[gui-talk] What we're missing out on:

Sat Feb 7 01:50:39 UTC 2009

That was a very interesting article. I plan to forward it to some of my 
friends.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tribble" <lauraeaves at yahoo.com>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] What we're missing out on:


> Hey al -- thanks for posting this one! This has to be the most creative
> (albeit inaccessible) app that has come out in a while.
> I forwarded it on to another list.
> Great article.
> --le
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "albert griffith" <albertgriffith at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "'NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List'" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 5:54 PM
> Subject: [gui-talk] What we're missing out on:
>
>
> I debated on whether to post this but we're out of the loop in many
> instances where technology is concerned and this is definitely one of 
> those
> times.  My hope is that hearing about some of this stuff will get more of 
> us
> motivated to keep pressure on our organizations to make accessibility a
> priority. Check out the short article below!
> ***separator:
>
> So Many iPhone Apps, So Little Time
>
> By DAVID POGUE
> Who was it who wrote, in March 2008, just after Apple announced its
> intention to create an online app store for the iPhone, "You're witnessing
> the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone"?
> Oh, right--that was me.
> Anyway, there are now 15,000 programs available on the App Store, and so
> many more are flooding in that Apple's army of screeners can't even keep 
> up.
> I keep meaning to write a thoughtful, thorough roundup of the very best of
> these amazing programs, but every day that I don't do it, the job becomes
> more daunting. (But don't worry. I'll get around to it.)
> For the moment, let's use a single program as a case study. It's one of 
> the
> most magical programs I've ever seen for the iPhone, and probably for any
> computer. It's Ocarina, named after the ancient clay wind instrument.
> OcarinaOnce you install and open this program, your iPhone's screen 
> displays
> four colored circles of different sizes. These are the "holes" that you
> cover with your fingers, as you would the holes on a flute. Then you blow
> into the microphone hole at the bottom of the iPhone, and presto: the
> haunting, expressive, beautiful sound of a wind instrument comes from the
> iPhone speaker.
> Different combinations of fingers on those four "holes" produce the
> different notes of the scale. (You can change the key in Preferences--no
> doubt a first on a cellphone.) Tilting the phone up or down controls the
> vibrato.
> Ocarina has become a mega-hit. YouTube videos show people playing their
> favorite songs on this thing with amazing skill. (The "Stairway to Heaven"
> arrangement, featuring four people playing their iPhones in harmony, is
> especially memorable.) The software company's Web site, Smule.com, even
> includes sheet-music pages that show you how to play well-known songs on
> Ocarina.
> Ocarina takes advantages of the iPhone's microphone, speaker, touch 
> screen,
> graphics and tilt sensor. Incredibly, though, it also exploits the 
> iPhone's
> Internet connection and GPS, as well.
> If you tap the little globe at the bottom of the screen, the screen 
> changes.
> Now you see a map of the world--and you start hearing the Ocarina
> performance of one person, in one city (indicated by animated sound waves 
> on
> the map), who's playing the thing *right now*. Sometimes it's the halting
> fumbles of a rank beginner; sometimes it's a lovely melody played by 
> someone
> who's got the hang of it. You can hit a Next button to tune in to another
> stranger, and another, all around the world.
> It's a brain-frying experience to know that you're listening to someone 
> else
> playing Ocarina, right now, in real time, somewhere else on the planet. 
> (And
> then you realize that someone, somewhere might be listening to *you*!)
> The best part of this story isn't just that someone has turned a 
> cellphone,
> for crying out loud, into a musical instrument with fantastic expressive
> potential. It's that hundreds of thousands of people have bought this
> program in just a few months--for $1 apiece.
> Apple, which runs the store, keeps 30 percent of each sale. Even so, 
> Ocarina
> demonstrates that a programmer can make a staggering amount of money from
> the iPhone store. It's a crazy new software model that I don't remember
> seeing anywhere else. It's not a boxed software program for $600, or even 
> a
> shareware program you download for $25. It's a buck a copy.
> The beauty here is that at these prices, there's very little risk in 
> trying
> something out. How many software programs have you bought for your Mac or
> PC? Two? Four? Well, the average iPhone owner may wind up installing 10, 
> 20
> or 30 programs. In all, according to Apple, iPhone owners have downloaded
> 500 million copies of these programs. Half a billion--since last July.
> There's a lot of gloom in the tech industry (and every industry, for that
> matter). But even when the economy is crashing down around us, there's 
> still
> amazing power in a single good idea. And the one on display here--pricing
> software so low that millions of people buy it without batting an eye--is
> turning a few clever programmers into millionaires.
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gui-talk mailing list
> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> gui-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/lauraeaves%40yahoo.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gui-talk mailing list
> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> gui-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/lydiagrier%40comcast.net
>
> Internal Virus Database is out of date.
> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
> Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.10.10/1904 - Release Date: 
> 1/20/2009 7:49 AM
>
>
>