‘Pixelsnap’ makes Google’s Pixel More Accessible
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” is how the old adage goes.
That’s the thought that immediately sprung to mind when I learned about Google’s announcement of Pixelsnap at this week’s “Made By Google” event in New York City where the company announced the Pixel 10 and related devices. Pixelsnap is not at all hard to understand: it’s almost quite literally Apple’s MagSafe technology, just optimized for Android. Pixelsnap supports Qi2, as well as the Magnetic Power Profile.
While it’s commonplace for iOS and Android fans to derisively mock one another for being late to the proverbial party, feature-wise, the reality is the “partisanship” is misplaced and, frankly, childish. As a practical matter, the advent of Pixelsnap on the new Pixel 10 phones is a huge win for accessibility. The argument is the exact same as it is for MagSafe; to wit, that both use magnets for charging means more accessible alignment and less fiddling with a USB-C cable. As I’ve written innumerable times, the genius of implementing magnets into the iPhone (and now Pixel) transcends sheer convenience because the truth is not everyone can so easily charge their phone. For disabled people with any amalgamation of cognitive/motor/visual conditions, even the ostensibly mundane task of plugging a USB-C cable into the port on the phone can be an arduous, inaccessible task. Moreover, it’s not easy for every person to successfully navigate even wireless charging, as missing the so-called “sweet spot” can make someone think their phone is charging when it isn’t. Put simply, charging is not something to take for granted—not everyone has the best hand-eye coordination.
That Google has introduced Pixelsnap as a new feature needn’t be ridiculed. Nobody really and truly cares Apple beat Google by introducing MagSafe back in 2020 with the iPhone 12 lineup. The salient point should be how Pixelsnap makes Google’s phones more accessible to Android users. Hardware accessibility matters too—an idea which becomes more prominent with the purported super-thin iPhone 17 Air as well as every foldable phone—and technologies like MagSafe and Pixelsnap exemplify that ideal. The sniggering over innovation only amplifies the noise and obscures what really matters.
The “Made By Google” event is available to watch on YouTube.
Apple Releases ‘No Frame Missed’ Short Film
Apple on Wednesday posted a new short film to YouTube called No Frame Missed. The 5-minute video (embedded below) tells the stories of three people who cope with Parkinson’s disease and how they’ve been empowered to capture precious moments using iPhone accessibility features like Action Mode. Action Mode, along with Voice Control, provide essential functionality to disabled people like filmmaker Brett Harvey, featured in the film after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s at just 37 years old, who deal with tremors that destabilize video and makes using the iPhone’s touchscreen tough.
Action Mode debuted with the advent of 2022’s iPhone 14 lineup.
No Frame Missed isn’t the first time Apple has created material around Parkinson’s. To wit, my pal Zac Hall at 9to5 Mac writes today about the film the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, which stars Harrison Ford, sees Ford’s character coping with the condition. Moreover, Hall notes Season 3 of the show is set to feature Michael J. Fox, who’s lived with the disease since the ‘90s. For his part, Fox chronicles his own journey with Parkinson’s in another TV+ title called Still. The documentary, released in 2023, received seven Emmy nominations, winning four—including one for Outstanding Documentary.
Harvey’s made a documentary of his own, an almost 9-minute affair called Hand.
Elsewhere, I reported in 2023 about Apple Watch making “unmistakable progress” in helping identify Parkinson’s and offering patients a “glimmer of hope.” I also reported in 2022 about the Parkinson Foundation’s website getting a substantial new redesign.
As John Gruber writes in linking to No Frame Missed, stuff like this show Apple at its very best. While it’s obvious the company’s motivations aren’t entirely altruistic in nature—they’re a for-profit corporation after all, so it’s part marketing exercise—the salient message is that accessibility features enable disabled people to enjoy technology like anyone else. Accessibility truly is a core value to the company, and No Frame Missed is a refreshing palate-cleanser to less savory dishes appearing on Apple’s plate of late.
Xcode Getting Claude AI Integration, Report Says
Marcus Mendes reports for 9to5 Mac this week Apple is readying Anthropic’s Claude AI system to natively integrate with Xcode. Mendes writes there are “multiple references” to Anthropic accounts found within Xcode 26 Beta 7, released to developers on Monday.
Specifically, there are mentions of Claude Sonnet 4.0 and Claude Opus 4 in Beta 7.
“This means that while ChatGPT remains the only model with first-party Xcode integration, the underlying support for Anthropic accounts is already in place, hinting that Claude integration could arrive sooner rather than later,” Mendes wrote on Monday. “To be clear, while developers have been able to plug in Claude via API, Apple seems to be moving toward giving Claude the same level of native Xcode integration as ChatGPT got during WWDC 2025.”
As Mendes notes, the Claude (and ChatGPT) integration is a manifestation of Craig Federighi’s comments during this year’s WWDC keynote. The Apple software chief said Apple was “expanding” its vision for Swift Assist. Announced at last year’s WWDC, Swift Assist is described by Mendes as “Apple’s answer to tools like GitHub Copilot: a built-in AI coding companion that would help developers explore frameworks, and write code.”
Crucially, Swift Assist never actually shipped after its announcement last year.
