[nfbcs] FW: compiling iPhone apps to Android apps

Sat Mar 28 22:46:20 UTC 2015

I think the bottom might just be dropping out of Apple, at least for us.
Let's see how this wwwatch pans out first though.
I called them and no one could give me info on whether the watch would
be accessible, but let's see.

On 3/28/15, Steve Jacobson via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Joseph,
>
> To some degree I am disappointed in the direction this discussion has gone,
> but I, for one, am also very interested in understanding the strengths and
> weaknesses of both phones.  I've owned an iPhone now for
> almost two years, and I'll have to consider what to do when I can next
> upgrade which will be soon.  The learning curve has been steep enough for me
> that I don't know that I want to throw it away, but as
> someone who has been into computers, I like the idea of just managing the
> data on my phone as a drive or being able to access an SD card.  While I see
> some advantages to more closed systems and don't
> have strong objections to them, iTunes has never felt natural to me.  Before
> I had an iPhone, I had a Windows Mobile 6 phone with CodeFactory's
> MobilSpeak.  It allowed me some of the same access that you
> mention in terms of files.  What I've really liked about the iPhone compared
> to my previous experience is the stability.  It just seems to work.  There
> are occasional glitches, but nothing substantial.  I've heard a
> few stories of people working with Android tablets indicating that may not
> have always been true, but would you comment on that?
>
> One reason I said I was a little disappointed in the direction this went is
> that we really need to understand development better, particularly in terms
> of accessibility.  Having been involved with accessibility for a
> long time, I see us fighting the same battles over and over again.
> Solutions seem to come faster now, but I am concerned about our long-term
> accessibility.  We pushed for years to get blackberry phones to be
> accessible, and about the time we got somewhere the bottom dropped out of
> their market.  A lot of work was done with Windows Mobile, and by the time I
> got rid of my Windows Mobile phone it was not too bad.
> However, Windows Mobil 7 had virtually no accessibility built into it, and
> I'm not honestly certain where we are right now with Microsoft.    While
> Apple is viewed pretty favorably now, it took years before anything
> significant was done.  All in all, though, I think I can say with some
> degree of accuracy that once they built accessibility in, it probably was
> the most stable approach we saw.  Android came along, but even if
> accessibility is good now, it had to play some degree of catch-up.  It
> seemed as though it was an after-thought in many ways.  Given all this, I
> don't have a great degree of confidence that we won't see another
> operating system come along and the bottom drop out of one of the existing
> ones and find we have to start all over again.  For one thing, we have to
> figure out how accessibility could be easier to implement, and
> I don't know the answer to that.  We also need to understand the difference
> between accessibility and usability.  Some say that if something is not
> usable it is not accessible, but I don't think that is always true.
> Sometimes, our tools could bridge the gap if they would.
>
> In general, we probab ly have a better chance to gain accessibility where
> systems are closed.  We also can be completely locked out of closed systems
> as was more or less the case with Blackberries for a long
> time.  Open systems present more challenges.  As a developer who has stated
> you prefer more open systems, do you have thoughts on how we get
> accessibility more into the core of such systems sooner?
> What degree of governing or guidelines would be acceptable to developers
> without restricting their need to have flexibility?  Thanks for any
> thoughts.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Joseph C.
>>Lininger via nfbcs
>>Sent: Friday, March 27, 2015 3:10 PM
>>To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
>>Subject: Re: [nfbcs] FW: compiling iPhone apps to Android apps
>
>>I've been hearing a lot of talk about how great Apple's accessibility
>>is, how that in Android is lacking, etc. However, as of today I'm just
>>not seeing it. I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong, as I don't have
>>an Apple device. That being said, I've watched people using them and I'm
>>not seeing a lot of difference in their capabilities using an iphone and
>>mine using a Galaxy S4. A couple of years ago, I would have said there
>>was a major difference. I won a Galaxy S3 tablet in a raffle, and it
>>just didn't work that well as far as accessibility goes. However, my
>>Galaxy S4 phone has a newer version of Android and is much more capable
>>as far as accessibility goes. I can even install things from Google Play
>>and they usually work. In fact, there has been exactly 1, count it, 1
>>app that I just flat could not use. It was one that came with the
>>device. I would be interested in hearing about what abilities the iphone
>>has accessibility-wise that I don't have with my Galaxy S4.
>
>>What I have seen, and what made me make the original choice of Android
>>over Apple is that the Android offers me some choices that are simply
>>not available with the iphone. I can use an SD card to exchange data
>>between my machines if I want to; I'm not required to pass data over a
>>network or sharing service. I can synchronize my address book, calendar,
>>and task list wiht that in Thunderbird by installing a program on my
>>computer and an app on my phone. I can connect my phone to my computer
>>and have it appear as a drive so I can transfer files if I want to do
>>that. No itunes or other software required to make that work. (Apple
>>might have that ability too; unsure) I can write software and load it on
>>the device over USB without publishing it to Google Play.
>
>>In the interest of complete honesty, I will admit that I am not overly
>>fond of how the dialer works. It's not the easiest thing in the world to
>>get it to cooperate and work the way I'd like, although I'm not sure how
>>much of that is an access issue and how much of it is just that I don't
>>like the way it operates. I think it's a bit of both, actually. From
>>what I saw, the one in the iphone works more the way I would like. I
>>wouldn't make a purchase dicision based on that, but I do acknowledge it.
>>Joe
>
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-- 
Thank you.

Jorge A. Paez

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