Joe, that floppy drives, CD/DVD drives etc etc were industry standards. Lightning is not. So having one set of headphones that can be used on various devices suddenly became impossible.
I don’t miss floppy drives, cd drives, parallel ports,etc. On the other hand I love wireless connectivity, Thunderbolt, wireless keyboards, etc. Everyone complained about the older technologies being “retired” and then promptly forgot about them. I won’t miss analog plug in headphones period. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used them in the last year. Besides if the upside is that my phone ends up with a better form factor or better battery life, or better durability due to losing the space hogging analog plug, I’ll consider it great tradeoff.
Well, don’t underestimate the Chinese to be able to make something cheaper than you imagined was possible.
Isn’t this the sort of thing people got fired for by Steve Jobs?
I’m more concerned that my iPad 3 will not get iOS 10.
Apple, its just FUBAR. Bric old equipment to encourage upgrades. Get off the treadmill folks.
Does it happen when using headphones w mic?
Since the 3rd gen and 4th gen ipads have the same RAM amount, not upgrading 3rd gen seems pure bloody mindedness. There’s no reason a new release in this day and age need be slower anyway, and even if it was, many of us would prefer a little slowness to be able to run the latest software. Shame Apple.
I blame George W. Trump.