I’m not an app developer, but this Xcode-meets-AI news remains nonetheless fascinating from an accessibility perspective. I’ve long maintained the opinion that, at its best, artificial intelligence plays to computers’ greatest strength: automation. Why this is resonant from an accessibility angle is because, for developers with disabilities, that someone could plug into Claude—or ChatGPT, for that matter—and help them generate code snippets or ask about a particular API could very plausibly help make building software a more accessible endeavor. Take my own experience as a code spelunker, for example. It’s an anecdote I’ve shared before, but when I was building Curb Cuts, I used Google Gemini (as a web app-turned-Mac app) to help me with generating bits and bobs of CSS for the site’s backend. While I understand the fundamental elements of writing HTML and CSS, my practical skillset is decidedly at a novice level. More pointedly, I didn’t want to have to juggle a half-dozen tabs in Safari, all with Google searches on how to do certain things correctly. Thus, the allure of AI in this context is obvious: Claude (or whatever) can assist me by not only doing the research, but but by generating the necessary code. Not only is this automation convenient, it’s accessibility too because it saves me cognitive/motor/visual friction of finding answers, writing the code, etc. As I said earlier, using AI in this way is more than cool or convenient; it’s a de-facto accessibility feature. The argument for AI in Xcode is essentially the same for another Apple property in Shortcuts. Like Shortcuts, AI in Xcode takes what may well be multi-step tasks and consolidates them into a single step. Again, the big idea here is leveraging AI is playing to a computer’s greatest strength in automation. I wrote about Shortcuts and accessibility for MacStories.
(Cool postscript to that old story. It contains what’s perhaps the greatest single piece of copy I’ve ever written: “To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar, Shortcuts got accessibility in its DNA.” The sentiment is a reference to Shortcuts’ heritage; Workflow, which Apple acquired in 2017, won an Apple Design Award for accessibility two years prior at WWDC 2015. I interviewed the Workflow team about the app for TechCrunch a decade ago.)
Anyway, that Apple is reportedly preparing Xcode for Claude is yet another example of AI’s genuine good vis-a-vis accessibility. The nerds amongst us just think it’s cool because AI is the technology du jour, and it is, but accessibility matters a helluva lot too.
ending Mail-In Voting is a canary in the coal Mine
President Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to post a screed about the evils of absentee voting. He writes, in part, he plans to “lead a movement” by way of executive order to abolish mail-in voting for the 2026 midterm elections. Trump falsely claims the United States is “the only country in the world” using mail-in ballots, adding other countries gave them up due to the “massive voter fraud” they encountered. In essence, he calls mail-in voting a “scam” and a “hoax” favored by Democrats to steal elections.
Legality and logistics aside, Trump’s viewpoint is an affront to accessibility.
Trump’s viewpoint doesn’t take into account the cruciality of mail-in ballots to the democratic process. While it’s true most Election Day coverage, whether local, state, or national, is augmented by umpteenth live shots of reporters at in-person polling places, the truth of the matter is those voters aren’t representative of the total electorate. The truth of the matter is, not every civically-inclined citizen has the ability to venture out of their homes to the nearest neighborhood polling place to exercise their civic duty, There are myriad conditions which preclude many in the disability community from leaving their homes very regularly—if they can at all. Especially for those who are immobile and/or otherwise homebound, mail-in ballots are an assistive technology. They’re a lifeline to the world. Disabled people (yours truly included) do vote. Voting machines are being made more accessible. Never mind Trump’s obvious partisan political stance; the reality is he (and his fellow enabler Republican cronies) will further restrict disabled people’s access to our voting rights. Boy, being even more disenfranchised sure is fun!
Along with the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP funding, the White House is showing yet another sign of aggression and disdain for the livelihoods of disabled people. They see mail-in ballots as a conduit to cheating rather than as an avenue towards accessibility. They crow about the American people voting for Trump, yet they want to take away a critical tool for how he gained his second term. It makes zero sense whatsoever, but makes one thing abundantly clear: Trump and team give no shits about the disability community. Were it feasible, I’d bet modern Republicans would push to institutionalize us as we were a century ago. We’re ostensibly worthless freeloaders who contribute little, if anything, of value to the betterment of society. Why should they cater to our needs and our voices vis-a-vis voting? Put another way, it’s an overt show of otherism.
Trump’s attack on absentee voting reinforces society’s contempt for disabled people.
Amazon Makes Returns more Accessible
Ryan Christoffel at 9to5 Mac wrote late last week about a notable change to Amazon’s iOS app: return codes can be added to Apple Wallet. As someone who returns things to Amazon fairly often, I feel it’s a subtle yet impactful change for greater accessibility.
“Amazon rolled out support for ‘Add to Apple Wallet’ buttons inside its iOS app over the last few weeks. As part of the return process, instead of the standard in-app return code for drop-off locations to scan, you can now opt to save that code to Apple Wallet,” Christoffel said of Amazon’s recent update. “Having the Amazon return code inside Wallet is nice because it shows all the details you’ll need, plus ensures you can pull up the code at just the right time without being reliant on a solid cellular connection.”
I haven’t noticed the “Add to Wallet” buttons, but I’m going to look out for them now.
