What's New in J-Tunes 5
We are proud to be able to release J-Tunes version 5. This release of the product has taken some time to develop, but thanks in particular to the hard work from our experienced Beta Testing team, we now have a product which we are sure you will be very pleased with.
Please read this document carefully as it contains important compatibility and purchasing notes.
Compatibility
Due to a number of very specific technical reasons, J-Tunes version 5 is only compatible with JAWS version 11. If you own an earlier release of JAWS for Windows, we strongly recommend the use of iTunes 8.1.1 and J-Tunes 4.1 as a good software combination.
J-Tunes version 5 is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Purchasing
Given that a number of our key staff members are visually impaired, as a company we at T&T Consultancy have always understood that additional access technology is costly. This is why we have not made a charge for the past four major upgrades of J-Tunes.
However, J-Tunes version 5 will require customers to pay an upgrade charge of 35 US dollars. Please contact the company selling J-Tunes in your country for localised pricing. We feel that this presents good value for money, particularly with the new Internet update facility, described below.
Anyone who has purchased J-Tunes since the 1st of November, 2009 will be entitled to receive J-Tunes 5.0 at no cost.
What's New
Internet Activation
When you purchase J-Tunes version 5, or an upgrade, unless otherwise agreed with the company providing the software you will need to activate the software over the Internet. This takes approximately two seconds using a broadband internet connection. This will mean that activations are processed faster. Demonstration Mode is of course still available.
Internet Updates
Apple, the developing company of iTunes, regularly produce updates to their software. Similarly, we want to respond to those updates more readily and provide features more easily. The Internet Update facility will help with this. We will be producing updates to J-Tunes frequently throughout 2010, and so when the software is installed, we would advise you to regularly check for updates. You can do this by pressing the J-Tunes Key followed by Control+Shift+U. If an update is detected, a Dialog Box will appear inviting you to download it. The update is always small and will take approximately two seconds to download. You are advised when the update is complete and it is immediately active without the computer needing to be restarted.
Enhancements to the iTunes Interface and Usability Improvements
The majority of our efforts this time have concentrated on ensuring that J-Tunes performs exceptionally well in many areas of the iTunes program. Suggestions are welcomed from customers of J-Tunes version 5 about additional features they would like to have. But in particular, you will find using J-Tunes with iTunes version 9.2 a very good experience, either when navigating through Playlists, reorganising Playlists and especially using the iTunes Store. There are a number of key areas within the Store where using J-Tunes is a significant advantage.
In addition, when moving into Static Text boxes within iTunes, such as those containing the amount of storage space occupied by music in your Library, you can now read this text word by word or character by character which is very helpful. J-Tunes also provides much more accurate output than the previous release concerning details of the music tracks you are playing, such as the title and the elapsed time.
By popular request, we have also brought back “Numbers Mode”. This is ideal when reordering the tracks in a Playlist, since you can hear the numbered item in focus. This helps when determining the order of tracks to be played.
In summary, while we have not listed every improvement in this document, you will find many subtle differences in the new program. People have been using iTunes 9.2 and J-Tunes 4.1 (its predecessor) reasonably successfully together. However this release of J-Tunes, 5.0, has been specifically designed to function with iTunes 9.2 and so by definition the experience received is more responsive and accurate. Of course in addition this is the release of J-Tunes which will be actively developed from this point forward and where updates are available seamlessly over the Internet.
All this functionality is of course backed up by our great significantly revised J-Tunes documentation. Literally hundreds of changes have been made to the J-Tunes User Guide not only to take account of the new improvements within J-Tunes but also to include tips and tricks for getting the most from iTunes and an iPod, if you have one.
J-Tunes Advantages
As a reminder to people who are not users of J-Tunes, please find below a table showing the experience a user would receive when navigating iTunes with and without J-Tunes installed.
