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popopretty · 2 years

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The Day I Picked Up Dazai - Side B (2)

Links to Parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Final

This is the translation from page 11 to page 18 of Side B of the Dazai novel which was given out as free bonus for those who come to the cinema to watch the BEAST live action movie in Japan.

I HIGHLY recommend you to read Side A first before moving on to this one, especially part 2-5 for more context, better understanding, and easier comparison between the two sides. You can find the link to the tag with all Side A translations I have done in my pinned post.

Please also carefully read the notes below before progressing. - This post contains spoilers. If you plan to read the novel later yourself and think this would ruin your expectation, please stop here.

· I tried to keep the translation as accurate as possible, but as I don’t speak English or Japanese as my native language, I may make some mistakes or use weird words etc. This translation might not be final. I may come back and fix it later if I find any mistakes.

· This is a moviegoers-only benefit, so please be extra careful when discussing it about on Twitter. Use a #spoilers tag on your tweets or your fanarts. You can share the links to this post but don’t take many screenshots.

· Don’t retranslate it. [UPDATE MAY 9, 2023] You can retranslate it but please keep in mind that my translation is not perfect and some meanings will be lost through re-translation. If you are not sure about the meaning at any part, please let me know! Don’t repost this translation anywhere else out of Tumblr.

· DON’T GO TO THE AUTHORS’ OR OFFICIAL TWITTERS TO COMMENT ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF IT.

I’m sorry if that’s too much but honestly all I want is for everyone to have a good experience, for those who wants to read the novels to be able to read the novels, and for those who don’t want to be spoiled, to be safe from it as much as possible.

If you have read and are okay with all the above, please continue to move forward and enjoy the novel. Have a good day!

...

The time the police appear at my house, is one of those times.

“Excuse me, we are from S River Station. Someone reported seeing a man covered in blood collapsing in this neighborhood. Can we ask you a few things?”

Through the window designed for lighting on the door, I see male figures. Two of them.

I freeze. I am in the middle of boiling water to make coffee in the kitchen at that time.

“Excuse me. This is the police. Is anyone home?”

The unreserved knocking shakes the door again and again. I glance at the young man. The young man whose name I don’t know. He is not showing any human-like reaction even to the voices outside.

What will happen if they find him? I quickly think. In all probability, this guy has been involved in some kind of criminal activities. And he is also seeing and committing crimes like breathing… Someone from the other side, the side of the night. Otherwise, there is no way someone who had been shot all over his body like that would not have gone to the hospital. In other words, the cops will see him as a treasure, instead of an injured person. So that they can improve their arrest record.

On the other hand, I haven’t committed any crime so far. I just took care of an injured person I saw. It is the duty of a citizen to report as soon as they find someone with gunshot wounds, but if I tell them, “I didn’t realize it was caused by gun”, the cops will have no choice but to back down. Like, I thought he was stabbed or something. It is not that difficult to identify a gunshot wound, but there is currently no crime defined in the criminal law for failing to do so.

In other words, even if I sell this young man to the cops, I can walk away without any claim.

I walk to the front door. To talk to the cops.

I will come up with an excuse to send them away. I think so. If I am going to sell this young man here and now, I would not have treated his wounds in the first place.

But that stupid dedication of mine can’t be achieved. Something completely out of my expectation has happened. The young man rushes to the door.

He is ridiculously fast. Like a tightly shrunken spring being released in an instant. He slams open the front door and attacks the cops.

It is an unpredictable action for everyone. It never crosses my mind that he can possess such agility. He leaps with a speed no one can expect from an injured person, and jumps onto the shoulder of the surprised cop, before sinking his fingers into the man’s face.

The cop lets out a brief scream. He goes berserk and slams the young man against the wall near the doorway. But still the youth doesn’t let him go. He clings onto the cop in a piggyback position, and shoves the fingers on both of his hands into the man’s ears. He put all the strength in as if he is trying to rip his ears apart. From the young man’s throat comes a fierce roar of a beast. He pulls his fingers out. The fingertips are soaked in blood. He thrusts them in again.

The cop uses his free arms to grab his attacker’s body and falls into the room just like that. The wooden floor makes a cracking sound as it breaks.

The slightly younger cop who isn’t attacked finally pulls out his gun as if he just remembers it now. That is a swing-out double-action revolver. He aims it at the young man.

No warning is made. I see the future where that gun is fired.

I start to move too. I approach the cop and grab his pistol. I slide my thumb between the barrel and the firing pin. This way, the firing pin won’t be able to hit the primer and the bullet will not come out.

I look at the cop. He looks back at me angrily.

There is a light sound of something dropping behind my back.

Something metallic. I want to look back but I am in a bad position. My right hand is holding the gun. The wall is on my left. I cannot turn around. This is bad.

Something white is weaving at the edge of my vision.

I didn’t see the moment that thing was thrown. But it is probably the cop who threw it. Because I don’t stock such dangerous things at home. A gas grenade.

That is a black, cylindrical personal weapon. It emits non-lethal coma gas. It lasts for twelve seconds, and can emit 2.8 kiloliters of gas. This gas was once used as a substitute for anesthesia for surgery in the Great War. Those who inhale it will find their consciousness fading away. It depends on the concentration of the gas, but generally most will faint before they can even count to ten. If inhaled in large volume, it can be fatal.

I grab my mouth and nose with my hand. Then I try to find the young man. A gas grenade is not something city police officers can carry around on patrol.

These guys are not cops.

But something is moving at the edge of my vision. The younger cop has let go of his gun and thrown himself at me.

We tangle together and fall onto the floor. He hits my chest so hard that all the air left in my lung is pushed out.