My process for obtaining Amazon’s QR codes for returns typically involves three steps:
Search Apple Mail for the return email
Tap the link in said message
Keep my phone open to Amazon so as to keep the code handy at Whole Foods
As you probably can surmise, these steps don’t exactly comprise the most streamlined, accessible workflow. (It also doesn’t help search in the stock Mail app is pretty bad.) By contrast, having the ability to save the Amazon codes is a de-facto accessibility feature insofar as the Wallet app is available when my phone is locked. It removes the need for my 3-step journey to find the needed information and also traverse the equally bad user interface of the Amazon app. Beyond return codes, Christoffel also notes iOS 26 gives the Wallet app the capability to track Amazon orders. A nice addition, to be sure, but I’ll be sticking with using the widget from my preferred package-tracking app in Parcel.
The Tantalizing Tale of the ‘Tensor Robocar’
Andrew J. Hawkins wrote for The Verge this week about a mysterious Bay Area-based autonomous vehicle company called Tensor. The startup, which is headquartered in San Jose, is a self-described “leading agentic AI company” that this week announced what it hails as “the world’s first personally owned autonomous vehicle” in its Tensor Robocar. The company’s conceit is apt in an accessibility context, as Tensor said its overarching goal is to “[empower] individuals to truly own your autonomy.”
“When the world shifts… how will you move?” Amy Luca, Tensor’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement included in the company’s press release. “We are building a world where individuals own their personal AGI agents, enhancing freedom, privacy and autonomy. With Tensor, we’re introducing the world’s first personal Robocar, ushering in the era of AI defined vehicles. This isn’t a car as we know it. It’s an embodied personal agent that moves you. It’s time to own your autonomy.”
According to Hawkins, Tensor is affiliated with autonomous vehicle maker AutoX, which operates both in China and here in the United States. Moreover, Hawkins notes Tensor claims to have offices in Barcelona, Dubai, and Singapore. AutoX has been testing autonomous vehicles in San Jose and the surrounding area since 2016. Tensor is looking to launch in America, Europe, and the Middle East starting sometime next year.
After his story ran, Tensor spokesperson Lena Allen sent Hawkins a statement.
“Since its founding in 2016 in San Jose, AutoX has been an American company. Its new consumer brand, Tensor, is also headquartered in San Jose, California, with satellite offices in Spain, the UAE, and Singapore. Tensor focuses on the US, EU, and the GCC markets. As an independent private California startup, they’re controlled by their U.S. employees, with significant majority investment/ownership from the UK, Japan, Korea and US. In 2018, Auto X launched their autonomous delivery service in San Jose for over 1000 self-driving delivery orders, operating until Covid lockdown. In 2020, AutoX received the second-ever driverless AV testing permit in California,” Allen said in response. “In 2019, AutoX entered the China market as a foreign company in China. We managed to obtain local self-driving test permits alongside with other foreign companies, such as BMW, Tesla, and VW. During the pandemic lockdowns in the U.S., we launched a fully driverless robotaxi fleet in China. However, starting several years ago, AutoX began winding down its China operations; all operations under the AutoX brand in China have been divested, with all offices closed and operations shut down.”
She added: “The AutoX brand and its China operations have been fully discontinued. We have evolved into the Tensor brand to better reflect our renewed focus on delivering personalized, private, and autonomous technology for individual ownership.”
Hawkins’ report caught my attention because of what Tensor is seemingly trying to do: extend ownership of autonomous vehicles to Average Janes and Joes. This is tantalizing in an accessibility sense because, as I’ve argued in the past, autonomous vehicles represent both accessibility’s apex and artificial intelligence’s profound powers. More pointedly, however great services like Waymo, et al, are today, a tomorrow in which a Blind and low vision person (like yours truly) could actually purchase a autonomous vehicle from, say, Tensor, would be literally life-changing. Granted, Waymo operates 24/7, but it isn’t available everywhere just yet; to have my own self-driving car would mean my transportation options wouldn’t rest on the mercies of availability because I could just get in my car and go wherever I wanted, whenever. The reason autonomous vehicles reflect accessibility’s zenith is because the technology empowers disabled people who are precluded from driving regular cars with greater feelings of agency and autonomy. It instills grander feelings of self-esteem and self-worth by giving us the independence so many of us crave in a society where the disability community is more often than not looked down upon with patronizing, paternalistic, and infantilizing attitudes. I can’t sum it up any better than Lana Nieves, executive director of San Francisco’s Independent Living Resource Center, who told me in 2023 she’s bullish on driverless cars because, as an adult, “why shouldn’t I be able to go where I want to go?”
Of course, all is not rosy in this situation. Indeed, there will come a reckoning sooner or later involving legislation, costs, and the notion that people like Nieves and myself should be able to “drive” cars if we can’t see. Nonetheless, it’s heartening to notice fledgling companies like Tensor acknowledge the value of people actually owning the robots-on-wheels they ride in. It gives me hope for a much brighter future in this space.
Blood Oxygen Sensor Returns To U.S. Apple Watches
Apple on Thursday posted an update to its Newsroom site wherein it provides an update on the blood oxygen sensor in Apple Watch. The company says the functionality has returned for users in the United States, adding software updates—iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1, released today—reenables the dormant feature. The workaround comes amidst Apple’s ongoing litigation with a company named Masimo over Apple’s supposed patent infringement regarding the aforementioned pulse oximetry sensor.
“Apple will introduce a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users through an iPhone and Apple Watch software update coming later today,” Apple said in its short announcement shared today. “Users with these models in the U.S. who currently do not have the Blood Oxygen feature will have access to the redesigned Blood Oxygen feature by updating their paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and their Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1. Following this update, sensor data from the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch will be measured and calculated on the paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app. This update was enabled by a recent U.S. Customs ruling.”
