[nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac

[Dennis Clark]

Hi Joe,'
I really appreciate hearing your observations.  I plan on taking a similar 
Mac product journey soon.
Best,
Dennis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; "'National Association 
of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 7:23 AM
Subject: [nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac


> 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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