Guest post by Blake Watson.

I've tried a lot of remote apps, but for me, HippoRemote gets the nod. Once you go through a surprisingly painless setup process, HippoRemote will connect to your computer and hand the reins over to you. Your iPhone is now a fully-featured multi-touch trackpad. Tap the keyboard button at the top of the screen and HippoRemote will provide you with a standard iPhone keyboard with some extra features attached. Explore further, and you will see that HippoRemote turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into an advanced media browser that lets you interact with some of the coolest media programs on your Mac, including the built in stuff like iTunes and Front Row as well as third party apps like Boxee and Hulu Desktop. Let's walk through some of HippoRemote's features. HippoRemote comes in a few different flavors, so we'll be looking at HippoRemote Pro.

The Keyboard

The keyboard behavior of HippoRemote is arguably the best available on a remote app. Most standard iPhone keyboard behavior is present. For example, spacing after a period or a comma will change the keyboard from the punctuation layout back to the alphabet layout. Tapping the shift key once will keep it activated until you tap a letter, then it is deactivated. If you want CAPSLOCK then double tap the shift key to activate it, then tap it once when your done. These behaviors are the Apple standard, but many remote apps do not use them because of the way characters are sent to the computer. I find that these behaviors are important because they increase typing efficiency.

In addition to replicating iPhone's standard keyboard behaviors, HippoRemote takes advantage of iPhone's built-in ability to predict what you are writing. HippoRemote displays what you are typing in a text field on the phone at the same time that it is sending it to your computer. If you misspell a word, you can tap on it to see substitutes and HippoRemote will make the correction on your computer automatically. HippoRemote also displays a list of the last few strings you've typed. Touching one will re-type that string.

Besides standard keyboard layouts, HippoRemote provides arrow keys and modifier keys (command, option, etc.) as well as the full range of function keys.

HippoRemote adds one feature that I haven't seen in other remote apps: it has support for TextExpander Touch. TextExpander Touch allows you to create snippets of text that can be automatically triggered by specified shortcodes (eg, "fn" could expand to your full name). You don't need TextExpander on your Mac for these to work, as TextExpander Touch expands the snippets before they're sent to the computer.

The keyboard supports vertical and horizontal orientations. And in the Basic or Lite versions of HippoRemote, the keyboard and the trackpad can be displayed at the same time.

Multi-touch trackpad

The multi-touch trackpad features left and right mouse buttons as well as the ability to use tapping, two-finger scrolling and other gestures. If you are like me, and have trouble using more than one finger, you will appreciate HippoRemote's unique scroll button. By moving your finger from the bottom of the screen to the middle, you activate a scrolling knob that allows you to scroll by moving your finger in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion. That means you can use one finger to scroll without the need to look down.

Like the keyboard, the trackpad supports vertical and horizontal orientations.

Profiles for Remote Control Panels

HippoRemote Pro can change its interface based on what application you are using. For example, I am currently in the Mac OS profile. At the bottom of the trackpad area, there are several buttons that allow me to do things like trigger Spotlight and Expose or run macros that control volume, press eject, open Dashboard and other functions. Switching to the iTunes profile provides a control panel for manipulating playback. Switching to the Pandora profile allows you to control the Pandora web app. There are dozens of profiles installed with HippoRemote and more can be added from inside the app itself. If you are technically inclined, there are instructions for making your very own profiles.

Extras

On top of all these great features, HippoRemote includes a native web browser and Twitter client. You can even open links from HippoRemote's Twitter client directly in your Mac's web browser.

Different Versions

HippoRemote comes in three flavors: HippoRemote Lite (free, ad-supported), HippoRemote Basic ($1.99USD), and HippoRemote Pro ($4.99USD). Unfortunately, it's a bit confusing as to what features are found in which versions. For the purpose of this review, I used the Pro version. If you are looking to replace a keyboard, I recommend getting the Pro version. At about five bucks, you'll be getting all of HippoRemote's features at a fairly inexpensive price compared to most assistive technology software. However, if having the trackpad and keyboard display simultaneously would be useful for you then you will want to grab the basic version.

If you need to know about a specific feature and you can't find it on the HippoRemote website, feel free to contact the developer. He actually has an interest in making HippoRemote even better for people with disabilities and will value any feedback you provide. That being said, you can always send me an email too.

Alternative Apps

Here are some other apps that are similar to HippoRemote. Depending on your needs, one of these might work better for you. I have these apps installed on my iPhone. Although I am not planning to review them at the time of this writing, you can email me if you have questions about them.

Rowmote Pro, $4.99USD, by Evan Schoenberg

Designed for iPhone and iPad, good keyboard behavior, can display keyboard and trackpad simultaneously, can simulate the Apple Remote Control including support for dozens of applications.

TouchPad, $4.99USD, by Edovia, Inc.

Designed for iPhone and iPad, good keyboard behavior, can display keyboard and trackpad simultaneously, great user interface, Windows compatible, media remote.

Touchpad Elite, $0.99USD, by iTeleport LLC

Good keyboard behavior, can type locally and then send a paragraph at once, can display keyboard and trackpad simultaneously, Windows compatible, media remote.

Air Mouse Pro, $1.99USD, by R.P.A. Tech, INC

Optional accelerometer-based "air" mouse activated by physically moving the iPhone/etc in the air, good keyboard behavior, can display keyboard and trackpad simultaneously, Windows compatible, media remote, separate iPad compatible app.

