[nabs-l] Basic Questions About Mac versus Pc

Sun May 9 03:49:46 UTC 2010

As far as voiceover and jaws are concerned, voiceover has loads better support for the OS in general.
With iTunes, you can download things like vlc to play your wma files, but you cannot sync them to your iPod unless you convert them to mp3 or m4a.

The mac has an application suite that is similar to microsoft office called iWork.  You can still read/edit word, excel, and PowerPoint documents, and even save copies of the iWork files as microsoft word, excel, or even PowerPoint files.

Mail is great!

I have had no problems with mail, but I do wish they still had support for the pop protocol, as everything to my knowledge does not use Imap.  I could be wrong on that, so anyone that knows about this can correct me if you want.

They do release voiceover improvements with all upgrades of the OS.  The reason for this is because when they fix the OS, they fix voiceover too.

Ical and addressbook are about 99% accessible in my eyes, but still have some accessibility shortcomings.  The most notable example in the addressbook is renaming groups.  As of OS 10.6.3, they have not worked out a fix for the problem with groups, but you can create a workaround for this problem.

The major thing is that voiceover does not crash most of the time to the point you have to restart the mac, but when it does, it is programmed to relaunch itself immediatly after such an event.

With jaws, that thing crashes, and you're pretty much screwed and you have to restart the computer.

Another major thing is that you can take your settings everywhere on a flashdrive.  Just connect the drive when voiceover is on and it should ask if you want to use your preferences that are on the flashdrive.

Really though, since I've been using a mac, nothing else compares to it, not even linux for its ease of use.

As far as the stories you've heard about mac not being compatible, that is becoming increasingly more bogus each day I look around at the computer world.

In conclusion, just about everything you can do with windows you can do with the mac, and with the mac, you have better control of what happens with updates and everything like that, and if you need to take a mac in for repairs, the apple turnaround time is generally about 1 to 3 days, and I've gotten my macs back from repairs at least 2 days after I turn them in.

There are other places you can take your mac to get repaired, but I would still recommend just taking it to apple for repairs, as they know about the product, and they know all its quarks.  They can also have an answer for you pretty quick, and they do listen to bugs/suggestions for the product.
On May 8, 2010, at 11:46 AM, Joe Orozco wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I keep hearing about all these wonderful things about Macs.  I was very
> interested in the iPad review on Access World, and my employer's offer to
> switch out my PC for a Mac just gets more tempting by the moment.  Still, as
> I get older I am less tolerant of drastic changes to my office assembly, and
> yet, temptations abound.
> 
> 1. In the most recent platform upgrade, how has the accessibility changed in
> terms of the screen reader?  Is the screen reader only updated with system
> upgrades, or are there ever updates between major upgrades?  If you had to
> compare Voiceover to JAWS, how does their functionality break down?  I know
> it's not fair to compare one to the other because the logic is a bit
> different, but I'm hoping you can speak to the level of manipulation you
> have over the applications in your computer.
> 
> 2. How has the compatibility changed in terms of Macs and software packages?
> I originally hesitated, because it seemed the industry was more prone to be
> compatible with PC products.
> 
> 3. How easy is it to control documents in the word processor?  Do Macs use
> their own version of MS Office, or is there a native word processor that
> makes Office documents readable?
> 
> 4. What can you tell us about their e-mail client?  Outlook has its quirks
> but is almost 100 percent accessible.  Sunbird, by contrast, would be great
> but in my opinion still had some accessibility shortcomings.  I'm wondering
> if the same is true of iCal and Mac-based applications?
> 
> 5. How much freedom do you have with Macs to go outside of iTunes?  I don't
> much care for proprietary packages unless it's unavoidable.
> 
> 6. Are hardware repairs truly limited to Apple stores?
> 
> I know the best thing is to play around with Macs yourself.  I intend to do
> that when I visit our home office in California in a month, but I'm hoping
> those of you who are daily users of the system can give up-to-date
> information since reviews can quickly become outdated.  And, I'm sure that
> even playing with a Mac for an hour or so would not truly give me a sense of
> how well they meet my daily task expectations.
> 
> Thanks for any information and/or website recommendations.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Joe
> 
> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
> 
> 
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