The white smoke wriggles in and fills my vision as I roll on the floor. It is as if I have fallen into the bottom of a white sea. But I can only see that white for a short moment.

I cough, breathe in the gas and lose consciousness almost instantly.

***

There is a sound.

A cold and damp sound.

It is so familiar that it does not sound like a meaningful sound at first. It is a sound that will slip past your consciousness, like the sound of dead leaves rolling, or a train passing by in a distance, that kind of noise. However, it cannot be the same as those noises.

Because it is the sound of Oda Sakunosuke being beaten.

The sound is low and muffled. It does not sound dangerous. It sounds like a sand bag falling. But it is, in fact, a dangerous sound.

Dazai knows that.

Because he has been living with it soaking up to his throat for a dauntingly long amount of time.

“Before we start, let me tell you this.” said a voice. The voice of an aged man.

“I don’t like violence.”

The man is holding a blackjack as he speaks. Dazai sees that. Dazai is looking at the man. He is looking hard at him. Through those sharp and dark eyes behind the face hidden by bandages.

“I don’t like it when people use violence. I don’t like to use it either. So just think about this as business.”

The club is swung down. On the back of the tied up Odasaku. Dazai is staring at that.

Dazai is standing in the corridor of the bunker, where it is completely dark. The distance between him and Odasaku is more than ten meters. Because of the darkness and the distance, Odasaku and the other guy cannot see Dazai. In fact, they wouldn’t even notice Dazai if he came within an arm’s reach. That is how much Dazai has melt into a dense shadow and become one with the darkness himself.

Dazai is looking. He is simply looking hard at Odasaku being beaten.

The club being swung down. Odasaku groaning.

Seeing that violence doesn’t even make his eyes move. His eyes are as still as those of a dead man, not showing the slightest flicker of emotion.

However, every time the club goes down, Dazai’s fingers twitch. His joints automatically jump and his muscles tense up. And every time, thin white streaks rise to the surface of his fingers. His fingers bend as if they are grasping something invisible. It is as if he himself is being beaten.

Dazai has become one with the darkness. That is why no one is able to find Dazai.

However, the elder torturer reacts to the killing intention he emits, which pulsates with every downswing of the club.

“Who is that?”

The man turns around toward the darkness. He can’t see anything. The darkness is deep and dense as mud.

He stops the torture and walks out, to check if anyone is there. Because he cannot help it. Because his experience is giving him a warning.

He finally reaches the place where Dazai was.

However, there is already no one there.

There is only darkness. As if no one was there from the beginning. It’s as if darkness has taken the form of Dazai, and has finally turned back to the original darkness and disappeared.

The man is confused. There is only the unchanging, endless darkness that has been there since the beginning of time.

...

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #spoilers #bsd spoilers #side b spoilers #the day i picked up dazai

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crusherthedoctor · 3 years

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Alright, Crusher. Let's open a can of worms here. What are your top 5 favourite Sonic games in order, and what do you like about them? I'm really curious as for as long as I've been following you, you've only mainly focused on the bad aspects of Sonic, both the games and the fandom, both new and old.

I'd say I give praise to the things I like more often than you give me credit for. Yes, I've criticised IDW and the Twitter/YouTube community a lot, but have you not seen all of my posts relating to the movie? :P

Still, any opportunity to gush about the good is appreciated, so here we go. Note that these lists tend to slightly change depending on the day and mood, and this one is no exception. Also note that I actually like a lot of Sonic games, so it's never easy to narrow it all down to five.

1. Sonic Mania - It's a very close call between this and #2 below, but Mania edges out just that little bit more due to the additions of Mighty and Ray, the gorgeous graphics, Tee Lopes' fantastic compositions, the Hard-Boiled Heavies, the brilliant reimaginings of old zones alongside the equally amazing new ones, and the clever Easter Eggs and little references sprinkled throughout the entire thing. A gargantuan amount of love was put into this game, and it shows and paid off handsomely.

2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Sonic 1 and 2 are great, but the one that gave us the & Knuckles meme will always be my favourite in the Genesis trilogy. Sonic 3 - the full Sonic 3 - makes it very clear from the moment Sonic jumps off the Tornado that it's a step up from the first two not just in gameplay, but presentation as well. For that reason, I guess you could also say it has my favourite “story” out of all the games, since due to the more cinematic nature of the game, Eggman really gives it his 110% from start to finish, without getting fucked over at any point. It's a simple yet grand adventure to stop the Death Egg from relaunching, and I always have a blast with it.

3. Sonic Adventure 1 - This is a game that I like more and more as time goes on. I used to enjoy it enough, but wasn't super impressed with it, to the point of putting it and SA2 in the same rank. But since then - possibly due to comparing it more thoroughly with SA2 and other 3D installments - I started to appreciate so many details great and small. Despite kicking off the alternate gameplay schtick, everyone not named Big is still fun to play as (and even Big honestly isn't that bad, since you can complete his story very quickly). Its soundtrack is one of my absolute favourites in any video game, and despite how aged the graphics may be nowadays (and the downright hilarious character animations), the environments are still really lush and retain a whimsical edge. Chaos also remains the best of the giant monsters, though that’s hardly a difficult feat when looking at the competition.

4. The Sonic Advance trilogy - Cheating, but it is my top five after all. The first and second installments were the first Sonic games I saw and played respectively, but even putting nostalgia aside, they hold up as solid titles on the GBA, with some of the best music and graphics on the system. The third one is more flawed due to the occasionally weird level design and some other design choices, but I still have fun with it overall, and the team-up gimmick lends itself to some fun combinations.