Apple emphasizes the update pertains only to American Apple Watches. It does not affect “units previously purchased that include the original Blood Oxygen feature, nor to Apple Watch units purchased outside of the [United States],” the company said.
John Gruber has posted a good piece on the situation. Notably, he reports a source at Apple said today’s fix is known as “HQ H351038” but is “not yet publicly available” on the Customs and Border Protections’ Customs Rulings Online Search System website.
From an accessibility perspective, the restoration of the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor is notable as monitoring one’s blood oxygen saturation is key for myriad respiratory issues. Indeed, lung conditions like asthma and pneumonia have the potential to lower blood oxygen levels, as do sleep-conditions such as sleep apnea. Coincidentally, Apple added sleep apnea tracking to watchOS 11 last September. The Health app on iPhone received a new metric the company calls “Breathing Disturbances” and users can track how elevated (or not) their breathing is during the night. The sleep apnea tracking is available on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10 (which I have but never officially reviewed, alas), and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Drive Program Alum Talks Experiencing the program, learning to drive, More In Interview
Last month, I posted a story featuring an interview with Dr. Christina Potter. An academic researcher and experimental psychologist by training, Dr. Potter works as coordinator of the Drive Program run by Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Established in 2023, the Drive Program exists to “prepare neurodiverse individuals for a driving exam” using a virtual reality headset. According to Dr. Potter, Nicklaus Children’s manager of IT and digital technologies, explained to me in part the “simple but powerful” impetus for the Drive Program was to “help young people, especially those who face challenges like autism, anxiety, or ADHD, to gain the confidence and skills they need to become safe and independent drivers.” The core problem the Drive Program sought to solve, she added, was conventional driving schools aren’t conducive to the needs of neurodivergent people, saying the schools “don’t offer the flexibility or patience or support that [neurodivergent people] really need to succeed.”
“We saw an opportunity to fill that gap in a way that aligned with with our mission at Nicklaus Children’s,” Dr. Potter said.
Fast-forward to this past week, I sat down for a brief interview with a young woman named Anna Mariani. Mariani, 24, is an alumnus of the Drive Program, having went through it herself a few years ago. When asked about her experiences being in the Drive Program, she explained the one thing she appreciated most about it was its slow pace; “I could do things in my own time… it was well-explained, all the things that you needed to do while driving and paying attention to all the things [on the road],” Mariani said.
“It was good for me to practice being in the car,” she added.
Mariani said she first learned of the Drive Program through CARD, or the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, managed by the University of Miami. She described CARD as a program which offers services to people in the neurodivergent community, telling me it was they who recommended the Drive Program “to learn how to drive.”
Mariani doubled down on her effusive praise heaped onto the Drive Program.
“I think [the Drive Program] helps because the teachers and instructors were really patient with me… I was able to be coached into what I needed to do,” she said. “Also, the virtual reality aspect was really good because it helped me feel like I was actually in the car. So when I got in the [actual] car, it felt more natural and that helped me feel more confident when I was actually driving the car.”
For Mariani, the Drive Program helped her best prepare for driving independently.
“With practice, it feels a lot more comfortable,” she said. “At first it was little scary, but then I started doing it more, and now I’m more comfortable driving in a car in real life.”
Mariani went on to say she highly recommends the Drive Program to everyone who may benefit from it, adding the Program’s staffers were invested in helping her learn and well-trained. The Program overall, she added, is “really advanced.” Mariani noted she has encouraged a friend to enroll in the Drive Program and hopes they do so “soon.”
“I definitely think other people should give it a try if they’re nervous or they don’t know where to start when it comes to driving,” Mariani said in endorsing the Drive Program. “I think this is a good place to start [helping] others feel more comfortable.”
Airbnb Announces ‘Reserve Now, pay Later’ Service
San Francisco-based Airbnb on Thursday announced a new payment program it calls “Reserve Now, Pay Later” whereby users can defer payments for upcoming reservations. The company says Reserve Now, Pay Later affords guests “greater flexibility” by allowing them to put $0 money down upfront on all domestic bookings.
I learned of Airbnb’s initiative in a post on X by my friend Natalie Lung of Bloomberg.
“Available for listings with a moderate or flexible cancellation policy, guests don’t need to pay the full amount until shortly before the end of the listing’s free cancellation period. Cancellation policies selected by hosts remain unchanged, and because the payment from guests is always due before the free cancellation period ends, hosts have time to secure another booking even if a guest cancels,” Airbnb wrote in describing Reserve Now, Pay Later in its announcement. “This feature comes as new data reveals that today’s travelers are seeking more flexibility when it comes to booking a stay, particularly a group trip that requires arranging funds with friends or family.”
Notably, Airbnb mentions results of a survey of American travelers it conducted with Focaldata. Airbnb said 55% of respondents indicated they take advantage of flexible payment options, while 10% reported always opting for such services. Similarly, 42% said they have chosen to “[delay and miss out] on their preferred accommodation option because of time spent coordinating how to pay for their trip with co-travelers.”
