Category: the Rant Board
Okay here goes! Why is it that when someone on here who ask fore a phone suggestion people or some people quickly shove a iphone down people's throat? It frustrates me to know end when all they could do is suggest to try Iphone, then go try the android platform to see which one suits them best. here is an example that I have read: "I am looking to switch to A T and T, which phone should I get, I do not really like touch screens and feel comfortable using a keyboard most of the time." Answer "get a iphone then pair it with a blue tooth keyboard." My question is why!!!? Why when I would have suggested a android with a slider keyboard, using either talkback or spiel if they want a free screen reader. If they do not mind paying fore one then moble accessibility because it seems to read a little more as far as buttons and feedback then talkback and spiel. However, this is not always the case after android had its market update talkback seemed to read it the best but that has been fixed now with spiel. I suggest for those who are in the market for a new phone try both platforms before you make your final decision, do not go get a Iphone, or an android just because you hear all the hype about it. If this were the case I would have gotten an Iphone and it would bee a good paper weight by now just like my IPod touch if I did not have a wife who likes to play with it. I have an store of a person I just did a demo of an android who "had a Iphone" who just took it back and traded it in fore a Verizon Droid 3 slider phone. She did not like the Iphone because of its touch screen interface it was slow fore her. This lady is of a wise age and this is just one example of what I am ranting about. Well I am going rant over and that is it. Post on and post how you feel either with me or call me crazy.
I'm not entirely sure I get your rant, partly because you clearly don't use any form of spell checker and treat punctuation as though it were the bastard child of your homeless aunt, but mainly because what is wrong with responding to somebody who is asking for suggestions, with a suggestion? If somebody specifically asks me what kind of phone should they get I can only answer the iPhone, because what I own is an iPhone. Clearly these people aren't asking for suggestions just for you to tell them that what they should do is go and try every phone in the store until they find one that works for them. Because essentially that is what you're doing. Think about it, your rant is that people suggest the iPhone over the Droid and that what people should do is suggest both, but then it surely logically follows on that the iPhone and Droid aren't the only options in the world so why should you not suggest trying everything.
I haven't used every phone in the store, but I have used an iPhone, the suggestion to get it and then pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard therefore is a proper and sensible suggestion. I know that the iPhone might not be perfect for everybody, I know that some people prefer the Android. But I use an iPhone, know it works well and know it to be highly accessible so if somebody asks me for a suggestion, that's what I'm going to suggest.
Dan./
Exactly. And I can say from personal experience that Spiel sucks. I had it and so did a friedof mine some time back. While it does make the phone usable but it constantly alerted us to new voicemail every five seconds sometimes when we clearly didn't have it. And nothing we did would get it to shut up. Now this is in regard to both myself and my friend. She and I both had phones with Spiel on it at one time or another and we both had the exact same problems with it. I have occasionally had a problem with Voiceover on the IPhone where sometimes I'll end a call and VOiceover will start stttering. But turning the pone off and bac on fixes the problem and it generally doesn't occur very often. Even aside from Spiel I've had several other phones with Talks and Mobile Speak and the IPhone has been by far the most completely usable for me. So yes, I too would suggest the Iphone and recomend it wholeheartedly. And if you don't like touch screens the sggestion of pairing it with a bluetooth keyboard is a reasonable one.
Yes I did use spell check! that is beside the point! and no I am not suggesting to go try every phone but to try both platforms then see what fits your needs. I have used both platforms as well current have a Ipod too. Spiel has gotten better I bet sense you used it Bryon. My point was why buy a Iphone plus a keyboard when you can buy an android with a slider keyboard. Oh, no ITunes is needed to load an android with music cut copy and paste to your SD card. Hm... Simple as that! I can not wait until fire fox comes out with a browser with accessibility built in so we can use flash. This rant may ruffle your Iphone feelings but it feels good know I can just drop my music on and bee done with it. As fore my formatting of this text! it to is not the topic at hand. It’s that someone asks fore a suggestion that does not want to use a total touch screen and most of the time they get “Iphone:” as an answer. My answer to them is to try a slider keyboard phone running Android with either spiel, talkback or if you want to pay fore Mobil accessibility that is an avenue as well to explore.
Yes! let me clear the air a slider keyboard is not need to use a android, I currently have a my touch 4G it does not have a keyboard because I did not want one.