5. Sonic CD - As far as level design goes, I think it's just okay for the most part. But everything ELSE really elevates it IMO. With the time travel mechanic, the game is allowed to tell a story without saying anything, like S3&K would later do. The zones (sorry, rounds) are given a lot of different contrasts between their different incarnations, and every last one of them are pleasing to the eyes, even the dilapidated Bad Futures. Eggman also told us in song to Get Some Help, which was really thoughtful of him.

If you're wondering what the #6 runner-up would have been, it’s a tie between Generations and Rush Adventure. :]

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic CD #Sonic 3 & Knuckles #Sonic Adventure #Sonic Advance #Sonic Mania

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safflowerseason · 4 years

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(Part 3) 4) also, re: season 7 so far, and keep in mind I’m two episodes in, I don’t even recognise Dan, and to a lesser extent Amy, anymore. I don’t even feel I’m watching Veep anymore, not as it was set out for the first four seasons. Is Mandel known to be the devil or something? What in the frack was this vision of the characters meant to be - ‘evolved’? Or does he just hate them? 5) I hated what he did to the Selina and Amy relationship too. Does Mandel hate women? Is this a known thing?

These are all questions that we’ve been batting around on here since the finale aired in May (which is when I got on Tumblr, incidentally, because I had to take my Veep feelings somewhere.) To a certain degree, there’s never going to be a solid, black-and-white answer to any of them, really. You can read everything David Mandel ever said in public about his vision for Veep, you can close-read what the actors say on press tours…but it’s just not the same as being in the room. And certainly, it’s worth pointing out that all shows evolve, and they gain and lose fans through those changes. No show ends the exactly the same as when it started (although…some shows manage this evolution better than others.)

So, now that I’ve gotten my neutral disclaimer out of the way, I can get on with the fun ranting.

4) Dan is absolutely unrecognizable in S7 from how he appears even at the end of S6, barring little flashes here and there. While Amy’s general arc holds together slightly better than Dan’s, she still suffers from some major out of character moments in 7.02, as we all were just discussing recently. (Dan’s arc just makes no sense.) 7.02 is just rough on all counts. Unless you’re an avid Selina/Tom shipper in which case you probably got something out of it.

Also—and this is a general pet peeve of mine, as a California native—the episode is supposd to take place in Colorado and yet was so clearly filmed in Southern California (they posted a ton of pictures from the ranch where they filmed). Like, there are parts of California that resemble Colorado, but you have to go a little further than Malibu to get there. (I have the same beef with Parks and Rec. It’s so obviously not Indiana.)

Mostly, what it all boils down to is bad writing. I don’t care if Mandel thought Dan and Amy would never work as a couple. That’s fine. That’s a legitimate opinion. Run your show the way you want, dude. What I do care about is bad writing. It is bad writing when in 7.01, Amy seems intent on having the baby without Dan, and then in 7.02, suddenly Amy wants to pitch Dan a white-picket fences vision of domestic stability that neither of them have ever been particularly interested in. Sex-Psychopath Dan is bad writing because it completely contradicts everything we know about the character even taking S6 into consideration. The Dan we see in S7 would have slept with Leigh Patterson in S4 just because she was young and there and he is apparently a sex-addict, hahahaha, when of course S4 Dan would never be caught dead in the sexual proximity of a nineteen year old he theoretically works with. And yes, of course, characters can change. But you have to show that change, which they do not.

As for whether Mandel is the devil, (lol)…I think he was just very intent on doing the version of the show he saw in his head, and did not feel very obligated to try and replicate the show that Armando Iannucci had built. He had a completely different sensibility as an artist. I wrote a longer post somewhere on my blog about the differences in their approaches, if you’re interested, but ultimately I think what happened is that two very different universes got mashed together. Mandel didn’t hate the characters…he just thought they were all monsters and that was the point.

Also, two things happened the show couldn’t get away from, for obvious reasons: Trump was elected and the show was on an extended hiatus for 2017 and most of 2018 due to JLD’s cancer diagnosis. In the interim, all of America watched the government begin to melt in real time on Twitter. As a result, David Mandel rebooted the original ending for the show, in order to better capture this new moment in American politics (how effectively he did so is obviously up for debate.) The creative team and the cast were all fairly open about how dramatically Trumpian politics shaped their approach to the final season. So basically Trump is the short-answer reason to why a ton of plot threads get dropped between S6 and S7. I am 99% percent sure that the original plan was for Amy to have the baby before the hiatus and the resulting reboot. (Although at the same time, I do not think Dan and Amy would have gotten a very satisfying ending under Mandel. He also posted some pre-reboot snippets of the original outline for the finale, which have hinted that quite a few things did not change…for example, it seems that BKD was always doomed to be a one-episode plot device designed to get everyone back on Selina’s team, which is stupid.)

5) As for Mandel’s writing of female characters, I feel more comfortable speaking definitively here because in this case, it doesn’t matter what they were thinking in the room, but how it came across on the page and on the screen. Mandel obviously would say he doesn’t hate women, but he’s seems like one of those “liberal” white guys who has a lot of sh*t to work through regarding his own assumptions about women and femininity. He turned Selina into this misogynistic sociopath who abuses every woman in her sight with extremely gendered language, and he consistently punished Amy the character explicitly for not being hot enough or quiet enough or acquiescent enough for a woman. Like, the show always made fun of Mike for being dumb. It did not always make fun of Amy for being ugly and old. Moreover, Mandel/the show basically implies that Amy is a failure as a woman because she’s not maternal and also old and ugly, so she never got to be a mother and she never got to be with the man she truly loved. (sorry, Bill.) (Um, also, the audience has eyes? Anna Chlumsky is neither old nor ugly.)

