It looks as if iOS 5 may still be coming packed with the rumored Nuance VoiceOver technology even though it wasn't given an official mention during Monday's WWDC keynote.

If you look closely at the image above presented during the iOS 5 portion of the keynote, you'll notice a few interesting tidbits pertaining to iOS VoiceOver integration.

• VoiceOver action support
• VoiceOver item chooser
• Option to speak text selection

This implies that Apple and Nuance may not have been fully prepared to show off their iOS 5 VoiceOver system in time for the keynote, but that it's still in the pipeline and should be ready to go this fall when iOS 5 drops. It's unclear whether Apple will allow 3rd party apps to take advantage of these new features or if it will only extend to system apps.

What do you think, will we see Nuance/SIRI VoiceOver technology baked-in to iOS 5 or are we just wishful thinking?

There are times when you would love to get some reading done, but are not in a position to stop what you are doing, sit down, and read the old fashioned way. No worries,if you have an iPhone or iPad it already knows how to read for you.

[Special Thanks to dandbj13 from the forums for this tip! ]

To have your iPhone or iPad read to you:

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Accessibility
4. Tap VoiceOver
5. Turn on VoiceOver

If you find yourself using it often you can set up Triple-click Home as a shortcut:

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Accessibility
4. Tap Triple-click home
5. Set it Toggle VoiceOver (or to Ask if you want a list of options)

Now, when you are out and about and want to have something read to you, like a long forum thread, or a few pages of your latest iBooks purchase, just triple-click the home button and your iPhone or iPad will start reading to you in a surprisingly clear voice. Triple-click again to exit VoiceOver.

To get the most out of this option, you should take a few minutes to read up on our VoiceOver tutorial.

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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]

TiPb's been saying Apple's accessibility technology is thumbs up for a while now, but the New York Times and legendary film critic Roger Ebert are giving real-world examples of just how good -- and inexpensive -- these new offerings are.

The NYT tells us Kara Lynn was given a deliberately crippled PC for $8,000 for text-to-speech, but instead she bought her own iPhone 3G and a $15 text-to-speech app, that was both less expensive but also provided greater mobility and functionality. (iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 include built-in VoiceOver and other accessibility features).

Ebert wrote in saying he likewise ditched the $8,000 PC after giving it a test drive, and instead went with his own MacBook, which again provided greater features and flexibility.

Again, kudos to Apple for emphasizing accessibility.

[Via AppleInsider]

Speaking of iPhone 3GS accessibility features, it looks like Apple is improving them in iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 by adding a new "triple click" option to the home button to toggle VoiceOver, Toggle White on Black, and Ask (which then will pop up a menu offering Turn VoiceOver On, Turn Zoom On, Turn White on Black On).

Kudos to Apple for not only doing a great job implementing the various accessibility features in iPhone 3GS, but for continuing to improve them via forthcoming firmware.

According to David Pogue in the New York Times, the accessibility features like VoiceOver introduced with the iPhone 3GS make it one of the easiest smartphones for the blind and visually impaired:

First, you tap something to hear it. You can tap icons, words, even the tiny status icons at the top of the screen. As you go, the voice tells you what you’re tapping. “Messages.” “Calendar.” “Mail — 14 new items.” “45 percent battery power.”

Once enabled in the settings, Pogue details how new gestures like double-tap to launch, two-finger upward flick to read, three finger flick to scroll or go to next/previous screen, and three finger triple tap to turn the screen off and save power.

You can also use "the rotor", a two finger circle, to change the way other gestures work -- proofreading text character by character rather than word by word, for example.

Supported languages included 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.

For more on VoiceOver, see Apple's overview.

Poor iTunes 8.2, not even a week and its code has been sifted and (some of?) its secrets laid bare. Apple Insider reveals details including:

• radio capabilities along with a corresponding ability to tag songs so that they can later be purchased from the iTunes store
• additional string shows the ability to change VoiceOver settings to manage aspects of the Nike+ application

So, Nike+ like the iPod touch, VoiceOver like the iPod shuffle -- looks like Apple isn't only adding new features to the next gen iPhone, but leveraging features they've added to the rest of the line since the last gen iPhone. Good way for Apple to keep the iPhone "the best iPod we've ever made", isn't it?

[Thanks daveizzle for the tip!]