Like with laptops, the foundational piece of this news from Airbnb is accessibility. I’ve covered the company extensively over the last five years or so, having interviewed numerous executives there, and the reality is the new Reserve Now, Pay Later service is yet another part of Airbnb’s work in accessibility. Granted, it isn’t expressly or overtly designed for the disability community’s sake. The truth is, however, as with Walmart’s discounted $600 M1 MacBook Air I wrote about yesterday, most disabled people are extremely, perpetually budget-conscious. The majority of us don’t make much money, so anything we can do to save a few bucks here and there is appreciated in both peace of mind and by our pocketbook. In Airbnb’s case, that a disabled person could delay payment on a reservation makes it such that travel becomes far more accessible than aspirational. Better still, people with disabilities can utilize the accessibility features Airbnb has empowered its hosts to offer guests. Although Airbnb positions Reserve Now, Pay Later as a measure of convenience for the mainstream, the fact of the matter remains accessibility, as ever, plays a central role in shaping its relevance and appeal.
Walmart Makes M1 MacBook Air More Accessible
Joe Rossignol reports today for MacRumors Walmart has begun selling the dearly beloved M1 MacBook Air for the low price (for MacBooks) of $599. The deal is for the laptop’s base configuration of 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD in gold, silver, or space gray.
“In case you missed it, Walmart is currently offering the older but still very capable MacBook Air with the M1 chip for just $599 in the United States,” Rossignol wrote of the deal on Wednesday. “It seems like this deal began around Amazon’s four-day Prime Day event in early July, but it flew under our radar until a reader let us know about it today.”
As Rossignol notes, Apple discontinued the M1 Air last year when it added the then-new M3 models. Walmart announced it would carry the M1 Air (at $699) back in March 2024.
My reasoning for covering this news is, as ever, accessibility—quite literally. As Rossignol also notes, although the M1 chip is getting long in the tooth by technological standards—the M5 generation of Apple silicon is said to be on its way—the chip remains more than serviceable for everyday tasks like email, web browsing, word processing, and even light photo editing. From an accessibility standpoint, the value proposition of Walmart’s $600 MacBook Air is stratospheric; budget-conscious buyers, a lot which includes most people with disabilities, get a modern, eminently capable computer that’s small and lightweight to boot. For those who can’t afford the current (and admittedly better) $999 M4 Air, the M1 variety is, again, a veritable steal for hundreds of dollars less. Eventually, assuredly sooner than later, Apple’s M1 chip will be outmoded and obsolete—but that day assuredly is years away. Right now, today, the “low end” M1 MacBook Air could cogently be argued is Apple’s most accessible Mac, and in more ways than one. In other words, for those who prefer macOS to the Mac-like iPadOS 26—more on that from me soon—the inexpensive M1 MacBook Air a revelation.
News of the $600 Air comes amid rumors Apple is preparing a “real” low-cost MacBook powered by the A18 Pro chip that’s sitting inside my iPhone 16 Pro Max. The device is purported to come out either late this year or early next, according to multiple sources.
The M1 MacBook Air is available on Walmart’s website.
Redesigned Netflix App Rolling out to Apple TV
Ryan Christoffel reports for 9to5 Mac today Netflix has begun rolling out its redesigned app to Apple TV 4K users. The news comes months after the Bay Area-based company announced the design overhaul in May, during which chief product officer Eunice Kim described the new Netflix experience as “still the one you know and love—just better.”
“As spotted by users on Reddit, the new design seems to have launched with the latest tvOS app update,” Christoffel wrote on Wednesday. “If you’re not seeing it yet, make sure you’re running the latest version of the Netflix app.”
I got the design on the 2021 A12-powered Apple TV (running tvOS 18.6) in my office.
I covered news of the new UI when Netflix announced it, having attended a virtual briefing with the company a few days beforehand. As I wrote at the time, the design looks good—there’s a video on YouTube about it—and should prove to be more accessible than the old interface. I won’t rehash my thoughts on it here, but suffice to say feels like a win for accessibility; in the couple minutes I spent noodling around the new app prior to writing this story, I enjoyed it very much. At the very least, it’s a much prettier design than what I literally used yesterday. As I also said in the spring, Netflix’s new design is conceptually exactly akin to what Amazon did to Prime Video a year ago.
AirPods Reportedly Getting Live Translation Gesture
Marcus Mendes reports for 9to5 Mac this week a bit of new UI spotted in iOS 26 Beta 6, which was released to developers on Monday, suggests Apple is planning to enable real-time translation of live conversations on AirPods. The finding comes after the company announced live translations for FaceTime calls and more at WWDC in June.
“In today’s iOS 26 developer beta 6, we spotted a new system asset that appears to depict a gesture triggered by pressing both AirPods stems at once,” Mendes wrote of the new finding. “The image displays text in English, Portuguese, French, and German, and it is associated with the Translate app. For now, we can confirm it’s associated specifically with the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and AirPods (4th generation).”
Mendes (rightly) notes using AirPods for translative purposes is “right up the wearable wheelhouse” for products like AirPods and Meta’s Ray-Bans. Indeed, from an accessibility standpoint, using earbuds (or glasses) for translation can be not only more discreet in appearance, but also more accessible in terms of not having to look at, say, Apple’s built-in Translate app while holding it. Such a dance may be hard, if not outright impossible, for those with suboptimal hand-eye coordination. Likewise, it’s highly plausible things like languages are more intelligible for people who are auditory learners or perhaps are neurodivergent. Whatever the case, Mendes is, again, exactly right to posit using wearables for translation is a perfect use case for the technology. Moreover, Mendes is also reasonable in his speculation this feature may have been kept under wraps because Apple plans to make it part of the iPhone 17 software story.
