Category: Geeks r Us
I'm a totally blind user of both PC and the Mac. At first it took some
time to really figure out the mac, but now its pretty intuitive. I would
be flat out lying if I said mac is so easy on the first try, no, not
Really folks; it does take some getting used to the different settings .
On top of the different way it is set up, the cursor is different on the
mac than on the PC. on the PC the cursor is to the right of the text,
but on the mac the cursor is between the 2 letters. for instance, if you
spelled mac the cursor on windows is to the right of the letter c and on
The mac the cursor is between the an and c. In windows jaws would be
saying m a c every time you arrow to the left or right which is more accurate when proofreading. On the mac, the cursor is between the
letters which makes it confusing and you then end up deleting the wrong
letter, but you can set the cursor to work like windows under the
preferences for voiceover. It took me a while to figure the settings but
I can now do that with no problem. The advantage of owning the mac is
the cost effective solution and the in person technical support you
receive with added training at there centers whereas windows you have to
sometimes send out parts of a computer and if you need tech support you
have to wait a long time especially if you have to deal with jaws and
it's flukes. besides the in person tech support and servicing of parts
between both PC and mac, on the PC you can only use the keyboard with
jaws and thus it takes longer sometimes to complete the needed tasks
where as on the mac you can use the trackpad as a mouse and you can
actually press on any part of the trackpad and it will read the text on
the screen. + navigation with the trackpad is faster and more so if you
use the keyboard as an added supplement. Voice over has cool voices and
are more up to date whereas jaws have the monotone robotic voices which
makes me personally want to fall asleep when reading tedious amounts of
documents as a college student. I love alex because his voice is a lot
more humanlike and has a variety of expression. The only nuisance is the fact that Microsoft office suite isn't accessible yet on the mac with Voice over, but you can get apple's version which is cheaper than Microsoft Office suite, although it has some miner inconveniences when it comes to formatting, but it's doable and it's not all that bad. The only thing with pages is that tables are not read well using voice over nor do the bullets but if you use text edit then it's fine, although some improvement should be done in that respect. In that case I would
just say that you have to decide on what you feel more comfortable. But
me personally after the mac i'm not looking back except when I work at
an office using a PC but for personal use, that's a different story.
What is your view on the use of the Mac verses PC?
I'm just curious to know if some of you share the same opinion or have something similar.
I want a mac but it would bee a toy to me. Probly because I am a laptop user with windows and jaws. Sometimes NDVA when I need to it.
It depends on your need. Since most employers use pc-based equipment, it is a no brainer. otherwise it is merely, what you want to do. Jaws does have some real nice voices with its realspeak though. Me personally, the freedom of choice the pc offers me is definitely worth it. That, despite the bolt on accessibility approach that I, a pc user must endure, the miriad of choices and configurations I get are much more important. For others, the fact that Apple makes its products accessible, out of the box is an obvious plus. No answer is right for everyone.
Outside accessibility I will say if you are a basic user and don't do well managing antivirus / everything else, get a Mac. We have successfully converted a number of Coast Guard folk to macs out here, and unlike on this site, accessibility has nothing at all to do with any of it.
Truth be told: Bill Gates 1996 said it well when he described Windows as the OS for people who, like men in the 1950s, like to tinker with the car in their garage.
Certainly Linux is that way as well though Ubuntu is certainly sailing past Windows to the end-user-serviceable end of things.
In 1989, Steve Jobs talked about the Computing Appliance, e.g. it runs like your refrigerator does.
Obviously more complex than that, but the two companies have different models. If you're a basic user in 2011 I would get a mac. The reason my family does fine on Windows is because I am there to fix it when it goes wrong. And, because in large part visually I have set it up similar to a mac including a Dock program.
If the Winblows machine poops out for some reasonn and I am gone, the wife, an average computer user, has been known to turn it off, close the lid and call me saying I need to fix it when I get back.
Since people say there are a lot of blind people doing audio, I'm surprised they're not all on Macs. Sighted people have done premium audio on Macs for 25 years. Granted, until the VoiceOver, we could not use the Mac.
And frankly, before intel and OS/X was adopted, I never recommended a mac to anybody except the elitist academia artsy fartsy types.
Now the Mac is more normal as it pertains to network connectivity, wireless, device and file system interoperability etc. To normal users that means it plugs into networks everywhere, you can plug any thumb drive or printer into it, etc.
The difference is what you want to do with your machine: Gill Gates' model aka play around in your garage with your car, or Steve Jobs' model use your car to get you places.
We can see where automobiles have gone: no tune-ups until 30,000 miles: a far cry from my father in the 70s going out in the rain every single Saturday just to maintain the vehicle.
There's your difference, opinions aside.
My perfect combination is a PC for work (I did formal testing in 7 categories and Macs fluked in Office applications, espepescially spreadsheets, and PDF document reading, both are importan to me), and an iPad or iPhone (I have the iPhone) with a bluetooth braille display like the BraillePen and a Bluetooth keyboard. You get the cool factor and convenience of Macs fror home and travel with those devices, but with Windows you do all the work stuff, Duxbury/Jaws/coding (I am not sure if there are accessible code development apps like Visual Studio or Eclipse for the Mac that work with Voiceover).
I choose whatever device does the task and s most similar to what my colleagues use, to maximize success.
If you develop in one code editor, and your colleagues in another, even if it is the same language, you've created complications, sometimes very minor but sometimes major. Same wth everything else, our choice is very dictated by what our peers use I think.
That being said, iPad and a Windows laptop, great combination.
If I got a free MacBook Air (awesome machines) I'd take it, but it would be more of a toy than my main work station.
Oh I definitely agree with using the tools for the job.
One main reason I'll get a Mac for the family is my daughter is a photographer, and the word from those who do it out here is still Macs are the standard for that as opposed to Windows.
I agree development seems to be superior in Windows, certainly for what I am currently doing.
I too caution against marrying a platform and just go with what does the job for the tasks at hand.
The iPod Touch serves me so well in part because so many of my unit members use, and the apps are very serviceable for us.
EWell, i think macks are good if you're using it for more personal stuff although i wouldn't really do work stuff on it except school projects or presentations that don't involve very graphic and advanced formatting. Although i like pages although there are some caviats in terms of reading tables and minor formating flukes but there are workarounds for that.
I do hope that microsoft word is accessible for the mac though