I find it plausible that Amy and Selina’s relationship deteriorates over time…there is a subtle professional Dan/Amy/Selina triangle at work in S1-S4, and as Amy gets older and starts to figure out what she really wants from her life (and if Dan were the one she was trying to figure it out with), I don’t think Iannucci-Selina would react very well to it. (She would never be as openly abusive as S7 Selina, but I can’t imagine she’d be thrilled if Amy got pregnant just in time for her reelection campaign.) The show also makes it clear that Selina has an extremely complicated relationship with women and feminism, not to mention the fact that Amy herself is not particularly confident in her own body.

However…there were lots of ways to explore those complex character fault-lines without Selina abusing Amy constantly. She tries to sell her to Leon! Part of it is a complete lack of nuance and part of it is just plain old sexism.

Veep and the sexism of its later years has also been a pretty big discussion topic within the Veep Tumblr community, and you’ll definitely find posts on it if you poke around more closely (my blog, and also @thebookofmaev has written a lot about it as well.)

#veep season seven #rip dan egan #veep and politics #veep and sexism

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yahooben · 6 years

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GDC 2018: The 5 biggest game industry trends for 2018

The Game Developers Conference runs from March 19 to March 23 and lays out the industry’s plans for the year.

It might lack the headline-grabbing software bonanza of a consumer-oriented event like E3, but when it comes to the business of games, the Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the most important show of the year.

Now in its 29th year, GDC drills down into the beating heart of video games by appealing to perhaps the most important gamers of all: the ones who make them. GDC 2018, which runs from March 19 through March 23 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, is part expo, part summit and part job-fair. It’s where the future of the games industry is discussed — and often formed.

Here are four of the biggest game industry trends emerging from GDC 2018:

1. AR is the new VR

Despite tons of investor interest and loads of hype from critics, virtual reality has had a tough time getting off the ground. The current headsets remain expensive and unwieldy, and though tech pundits believe that they’ll shrink enough in both size and price in the next few years to become a major technological force, it’s taking longer than many expected.

“VR is still important – we see interest in it – though it’s true that the VR hardware has not become as popular as some people hoped, which often happens early in the lifecycles of technologies,” said Simon Carless, EVP of GDC parent company UMB. “I think we’re seeing now a bit of a retrenchment.”

In the meantime, augmented reality has not only delivered a massive hit in “Pokemon Go,” but remains more attractive for developers thanks to its lower cost of entry.

Niantic is making it easier to log into Pokemon Go, perhaps in an effort to

“I think people are looking forward to AR in particular,” Carless said. “Given that in the longer term we may not use phones – we may actually be using glasses with phone-like information on them – I think that enables AR to be an exciting possibility. A lot of the technology that games is pioneering will be needed to make that AR work. The space is exciting and there’s cool stuff going on there.”

Noteworthy tech companies certainly agree. Just before the show, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) released its Google Maps API to the world through the Unity game engine, making it much easier for developers to craft games using real-world locations. AR games based on Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters and The Walking Dead are already in the works. And Tim Sweeney, CEO of game developer and Unreal engine creator Epic Games, believes AR glasses could replace smartphones within 10 years.

2. Games as service

At the end of 2017, you couldn’t scroll two lines into a gaming forum without being bludgeoned by the words “loot crates” and “the death of single-player games.”

Ultimately, both issues (which we won’t litigate here) boil down to the success of “games as service” – games that operate on a continuing revenue model through subscriptions or post-release updates that keep players coming back (and spending money). Some of the industry’s biggest games function this way, from Blizzard’s (ATVI) hit shooter “Overwatch” to Supercell’s mobile mainstay “Clash Royale.”

Loot boxes in games like “Overwatch” have become a flashpoint in the industry, but help finance titles long after the’ve been published. (image: Digital Trends)

“There are so many games that have been released three or four years ago that have greatly improved themselves because they’re being run as a service,” Carless said. “How do you compete if you’re new off the block with some of these games that have been around for a long time?”

That’s a good question, and one that countless game companies will spend the year trying to answer. Getting it right — creating a game embraced by players that also works as a long-term revenue generator — is no easy task.

3. Getting discovered

Even harder? Just getting noticed in the first place.

Between the consoles, PC and mobile devices, tons of new video games are released every week. As more and more players opt to buy those games digitally rather than make the trek to retail stores, the old models of how a game gets discovered are breaking down.

“Beyond your ‘Grand Theft Autos’ or your ‘Assassin’s Creeds,’ everyone is competing on the same playing field nowadays,” Carless said. “Even if you’re an established company with 50 or 100 people, you may have to compete with the really scrappy three-person development team who have done a really good job of building their game. There are more and more amazing looking games being released, but it’s really difficult to find them.”

‘Fortnite Battle Royale’ saw its popularity explode this year after a slow start in 2017.

That means figuring out new ways to get a game noticed. Building buzz in a sea of software requires planning beyond a commercial or two. Social outreach, press coverage, changing the revenue model — there’s no one right answer.

Just ask Epic Games, creators of the pop-culture juggernaut “Fortnite.“ Originally released in July of last year, “Fornite” was met with middling reviews and slow sales until the developers added a new free-to-play “Battle Royale” mode in September 2017. Within a few months, “Fortnite” has become the biggest game in the world (over 45 million players, 3.4 million peak concurrent users back in January). Rapper Drake and streamer Ninja recently played live on Twitch, which is owned by Amazon (AMZN), breaking viewership records. No one saw it coming, its developers included.

Plenty of GDC panels about PR and marketing hope to give clues about achieving this sort of success, though expect companies to spend the bulk of 2018 actively searching for ways to cut through the noise.

4. Fighting toxicity

All too often, players fire up an online game, sit through matchmaking and emerge in a virtual world only to find themselves the target of obscenities that would make George Carlin blush. Online gaming drama can quickly take a turn for the worse, such as when a swatting prank resulted in the death of a Kansas man at the tail end of 2017.