No actually, Spiel hasn't gotten better. Because this friend of mine was using it little over a month ago and it was doing the exact same things it did when I tried it.
So there you go then, that's your suggestion, well done for finally figuring out what a suggestion is.
I think what you're trying to drive at without really saying it is that people are suggesting the iPhone rather than the Droid without having any knowledge of what the Droid is capable of. I also think that the reason you're not right out saying that is because you in your own turn have a partiality toward the Droid but realize that by so openly stating that fact, you'd be contradicting yourself. Nice attempt at putting yourself on a pedestal, but you fail I'm afraid.
The bottom line is, this person stated that they wanted a phone but didn't want to deal with a touch screen and here's the thing, no matter how much you personally don't like the iPhone, suggesting that they use one with a Bluetooth keyboard makes as much sense as anything else.
Indeed to my mind it makes a lot more sense to by a phone that works well out of the box rather than dealing with a second rate half-hearted attempt at a screen reader which essentially gives you the options of either dealing with it's deficiencies, or shelling out an astronomical sum of money to install a second screen reader and then have the additional hassle of switching between the two. You can buy a Bluetooth keyboard for $20 or less on EBay. How much is Mobile Speak these days?
Point is, if you choose to do that and that works for you then fair enough. It's your time and money, do as you wish with it. But back to the original subject, if somebody asks me for a suggestion, I'm going to suggest iPhone and Bluetooth keyboard.
Dan.
Ok, here goes my first post - I appoligize if I don't give a good first impression of myself, as it were.
Ok - first of all...
Why are you going after this guy for his spelling? Way to lower yourself to his level by being a total dick; a lot more polite ways in informing him of the fact.
Furthermore - I, myself, am sick and tired of people saying "iphone this, iphone that". This "friend of yours" - what kind of droid was he using? Was it touch screen? Did he use mobile accessibility?
I had to jailbreak my iphone - I have the 3gs, and while I love it, I hate having to use a bluetooth keyboard to use it - and I'm tired of apples closed system (why the hell should i have to use i tunes for everything)? I love the general principle, I love the amount of apps, I hate what apple is doing by not letting me edit my text message tones, mail, etc.
Also - even if you only use the i Phone, you could at least say hey, there *are* (notice the asteriskks)? other phones available, like android and simbion.
I think what he's trying to drive at is the fact that the i Phone is not the only option, and people on this board seem to think there is no other; I've been lurking on these boards for quite some time, and that seems to be the general consensis.
So - there are my thoughts, in no particular order. In conclusion, I love the phone, but I'm sick and tired of the hole closed system and even jailbroken, it gets worse battery life (due to ssh and me not able to disable it), slow typing speeds (this is just my hate of touch screens, now that I got to use a nokia e71 for a bit and fell in love with the physical keyboard, and the fact that blind folks could be trying something else - the option is there, and the free android screen readers would only get better if more people used them.
Bitching and moaning about how horrible android is isn't going to help (it isn't).
So - there it is. If you've even read this hole thing.
Also - pm me if you would like to chat more about this - I don't mean to be argumentative, I just want to try and get my points across.
thanks
Oh - just saw the post about a bluetooth keyboard and what not. The only bluetooth keyboard that works half assed well is apples own. Most you can't get rid of quick nav and can't get to the home screen.
What good is that. To anyone.
Astronomical? Compared to what it costs for nokia and windows Mobile, mobile speak for android hardly costs anything.
Half assed attempt at a screen reader? Get over yourself; please inform me how speel and talkback have shortfalls? Explain this in detail - give me the exact phone you used, then we'll talk.
If you haven't used android and are only going based on what you have heard, please, shut your mouth until you yourself have used one, ok? Ok. Thanks.
Where as calling somebody a dick is clearly raising yourself so much above everyone else's level. Way to set an example there sir!
So let's deal with this point by point then. Firstly you claim that these boards seem to suggest that the iPhone is the only option. Wrong. There are several topics on the 'Cell Phone Talk' board that deal with the Android. You claim to have been lurking around here for a while, so I'm a little bemused as to how you could have possibly missed such topics. Oh wait, surely you didn't just throw that line in because you thought it would help you win an argument did you? Cheap tactic. You're so big on people doing research before saying things, perhaps you ought to consider your own advice. Just a quick count of the 'Cell Phone Talk' board shoed 4 Android topics. To be sure many more discussing the iPhone, but it is hardly exclusive.
