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Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

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Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the right thing to do, but I doubt “the right thing to do” was the primary motivator for it. This is smart marketing that helps position them as the more caring, inclusive, and capable tech brand. It also expands their reach more than a fraction of a percent. 13% of Americans have some form of disability.

Tim Cook in response to a shareholder proposing scrapping accessibility to improve ROI: “When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI”.

That's just more "cause marketing." The first ever $3T company definitely considers the bloody ROI in every decision -- whether the CEO is willing to admit it publicly or not.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#292
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't love that solid UX gets pushed under the accessibility rug, as an option you might never find. I don't care how cynical it sounds, user experience became user exploitation a long time ago. Big Tech have been running that gimmick at too-big-to-fail scale for the last decade or so.

Accessibility benefits everyone, but in the basics you’re right. Too many simple straightforward options are now strictly inside accessibility. At least on the Apple side. And don’t get me started on hidden command line settings.

The thrust of my point, which I should have explained better, is that 'accessibility' is very tightly overlapping 'power user'.

I'm glad the configuration is there, but it's hard to discover, so in and of itself it isn't accessible to find.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#294
post #287
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly? Only three finger drag. But just earlier I was holding coffee with the left hand, while using the trackpad to the right hand, and was glad I had three finger draw. I like doing "basic" mouse operations with only one hand (including right click: two fingers), and three finger drag works extremely well for me. I barely even think about it, it's automatic and an easy gesture for me. In turn, I am interested wh…

Yeah, that's what I thought - you haven't used it before confidently rejecting The other way is better mostly because it doesn't interrupt the drag when you move fingers up (e.g., when you've started drag right at the right touchpad side and don't have enough space), though there is an invisible timer hack that tries to address it, and since 3 fingers take more space on the touchpad, so you're losing range > coffee w…

> > coffee with the left hand

> Still possible with the keyboard

While drinking it? When using the mouse, I’m often relaxed, sometimes for example having my forearm lying in front of the keyboard.

> > with only one hand (including right click: two fingers),

> This doesn't make sense, literal right lick is 1 finger of 1 hand, same as bottom-right corner tap

What doesn’t make sense? Right click is two finger tap for me, which is super common. I don’t see the downside either.

Your way has advantages, my way has advantages, so far I don’t see a strict ordering that applies to everyone or even every situation.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#295
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't say it wasn't an accessibility feature, just that it was disguised as one. Just because it's not a game changing feature for some people, doesn't mean its primary function isn't advertising.

Something being disguised as something explicitly implies it is not that thing.

It absolutely does not. Easiest example in the world. Was the trojan horse two things or was it one thing?

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#296
post #294
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's what I thought - you haven't used it before confidently rejecting The other way is better mostly because it doesn't interrupt the drag when you move fingers up (e.g., when you've started drag right at the right touchpad side and don't have enough space), though there is an invisible timer hack that tries to address it, and since 3 fingers take more space on the touchpad, so you're losing range > coffee w…

> > coffee with the left hand > Still possible with the keyboard While drinking it? When using the mouse, I’m often relaxed, sometimes for example having my forearm lying in front of the keyboard. > > with only one hand (including right click: two fingers), > This doesn't make sense, literal right lick is 1 finger of 1 hand, same as bottom-right corner tap What doesn’t make sense? Right click is two finger tap for me…

> sometimes for example having my forearm lying in front of the keyboard. But you can still reach space or right command key with your middle/ring finger? That would allow you to use 1 finger to drag, not worry about lifting your dragging finger while dragging and get more range

> What doesn’t make sense?

You listing that gesture as some kind of alternative while the default is already 1-handed

> I don’t see the downside either.

The downside is that scrolling with two fingers might misfire when you change your mind and cancel scrolling right away, so place 2 fingers and lift them up, thus triggering a right click

> so far I don’t see a strict ordering that applies to everyone or even every situation.

And you'll never see it with your eyes closed. You need to actually try this stuff to be able to judge it, to see whether you drink coffee often enough as a % of your computer time to make the worse gesture better because it frees up your hand and the other one-hand alternative is not as convenient, or whether the mistakes of breaking a drag gesture on a bunch of files/objects in a graphics app leaving them in the wrong place are bad enough

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accessibility benefits everyone, but in the basics you’re right. Too many simple straightforward options are now strictly inside accessibility. At least on the Apple side. And don’t get me started on hidden command line settings.

I'm here to intentionally get you started on hidden CLI settings. Learn me somethin'!

https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/main/.macos

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#298
post #37

Eye tracking is not an accessibility feature, it is an advertising optimization feature disguised as an accessibility feature.

You can say a lot of negative true things about Apple but this is just silly. There is no way Apple is going to expose that data to underlying apps in the same way they refused to do it in Vision Pro. I'd bet a good bit of money it works the same way where it's a layer on top of the app that the app can't access and from the video it looks like that's exactly how it works.

Not to underlying 3rd party apps, but for their ad structure it is a total possibility. It might not be now, but down the road this feature will be used for that and you must be certain that Apple already discussed and planned it.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, I never get motion sick, except for when I'm in the car with just such a driver: A person with sine-foot.

This is giving me flashbacks to the time I took an uber home from the airport in Dallas. 25 minutes of an older gentlemen (65ish) just modulating between gas pedal and brake pedal the entire time. It was awful and I wish I wasn't such a coward at the time and had told him after he dropped me off.

Tangential and very late to the thread, but,

In the racing/track world, any time spent off the accelrator or brake is literally leaving time on the table.

The idea being; you are going at 10/10 until the exact point you know you need to go 4/10 at an apex and apply full braking. Then getting right back up to 10/10.

Similarly, I notice that i do a lot of this "sine wave" driving (IE , gas, brake, gas brake) when I'm heavily loaded with passengers or on a curvy road where I don't quite know the ratios. So I'm often not expecting to need to brake so heavily but, for safeety of course, need to.

Re: Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is giving me flashbacks to the time I took an uber home from the airport in Dallas. 25 minutes of an older gentlemen (65ish) just modulating between gas pedal and brake pedal the entire time. It was awful and I wish I wasn't such a coward at the time and had told him after he dropped me off.

Tangential and very late to the thread, but, In the racing/track world, any time spent off the accelrator or brake is literally leaving time on the table. The idea being; you are going at 10/10 until the exact point you know you need to go 4/10 at an apex and apply full braking. Then getting right back up to 10/10. Similarly, I notice that i do a lot of this "sine wave" driving (IE , gas, brake, gas brake) when I'm h…

Yea, I get it for driving on track, but not on the highway just managing space between you and the car in front.

Re: your curvy road, I would say at that point you might just be driving too fast for the load in your vehicle. When passengers are onboard, a smooth ride will beat everything 99% of the time. If I have to suddenly break for a sharp corner, then I apologize and slow down so it doesn't happen again.

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