No matter the form, bad behavior is bad for business. In turn, game companies will be spending a great deal of time in 2018 trying to clean up their communities.

GDC helps kick that movement off by introducing a new organization called The Fair Play Alliance. Its goal is to take the fight to the trolls by sharing best practices to encourage healthier player relationships. Over 30 of the world’s biggest game companies are on board, including Blizzard, Epic, Riot, Rovio, Supercell and Twitch.

Other notable trends covered at GDC 2018 include the continuing rise of esports, representation and diversity, game engine wars and the potential use of cryptocurrency in gaming.

More games news:

‘God of War’ could be 2018’s first must-have game

‘Kirby Star Allies’ review: How to make friends and eat them

Despite Trump’s meeting, video games and violence still don’t add up

‘Far Cry 5’ preview: Exploring cults and terror in the American West

The 10 best iPhone and Android games of the month

Follow Ben Silverman on Twitter at @Ben_Silverman.

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nicholerestrada · 6 years

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Apple Watch Series 4 is the most accessible watch yet

Steven Aquino Contributor

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Steven Aquino is a freelance tech writer and iOS accessibility expert.

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The accessibility of the iPhone XS Max

At Apple’s WWDC 2018, accessibility pervades all

Every time I ponder the impact Apple Watch has had on my life, my mind always goes to Matthew Panzarino’s piece published prior to the device’s launch in 2015. In it, Panzarino writes about how using Apple Watch saves time; as a “satellite” to your iPhone, the Watch can discreetly deliver messages without you having to disengage from moments to attend to your phone.

In the three years I’ve worn an Apple Watch, I’ve found this to be true. Like anyone nowadays, my iPhone is the foremost computing device in my life, but the addition of the Watch has somewhat deadened the reflex to check my phone so often. What’s more, the advent of Apple Watch turned me into a regular watch-wearer again, period, be it analog or digital. I went without one for several years, instead relying on my cell phone to tell me the time.

To piggyback on Panzarino’s thesis that Apple Watch saves you time, from my perspective as a disabled person, Apple’s smartwatch makes receiving notifications and the like a more accessible experience. As someone with multiple disabilities, Apple Watch not only promotes pro-social behavior, the device’s glanceable nature alleviates the friction of pulling my phone out of my pocket a thousand times an hour. For people with certain physical motor delays, the seemingly unremarkable act of even getting your phone can be quite an adventure. Apple Watch on my wrist eliminates that work, because all my iMessages and VIP emails are right there.

The fourth-generation Apple Watch, “Series 4” in Apple’s parlance, is the best, most accessible Apple Watch to date. The original value proposition for accessibility, to save on physical wear and tear, remains. Yet Series 4’s headlining features — the larger display, haptic-enabled Digital Crown and fall detection — all have enormous ramifications for accessibility. In my testing of a Series 4 model, a review unit provided to me by Apple, I have found it to be delightful to wear and use. This new version has made staying connected more efficient and accessible than ever before.

Big screen, small space

If there were but one banner feature of this year’s Apple Watch, it would indisputably be the bigger screen. I’ve been testing Series 4 for a few weeks and what I tweeted early on holds true: for accessibility, the Series 4’s larger display is today what Retina meant to iPhone 4 eight years ago. Which is to say, it is a highly significant development for the product; a milestone. If you are visually impaired, this should be as exciting as having a 6.5-inch iPhone. Again, the adage that bigger is better is entirely apropos — especially on such a small device as Apple Watch.

What makes Series 4’s larger screen so compelling in practice is just how expansive it is. As with the iPhone XS Max, the watch’s large display makes seeing content easier. As I wrote last month, once I saw the bigger model in the hands-on area following Apple’s presentation, my heart knew it was the size I wanted. The difference between my 42mm Series 3 and my 44mm Series 4 is stark. I’ve never complained about my previous watches being small, screen-wise, but after using the 44mm version for an extended time, the former feels downright minuscule by comparison. It’s funny how quickly and drastically one’s perception can change.

Series 4’s bigger display affects more than just text. Its bigger canvas allows for bigger icons and touch targets for user interface controls. The keypad for entering your passcode and the buttons for replying to iMessages are two standout examples. watchOS 5 has been updated in such a way that buttons have even more definition. They’re more pill-shaped to accommodate the curves of the new display; the Cancel/Pause buttons in the Timer app shows this off well. It aids in tapping, but it also gives them a visual boost that makes it easy to identify them as actionable buttons.

This is one area where watchOS excels over iOS, since Apple Watch’s relatively small display necessitates a more explicit design language. In other words, where iOS leans heavily on buttons that resemble ordinary text, watchOS sits at the polar end of the spectrum. A good rule of thumb for accessible design is that it’s generally better designers aim for concreteness with iconography and the like, rather than be cutesy and abstract because it’s en vogue and “looks cool” (the idea being a visually impaired person can more easily distinguish something that looks like a button as opposed to something that is technically a button but which looks like text).

Apple has course-corrected a lot in the five years since the iOS 7 overhaul; I hope further refinement is something that is addressed with the iOS 13 refresh that Axios’s Ina Fried first reported earlier this year was pushed back until 2019.

Of Series 4’s improvements, the bigger screen is by far my favorite. Apple Watch still isn’t a device you don’t want to interact with more than a minute, but the bigger display allows for another few milliseconds of comfort. As someone with low vision, that little bit of extra time is nice because I can take in more important information; the bigger screen mitigates my concerns over excessive eye strain and fatigue.

