Voice Activated Calling  with Google Home from Telstra

 

At last we can make calls from our Google Homes via our mobile phone account number.  At the moment, the only other smart speaker that does this in Australia is the HomePod.  The Amazon Echo in Australia is still Echo to Echo whether on a device or on the Amazon Alexa app itself.

 

https://www.telstra.com.au/smart-home/voice-activated-calling

 

ESIMM Now Available Via Carriers in Australia for the iPhone

 

You can use your latest iPhone or last years iPhone with an electronic SIMM (ESIMM), and a physical SiMM card giving you dual SIMM support.

 

From the Apple site about ESIMM:

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

 

A Couple of Things to Finish Up with iOS 13 Features and Bugs

 

VoiceOver features/changes

 

Scroll bar now in app screens.

The context menu that was in the Rotor Actions menu has been taken away in 13.2 due out towards the end of October due to compatibility when editing.  1 finger double tap and hold to now bring up context menu.

 

VoiceOver bugs

 

VoiceOver freezing after audio call seems to be still around.  Appears to be fixed in iOS 13.2 due out towards the end of October.

Hard to find status line at top of screen.

VoiceOver vO+M on BT keyboards broken to take user to status line.

 

MacOS  10.15 Catalina Now Available

 

Most people seem to be saying not to upgrade at the moment due to application conflicts.

iTunes has gone.  We now have Music, Podcasts, and the TV app.  Audio books are now found in the Books app.

Audible.com books will also now be available via the Books app.

 

iTunes is still available for Windows.

Find My is now on the Mac for both People and Device tracking.

When you connect an iOS device, you can find the iTunes like interface for he iOS device in the Finder Sidebar.

Voice Control is now on the Mac.

 

Twitter for MacOS 10.15 Catalina Released

 

This is an example of an iOs app ported to MacOS.  Unfortunately, its not overall accessible with VoiceOver: yes you can access the controls, but you can’t scroll the Twitter timeline at all past the first 3 first visible tweets on the screen.

 

VoiceOver Bugs

Can’t get to the Extras menu with VO+MM.

Time/Date with Ins+T takes a long time to respond.

 

Apple News Plus Now Available In Australia

 

Apple News Plus is available in Australia via the Apple News app, you can get one month free trial and $14.99 per month.  I personally found the content from newspapers and magazines not that exciting, so even after 4 days of trying it out, I stopped my free trial.

Remember, you can get access to many magazines and newspapers from the Vision Australia Library which is free for members:

 

https://i-accessonline.visionaustralia.org/_layouts/15/iaccessonline/iol_login.aspx?ReturnUrl=https://i-accessonline.visionaustralia.org%2F