Category: The Rave Board
So this is a rant board and here is a rant for all of you out there on the zone. Yes, I know, I am about to open a can of worms but this gets under my skin. So here goes, my post and the back lash here with in I am going to receive. I am not going to name names here :"you know who you are" but why do you feel like you have the knologe to call android accessibility crap, android in general crap when set people have barely used it or never touched the OS. Its like me calling IOS crap, yet I never picked up an IOS device but some how I have carnal knowledge its crap. Let me say IOS is not crap, I have bought "here is the kicker" 3 IPod touches and maybe the refreshed IPod because android will probly never get papa sangra or some other apps. yes I know what I said about never owning an IOS device but at the end of the year, come next year I am getting a Lenovo computer after tax return which should handle Itunes fine. I digress so lets get back to topic, some here comment on android, they have either barely played with the device and never gave it a chance simply because it was not like voice over on IOS. Others go by what friends say :), so this makes you an expert, even to go so far as to correct me who has for about 2 years give or take used android devices ranging from 2.21 to 4.4, whating for my 4.1 update which is coming soon. Keep in mind I have totally submerged myself into android as my phone's Os and no way out purposely. So answer this is it fare for me as a person to go correct "you know who you are on this place" to go correct you if I never, never, used a IOS device? Heck tried it but never gave it a chance because it does not at like voice over? In short no, because if I would speak of a OS which I personally never gave time to it to use as a personal device for 3 weeks to a month, then I know squat about what I am talking about which would make me look dumb. In the sighted world "some tech editors" take a device for a spin for about 3 weeks to a month give or take so they can write a fare review. In a nut shell, if you have not used a android device, gave it a fair chance and realized its not going to act like voice over on the Idevice's, I have one suggestion!, shut your yapping!. You sound dumb, the stuff that "comes out your mind" shows your clearly making assumptions. Now to those who have actually gave android a try "you know who you are" this rant is not for you, to me your review of android and its accessibility upto 4.1 is fare because you have used both IOS and android on a daily bases. Lastly, if you by a crappy android device, you get wait your money bought crap. Android 2.21 and 2.34 run best on a 1 gig or higher processor and you’re going to need more then 512 Megs of ram to see best results out of the device. Android 4.0 and 4.1 need at least a gig or more to run at full peek with out freezing up, keep in mind your also running talkback, explore by touch and web scripts "android vox" before it was changed to the name "web scripts" on your phone so that takes ram. In closing, My hat goes off to some people who have tried or are now trying android on a tablet or phone good luck with your adventure. To "saro Techs" Mike Calvo, he has my respect because of his review was unbyest and fair. Lastly, I have used my device for work, Ana G of that android show, J J Medof both use there android for work as well. yes both of those people are blind as well.
Um... to community leaders who see this, this post needs to be moved, got busy and did not double check where I posted this.
As both IPhone and Androy user, dare i say, both have their advantage and disadvantage. Either 1, you keep up with the accessible user friendly side of thing, or what you simply call it as "holding hands" type of things, or 2, go with something less, but giving you the freedom like you wish for.
Again, it is just like what leo has posted on another topic, it is about the productivity of the user. I feel i'm much more productive using IPhone with my voiceover, compare to using Androy phone with Talkback. You can defend as much as you like, i can defend as much as i like too, but lets put the bias a side. look at the reality of both devices.
I can send a very long winded text with standard typing on an iphone within a minute, or 2, using voiceover.
It took me about 10 minutes to send a very short text message on an Androy ICS without any 3rd party software.
I can brows the web with Safari without any problem.
I can't brows the net with the build in Browser using ICS and Talkback, i need to install some 3rd party software.
I can go thru the old Maps on Iphone without many hassel with only one app.
I'm still trying to figure it out the different between Nevigation and Maps on Galaxy Nexus running ICS.
I have multiple choice when come to voices and languages to choose for my voiceover, and i can do so without going thru complecately setting to turn it on or off, or switch one voice to another, or one language to another in between 1 or 2 seconds.
I can't simply do that without going thru the very long road of setting, language and input, and so on.
I like the idea and concept of Androy, i like the idea of options, i believe option is important, and the freedom of choice is important. However, unless i'm someone who sit at home, have all of the time playing on my phone, have spare time to spend on configuring, customising, installing, twitching this and that, at this stage, the platform of Androy simply not mature enough (in terms of accessibility) for me to make a complete switch, or to suggest it to anyone who's totally blind to use the phone. Grunted, Androy world have more phones, more options, more choices to choose from, but do you need all those choice?