The Infograph and Infograph Modular faces

As I wrote in the previous section, the Series 4’s larger display allowed Apple to redesign watchOS such that it would look right given the bigger space. Another way Apple has taken advantage of Series 4’s big screens is the company has created two all-new watch faces that are exclusive to the new hardware: Infograph and Infograph Modular. (There are other cool ones — Breathe, Fire & Water, Liquid Metal and Vapor — that are all available on older Apple Watches that run watchOS 5.)

It’s not hard to understand why Apple chose to showcase Infograph in their marketing images for Series 4; it (and Infograph Modular) look fantastic with all the bright colors and bold San Francisco font. From an accessibility standpoint, however, my experience has been Infograph Modular is far more visually accessible than Infograph. While I appreciate the latter’s beauty (and bevy of complications), the functional downsides boil down to two things: contrast and telling time.

Contrast-wise, it’s disappointing you can’t change the dial to be another color but white and black. White is better here, but it is difficult to read the minute and second markers because they’re in a fainter grayish-black hue. If you choose the black dial, contrast is worse because it blends into the black background of the watch’s OLED display. You can change the color of the minute and second markers, but unless they’re neon yellow or green, readability is compromised.

Which brings us to the major problem with Infograph: it’s really difficult to tell time. This ties into the contrast issue — there are no numerals, and the hands are low contrast, so you have to have memorized the clock in order to see what time it is. Marco Arment articulates the problem well, and I can attest the issue is only made worse if you are visually impaired as I am. It’s a shame because Infograph is pretty and useful overall, but you have to be able to tell time. It makes absolutely no sense to add a digital time complication to what’s effectively an analog watch face. Perhaps Apple will add more customization options for Infograph in the future.

Infograph Modular, which I personally prefer, is not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as Infograph, but it’s far better functionally. Because it’s a digital face, the time is right there for you, and the colorful complications set against the black background is a triumph of high contrast. It is much easier on my eyes, and the face I recommend to anyone interested in trying out Series 4’s new watch faces.

Lastly, a note about the information density of these new faces. Especially on Infograph, it’s plausible that all the complications, in all their color, present an issue for some visually impaired people. This is because there’s a lot of “clutter” on screen and it may be difficult for some to pinpoint, say, the current temperature. Similarly, all the color may look like one washed-out rainbow to some who may have trouble distinguishing colors. It’d be nice if Apple added an option for monochromatic complications with the new faces.

In my usage, neither have been issues for me. I quite like how the colors boost contrast, particularly on Infograph Modular.

Haptics come to the crown

Given Apple’s push in recent years to integrate its so-called Taptic Engine technology — first introduced with the original Watch — across its product lines, it makes perfect sense that the Digital Crown gets it now. Haptics makes it better.

Before Apple Watch launched three years ago, I wrote a story in which I explained why haptic feedback (or “Force Touch,” as Apple coined it then) matters for accessibility. What I wrote then is just as relevant now: the addition of haptic feedback enhances the user experience, particularly for people with disabilities. The key factor is sensory input — as a user, you’re no longer simply watching a list go by. In my usage, the fact that I feel a “tick” as I’m scrolling through a list on the Watch in addition to seeing it move makes it more accessible.

The bi-modal sensory experience is helpful insofar as the secondary cue (the ticks) is another marker that I’m manipulating the device and something is happening. If I only rely on my poor eyesight, there’s a chance I could miss certain movements or animations, so the haptic feedback acts as a “backup,” so to speak. Likewise, I prefer my iPhone to ring and vibrate whenever a call comes in because I suffer from congenital hearing loss (due to my parents being deaf) and could conceivably miss important calls from loved ones or whomever. Thus, that my phone also vibrates while it’s ringing is another signal that someone is trying to reach me and I probably should answer.

Tim Cook made a point during the original Watch’s unveiling to liken the Digital Crown as equally innovative and revolutionary as what the mouse was to the Mac in 1984 and what multi-touch was to the iPhone in 2007. I won’t argue his assertion here, but I will say the Series 4’s crown is the best version of the “dial,” as Cook described it, to date. It’s because of the haptic feedback. It gives the crown even more precision and tactility, making it more of a compelling navigational tool.

Considering fall detection

As I watched from the audience as Apple COO Jeff Williams announced Series 4’s new fall detection feature, I immediately knew it was going to be a big deal. It’s something you hope to never use, as Williams said on stage, but the fact it exists at all is telling for a few reasons — the most important to me being accessibility.

I’ve long maintained accessibility, conceptually, isn’t limited to people with medically recognized disabilities. Accessibility can mean lots of different things, from mundane things like where you put the paper towel dispenser on the kitchen counter to more critical ones like building disabled parking spaces and wheelchair ramps for the general public. Accessibility also is applicable to the elderly who, in the case of fall detection, could benefit immensely from such a feature.

Instead of relying on a dedicated lifeline device, someone who’s even remotely interested in Apple Watch, and who’s also a fall risk, could look at Series 4 and decide the fall detection feature alone is worth the money. That’s exactly what happened to my girlfriend’s mother. She is an epileptic and is a high-risk individual for catastrophic falls. After seeing Ellen DeGeneres talk up the device on a recent episode of her show, she was gung-ho about Series 4 solely for fall detection. She’d considered a lifeline button prior, but after hearing how fall detection works, decided Apple Watch would be the better choice. As of this writing, she’s had her Apple Watch for a week, and can confirm the new software works as advertised.

Personally, my cerebral palsy makes it such that I can be unsteady on my feet at times and could potentially fall. Fortunately, I haven’t needed to test fall detection myself, but I trust the reports from my girlfriend’s mom and The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, who got a professional stunt woman’s approval.

Problematic packaging

Apple Watch Series 4 is pretty great all around, but there is a problem. One that has nothing to do with the product itself. How Apple has chosen to package Apple Watch Series 4 is bad.