Secondly I don't have to inform people that there are other options. That isn't my job, again I'll refer you to the original point of this rant, the question was posed why do people only suggest the iPhone as an option when suggesting accessible phones. As I've already stated, I don't use a Droid so why on earth would I recommend it to other people? I'd assume that the vast majority of people that are seriously thinking about buying a phone haven't done so from the disadvantaged position of living in a cave for the passed 10 years. Therefore they will know that other phones are available. So the one phone that I can speak from a position of any authority on is the iPhone. If they wish to explore other options that is their prerogative, but I'm not going to suggest it because I've never used one and everything I have heard hasn't impressed me. Quite aside from that I have already showed that the iPhone isn't the only phone talked about on these here boards anyway so to even claim that that is the only phone suggested is rather a misnomer.
As to the Droid itself I find it ironic that you demand that I give you proof of it's floors, then later on admit that the screen reader does have floors, allow me to quote you directly to avoid confusion, "free android screen readers would only get better if more people used them." So what exactly are you saying here now, one minute the Droid is great and every bit as brilliant as the iPhone, the next minute the screen readers would improve if only more people would use them. Which is it?
I have a friend who owns a Droid and he says that something as basic as the contacts isn't terribly easy to use and he still hasn't figured out how to set a specific ringtone to a particular person.
However all that aside I'm not basing my judgments on mere hearsay. I have listened to several podcasts recently some demonstrating the Droid, others directly comparing the same apps on both the iPhone and the Droid. And the one issue that repeatedly comes up is that there are pretty simple things that you can't do with the Droid. Quite bizarrely the guy who does these particular podcasts even uses two separate screen readers because one will manage some things while another will do other things.
So while I can't claim to have ever touched a droid or have used one personally, I have researched as best I can short of actually owning one and they sound inferior.
Which brings me full circle, why on earth should I tell people to try Droids, when I own an iPhone and it works very well for me. That's what I'd suggest to somebody. There's nothing stopping you logging in and offering an alternate suggestion. Welcome to the World of free speech.
Finally to my point about Starfly's poor writing skills. The vast majority of users on this site are completely blind and access all information using screen readers and there is nothing more frustrating than plowing through a post that is as poorly written as his initial post was. Call me a dick for pointing that out as you will but it won't change my opinion. If he's too lazy to bother his ass tidying things up a little before offering it up to the community at large, then he'll just have to accept the consequences won't he. Life's tough. Go and have a good cry about it or something.
Dan.
Well said. And I tried Spiel on several phones. I never owned a Droid personally but when considering whether to get it or the IPhone I was able to play around with a few Droids and to do so quite extensively. And when I visited my friend Terri in Michigan a month ago she too allowed me to play with hers. It had both Spiel and a demo of Mobile Accessibility on it. I was unimpressed with both but much more so with Spiel. Quite apart from the constant, annoying repetition of "New Voicemail" every five seconds when there were quite clearly no new voicemail messages, I too discovered thayy the contacts on that phone were a pain in the ass to manage. I learned more about the IPhone and VOiceover in two roughly half-hour sessions at my local AT&T store, this was a year or so before I even got one, than I did playing with a Droid for hours. Not saying they don't work for some people (obviously they do or nobody would even bother discussing it), but they didn't work for me. People are going to suggest phones that they know, and it just so happens that more people are familiar and comfortable with the IPhone than the Droid. If that changes in future then so be it. But it's hardly fair to get mad at people for suggesting the IPhone just because you yourself don't like it. You can disagree with them, sure, but it's hardly fair to get bent out of shape about it and anyway it neither solves nor proves anything. As for getting a bluetooth keyboard, I may even look into that myself. I'm comfortable with the touch screen, but if I ever had a situation come up where I couldn't manage the touch screen I could still have access to the phone. And I'm intrigued to experience how one would use the IPhone with an actual keyboard anyway.
As dan said above, surely the point here is that people are asking for suggestions. What in fact would be the point of saying to someone "go to the shop and have a look at all the options," if they wanted to do that then surely they wouldn't be asking for suggestions in the first place?
Like Dan I use an IPhone, but I use mine without a bluetooth as I'm happy to use the touch screen. The feedback I've seen about droid hasn't been great, and in terms of accessibility I think that the IPhone still wins hands down.
