[nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac

[Joe Orozco]

Hello,

Earlier this week I had the privilege of handling a Mac Book Pro, iPad and
iPhone, none of which I'd previously touched before.  These impressions are
very preliminary and full of bias from a PC user.

Mac Book Pro:

I handled a 13-inch model, and the keyboard was fantastic.  I don't know
that I would jump at the opportunity to switch from my current Dell
Latitude, but if I had no other choice, the Mac Book Pro would not be a
disappointment in the slightest.  Very solid hardware and sleek design.  I
have long fingers, and the keyboard was sufficiently comfortable.

Voiceover:

The speech is excellent.  It is very human-sounding and did not distort with
faster speeds.  Perhaps because the screen reader is built into the
operating system, I did not hear any pauses or experience too many delays in
accessing what I needed.  Where my admiration fell short was in the logic of
the command structure.  When navigating in Safari, for example, I used the
VO keys plus Left and Right arrows to navigate hyperlink by hyperlink.  I
understand there are different modes to navigate web pages, but I somehow
enjoy the JAWS capacity to jump in different blocks with greater flexibility
without the need to make adjustments.  I did not much care for having to
copy and paste content from the iWorks processor to the text processor to be
able to tell certain formatting attributes.  Finally, I was not keen on
relying on VO keys as the central point to make what appeared to be the
majority of all keystrokes.  On a PC I suppose it is enjoyable to interact
more with a larger percentage of my keyboard.  Certain keystrokes on the Mac
Book Pro felt awkward to perform with one hand.  Activating check boxes and
selecting items from lists was awkward.

iPad:

I wasn't a fan.  The Kindle is more compact, boasts a physical keyboard and
to me just seems much more comfortable.  Both the iPad and iPhone use the
same screen reader the Victor Reader Stream uses.  Disappointing.  I somehow
thought these two products also used the Alex voice, but perhaps this is
simply processor capacity?  To me the iPad felt like a netbook with a touch
screen.  I did not much care for connecting a bluetooth keyboard for more
comfortable typing.  Portability seems to me the main driving motivator to
get an iPad, and as far as portability is concerned, the iPad fell very
short of my expectations.

iPhone:

I sucked at using it in the very short length of time I had to play with it.
Yet, someone demonstrated how she could easily navigate and interact with
e-mail.  I don't know that I appreciated the size of the device, think the
Samsung Moment running Android feels more comfortable in my hand.  Yet, the
iPhone very clearly beats the Android seven ways to Sunday in terms of
accessibility.  If you can figure out the touch screen, it may very well be
golden.

So there you are, very basic impressions.  I plan to continue exploring the
Mac alternative and hope other people contemplating a switch will also share
their experiences moving from a PC environment.  If any of what I've written
here is wrong or misleading, please correct me, because it may well have
been my own ignorance.  If you do play around with Mac products, just
remember it's true that Mac systems are no PC.  Accept the alternative
platform for what it is.

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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