| Item Description | JAWS Default Support | J-Tunes Support | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Announces contents of Source List | Yes | Yes | Works perfectly, however J-Tunes identifies the title of the Source List in a way which can be easily understood by the user |
| Announces the presence of Item List and Search Edit Field | Yes | Yes | Works perfectly, however J-Tunes identifies the title of the Item List in a way which can be easily understood by the user |
| Reads track titles in Item List | Yes | Yes | J-Tunes eliminates much of the additional spoken output which is unnecessary, such as the word “Name” before each track title and “Artist” prior to each artist name |
| Focus in the track list is rarely lost | No | Yes | Users can arrow through the track list, switch programs, and enter and leave dialog boxes, rarely losing focus. If focus is lost, a single keystroke restores it |
| Users can check spellings of item information, such as the artist name of a music track, by placing contents in Virtual Viewer | No | Yes | This feature provides an easy way to verify the spellings of words or for copying audio track details to the Windows clipboard |
| Announces Menu Bar contents | Yes | Yes | Works perfectly |
| Announces all Buttons displayed on each screen as the user moves through them by pressing Tab | No | Yes | Not all Buttons within the Group Info and other dialog boxes are announced without the use of J-Tunes. In addition, some Buttons on the primary iTunes screen are not correctly identified |
| Identification of Identifies Status Area in iTunes 9.2 | Yes | Yes | J-Tunes correctly identifies the area and it is possible for its contents to be placed in the JAWS Virtual Viewer or reviewed with the Arrow keys |
| Reads all aspects of iTunes Store | Yes | Yes | Works perfectly. However, when using J-Tunes, much of the unnecessary speech is reduced when within the Track List. A prompt is also included to help the user know when the virtual cursor is active |
| Indicates track titles when they are selected or highlighted | No | Yes | This feedback is very important so as to ensure that the correct items are selected prior to purchase, deletion or copying |
| The Home and End keys move to the top and bottom of lists | Yes | Yes | Although focus is moved, without J-Tunes JAWS speaks incorrect information when focus is moved. J-Tunes will always cause JAWS to speak the correctly focused item |
| Page Down and Page Up keys move through lists | Yes | Yes | With J-Tunes, The amount of movement is predictable—it's always ten items rather than a random number. Without J-Tunes, the screen is scrolled and JAWS does not always report the newly focused track title |
| Column Browser is accessible | Yes | Yes | The Column Browser allows you to easily move through all artists, genre and album titles. Within the iTunes Store, J-Tunes suppresses unwanted additional speech when moving through categories |
| Announces track title on demand without altering focus | No | Yes | Useful when wishing to verify the title of the music track or Podcast which is playing |
| Announces elapsed time of playing track on demand | No | Yes | Pressing a keystroke within J-Tunes speaks the number of hours, minutes and seconds for which a music track or Podcast has been playing |
| Announces remaining time of playing track on demand | No | Yes | Pressing a keystroke within J-Tunes speaks the time the music track has left to play |
| Announces whether the focused podcast has been downloaded | No | Yes | Works perfectly. However, J-Tunes will always announce the word “Downloaded” before the title is spoken, making searching for downloaded episodes quick and easy |
| Announces how many unplayed Podcast episodes are available when moving through the Source List | Yes | Yes | Works perfectly |
| Podcast Show Notes are navigable | No | Yes | The Show Notes are displayed in an Edit Field so they can be navigated with the Arrow Keys |
| Progress of copying material to an iPod is available upon demand | No | Yes | When a keystroke is pressed, J-Tunes indicates whether material is being copied to the iPod |
| Playlist contents can be rearranged | No | Yes | Music tracks within a Playlist can be moved to alternative locations within the same Playlist |
| iTunes track list can be sorted alphabetically, reverse alphabetically or by album with a keystroke | No | Yes | Arranging the Music Library in different ways can be helpful, especially arranging music tracks by album |
| iPod components, such as “Summary” and “Music” are accessible from a vertical list | No | Yes | When working with an iPod, its components are displayed in a vertical list for easy selection |
| Details of iPod “Summary” screen are placed in the Virtual Viewer for line by line analysis | No | Yes | The Virtual Viewer-based information gives the iPod version number, serial number, storage capacity, and more |
| Context Sensitive Help is provided for many iTunes controls | No | Yes | Makes it easy to identify unfamiliar controls and what they do. This includes descriptions for controls to set up and administer iPods |
| Keystrokes are provided to move directly to the Source List, Music Library, Search field and Item List | No | Yes | Moving to specific sections of the screen, particularly the Music Library, can be good orientation clues and can save time |
| All controls and their full meanings are spoken within iTunes Preferences Multi-Page Dialog Box | No | Yes | Information is displayed on the screen which is not available when moving from one control to another. J-Tunes announces this |
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