Category: accessible Devices
hi, was wondering if anyone had purchased a tablet?if so, what type? will they replace laptops? should we be getting ready to make the switch? any info would be appreciated. ty,gizzmobear
p.s. is droid best equiped to serve our needs? or, is the i fone king of the hill?
Most all android access relies on either a keyboard on the device, or a non standard user interface. No mension has really been made of how the access experience will translate over to tablets. Their have been some instances of some developers emulating the way access works on the iOS platform in that you can drag your finger around the screen to get a sense of what's around. But this isn't mainstream. so, with most touch screens, even with access tech turned on, you'd need to know exactly where to press, or spend alot of time backing out of applications and the like. If you're hell bent on a tablit, the iPad is probably your best bet just because it incorperates access features that the competitors don't. I need to do more research, but from everything I can tell, hp and rim don't have plans to make their platforms access friendly either. So, it makes it alittle harder to choose a platform based on its marrot, rather than its access features.
OK this isn't likely to totally answer your question but hopefully inform:
The problem you'll find with any Android-based device is its splintered market. Android is the Windows of the new mobile market. You can do pretty much anything to it, and it can lock up or get stuck or pretty near anything else. The people I know withn androids often pull the battery and reset, when the device freezes, and this isn't using any sort of access technology. So, there are probably things the Android devices can do that others cannot, like Flash, for instance. Whether or not you could use it, or I could use it, is probably another matter. I did some reading on the access part, since I'd personally be needing that, and found in order to maximize your use of the device, you need to use a different shell (external interface), different apps for several core functions (mail and browsing), and the list goes on.
On the contrary, I got an iPod in December, and while twinkle-toed Apple lived down to its reputation of leaving out some enterprise features, I was able to buy a few inexpensive apps to fill that gap.
I will say, I'm still surprised at how amazing the device is to use: No real crashes, no freezing up, no dead device turning into a shiny brick till it gets reset. Because of that alone, I'd suggest getting an iOS device like an iPod with an external bluetooth keyboard, or a full-sized iPad especially if you have any sight at all.
Even my wife, who had previously told me under no uncertain terms, she did *not* want anything with a touch screen, recently started talking about wanting an iPad.
The power of your mobile device is its market, the applications store you access, and its ability to perform as an appliance does. The days of the average person fiddling and twiddling with the computer all day just to make it work properly are fast receding. Until recently, that is why Blackberry devices were deployed on company networks to manage mobile data. iOS is starting to find itself in the enterprise space, and I'm hoping they wire their head and their ass together on some of these enterprise-friendly features most devices have had for years, like contact categories, group emails, etc. Also they really do need to more directly open up the user store - the part of the file structure where your personal documents go, as that will immediately broaden their market usage in corporate networks with Exchange and VPN, which already works with amazing accuracy on iOS 4.2.
So, for now, blind, sighted or one-legged frog, if you need to use the device often, and want to depend on it, I'd get an Apple device, an iPad or iPod / iPhone.