[nabs-l] Questions About Getting New Laptop

Mon Jun 20 16:40:27 UTC 2011

Florida? Are you going to convention while you're there?

 Chris

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To learn more about Camp Abilities and find a local camp near 
you, just click on this link to their national Web site: 
www.campabilities.org.

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Maryland have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click 
on this link to learn more and to contribute: 
www.icanfoundation.info.

 Sent from my BrailleNote

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Kerri Kosten <kerrik2006 at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>,"T.  Joseph Carter" <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com
Date sent: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:00:04 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Questions About Getting New Laptop

Hi All!

Thanks for the info.  I really appreciate it!

I want to hopefully bring this new laptop to my upcoming trip to
Florida to visit some family so I think I am going to just go for
windows and maybe get a mac later when I know I'll have more time 
to
spend learning voiceover.

I did a quick search on Amazon for the I7 laptops and the 
cheapest
prices I can find are in the $800 range.

What kind of budget/price should I go for? I guess the more you 
pay
the better...are the more expensive I7 processor high end laptops
worth it over the much cheaper I3 ones?

I don't want to be so cheap I get a crappy laptop but at the same 
time
I don't want to get something that is overpriced and I end up 
getting
screwed.

For those who have purchased laptops recently did you go for the
cheaper lower end or the more expensive higher end models?

I don't mind spending the money for something good but I also 
don't
want to spend a ton on something and get screwed.

Thanks!
Kerri

On 6/19/11, T.  Joseph Carter <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com> wrote:
 For a JAWS user or Window Eyes user, the Mac is going to take a
 little getting used to, but other than learning the new screen
 reader, it functions basically as you’d expect it to.  The 
option to
 use a virtual machine to run Windows exists on a Mac as well, 
and you
 will find the MacBook Air in particular a joy to carry after 
lugging
 around a larger, heavier laptop.

 Most ultralight PCs are cheap netbooks and pretty sluggish.  
They’ve
 got going for them the size and usually also the weight, but 
they
 sacrifice much in terms of function to do it.  The difference 
between
 the MacBook Air and a more conventional laptop is that it’s 
missing
 optical drive and ethernet port.  And that it weighs half as 
much!  I
 personally can’t imagine carrying anything else anymore.

 If you don’t mind the heavier laptop, all the advice about what 
to
 look for in a good laptop (i7 being more battery efficient than 
i3,
 etc.) applies to Macs as well.

 The one thing that will take getting used to if you use Windows 
your
 Mac (either via BootCamp or virtual machine) is the keyboard.  
You
 will find that the Alt and Windows keys are reversed.  The 
keyboard
 is basically done the way Mac keyboards have been for ages—it’s 
just
 that Apple and Microsoft happen to put the "alternative 
function" and
 "vendor logo function" keys in opposite locations.  I’ve gotten 
used
 to using Windows that way.  To me it’s no different from using 
the
 Control key versus the Command key for cut/copy/paste.  I just 
do
 what’s appropriate in the environment I’m using pretty 
automatically.

 Joseph

 On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 07:55:28PM -0400, Kerri Kosten wrote:
Hi Everyone!

Well, after five years, it looks like I am going to have to get a 
new
 laptop.

I haven't had to look for a laptop in like five years so I had 
some
 questions.

First, from an accessibility/screenreader standpoint what is 
better
windows or Mac? Was the switch to mac from windows hard? Was 
voiceover
easy to get used to? Do you like your mac better than windows? 
I've
been told macs don't get viruses or have spyware and they seem a 
lot
more durable.  I have a friend who says he has had one for three 
years
(he isn't blind) and he says other than spending some money on a
bigger hard drive and paying $25 for one of the new OS updates (I
believe it was snow lepoard) he said it works just as fast and
everything as it did the day he got it.  It seems with windows 
the life
is only around four or five years old.  Sighted people are 
telling me
to go with mac but I know the world is still largely dominated by
windows.

For windows users who have purchased laptops recently what things 
did
you look for in the laptop? What brands are people using with the
windows screenreaders? I found a Tasheba satellite on Amazon.com 
for
$479...it is usually $780 but has been on sale for $479.  It has 
an I3
processor, 4 gigs of ram, 640 gig hard drive, and a 15 inch 
screen not
that that matters to me.  Supposedly the battery lasts for five 
hours.
I was going to just go with this one but i noticed it is rated 3
starrs on the customer reviews and I wonder why it has dropped so 
much
in price on Amazon.  is anyone else using a tasheba and are they 
good?
What things did you look for in you're laptop before purchasing 
it?

The laptop I will likely get has Windows 7 and is 64 BIT.  Is 
there any
big bugs I should know about with 64 BIT, Windows 7, and Jaws? Do 
you
like windows 7 overall? Is it better than windows vista? My old 
hp
laptop had windows vista on it and my netbook (which I am typing 
this
on) has windows XP.

Even if Rehab or some other source purchased your laptop, I am
noticing most of the new ones have similar specks:Windows 7, a 
500 gig
or bigger hard drive, I 3 and up processor, 4 gigs of ram.  How 
fast
are these? My laptop is so old I'm kind of excited and curious to 
hear
about how fast the latest laptops with these new and improved 
specks
are.

Thanks!
Kerri

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