Universal Access Zoom. Has Apple given up on it?

Originally introduced in 10.2 Jaguar Zoom was a mixed bag. graphically it was a major improvement from its OS 9 based predecessor CloseView. Zoom offered a really smooth, natural image quality that rivalled that of commercially available solutions. It had its shortcomings too.

After yours truly called Applecare and submitted a lengthy list of feature requests and bugs the following changes were made:

1. Zoom follows the keyboard focus was added.

2. increase/ decrease contrast was added.

3. Automatic switching to 256 colours when reversing contrast was disabled.

4. New zoom window alinement modes and keyboard shortcuts were introduced.

Although it didn't all happen at once I was still very impressed with how quickly Apple responded to all complaints. Either a lot of people complained or Zoom was still in development with resources and funds in abundance. Only Apple knows.

That was over 7 years ago. Since then Apple only added a few marginal improvements (like the ability to zoom using mouse scrolling). As things like display technology and OS X itself continued changing and developing Zoom remained essentially unchanged. Its image smoothing no longer looked as natural and as convincing using large displays and high screen resolutions. Things got worse with the release of Snow Leopard which introduced the following issues:

* Conflicting shortcuts between Zoom and VO.

* erratic behaviour of the mouse pointer and zoom window when VO is enabled.

* Issues with graphics caused by VO affecting the behaviour of mouse pointer and Zoom Window.

Just to name a few. I'll be taking a closer look at problems with Zoom and Snow Leopard in my later posts.

I'd like to point out that I don't expect Apple to make any dramatic changes to Zoom overnight. In fact I don't expect any major improvements. Its a magnification utility. It was never really meant to be anything else. I don't care for the bells and the whistles. Zoom was never a state of the art magnifier. What I do however expect are routine compatibility checks and maintenance updates. At the very least Because as it is now Zoom just appears to be abandoned. As if Apple shifted their focus away from its further development and maintenance.