ReBokeh

When lighting and contrast determine whether you can see something or not, this app makes life so much easier. I use it when shopping, sight seeing, navigating, and completing paperwork. I have tried several different vision accessibility apps and this one is the most useful.

I just listened to Parallel #88, listened to the interview with Rebeccah, and came to download ReBokeh. And wasn’t able to even launch the free version because apparently here, free still means make an account. I get that everyone and their sibling wants to collect your data these days and make money selling that to data brokers, and if that’s what this app is doing, well, that’s a shame. If it’s not, then requiring an account doesn’t make sense. If the account really is, as the account setup page says, to let us “get the most” from the app, then let us start sans account, and as we go, show us where the boundaries are - let us choose and *want* to make an account. Maybe I’m making an assumption that all processing is happening on-device; is it? If not, that should be discussed more up front, as it will impact usage/performance/privacy expectations. I’m no longer willing to make yet another account (or allow another login via an existing login) for any new thing without understanding why.

UADATE: the glitch that initially stopped the app from functioning on my phone has been resolved. The function and options within the app are great. This has replaced any need for an electric CCTV style handheld magnifier which can be expensive and bulky. I like that it can even be used to view other screens, something that often doesn’t work with a handheld electric magnifier and their bright led lights that make the other screen unreadable. The magnification even works for viewing objects at a distance, I was able to zoom in on the house across the street with excellent clarity. It would be great if there was a way to highlight and copy text or use the speak text function when images are paused. That is the only reason I will still need to photograph something for text information. Overall a good app and you can definitely tell the difference when something designed for visually impaired users was created by someone with a visual Impairment rather than just a tech person. I can’t get the app to open on my phone, it works fine on my iPad but it freezes up on my phone as soon as I allow access to the camera. Then when I try to close and reopen the app it’s just a black screen and no function. I am on iOS 16 so it should not be a compatibility issue. I hope this bug gets fixed because I love the concepts and would like to use it on my mobile device and not just my tablet at home.