Hi
This will be quite a lengthy message but I am now coming to the end of
the work on putting the iTunes 7 scripts together so it is worth writing
a few lines.
Undoubtedly, there are some serious compatibility issues between jaws
7.10 and iTunes version 7 which make working with this version of iTunes
impossible in that situation. Predominantly these issues relate to
video intercept difficulties, but also to some extent the colour changes
to the iTunes program. Interestingly as a side note, some people on
iTunes blogs and forums say that the colour change is not necessarily
aesthetically pleasing, and I certainly wish Apple had maintained the
older display layout as we would not have experienced all the problems
we have done.
During our tests, we did see some of the jaws related difficulties to a
very small extent with some older versions of jaws although these seemed
to be solved by auto-sizing all the columns within a view which we do
mention in our user manual for our interface.
Anna Dresner thankfully last weekend stumbled upon yet another factor
which complicated issues even further, in that the iPod Nano is treated
differently to the Shuffle within iTunes 7 in terms of how to view and
copy music to it. I had to write extra scripts to support these
difficulties and to allow a person to read important information about
the Nano which is displayed.
Because of these problems, much to my reluctance we will have to make
available two versions of the scripts: one to support iTunes 6 and the
other for 7.
As I see it, you could be in three possible situations:
1. If you have iTunes 6 on your computer, and you do not have a new
generation iPod which forces you to upgrade, then do not upgrade. You
have the best possible functionality we can expect out of the jaws and
iTunes combination.
2. If you do not presently own the scripts but you intend to do so as
from 23 October, I would recommend you install iTunes 6.5 onto your
computer unless you have a new generation iPod which forces you to use
version 7. A new version of the iTunes 6 scripts will be posted to the
web site. There are no functionality changes, except that they are
contained within the new installer program. They will require a new
kind of authorisation file. This new style authorisation file is also
compatible with the scripts for iTunes version 7, so if you want to
upgrade to see what iTunes 7 is like, you can do that and then down
grade again should you need to.
Any new copies of the iTunes scripts which are purchased to support
version 6 of iTunes are priced at the new 35 pounds value. The new
installer program will allow you to install the iTunes 6 scripts into
jaws version 8 as and when Freedom Scientific release it. So we are
ready for that.
A link to download iTunes version 6.5 will be available from Monday on
our web site.
3. If you need or want to use iTunes version 7, you can download the
scripts from this Monday and start to use them. The usual demonstration
copy will be available (see below). These scripts will of course be
contained within the new installer and will require the new style
authorisation file. As I have already said, this means if you do not
like or need to have the functionality of iTunes 7, you can go back to
6.5. We are not ready for JAWS 8 and iTunes 7 as yet. The maximum jaws
version you can install into will be 7.0 and in fact we stop you from
installing the scripts into later jaws versions than that.
Now a few words about how the new installation works if you are
downloading anything from our site as of this Monday.
Previously, you would download the scripts relative to the version of
jaws on your machine and a demonstration file would be installed. This
caused a problem when people upgraded because it always meant their
authorisation was erased and it needed to be re-installed.
From Monday, you will either download the setup file for the scripts to
support iTunes 6 or 7. The installer is very clear about which versions
of both iTunes and jaws are supported and you should listen to that
information during the install.
You will then need to download the demonstration authorisation file or
indeed your own new fully licenced authorisation if you have one. Once
done, again run the file and the installer will talk you through
installing the file.
When this file is installed you are ready to use iTunes. In the
programs menu off the start menu, you will find an icon called iTunes
Accessible Interface, and in that sub-menu you will have:
A. About, which tells you the version number.
B. The user guide which has been updated.
C. An option to uninstall the interface.
If anyone has any questions after all that information, please ask and I
suspect there will be questions due to the cosmetic differences within
itunes 7 at the very least. But I hope this message in the meantime is
thorough enough. Certainly having the different versions of the scripts
really does give the customer the maximum level of choice available.
Brian Hartgen
More information about portable media devices can be obtained from the
Portable Player Portal. Please visit
www.hartgen.org
and choose the Portable Player Portal link.
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