I wouldn't buy a droid, so why would I want to recommend someone else buy one?
Hmm... I did the best I could with the time I had as far as editing and spell checking! some of us do this at work and have to post and finish their post as quickly as possible because not sure when a call will come in. If your going to bee nit picky about how I spell, write get a life!. No, to those who are adults on here infact if you do not have a job get one! I hear they do a mind wonders!!. To those who frown at mobile accessibility, it so far has been the best screen reader on android I have used, note used on a daily bases!. As far as the iphone goes, lets see, I was posting to my live journal account with my IPod it took me about 15 minutes to finish the post because of how time consuming it is to use apples touch screen fore typing!. Infact I do not even bother to use my IPod I let my wife use it. yes! Mobile accessibility is the easiest screen reader to use on android at this time. Next is spiel again this is my opinion and no way any one else’s. As far an android being inferior to the Iphone! Dream on its at the same level as the Iphone and some ways it ahead of the Iphone. "Someone said when I OS5 comes you will bee able to sink your music to your devices with out needing ITunes." Well try this! Android we have no need fore a ITunes environment to cut copy and paste your music to a phone. So... here i give you a challenge, go try a android based phone! Fore about 2 weeks with either spiel or mobile accessibility. Then come back to me and let’s talk!. Let’s stay on topic and talk about the strengths and weaknesses of Iphone and android! Not how a person spells or writes because that is not the topic at hand.
"Let’s stay on topic and talk about the strengths and weaknesses of Iphone and android!" but that wasn't the topic - the topic was "iphone- related stuff that frustrates me."
Now if you had started your topic as "comparisons between the iphone and Android," then that would be one thing, but you didn't, you started this topic to have a go at iphone users for recommending iphone over not just android, but for not advising perspective phone users to go to the store and find the answers for themselves.
It's all subjective. So it takes you fiifteen minutes to write a post on the iphone - that's unfortunate for you but that is not everyone's experience. I don't use a bluetooth keyboard and I use my iphone's touch screen very effectively. In fact for over a week I had only my iphone for internet access due to moving house and having no internet. I text on it, I tweet from it (I do not like qwitter so I use only my phone for twitter), I send emails from it, and I zone from it. And the touch screen doesn't bother me at all. But for those that it does they have bluetooth keyboards.
If you want a comparitive topic then go and post one. But don't come here ranting about people who like their iphones and then get annoyed when they don't tell you what you wanted to hear.
I did not! I simplely find it frustrating as I said before! when someone ask what phone they should get it would bee wise to tell them to try both the Iphone and the android platform if its possible!. This allows the person to make in informed choice. Also I just helped a lady who was not informed and guess what! VZ suggested no, quite insisted she get a Iphone. Now they Iphone is turned in fore a droid 3 on VZ because she did not get the Iphone gesters very well. This was a lady of a wise age. This has been my rant! flat out. So I am done ranting fore now! going off to find apps fore my phone.
I am going to say this only once more:
If someone asks for a suggestion, then it is natural to, oh, I don't know, suggest something?
Of course iphone is not for everyone. Equally android is not for everyone. But if someone asks for my recommendation then I will recommend what I know and like. People have free will - no-one is forcing anyone to buy an iphone or an android. Just because I suggest the iphone to be the best option doesn't mean anyone has to feel rail-roaded into buying one.
I'm rather more interested though as to why android users are quite so viemently defensive of it. Surely if it's that good it will speak for itself (no pun intended).
Just go and buy an IPhone and be done with it!
You'll be gladd you did in the long run!
I personally have to agree with Clare on this one. I took a look at the first post, andd...well, I don't see how it fit this topic.
But on Shaun's point, I would love to get an IPhone. I use a droid, and I played with the IPhone, and IPhone wins hands down in accessibility.