Series 4’s unboxing experience is a regression from all previous models, in my opinion. The issue is Apple’s decision to pack everything “piecemeal” — the Watch case itself comes in an (admittedly cute) pouch that’s reminiscent of iPod Socks, while the band is in its own box. Not to mention the AC adapter and charging puck are located in their own compartment. I understand the operational logistics of changing the packaging this way, but for accessibility, it’s hardly efficient. In many ways, it’s chaotic. There are two reasons for this.

First, the discrete approach adds a lot in terms of cognitive load. While certainly not a dealbreaker for me, unboxing my review unit was jarring at first. Everything felt disjointed until I considered the logic behind doing it this way. But while I can manage to put everything together as if it were a jigsaw puzzle, many people with certain cognitive delays could have real trouble. They would first need to determine where everything is in the box before then determining how to put it all together; this can be frustrating for many. Conversely, the advantage of the “all-in-one” approach of Series past (where the case and band was one entity) meant there was far less mental processing needed to unbox the product. Aside from figuring out how the band works, the old setup was essentially a “grab and go” solution.

Second, the Series 4 packaging is more fiddly than before, quite literally. Instead of the Watch already being put together, now you have to fasten the band to the Watch in order to wear it. I acknowledge the built-in lesson for fastening and removing bands, but it can be inaccessible too. If you have visual and/or fine-motor impairments, you could spend several minutes trying to get your watch together so you can pair it with your iPhone. That time can be taxing, physically and emotionally, which in turn worsens the overall experience. Again, Apple’s previous packaging design alleviated much of this potential stress — whereas Series 4 exacerbates it.

I’ve long admired Apple’s product packaging for its elegance and simplicity, which is why the alarm bells went off as I’ve unboxed a few Series 4 models now. As I said, this year’s design definitely feels regressive, and I hope Apple reconsiders their old ways come Series 5. In fact, they could stand to take notes from Microsoft, which has gone to great lengths to ensure their packaging is as accessible as possible.

The bottom line

Three years in, I can confidently say I could live without my Apple Watch. But I also can confidently say I wouldn’t want to. Apple Watch has made my life better, and that’s not taking into account how it has raised my awareness for my overall health.

My gripes about the packaging and Infograph face aside, Series 4 is an exceptional update. The larger display is worth the price of admission, even from my year-old Series 3. The haptic Digital Crown and fall detection is the proverbial icing on the cake. I believe the arrival of Series 4 is a seminal moment for the product, and it’s the best, most accessible Apple Watch Apple has made yet.

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/21/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/

Source: https://hashtaghighways.com/2018/10/25/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/

from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/

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michaeljtraylor · 6 years

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Apple Watch Series 4 is the most accessible watch yet

Steven Aquino Contributor

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Steven Aquino is a freelance tech writer and iOS accessibility expert.

More posts by this contributor

The accessibility of the iPhone XS Max

At Apple’s WWDC 2018, accessibility pervades all

Big screen, small space

The Infograph and Infograph Modular faces

In my usage, neither have been issues for me. I quite like how the colors boost contrast, particularly on Infograph Modular.

Haptics come to the crown

Considering fall detection

Problematic packaging

Apple Watch Series 4 is pretty great all around, but there is a problem. One that has nothing to do with the product itself. How Apple has chosen to package Apple Watch Series 4 is bad.

The bottom line

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/21/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/

from RSSUnify feed https://hashtaghighways.com/2018/10/25/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/ from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.tumblr.com/post/179417360464

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garkomedia1 · 6 years

Text

Apple Watch Series 4 is the most accessible watch yet

Steven Aquino Contributor

Share on Twitter

Steven Aquino is a freelance tech writer and iOS accessibility expert.

More posts by this contributor

The accessibility of the iPhone XS Max

At Apple’s WWDC 2018, accessibility pervades all

Big screen, small space

The Infograph and Infograph Modular faces

In my usage, neither have been issues for me. I quite like how the colors boost contrast, particularly on Infograph Modular.

Haptics come to the crown

Considering fall detection

Problematic packaging

Apple Watch Series 4 is pretty great all around, but there is a problem. One that has nothing to do with the product itself. How Apple has chosen to package Apple Watch Series 4 is bad.

The bottom line

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/21/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/

from RSSUnify feed https://hashtaghighways.com/2018/10/25/apple-watch-series-4-is-the-most-accessible-watch-yet/

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theinvinciblenoob · 6 years

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Steven Aquino Contributor

Share on Twitter

Steven Aquino is a freelance tech writer and iOS accessibility expert.

More posts by this contributor

The accessibility of the iPhone XS Max

At Apple’s WWDC 2018, accessibility pervades all

Big screen, small space

The Infograph and Infograph Modular faces

In my usage, neither have been issues for me. I quite like how the colors boost contrast, particularly on Infograph Modular.

Haptics come to the crown

Considering fall detection

Problematic packaging

Apple Watch Series 4 is pretty great all around, but there is a problem. One that has nothing to do with the product itself. How Apple has chosen to package Apple Watch Series 4 is bad.

The bottom line

via TechCrunch

#IFTTT #TechCrunch

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theworstbob · 7 years

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the thing journal: 4.23.2017

the seven or so new things i took in over the last week. in this post: hebrews, summertime ‘06, drive, panic station, copacetic, The End of the Tour, here, teens of denial, and Anomalisa

1) Hebrews, by Say Anything: Yes hello hi I am the sort of person who will take a walk on Easter Sunday morning and listen to an album called Hebrews with a song called "Six Six Six." I really admired what this album was able to do. I didn't even realize there weren't any guitars on the album until I checked the Wikipedia page; I spent the entire time thinking, here it is, the most conventional Say Anything record in years, this has a really interesting sound, wonder how they were able to do it, ohhhhhh it IS weird after all!

