[nabs-l] Blind folks and the IPhone

[Marc Workman]

Hi,

I used to have a bit of a problem with the battery that required me to 
charge it every night.  The problem, and many blind users were having this 
problem, was that your phone wouldn't always go on stand by, even when you 
locked it.  This meant that the battery was being drained as though you were 
using it, even though it was locked.  Since I updated to OS 4, however, I 
have not had this problem, and I've been able to get on average three days 
without a charge.  Admittedly,I'm not a very heavy user, but I believe the 
iPhone battery, at least since the upgrade, is comparable to other phones. 
Of course, this does involve locking the phone while it isn't in use, but I 
don't know why you would leave it unlocked if you weren't using it anyway.

I imagine that having people be able to hear incoming texts would be a 
little annoying, but I tend almost exclusively to use the headphones while 
using the phone, so this has never been an issue for me.

I've been using the iPhone for a little over a year now, and one really 
great thing about it that I haven't heard mentioned yet is that Voiceover 
has improved with every major update.  It seems to me that, to often with 
new technology, an upgrade means that adaptive tech users are left behind 
temporarily until the adaptive tech companies are able to catch up.  With 
the iPhone, the updates from 3 to 3.1, and from 3.1 to 4, both had major 
improvements in the functionality of voiceover, which to me suggests that 
including voiceover on the phone was not something done as a one off, that 
Apple is commited to making this work.

Best,

Marc

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamika Williams" <tamwill009 at comcast.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blind folks and the IPhone


> Hello Jim,
>
> I too like others was very hesitant about purchasing the IPhone, but I 
> turned out to love it after playing around with it on my free time for a 
> couple of weeks. You have heard some upsides from me and others, now You 
> ask what was some downsides, well there is a couple minor ones. One is the 
> battery life is very short depending on how much you use it. You can keep 
> it on lock and it will help preserve some of the battery, but me 
> personally I have to put it on the charger about 2 or 3 times a day. 
> Another one is while you are on the phone, your sound alerts are heard by 
> the other person you are talking to. So if you receive another call, 
> voicemail, text message, or someone is disconnecting off of a line it will 
> all be heard by the person you are talking to. I don't know if there is a 
> solution has been discovered for that yet. However, just like anything 
> else there are going to be things you like and don't like, I think that 
> the upsides definitely outweights the downsides. In addition, to access 
> the voiceover feature you can also hith the home button 3 consecutive 
> times quickly and it will toggle it on and off. Good luck in making your 
> decission.
>
> Tamika Williams, AABS President
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jim" <jp100 at earthlink.net>
> To: "Jim" <jp100 at earthlink.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 6:13 PM
> Subject: [nabs-l] Blind folks and the IPhone
>
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>>
>>
>> Lately, I've been seeing that the new IPhones have been coming out and 
>> have
>> become somewhat accessible, especially for blind folks.
>>
>> I am totally blind and am interested to hear from other blind IPhone 
>> users.
>> I am elegible for an upgrade from At&T, and I'm really tempted but want 
>> to
>> know if it is really doable and a good investment.  I want to hear your
>> experiences and pros and cons.
>>
>> Also, how did you learn and what sorts of tutorials or manuals did you 
>> use?
>>
>> Talk to me!
>>
>>
>>
>> Jim P
>>
>>
>>
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