Conclusion

If you can operate an iPhone or iPod Touch, you might find that typing with HippoRemote is faster and more efficient than typing with an onscreen keyboard. And as an added bonus, you get some powerful, easy-to-use controls for interacting with popular media applications. And if you happen to be a Windows user, you're in luck. HippoRemote is compatible with Windows and Linux as well as Mac OS X.

- Blake Watson

Guest post by Nancy Miracle

Digit-Eyes is an application that runs on the iPhone and which uses inexpensive off-the-shelf address labels and a standard inkjet or laser printer to enable iPhone users to make labels that are read aloud by their phone. It can also be used to read manufacturer's UPC barcodes.

As the CTO for Digit-Eyes, I often get asked "so what is Digit-Eyes good for other than labelling food and files?"

There are many things that are labeled for sighted people and where having labels that can easily be found and read by those who are not sighted is useful.

Using the Digit-Eyes website, you can make two types of labels:

Audio labels

great when you are labelling an item where the description might change (for instance, making notes to yourself), where there is a lot of content (such as when the pharmacist tells you what a prescription is for and you want to record what she says) or where you want the content to be private. The latter is because the audio label content is recorded on your phone and only you can access it.

Text labels

handy when you are labelling something that won't change or where you want other people to be able to read the labels.

We've heard from quite a number of people who've used text labels to make appliances accessible. Good labelling of appliance controls adds a margin of safety and convenience to ordinary household tasks. Because the address labels used by Digit-Eyes are thin and flat (unlike conventional Braille labels), they can be used to over-label those increasingly-common flat switches that are easy to clean - but which are completely impossible to understand by touch. The photo below shows how:

First, the customer went to the Digit-Eyes website, selected the type of labels she had and typed descriptions of the buttons on her oven.

She got a PDF file of the codes, put a sheet of labels in her printer and printed the codes on the labels. She peeled the labels off and affixed them to the oven controls. The labels are above the buttons for the convenience of sighted members of the household, but they can actually put directly over most types of buttons with no ill-effects.

The job was completed by putting a layer of clear shelf paper over the labels to keep them clean.

Reading Oven Labels

When the customer wants to use her oven, she simply locates the label by touch, scans it with the Digit-Eyes app on her iPhone and listens to the description of the control.

In addition to adding a measure of kitchen safety, this little project is a great way to try out making and reading labels for the iPhone.

The full version of Digit-Eyes costs US$29.99 from the iTunes app store. Digit-Eyes Lite, a version that only reads text labels, is free.

Have you tried Digit-Eyes? Share your stories and tips in the comments.

- Nancy Miracle

[disclaim]

Have you ever wished that you could have one copy of Safari for Facebook, and a different copy for your "serious" work? With Fluid, you can! Fluid is a nifty utility which lets you create site-specific web browsers (SSBs). These are web browsers which only work on one (or a few) specific websites. If you click on a link for any other website, it will open in your regular browser. From the website:

Using Fluid, you can create SSBs to run each of your favorite WebApps as a separate desktop application. Fluid gives any WebApp a home on your Mac OS X desktop complete with Dock icon, standard menu bar, logical separation from your other web browsing activity, and many other goodies.

As you can see here, I've got one on my dock for Facebook and one for Twitter:

I find this really helpful to keep my Tweeting and Facebook messing around to those browsers - I don't even have bookmarks for Twitter or Facebook in my regular browser, because I only use them in these specific browsers. It means that when I close those two I quit doing Twitter and Facebook stuff and get back to writing ATMac articles for you all - I find in really helps me keep the activities separate in my head.

Other things people have mentioned using SSBs for include:

• GMail, Hotmail, or whatever web-based email you use
• GCal, Remember The Milk, or any other online calendar/to do list that you use
• Your favourite online games
• Your school library's website
• Your online banking and bill paying

I'm sure there are many more uses - what could you use it for?

- Ricky Buchanan

Apple has a lot of wonderful video tutorials that help users learn to use the Mac, including the iLife and iWork applications. Unfortunately the videos are presented in English only, with no captions or subtitles available.

The goal of the Mac Video Tutorials Subtitle Project is to caption these videos in multiple languages, including English. They want to make this great resource available to non-English speaking users, and to those with hearing impairments or language processing problems.

The MVTS Project has also provided the MacTutorial Viewer which is a downloadable app containing all current captions. When you run the app, it downloads the tutorial videos from YouTube and you can watch with the built in captions provided by the MVTS, or with YouTube's automatically added machine captions. The application is updated whenever more captions are finished and made available. When watching videos through the app you can change the size and background colour the captions use. Here's a screenshot where I've increased the caption size so I can read them more easily:

Currently, all videos are captioned in English and Italian and a few are also captioned in Japanese. If you know another language, I strongly recommend you spend a few minutes at their website and help with some captions so others can learn. They have full instructions about how to translate captions - you don't need any technical knowledge to do it.

- Ricky Buchanan

Voice4Me is one of the free programs available at the SchoolFreeware website. It's a very basic AAC program for users who have trouble speaking - users can click on a picture to speak the associated text, or type text into a box and then click on the 'speak' button.

There's a comprehensive introduction to this program available on the YouTube website, including configuration instructions:

[embed width="640" height="385"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcGindLKhMM[/embed]

The program is very limited in how much it can be configured - you must have both the picture and the text areas, and the number and size of the pictures can't be varied. The program also can't be controlled by keyboard alone if you want to access the pictures, so it's not usable with any combination of switches which is unfortunate. On the plus side it's free and once it's set up it's fairly easy to use. If you have no access to other AAC software this could be helpful.

Website: Voice4Me

- Ricky Buchanan