[Nfbmt] Fwd: [Trainer-talk] Another Resource for VisuallyImpaired Apple users

Wed Jan 30 15:14:06 UTC 2013

Wow Dave, some of this gets confusing.

286 doesn't refer to gigabytes, does it?

halfway through a baseball game ... at first I thought you were
talking about streaming.

your contract with Ma Bell doesn't mean your own mother, does it?

Bunch of old fogies jawing about vert is dirt. Kind of people that
remember when their family first got color TV. Or first got any TV.

Now it's all double-taps, triple-taps, triple-finger-triple taps,
swipes, flicks and turning imaginary knobs on that old TV set to
change the settings.

next we'll be twitching our noses ... like Elizabeth Montgomery!

Dan

On 1/29/13, David bell <davidbell at musfiber.com> wrote:
> As one who was there when Mr. James first started messing with screen
> readers, I can attest that he would have taken the bus had he known what
> was
> coming. And I can prove my point by reminding him of one expression: "VERT
> is dirt!"
>
> I think that was first uttered when the screen reader crashed a 286
> computer
> halfway through a baseball game we were playing. Not sure why he was so
> exercised, cause I was ahead.
>
> I also remember Rik laughing at me for getting upset upon finding that the
> Apple Mac we were trying to run with a screen reader from After Dark didn't
> have a button to eject the3.5 inch floppy. You had to use the mouse to get
> your disk back. I was appalled. Yeah, we did some high powered computerin'
> at the old Summer Orientation Program in Bozeman town.
>
> Now we have Apple stuff all over the house. I almost always have one of
> their products in my hand. I even made another run at switching to a Mac
> just before Christmas. The learning curve got me again. I just hate to give
> up navigating websites with one hand using JAWS. So I gave FS another $200
> for the SMA and found a bargain on a new Windows laptop. It is really
> loaded
> and was awefully cheap.
>
> I would still advise most blind people to go the Apple route for phones and
> portable players at this point. I am tempted by the prices of the Android
> devices. But the access is not quite ready for prime time. I follow the
> Android market through podcasts and may make the move over there next time
> my phone contract with Ma Bell runs out. Since I picked up an iPhone 5 on
> New Years Day on a Walmarrt Christmas sale, that switch will likely be 18
> months off.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nfbmt [mailto:nfbmt-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rik James
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 7:30 PM
> To: NFB of Montana Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [Nfbmt] Fwd: [Trainer-talk] Another Resource for
> VisuallyImpaired Apple users
>
> Thank you very much.
> If when we were first fooling with these things called keyboards that had
> been pecked upon like typewriters and then getting our 20 megabyte hard
> drives to store our thoughts and dreams.  And if when we began using our
> external synth o scissors to cut through the web of graphics that lay
> before
> us to see how the future would just keep on and on into the infinite.  I
> wonder what I would have done.
> If I knew at the beginning it would be something of a choice between an
> apple and an android. I might well have just taken the greyhound to hawaii
> and elected to pick pineapples. sat around and let gene roddenberry talk to
> me of the q and the borg.
>
> But here it is. The future is where it always was.
> And I am where I've never been before.
>
> And I wonder who will care if I bit the apple or conscripted an android.
>
> Ah, it ain't poy fict.
> But it is iz what it iz, friends.
> Thank goodness Montana has pineapples, too.
>
> I shall have to look into all of this lovely talk. Jim, Dan, and all. Great
> stuff.
> Rik
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Marks
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 4:45 PM
> To: 'NFB of Montana Discussion List'
> Subject: Re: [Nfbmt] Fwd: [Trainer-talk] Another Resource for
> VisuallyImpaired Apple users
>
> I use a Droid 4 smart phone and dabble with Apple I pads and IPods.  The
> Nexus 7 would be the Android version of the Ipad Mini.  Either is a good
> choice insofar as tablets go.  Accessibility is excellent in both.  The
> Nexus 7 uses either Talkback, Spiel, or Mobile Accessibility.  There is a
> really extensive review of the Nexus 7 on the podcast, "That Android Show."
> Just Google the show name and listen to the most recent edition.
>
> The Apple stuff uses Voiceover, and you won't go wrong choosing it on any
> platform.  My preference is for Android because I like the openness of the
> system.  Apple controls everything, and it's too hard to experiment with
> apps and features insofar as a comparison with Android goes.  Also, Android
> stuff is generally a lot cheaper.
>
> I like my Droid 4 smart phone because it has a physical keyboard.  Touch
> typing on a screen is terribly slow for me, although I bet a person gets
> better at over time.  There's an app called Flexi that makes typing on a
> touch screen easier.  Right now, it's only on Apple, but an Android version
> is coming soon.
>
> My Droid 4 phone's GPS is wonderful, and an app to use the Droid as a scan
> and read tool just came out that's really amazing.  It's called Scanthing.
> I also use my phone to read e-mail, browse the web, identify money, to
> monitor Twitter and Facebook, read Newsline newspapers and magazines and
> Bookshare books, identify colors on clothing, etc.
>
> One consideration is the learning curve.  Android has poor documentation
> compared to Apple.  Almost everything documentation for either is third
> party.  Android documentation tends to be more scattered.
>
> Those who like to tinker with things will like Android better than Apple.
> Apple is designed to work the same way all the time.  Android lets
> developers have more free rein, so the results can be a bit bumpy.  The two
> platforms rob ideas from one another a lot.  Every day, the begin to
> function more and more alike as a result.
>
> Hope this info helps!
>
>
>
>
> Jim Marks
> Blind.grizzly at gmail.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nfbmt [mailto:nfbmt-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan Burke
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 3:24 PM
> To: NFB of Montana Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [Nfbmt] Fwd: [Trainer-talk] Another Resource for Visually
> ImpairedApple users
>
> The Nexus 7 is an Android OS. I had the opportunity to play with the tablet
> (not the phone), and it is getting there in terms of accessibility.
>
> In fact, I am not sure what the comparable phone from Google is called
> - Nexus 4 or something?
>
> The iPhone just works, as a lot of blind people like to say. You're tied to
> the platform as far as the apps and music, etc, that you might buy for it,
> for the most part.
>
> However, I don't think the Nexus is quite as nonvisuallly accessible as the
> iPhone yet.
>
> How's that for equivocation?
>
>
> On 1/29/13, Rik James <montanarikster at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I really need to figure out if I want or can get one of these phones
>> and figure out how much I'd use it.
>> Does anyone know .. a sighted friend just got a Nexus 7, which I guess
>> is an
>>
>> Android thing. Does anyone know if they have capacity to use the newer
>> screen reading software?
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Rik
>>
>>
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>
> --
> Dan Burke, President
> The National Federation of the Blind of Montana
>
> Visit us on Face Book at http://bit.ly/nfbmtfb My Cell:  406.546.8546
>
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-- 
Dan Burke, President
The National Federation of the Blind of Montana

Visit us on Face Book at http://bit.ly/nfbmtfb
My Cell:  406.546.8546