[nfbcs] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac

[Steve Jacobson]

Joe,

This is good stuff, and I, for one, really appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences.  Do you know which version of the operating system you were 
using?  My understanding is that there have been improvements with respect to VoiceOver's method of handling check boxes and such in the latest version, I think 
10.7, but don't know the details.

>From what I gather, web browsing on the MAC is significantly enough different that it takes time to really understand how to deal with web pages effectively.  If I ever 
get the chance to really spend some time on the MAC, I would probably want to talk to some people experienced with the MAC to find out how they handle certain 
tasks.  I know that there are a few MAC users here as well and hope they chime in.  

Your point that MACs are different than PC's is a good one and I have found I have to be careful making assumptions.  For example, when my daughter got her 
MAC, she mentioned TextEdit.  I assumed that TextEdit was a text editor.  This seems like a reasonable assumption given the name, but as I'm sure you already 
know, it is not.  It is a reasonably powerful word processor that is included with the operating system.  As far as I can tell, it is a good deal more powerful than 
WordPad.  

What do your fellow employees use for word processing?  I am told that Open Office works reasonably well with VoiceOver but that Microsoft Word for the MAC 
does not.  

I also think that the issue of VoiceOver being included free is something potential buyers have to be careful of as a reason to choose a MAC over a PC.  It is 
included free, there is no doubt of that, and Apple should be commended for what they are doing.  However, it appears to me that you still pay a good deal more for 
a MAC than a PC, and while buying a screen reader for a PC will certainly wipe out the difference, the total cost of each becomes less of an issue in my opinion.  
You would be very hard pressed to buy a PC with JFW without paying a good deal more than you would pay for a MAC, but buying a PC with one of the less 
expensive screen readers might be cheaper in some cases and the accessibility you get could be similar to what you get with VoiceOver.  One really needs to 
decide if 
their interests and/or their environment make using a MAC the way to go.  Being able to make such a choice is a very positive step, though, and I am not minimizing 
that in the least.  It is very significant that we now have this option.

Thanks again for sharing this information.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Thu, 13 May 2010 10:23:38 -0400, Joe Orozco wrote:

>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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