2) Summertime '06, by Vince Staples: This was an album that was as good as everyone said it was two years ago. ..I'm supposed to write actual things, but like what do y'all want? Vince Staples is great. I really dug the thing he put out last year, and I REALLY dug the two-year-old thing he did. There's like fifty different people in hip-hop who are doing really incredible things and I wish I had time to give all of them their proper appreciation, like I'm two years behind on this, I still haven't gotten to Syd's thing from earlier this year, I still have the new Freddie Gibbs in the queue, evidently there's someone named Kamaiyah I oughta check out, there's so much cool stuff happening in a dozen different places. It Is Hard To Keep Up With The Kids These Days, is the central thesis of this and any post in the journal.

3) Drive, by Shayna Leigh: This pop album I picked up because this person followed me on Twitter is very good. I appreciate the follow, and I hope they enjoyed the content I posted before I scrammed. ...Is that the past tense of "scram?" It's not scrum. Before I high-tailed it on outta there. This was a very good album review.

4) Panic Stations, by Motion City Soundtrack: I can't help but weigh this against Yellowcard's farewell album, but only because Yellowcard's farewell album was sort of perfect? It didn't make my year-end Top 20, and I think it's listed in the index with a B+, but as the culmination of Yellowcard's career, it works. And maybe it's because I didn't keep up with MCS the same way I kept up with Yellowcard, but this felt to me like a collection of Motion City Soundtrack songs. That's fine! There's a lot of value in a collection of MCS songs! It's not what I hope for from finales, though.

5) Copacetic, by Knuckle Puck: hey everyone it's a hardcore-leaning pop/punk album i mostly liked, who wants to hear opinions. they are especially Good because i listened to it at 3 am. where are you going? engage with this post. it’s a good post, with quality content.

6) The End of the Road, dir. James Ponsoldt: god help me but i loved this movie about two white dudes who had a five-day-long talk the one time This is such a profound film, though. The relationship between the interviewer and the subject is so well-defined, the subject being keenly aware of everything the interviewer is trying to do, the interviewer trying to stay one step ahead of the subject and, to some extent, dazzle him, but it never feels like hate, it feels like two people who might otherwise get along being aware of an artifice. And just, like, the examination of what it means to be a writer -- like, just saying, David Foster Wallace is a normal dude who likes junk food and goes to dances and starts drama over ex-girlfriends, but has also experienced some profound loneliness and views the world through that lens, that's just a brilliant tack for this film to take (and fucking hell, having to write the screenplay for a film about one of the greatest writers of the modern age and have it hold up to that expectation is insane), to boil writing down to its essence and say it's all about how someone showing other people how they see the world, without ever actually saying it out loud or even being about writing. Or anything, really. Like, this is one of those movies I love that I probably wouldn't recommend to a friend, because it'd be really weird to say, "Hey, watch this almost-plotless movie about two smart dudes who talk a bunch. They visit Minneapolis. We live there! I saw my bus stop in this movie!"

7) Here, by Alicia Keys: ...So like, did we all just kinda not listen to this album last year? 'Cuz I thought this was kinda fucking brilliant, like a more accessible version of the Solange record. (Yes, Bob, those are two records by black women featuring spoken interludes. Valid comparison. Very good. Not #problematic at all.) Listen jMaybe it's because she went to The Voice and we all sort of assumed her career was over, since that's what The Voice is at this point, a retirement home for only our most charming pop stars. I thought this was vibrant and deep and Actually About Something, though, given that I wasn't expecting much, I might just be grading this against my expectations. I dunno, it's dope. Alicia Keys makes great songs. Maybe I just wasn't on the right Twitter?

8) Teens of Denial, by Car Seat Headrest: So like. I know Beach Slang. I love Beach Slang. I didn't necessarily need a 70-minute version of a Beach Slang album when I could have listened to a Beach Slang album like three times in that same span. I like a lot of this. There's just so much, though. None of these songs should be six minutes long, but like all of them are, though. I don't recall my own adolescence being this meandering. It lasted seven years and every emotion was felt intensely. I don't know what the hell kind of teens these dudes are talking about.

9) Anomalisa, dir. Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson: imagine if charlie kaufman had been writing animated movies this whole time. it might've been the best and worst thing if charlie kaufman had always been trying to access the full range of his imagination. This made for a kinda cool double bill with The End of the Tour. A quite depressing double bill, a double bill centered around the concept of loneliness, but hey, these are the movies I watch. There was a line in The End of the Tour about how shy people are inherently self-absorbed, their inability to relate to others causing them to retreat deep into their own mind, and Anomalisa is sort of that line fleshed out into its own thing, how loneliness can spiral deeper and deeper until you're not even able to tell other people apart. The man is trying to find a connection, but the second he finds it, he starts looking for flaws, and once he sees his connection as a person and not just an idea, they become just another person, and it's this sad, beautiful idea, the fact of this lonely man letting his loneliness spin so deep into self-absorption that he can't even stand the thought of a companion being flawed. (There's also the fact that, when his connection presents their insecurities, he's willing to say he forgives them for those flaws, but when something comes up the connection hasn't previously disclosed, it irks him and causes him to lose that connection. He wants to be the one to wipe away the tears, but he doesn't want to be the one to live with a fork clicking against teeth, and the more I'm thinking about that, the more subtly evil I think the main character is, how he's chasing the big moments but can't stand to live in an actual world with real people.) This is a movie about a bad person with a misanthropic attitude. It's beautiful! Check it out, team! I gave it $20 when it was just an idea, and baby, I'm glad I funded a stop-motion cunnilingus scene!

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