[nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac

[Briley Pollard]

What I did before purchase was rent a Mac for a week. That way, I had more than 15 minutes to fall in love. Getting the hang of a new OS and screen reader won't happen in store. 

Best,
Briley 
On May 13, 2010, at 11:42 AM, Dennis Clark wrote:

> 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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> 
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