On a related topic, that AirPods are purported to gain a new gesture serves as a good reminder to give a brief shoutout to another AirPods gesture: the head gestures for accepting or declining calls. Much to my chagrin, I get a ton of spam calls every day, which I normally ignore and let go to voicemail. When I’m wearing my AirPods, however, the aforementioned head gestures as a de-facto accessibility feature; instead of reaching for my phone to tap a button, I can merely shake my head to send those spam calls away. To use natural, nigh universally understood methods of nonverbal communication in this manner is genius—and it’s accessible too. Rather than search the abyss of my pocket(s) to hurriedly find my phone and take action on an incoming call, I easily can nod or shake my head as necessary. It’s undoubtedly convenient, as well as technically cool, but it’s also accessibility. Using head gestures to decide on phone calls alleviates a helluva lot of friction associated with using my phone for that.
Yet one more reason to choose AirPods over something like my Beats Studio Buds+.
Google Gives Gemini New ‘Guided Learning’ Mode
Not to be outdone by OpenAI and ChatGPT, Google has given Gemini a new “Guided Learning” mode. The news came earlier this week from Jay Peters at The Verge.
CEO Sundar Pichai detailed Guided Learning in a post for Google’s Keyword blog.
“Answers from the Guided Learning mode can include things like images, videos, and interactive quizzes,” Peters said in his story. “The company worked with students, educators, researchers, and learning experts to ensure the mode is “helpful for understanding new concepts and is backed by learning science,” according to Pichai.
Google’s conceit with Guided Learning is similar to OpenAI’s insofar as the goal is to not give answers to students as though Gemini were a highfalutin answer key. Rather, Peters’ dek says the goal is much more pedagogical: Guided Learning aims to “[help] you work through problems” instead of unhelpfully give them the answers. From an accessibility perspective, the conceit between Gemini’s Guided Learning and ChatGPT’s Study Mode is the same in that both can be counted on to present information in a single space. This can be helpful for people with various cognitive disabilities where keeping track of myriad aids such as flashcards can, somewhat counterintuitively, become problematic. Chatbots can coalesce lots of information.
Once more I say, chatbots are more useful than merely being conduits for cheating by disengaged students. Study-oriented features can make learning more accessible.
Guided Learning comes amid OpenAI’s high-profile announcement of its newest model, called GPT–5. CEO Sam Altman described it as “the smartest model we’ve ever done.”
‘Ode to the EarPods’
Basic Apple Guy, purveyor of well-made wallpaper, likes Apple’s wired earphones.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much on team AirPods, but I have increasingly found use cases and situations where having a pair of good olde wired EarPods has proven quite useful,” he wrote in a new blog post. “They don’t need charging, they work with just about anything, and they’ve quietly aged into a little slice of tech nostalgia.”
Prior to 2016, when AirPods debuted alongside the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, I spent many, many years using various incarnations of Apple-branded earphones. From the 30-pin iPod connector to the 3.5mm jack to Lightning, I’ve used them all across various iPods and iPhones. A major reason I found AirPods so revelatory almost a decade ago (!) lies in their cord-free nature. However long I used Apple’s cabled earphones, the biggest frustration with them accessibility-wise, was untangling the cord. The image of a rat’s nest cable Basic Apple Guy included in his piece is scary enough for Halloween; I tried so hard to keep the cord untangled, mostly without success. My hand-eye coordination is bad enough that I’d spend what felt like eons trying to untangle the cable, a task which always involved the most colorful expletives known to humankind. Thus, the advent of AirPods freed me from such torture. From a practical perspective, I also agree with Basic Apple Guy’s fondness for the EarPods’ remote. While the gestures/stem control on AirPods is fine, I’ve never particularly enjoyed the sensation of pressing or swiping close to my ear. I tolerate it, but it’s sensory input that doesn’t at all feel good.
Between my slew of AirPods in my office, all of which span myriad generations and surnames, and my Beats Studio Buds+, I’ve surely no shortage of wireless earbuds to use; if something happens to one pair, I easily can reach for a backup. For travel purposes, however, I’ve made a point to have a set of the $19 USB-C EarPods as a emergency earphone solution in case my AirPods die or, worse, get lost or stolen.
The EarPods are an inexpensive safety blanket—a great addition to my tech travel kit.
Apple Enhances AirPods Charging Case Interface to ‘more clearly indicate charging status’ to users
Apple has yet another de-facto accessibility feature coming in iOS 26.
Ryan Christoffel reports for 9to5 Mac this week the charging case for AirPods has been enhanced so as to more clearly signify its charging status. Christoffel notes a user on X, Minimal Nerd, posted a screenshot (embedded below) of a system card explaining the color codes and their meanings. The UI reads the various lights “now more clearly indicates charging status.” Green means charged, yellow means in-progress charging, and orange means the case itself needs juice, according to the new user interface.
The change is apparently new to iOS 26 Beta 5, which Apple shipped earlier this week.
“The differences between yellow and orange are especially subtle, making it unclear whether users will be able to distinguish them,” Christoffel said of the UI. “Currently, Apple’s support document only notes green and amber as the indicator colors.”
Christoffel added Juli Clover at MacRumors reported there exists code in iOS 26 which has the system notify users “when it’s time to charge.” Clover also noted how, in prior iOS 26 betas, Apple sent iPhone notifications when one’s AirPods needed charging.
