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The Accessibility-Labels Edition Thursday, September 22, 2016

Sticker Accessibility, by Craig Hockenberry, Furbo.org

The popularity of Stickers was no surprise to us. What did surprise us was that these graphical elements are a hit with customers who have vision difficulties.

Apple’s New watchOS 3 Shows The Virtue Of Starting Over, by Walt Mossberg, Recode

The Apple Watch still isn’t a must-have device. It still needs to find a purpose beyond fitness. But with watchOS 3, it has a chance to become much more useful and a bit more fun and satisfying, even for people who aren’t hard-core exercise fans. In ripping up the whole software design of its latest product, Apple showed — yes — courage.

Fine, I'll Get Wireless Headphones Because Dongles Are Terrible, by Andrew Moseman, Popular Mechanics

If the choice comes down to competing wired standards or competing wireless standards, eventually I'll choose wireless. I don't want to. I will miss plug and play, and loathe the idea of headphones that work better in one ecosystem when they used to just work. But this dongle, man. This is not the answer.

Mental Health

Apple Employees Say Their Mental Health Issues Came From Alleged Hostile Work Environment, by Melanie Ehrenkranz, Mic

In April, a man died by suicide on Apple's Cupertino, California, campus. For those outside the gates, it seemed to be the first time something of this severe nature happened at the iconic tech company. But according to current and former Apple employees, mental health issues developing in toxic work environments are more widespread than the incident that made headlines this year.

Mic spoke to a number of Apple employees, former and current, who attribute their mental health issues to the workplace environment at Apple, which they describe as toxic. In each instance, the Apple employee raised these concerns to human resources or their manager. In each instance, their complaints were met with silence — or retaliation.

Stuff

Review: The Brydge Keyboard For 12.9-inch iPad Pro Is (Almost) The One Apple Should Have Made, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

The Brydge keyboard is my daily-driver for my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and if I’d decided to keep the 12.9-inch one, I’d be making the same choice again there. Stiffen the hinges a little, and this is the keyboard Apple should have made.

‘Yahoo View’ Comes To iPhone & iPad W/ Free Hulu Video Clips & Full-length Anime, by Jordan Kahn, 9to5Mac

Yahoo today released a new iOS app for its recently launched Yahoo View experience, bringing trending video clips and full-length anime episodes from a number of popular shows to iPhone and iPad for free.

Tinder’s Newest App, Tinder Stacks, Lets You Swipe On Anything, by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

Tinder today is launching a new application for social polling. The company announced the debut of “Tinder Stacks,” an app for iMessage users that will let you use the “swipe to like” gesture the dating app popularized for anything you want – whether that’s polling your friends which photo should be your new profile picture, what outfit you should wear tonight, or anything else.

Make Your Own Travel Documentary, by Jen Leo, Chicago Tribune

Animoto Video Maker app lets you upload your photos and videos, pick a style to personalize your story, set it to music and add narration or title cards to complete it.

Notes

Rob Janoff On His Logo For Apple, by Touraj Saberivand, Love Design Love

While working in their garage in 1977, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak asked Rob Janoff, who had studied design, to create a logo for their first Apple products. When Janoff went to Jobs with final sketches, everything went very smoothly, and the bitten apple has been the symbol of the brand ever since.

The Average Person Is Better Off Without A Fitness Wearable, Weight Loss Study Finds, by Nsikan Akpan, PBS

This year alone, 19 million people are scheduled to buy fitness wearables with a simple mission in mind: Get fit. But these purchases may have zero effect when it comes to weight loss, based on new research from the University of Pittsburgh.

This two-year study — the longest of its kind on electronic fitness trackers — shows the average person on a weight loss program can cut more pounds without a workout wearable.

Bottom of the Page

I've a digital journal sitting in my iPhone that I didn't touch for about a year. Today, I finally restarted adding new entries, just because sometimes, I need to talk to somebody that can really keep a secret.

Looking back, most of the entires are about sadness. I wonder if it is because I am always sad, or if I've associated journaling with jotting down sad thoughts.

~

Thanks for reading.