VoiceOver is part of Apple’s accessibility features, a gesture-based way to have your iPhone speak what is written on your screen. First available on the Mac, Apple brought it to the iPhone with iOS 3 and improved it again in iOS 4. It doesn’t get the attention of copy/paste or multitasking, but that might simple be because people do not know much about it or how to use it.

For an overview of VoiceOver and the various ways it can be used, stay with us after the break.

What VoiceOver can tell you

VoiceOver can give you the description of all the items on the screen, battery level, status, cell network signals time of day and even let you know if the orientation of your iPhone has changed.

VoiceOver Controls

• Single tap to hear a description of what you have tapped
• Double tap to activate
• Swipe to adjust a slider
• Flick to the left or right to move to the next item on screen.
• Three fingers to scroll

VoiceOver will also deliver contextual information, such as the location of objects on the screen or tell you about adjoining objects. Since you are directly touching the part of the screen you want to have read out loud to you it is much easier to get the information you want faster than with other voice applications.

When you enter text on VoiceOver the letter you press is spoken to you when you touch it and then repeated again when you enter it. This is quite a tedious process but you can have VoiceOver speak the whole word instead. Flicking up and down will move the cursor to the left and right within the text for editing.

VoiceOver will try and predict the word you are typing to make the typing experience less stressful. I find this process very arduous and would rather use a dictation app like Dragon instead.

It uses sound effects to alert you when certain apps are open and can also lower the background music so that you can hear VoiceOver more clearly. When you select something a black rectangle shows on that item.

VoiceOver Adjustments

There are a variety of adjustments you can make to VoiceOver so that it is customized to your needs. You can adjust the speaking rate so it is as slow or quick as you like.

Languages offered

VoiceOver comes in 21 languages: Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (US), English (UK), English (Australian), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

Compatible Apps

• iTunes
• Safari
• Maps
• Mail
• A few others as well

If you’re a developer, Apple offers the Accessibility Programming Guide for iOS [developer.apple.com link] to help you add VoiceOver and other accessibility features to your app. If you’re not a developer but you have an app you’d really like to see the feature added to, send them that link!

The Rotor

Place two fingers on the iPhone and turn them and you get a dial-like set of options for VoiceOver. This allows you to flick up or down to move through only the text you desire.

The Rotor is especially useful for navigating through a webpage, and options include:

• Lines
• Heading
• Links
• Form Controls
• Tables
• Characters
• Words

Do you ever use VoiceOver and if so how does it work for you? Let me know in the comments below.

[Apple]

Curious how to use your voice to dial or control your iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS? Apple has built Voice Control right into the phone and while it’s still limited in functionality, it’s very easy to use. We’ll show you how after the break.

To activate Voice Control on your iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS just press and hold the Home Button (or the middle button on your headphones or Bluetooth headset if you’re using any). When you you hear a beep and the Voice Control UI appears on the screen, speak your command. Available commands include:

• Dial [Number]
• Dial [Contact Name] [Work, Home, Mobile, iPhone, etc.]
• Call [Contact Name] [Work, Home, Mobile, iPhone, etc.]

• FaceTime [Contact Name] [Work, Home, Mobile, iPhone, etc.] (iPhone 4 only)

• Play Music

• Play Playlist [Playlist Name]
• Play Album [Album Name]
• Play Artist [Artist Name]
• Pause
• Next Song/Track
• Previous Song/Track
• Shuffle
• Genius/Play More Songs Like This

• What’s Currently Playing? What Song Is This? Who’s Singing This?

• What Time Is It?

• Stop
• Help

So, for example, you could say:

• Call mom, home
• Dial Steve Jobs, mobile
• Play music, the Beatles

If you’ve made a mistake and the iPhone has recognised it wrong, it will ask you to clarify.

• Call Steven Jobs, Home

• Call Steven Jobs, Mobile, work, or Home?

You can say “No, Not That One, Wrong” or anything else of that nature that feels natural, and it will go back.

Bonus tip: The music and miscellaneous commands (everything that doesn’t involve a phone call) also works on the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch. (Though strangely not the iPad…?)

Voice Control works no matter where you are in the iPhone, Home Screen or app, and even when you’re iPhone is locked. Now just imagine if Apple adds system wide, Siri-powered Voice Control throughout iOS 5…!

I hope this helped you guys with the Voice Control feature on your device in case you didn’t know what the controls were. Test it out now, by just holding the home button and if you have any questions, let me know in comments.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

In iPhone OS 2.x, we bemoaned the seemingly useless nature of the repeat and buttons when it came to podcast playback. They just sort of hung around, like guests who were welcome when the music was playing, but just wouldn’t leave when the party was over.

Now, in iPhone 3.0, Apple has replaced them with an email icon on the left hand side, and a speed counter on the right hand side. The email icon supposedly allows you to send an iTunes Link for the podcast (similar to how you could previously email YouTube video links).

The speed indicator on the other hand, shows x1 during regular playback, and we presume it might show x2 etc. during fast forward. (Apple has allowed you to “speed up” talk-heavy content like Audio Books for a long time).

Where the Genius button would be on music tracks, we now have a circular backwards arrow with a 30 in the middle, which we figure allows you to jump back in 30 second intervals.

Variable media scrubbing now lets you put your finger on the position indicator at the top, the buttons change to a text message reading “Slide your finger down to adjust the scrubbing rate.” Slide your finger down the screen and the speed that you scrub changes. Displayed in place of the track info, options so far include half speed, quarter speed, and a fine grain speed.

Since accurately going to a location on a podcast prior to 3.0 was difficult at best, these look to be excellent enhancements.

Anything else we’re looking for from Apple for Podcasts?