This new color-code system should make understanding charging status more accessible. To wit, it can be hard to decipher which color means what—particularly with ones like amber and yellow being so similar, as Christoffel rightly noted. The new system makes it much clearer. Additionally, it’s helpful to know one’s AirPods are being charged by listening for the little tone when putting it on a wireless charging mat. Not only do you hear the chime, but you see the colored light appear with it. That bimodal sensory input can be important insofar as it comforts someone that they placed their AirPods in the right spot for charging. Unlike modern iPhones, AirPods don’t support MagSafe; this means a disabled person who, like yours truly, has lackluster hand-eye coordination potentially could miss the “spot” when trying to set the earbuds down to charge. Without the chime and/or light, you may think your AirPods are charging when, in actuality, they’re dying because you missed the spot by a quarter-inch or whatever.
As I said, these color codes (and the chime) are de-facto accessibility features.
A mini Review of Walmart’s Onn 4K Pro
I missed it when news broke, but Ben Schoon at 9to5 Google reported in early June Walmart’s Onn 4K Pro streaming box was updated to run Android 14. The update, inscrutably named URO1.250103.029.A1, also brought the April 2025 security patch.
“Users shouldn’t expect any major changes from this update, though,” Schoon said in describing the June software upgrade. “Android 14 for TVs was mainly focused on TV sets, but it should make everything feel a bit more snappy.”
As Schoon wrote, the Onn 4K Pro is a seriously great deal; as of this writing, its price is only $45, down from the usual $50. I bought one several months ago to try out of curiosity and came away very impressed. The device runs stock Google TV, offering no Walmart-branded apps or the like. The remote, while plastic, feels nice in hand and its buttons are nice to press and responsive. And the box can act as a smart speaker when you’re not watching anything. Performance-wise, the Onn 4K Pro is serviceable and does the job. As a devout Apple TV 4K user, however, Walmart’s box can’t hold a candle to Apple’s in terms of sheer power and overall fidelity. I oftentimes joke Apple TV is laughably over-engineered for its primary purpose—streaming video—but I really appreciate how performant it is when testing the competition. Say what you will about tempering expectations between a $50 box and a $130 box, but the user experience in navigating the menus, et al, are demonstrably and undeniably better on tvOS. More pertinently for my reporting, tvOS smokes Google TV in accessibility features too.
Where the Onn 4K Pro pulls ahead is in Google TV. While I generally prefer tvOS for its niceness and the amenities pertaining to the Apple ecosystem, I do have a soft spot in my heart for how Google TV makes finding stuff to watch easier—and arguably more accessible. Beyond getting the Liquid Glass treatment, tvOS 26 brings little improvement in the mechanics of the user interface. I maintain that, on screens as big as televisions, tvOS has the potential to be so much more than a static grid of icons. That the Apple TV app is a container for things you watch is backwards; the app should be the whole UI, just as on Google TV. Likewise, tvOS should integrate a live TV guide too. Every year, I hope Apple will finally give tvOS its overdue “iOS 7 moment” and do a top-to-bottom overhaul of the platform, but am always left disappointed. I’m critical because, frankly, I greatly prefer Apple design to Google’s, functionality be damned. For all its warts, tvOS simply feels nicer to use than Google TV. But, as I said, that doesn’t take away from my admiration of all Google has implemented into the system for users.
As one prime example, the YouTube TV integration is killer if you’re a subscriber.
I heartily recommend the Onn 4K Pro over Google’s own box if you wanna wade into Google TV’s waters. Again, I was pleasantly surprised (and delighted) by Walmart’s box.
My pal Jason Snell wrote up a comparison of streaming boxes back in March.
I’m filing this Under ‘I Learn something every day’
This post’s headline says it all.
Last October, I interviewed the developers behind Croissant for iOS and macOS. I can’t describe the app’s functionality better than its website does; it says Croissant is “a buttery smooth app for cross-posting to Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads.” The two-person team of Ben McCarthy and Aaron Vegh told me, in part, Croissant wasn’t expressly built for accessibility’s sake, but nonetheless emanates as a byproduct. The duo’s overarching goal with Croissant was to make a piece of software which was “something simple and streamlined,” according to McCarthy. As I wrote, Croissant’s appeal in an accessibility context is that a disabled person needn’t have to manually post the same thing to multiple services. Although copy-and-paste is a workaround, but still involves extra taps—actions which can be taxing to many people out there who cope with any sort of cognitive/visual/motor conditions (or some combination thereof).
Thus, Croissant’s streamlining is accessibility too.
Anyway, one of my previous gripes about Croissant was there existed no button one could push to automatically generate image descriptions, or alt-text, for images. Lo and behold, I went to use Croissant on my iPhone earlier today and noticed a small button that does just that! I asked McCarthy about it on Mastodon and they replied by saying the text-generation feature isn’t new and, in fact, has “been there for a while.” I incorrectly presumed the feature used AI, but it doesn’t; McCarthy told me it works by way of Apple’s “VNRecognizeTextRequest” API, a tool which Apple describes to developers as “an image-analysis request that finds and recognizes text in an image.”
The moral here? Croissant’s accessibility game is even stronger. Go download it.
