Apple iOS 17 Writing and Dictation Improvements
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A few weeks ago, Apple released their annual software update to the software that runs their phones and iPads. As a dictation user, I noticed some nice upgrades that will make writing with your voice a little bit easier. I will also talk about a few bonus items if you’re in the market for either a new iPhone or Apple Watch.
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Image Description: Apple's logo that represents iOS17. A square with the number 17 written in the middle with red, orange, and pink waves surrounding it.
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Siri: with iOS 17, you no longer have to say “Hey Siri” to activate your personal voice assistant. Now you just have to say “Siri”! Hopefully this will be more convenient, but be careful when mentioning your friend Siri’s name, because now she is listening!
Voice Dictation: The accuracy of the keyboard microphone used for dictation has been improved considerably! If you’ve tried to use voice dictation previously, you probably found the experience to be frustrating. I’m happy to report that I personally have found it to be overall more accurate, and I am no longer making embarrassing dictation mistakes in quick messages!
Cursor Position: I have found that it is now easier to move the cursor to a pinpoint location. If you hold your finger down on the screen over the cursor, it zooms in to the portion of your screen you’re trying to focus on so it’s much easier to get exactly where you’re trying to edit. Also, when you are deleting things while dictating, words are deleted by default instead of letter by letter.
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Image Description: A Sennheiser USB-C microphone that can be plugged directly into your device. The microphone is a lapel microphone and can be clipped to your shirt.
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USB-C Peripheral Support: if you have a soft voice and the iPhone has trouble picking up your voice you can now use USB-C and other USB peripherals like microphones and plug them directly into your iPhones USB-C port and they just work. No need to download special software or run separate apps. Just plug-and-play and it should work.
Voice Dictation Done Natively on the Apple Watch: if you ever tried to dictate a message or start a timer on your Apple Watch using voice commands and it’s failed, hopefully most of those problems are now resolved because voice dictation is done on the watch itself without having to utilize the Internet for most commands. One downside to this is that "on device" dictation requires this year's watches either an Apple Watch series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Note about iOS17 compatibility: iOS 17 requires one of the following devices:
- iPhone XR or newer
- iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation and later)
- iPad Pro 10.5-inch
- iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)
- iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
- iPad (6th generation and later)
- iPad mini (5th generation and later)
If you found this article helpful, there are some other new features around accessibility that should come out in the next few months. If they prove to be useful, I may just write part two.
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The contents of this newsletter were submitted by Ben Wimett; A.T Consultant serving Rutland, Windsor, Windham, Bennington, and Addison Counties.
Contact the Vermont Assistive Technology Program by calling 1-800-750-6355 or by emailing dail.atinfo@vermont.gov. For more information visit our website (www.atp.vermont.gov). And if there is a topic that you'd like to see covered, please feel free to let us know!
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