Hi,
Just got the IOS 18 beta on my iPad mini 6th generation and it's utterly awesome. It's turned this little device into a all in one brail computer. I'll try to explain but it's late and I'm very tired...
You start BSI with a double tap, one finger on either side of the screen. There are two modes, command mode which I'll come to, and brail mode which can be used to search anything on the screen, much like finding apps in the old version of IOS but this is system wide now.
The command mode is what is so amazing. You switch between the two with a three finger swipe but when in command mode you have all the controls you would have on a six dot input device such as progressing with dot 4, going back with dot 1, select with dot 3 and 6, magic tap with 1 5 and 6, volume up with 3 4 and 5, volume down with 1 2 and 6, and so on. It's bonkers good and makes navigating the interface a doddle.
I've not tried it for text editing yet, but even if it isn't so good i there, this is a huge update and completely changes how we can interact with our devices.
I'm rare to say this, but spot on apple, this is amazing.
Comments
Re: android switch?
Justin,
I just got the beta on my SE today and this is indeed a useful new feature. I wouldn't call it game changing for me though, it's another way to do the things I'm already doing on the screen. I don't know if there is a way to turn on single letter quick nav for BSI, that would elevate this from useful to game changing for me maybe but I don't see any way to emulate dots 7 and 8. I need to test it out more but for me this makes BSI on iOS a little more useful than android assuming it's stable and such. It's not a dealbreaker for me in its current form though, we need the full eight dots.
@Holy Diver
Gotcha. I don't know how much I would really use the command stuff, but between these innovations, plus some apps just being better on iOS, (looking at you facebook, youtube, Goodmaps Outdoors and Chime mobile banking) I am kinda thinking about seeing what I can do next month. Any idea what phones are compatible with iOS 18? I don't want to get locked in to a payment plan, and the SE is a bit small for my liking, but I could make it work if that's all I can afford. I also have the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro which is not technically compatible, but with an app called Merge, it can be made to kinda work with iOS, which is good because I like the look of the galaxy watch better, and don't use it for much more than just a talking watch and stopwatch. It does fitness tracking too, but pretty sure that won't sync up. Oh well. But iOS 18 sounds like it's gunna be super awesome.
Re: iOS 18
Yeah facebook on android just took a massive accessibility nose dive, I think I get it. I’ve decided for myself I really need a foot in both camps to minimize inaccessible apps, it feels like a crap shoot . As far as immediate workarounds for android facebook I’ve found talkback’s image recognition works a lot better with the screen shown and brightness turned up a bit. It's annoying but it helps. Also another issue with the new iOS BSI is you can't do the space + f command for searching long things and on the web you can't do the BSI item search because it just wants h to move by heading etc. .
An issue with the BSI
Hello folks,
After hearing about the new BSI improvements in iOS 18, I decided to try them out. Although I'm not very familiar with Braille screen input, I've known Braille since I was 6, so I figured I could pick it up quickly.
And, oh my gosh, this new feature is a game-changer for me, just like for many of you. I really appreciate what Apple does with VoiceOver on iOS, but I want to point out a potential bug to make this feature even better.
Steps to reproduce the issue:
1: Open any app where you can navigate in Braille command mode. We'll use the native Notes app for this demonstration, but it could be anything.
2: Activate a text field and start typing using Braille screen input.
3: Type a word, like an email address or your first name, but do not add a space after typing.
4: Activate command mode with the swiping gesture.
5: What you will notice is nothing appears in the text field. If you add a space or deactivate Braille screen input with the pinching gesture, the text will appear.
I believe that after adding a space or exiting Braille input by pinching the screen, the typed text converts to plain text and appears on the screen. But if you don't add a space, the text disappears.
Adding and deleting a space takes just a fraction of a second, but in some fields like phone numbers or emails, you can't add or delete spaces. This workaround saves the day. I think Apple should make the conversion happen not only after adding a space or new line or exiting BSI but also after switching to the command mode. This would prevent issues when editing text in command mode.
Do you guys have the same issue? If so, why not create feedback and send it to Apple?
pressing space
Hi.
The reason this is happening is because the braille you type doesn't get translated to text until you either hit space or exit braille screen input. If you're switching to command mode, you should do a two finger swipe down to force translation of whatever you just typed.
I've submitted feedback suggesting that translation should always be forced when switching to command mode, but as of now it hasn't been added yet.
I just use three-finger swipe-up
If I'm sending a text message or other messages in chat apps, and I swipe up with three fingers in Braille Entry mode, the text is translated.
my thoughts after a day
I may have been too dismissive earlier, this is a lot faster than your standard flicky swipe left right dance. I sort of wish they used the left and right swipes for enter and backspace instead of rotor navigation, it's redundant with existing braille commands..but I see the other side there too. More than that though I want the F-chord text search command to work, either that or make the existing item search work better in large documents. Still it works on the Braille display, it should work here and would elevate this from useful to game changer level for me easy.
Awesome!
I lmrc tfis. It is fantastic. I have been using it all day and it is just.. wow! I love it. It took a while but was easy to learn. There are a lot of adjustable things in the settings and that has things I find really useful. And we finally have keyboard clicks now which is great because now I have turned off typing feedback altogether as I only had it to know I was writing.
editing
I actually have tried it with google docs and I think it is great. This did not work before but now that I can move ,ehind lines it is breeze.