Controlling a computer with your Mind is possible
In the run-up to Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May, I reported on Apple’s yearly preview of the new accessibility features coming to its panoply of platforms later this year. Features like Magnifier for Mac, Accessibility Nutrition Labels, Name Recognition, and more all are now confirmed to be in Apple’s “OS 26” updates, currently in beta.
At the end of my aforementioned story, I mentioned the timing of its publication was fortuitous insofar as it coincided with a report from Rolfe Winkler of The Wall Street Journal that Apple purportedly has been developing so-called BCIs, or brain-controlled interfaces, to assist people coping with motor disabilities. Moreover, I noted that my pal Chance Miller wrote for 9to5 Mac researchers strongly believe BCI has potential to “revolutionize” the way(s) in which disabled people access computers. Miller also said Apple is expected to “add broader support for BCIs” to Switch Control later this year.
This bit of preamble is pertinent now because Miller’s colleague in Ryan Christoffel reports this week BCI maker Synchron, with whom Apple’s said to be collaborating on the technology, posted a video (embedded below) showing a man named Mark Jackson using Synchro’s BCI to control his iPad. Jackson, who has ALS, has been an early tester of the technology and was interviewed for Winkler’s piece for the Journal. Jackson is one of only 10 people to be fit with Synchro’s Stentrode implant for the FDA-approved trial. The Stentrode device uses electrodes to read brain signals and act upon them.
According to Christoffel, the description of Synchron’s video calls out a new API built by Apple, Human Interface Device (HID), which is designed to work with a BCI device. Synchron calls Jackson’s demonstration “groundbreaking” in the way he “navigates his iPad home screen, opens apps, and composes messages using only his mind.”
BCI tech, like time travel, feels like something out of a sci-fi novel—but it’s real! This “mind control” tech truly does hold profound potential to bring greater accessibility to people who have severely limited, if any at all, motor skills. On a related note, I’ve long been fascinated by the work done by Elon Musk’s Neuralink for accessibility’s sake, and would legit love to pick Musk’s brain on such a topic in an interview with me someday.
Tesla’s Ride-Hailing service Launches in bay area
Late last week, Elon Musk posted on X Tesla’s ride-hail service is now available in the Bay Area. The Tesla AI posted on X invitations for using the service are “going out now.”
Ryan Mense, writing at Bay Area-based CW affiliate KRON4, reported last week the aforementioned X post by Tesla AI includes a service map. Mense notes the service area includes “boundaries of Marin County and Berkeley in the north and San Jose to the south, [with] eastern and western boundaries cover cities near the bayshore.” Of particular import is the distinction that the Tesla ride-hail service is not driverless; there is a human in the vehicle during trips. In other words, there’s no FSD mode in these cars.
Musk’s post comes after The Verge reported Tesla sought permission to operate here.
I’ve seen a few Tesla diehards post about using Tesla’s ride-hail service in Austin. Personally, I have no interest in trying it here in San Francisco; Waymo and Uber more than satisfy my needs—and, frankly, I’m no fan of Musk. Nonetheless, between Tesla, Waymo, Uber/Lyft, and even Zoox, San Francisco—as well as the Bay Area regionally—Tesla’s news is yet another example of the region’s place as a hotbed for innovation. In an accessibility context, the more app-based, on-demand ride-hail services in existence is undoubtedly a good thing for people who are, say, Blind and low vision and thus are precluded from driving on their own. The nerds (and venture capitalists) like to crow about the technical might of artificial intelligence, not to mention the coolness and convenience of summoning rides from one’s iPhone, but the reality is it’s much more impactful than sheer coolness or even novelty. Using ride-hailing services offer accessibility and inclusion, as well as imbuing heightened feelings of self-esteem through greater agency and autonomy. As I always say, this stuff is 100% non-trivial.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting announces ‘Responsible and orderly closeout’ amid Cuts
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) on Friday announced its decision to begin “an orderly wind-down of its operations” as a result of the organization’s recent loss of federal funding. The exclusion of CPB from the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bill was the first in “more than five decades.”
Congress authorized the Washington DC-based CPB’s formation in 1967 to act as, as the nonprofit organization says, “the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations nationwide.” Moreover, the CPB notes it is “the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television, and related online services.”
Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” Patricia Harrison, CPB’s president and CEO, said in a statement for the announcement. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”
According to the CPB, its employees have been notified that “the majority of staff positions will conclude with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025,” with a “small transition team” remaining in place through January of next year in an effort to “ensure a responsible and orderly closeout of operations.”
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said of the CPB’s raison d'être. “We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
The loss of the CPB is gut-wrenching for public, independent media, as well as for diversity and inclusion. I’ve covered the work of PBS Kids extensively several times over the last few years, covering programming and more that make up the confluence of disability, technology, and television. In fact, just last week I reached out to the network seeking color from its senior vice president and general manager in Sara DeWitt about what the Trump administration’s budget cuts may mean for her team. I’ve interviewed her on numerous occasions, but PBS Kids declined comment this time. Be that as it may, one needn’t get an on-the-record interview to know which way the wind is blowing; to wit, as with cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, disability inclusion and representation is taking it especially hard on the chin lately. In the case of broadcasting, that PBS Kids produces shows like Carl the Collector that not only put disabled people in the spotlight, it gives every child (and their families) crucial lessons in why showing compassion and empathy is important. With the CPB shuttering operations, that puts such educational opportunities in serious peril—to the detriment of society writ large.
I’ll report back if and when PBS Kids makes official statement(s) on these matters.