I rather to have a functional, pratical, and a reliable phone that i can use day in and out, not a phone that i need to twitch here and there, install this and that, customise left and right, move up and down in order for something simple, strate forward thing to happen that shouldn't take me more than 30 seconds, but could take me up to 5minutes or more, just trying to set up the process.
You can be offended as much as you like, this is the reality.
I heard a lot of good things about Androy OS, thats one of the reason why i choose Galaxy Nexus as my second phone. Grunted it doesn't come in all the features like Galaxy s3 does, but at the same time, i'm disappointed with the phone. There's so much more that the accessibility side can be improve, and there should be any excuse for it not to happen.
Why are you installing a third party browser on a phone that is stock android? Fine that you do not find android productive, like I said in my post, at least you are giving it a try. So pat on the back from me butter cup. No my post was not directed to you or any one who has had hands on with android's accessibility for a few weeks. Keep in mind, my phone is the only phone I have so weather or not I wanted to learn android from a productive way, its here with me to stay. :), At this time I am atempting to create a blog with word press with my phone, crossing my fingers it works. :) I have used my phone for work, for me it works.
Well I second all that buttercup has said. and I'll add.
My main beef and will remain it is you can't go to a source and get questions answered on how to use Android. For the novice, and the person that lacks technical knowhow, or desire to know that is a problem.
If I need to know something I want to be able to flip through my manual or make a telephone call and get the answer, I don't want to research and test.
Even on phones that weren't Android, or iOS you could read the manual and get your problem solved. Android is just getting here for us, butr needs to be localized as iOS is, so that it can become more general user friendly.
If I were visual I'd most likely have an Android device, but I'm not, so at this time iOS is the way.
You are correct that if a person has not used it they can't say. You are what I'd call a pro and I'm glad to see you not only defending it, but giving out advice on it. You have probably save several people from ditching there phones.
We need alternatives, and I'm super happy to see Android in the batting cage.
Hi.
I am an android user myself and i have got the sony erixon xperia pro running ice cream sandwich.
I chose this particular phone because of its good keyboard.
I didn't want to go compleetely touch.
I have to say that if my phone didn't have a keyboard i would stop using it because no matter how many times i tried explore by touch i am not having much success with it.
I don't know if it is the small screen of the phone which is 3 and a half inches if i remember right or the sony rom that i am using but i am not impressed with the touch experience. So in this aspect i would say the ifone is much better and if somebody wants an only touch device i would recommend the ifone.
I didn't use jeli bean yet. Maybe the experience is better but with ice cream sandwich if somebody wants an only touch phone they will need a lot of practice to get used to it.
I am happy with android myself. I like the fact that i can copy and paste an mp3 file on the phone and use it immediately as a ringtone and i like the freedom that android gives us but we have to be realistick.
Apple is so much ahead about accessibility. They built voice over in the main development of ios they didn't came afterwards to add accessibility so it works much better.
This is my oppinion.
Sorry i forgot to add something.
For a beginner android user it is so difficult to find out all the important information about accessible phones, screen readers, applications etc.
In comparison with the ifone there is so much information out there.
Some individuals made some useful podcasts and blogs but we need a universal place to find all the important information if we want to explore the world of android.
For me it took me about a year to make the decision about which phone to get etc because there wasn't such place for beginners.
I like all of your posts, so far J J Medoff has the best sight for android access. I am hoping Anna G updates her blog. Some of us have asked her so we will see how it goes. If she does not I am making a web sight on word press about android access and will update it via my phone and computer. Its a work in progress and has not got off the ground yet. While I have to face fax"IOS" has been the for front so there will be manuals for it. NOt sure how that would work for android because of 3 screenreaders.
On other topics, the OP has compared iOS to android and gotten a good bit of information wrong. EG, you can copy and paste using iOS. thus, I really think his hole rant above is in bad taste. Clearly this is the pot calling the kettle black.
I've working with wordpress via my iphone4 for at least 2 years now. so, i don't see why not in the Androy word, unless, of course, it is not accessible for ABCDEFG reasons. Which, unfortunately to say, i'm not surprising.
Some ppeople that i talk to who uses Androy phone choose Androy because of the keyboard feature that some phone so happen to have. I'm not against any of that, but for me, i think, i would like to intergrade myself to the fully touch phone, and i must say, i'm happy about it.
If you haven't even tried iOS, don't knock it.
:) clearly I have said my dealings in the past with IOS has been with 3 Ipod touch devices, last IOS update I used, not just played with is 5.1. Thankfully my knologe of IOS was able to help my sighted sister-in-law turn off voice over via Itunes. This young lady had no idea why she restored her Ipod and it had boxes around the icons. :) well she is a happy camper. It was my old Ipod touch third gen, so yes I have used IOS. For me, really do not miss it at all :), the only app I miss is papa sangra that is it. Bar code scanner I have that, text OCR, I have that as well and color detection I have 2 of them as well. Book reader apps I have about 5 of them. PDF reader as well that uses speach to read PDF files. Radeo apps that is growing thanks to ICS and the ability to explore the screen, even Iheart works for me, I love it!!. Now off to go read a book with the bookshare app that just update for IOS and android.
Its cool too, I can use MX video player and watch AVE, MP4, and other video formats with out having them converted via Itunes. Just cut, copy to my internal or external storage and off I go away from my net book to watch videos. :)!! love it!!!
I believe AndroidAccess.net is, or was, the Applevis for Android Accessibility. I did do quite a bit of research before investing in an iPod Touch a couple years ago, because at the time the need I had was what it was, for Coast Guard and other functionality. I believe it's not the accessibility users' issue here: Android is simply fragmented. But at least then, AndroidAccess.net had all the sources for the Eyes-free shell, special dialers, interfaces, email and texting software, etc.
To be fair, I never gave android much of a chance. It was the time when I needed a smartphone; I needed one then. There was no ice cream sandwich, no jellybean. I'm not sure which version was running, but I know I hated it. I didn't want a slide-out keyboard, and I just wanted to use the screen. It wasn't working, but the iPhone was. Also, I was familiar with the apple gestures. Now I have an iPhone, but that doesn't rule out android for the next phone. In fact, that may be exactly what I will get, now that they have all the services available that we iPhone users have been used to. But in my case it was productivity I wanted, and the android device wasn't getting me there.
Here lately I have been doing podcast on android, how to customize the home screen of current samsung galaxy 4.0 devices running touch wiz 4.0. They can be found on the cell phone board. Soon I will include apps and when I get my android 4.1 "jelly bean" update I will do a podcast as well. Why am I doing this you may ask? Many have pointed out a lot of what exist now for android podcasts, how to help, is out of date and needs updating. So Here I am when I can in my free time attempting to change this very situation. If any one has an app they want to see tested and then put through a podcast run leave me a private messege here on the zone. Do not fret, Jelly Bean will be posted here as soon as it arives on my device. I already picked a bone with t-mobile over this exact issue informing them that sprint beat them to the punch already.
I'm certainly interested in checking out your podcasts, Starfly.
I'm considering picking up a Nexus 4 when it comes out in a couple of weeks.
While I love my iPhone and use it everyday, I'm bored with it. The geek in me wants to play with something new, and I've heard accessibility on the Android platform has been significantly improved.
The Nexus 4 is pure Google, half the price of an unlocked iPhone and globably unlocked and ready for any sim.
Brice
Brice some of my podcast are already on the cell phone board as we speak. Just ask me for an app you are wondering if it will work on the android platform that you have on IOS and I will go test it.
I'm excited that apps like Fleksy will soon be on Android and can be used as a universal keyboard unlike with the iPhone where you are stuck with the default keyboard. This type of customization is exciting to me!
But then I read topics on the Eyes-free email list about reading Microsoft Word documents on Android, and according to one user, you can't read Word documents or navigate by words, lines, and paragraphs through them. so once again I'm confused. I have heard that Talkback now has a read all feature, so you can hopefully read ebooks (like text files). But what about PDF files? If someone emails you a PDF or Word file as an attachment, can you read it on the phone?
There's a lot of contradictory information about accessibility of the Android platform. I think a lot of this comes from iPhone users who expect Android to work the same way (it won't), and some of it undoubtedly comes from Android users who are heavily defensive of criticism to the system. The fact that a lot of people on Android don't have the ability to upgrade to the latest version and are stuck on something like version 2.3 doesn't help with the spread of information. Additionally, different manufacturers can install custom skins on the phone (like Samsung) which can complicate the experience as compared to the pure Google experience you would get with something like the new Nexus 4.
So I guess the best solution is to just pick one up with an open mind and start testing.
Keep in mind the latest samsung touch wiz does not interfear with accessibility at all. Yes you can read pdf files with an app called PDF to speach. Its new, has some bugs but give it some time it will be great to use. Word docs can be read through google drive as some claim but I personally have not given it a try yet. So will not put my name to back that claim up. I need to give it try and report back, heck will make a podcast on it when I do to show if it can or can not be done. However text files can be read by char, word, sentence and paragraph this I do know for a fact using the eyes free keyboard under 4.0. When editing text messege the same holds true for android 4.0, when I get my 4.1 update I will again report back.