You say:
"those who are adults on here infact if you do not have a job get one! I hear they do a mind wonders!!"
and then you say you want to stay on topic? seems as though it's more about who can hurl the biggest insult or raise themselves to the highest level than anything else. I don't even own a cellphone, so when I ask for suggestions, I want to know what people use and like. i've seen people post about not being in love with their IPhone, just as I've seen less than faverable remarks about the android stuff. I don't want to be told to go try all the phones out. If that's the kind of advice I'm going to get, I really don't need to ask for it. You're all upset because you see more people recommending the IPhone over the Android, but let's turn it around for a moment. Why is it that you're so quick to suggest Android, while putting others down for recommending the phone that they know and are familiar with? Isn't that a bit of a double standard? Guess that's already been pointed out, though.
because they feel like the android doesn't get the attention it deserves. That maybe if more people use it rather than the IPhone maybe some day access will be better for it. they probably dislike the fact that you can use a IPhone right out of the box with out jumping thrue a bunch of hoops to get a phone that works. oooo, you can cut and paste music, wow, that is so cool! Let me tell you I get a phone just because I can cut and paste music on to it. Sorry, an iphone will kick a android's phones ass with it's screen curtain on.
sure!!!! I have both a Ipod and android phone! its more then just cut and copy and paste music!.. Lets see! answering my phone can bee done in may ways swipe up, with an app running shake it and to hang up swipe down and or shake it then it will hang up. I guess the flexiblity of android is what keeps me in its eco system. Again and fore the last time! I am not suggesting to go try every phone, I am suggesting to try both platforms Iphone and android then make your decission as to what you want to use.
oh wow guess what buddy, double tap with two fingers answers and ends your calls. I'm sorry, but for whatever reason anddroid users are horribly defensive about their phones and OS especially when they're around iPhone users, but you don't see iPhone users trying the best they can to preach just how wonderful their phone is compared to the droid. When the android can put a screen reader onto the operating system without having to download it and the screen reader actually works and you don't have to download anything, come talk to me then.
Yes you do have you seen the forms and other places outside of the zone expecially with a funny people like I'd say ecen are sorry yes you do have never seen c n n.net or is it google news there are people when someone says indiana apple coming from the android any other a list apple people are all over there if you don't believe me go read!
could you write that again with punctuation?
I actually did not technically write it, It was porely translated with talkbacks voice recognition feature which I find it not as good as Moble accessibility's same feature that does the same. Well off to see what the T-mobile Dart has to off my wife.
lol, that android stuff is grate! He just gave us an example of it, lets all go out and buy it now... not.
Does the IPhone have its drawbacks? Certainly. But it's far superior to any other phone I've ever used since I started using cell phones. And that includes the extensive experimentation I did with the Android. Granted the actual phone part of the IPhone could have been thought out better but I still haven't had many problems with it. I can't say the same for the Android, both from my own personal experiences with it and observing friends who were less than pleased. And like I said before, there's absolutely no point getting bent out of shape. You asked for suggestions and people gave them. People are going to suggest what they know and are familiar with or that you go try other phones for yourself if you're unwilling to try whatever else they've suggested. And as someone else has said, when the Android is as accessible right out of the box, no paying extra money, no downloads to make it so, then come back and we'll talk. As for the ITunes thing I used to feel as some others do. I used to hate that in order to manage music on your IPod you had to use ITunes. Before that meant Annapod Explorer, wich qite frankly I could never get to work. Well that or pay a hundred bucks for those ITunes scripts for JAWS. But now that Window-Eyes in particular is ITunes accessible ot of the box (I still don't know about JAWS although I have heard so), using ITunes is actually not too hard. So it's not the big deal it once was in my opinion. Getting more or less back to the point though, if you don't like the touch screen then either get a Bluetooth kyboard or find another phone and screen reader that works for you. ust don't get your undies in a twist just because someone SUGGESTED! the IPhone.
Ok here's my two cents.
Anyone who has known me for awhile has known I have picked on Apple long before their entrance into accessibility, from back in the 90s when they claimed their users didn't need to access networks.
Well, I use an iPod for one very good reason: Security, and the stuff I put on it. I would put Coast Guard business on nothing less than an Apple device because of security. Closed systems have their place, walled garden systems like Apple have theirs, and certainly an open system like Android has its. For most people the device they use has everything to do with what it is they need to do.
So, as a T-Mobile customer, I will probably get an Android phone when I put myself on the data plan we have for the daughter, I will still keep Coast Guard info securely on an i device, a device that may prevent me from customizing some things but in many ways is far far more secure when it absolutely counts.
I see my daughter's MyTouch phone freeze at times, and she has no so-called accessibility anything installed on it. It doesn't freeze as often as my old Windows phone does, but it does freeze more often than I would want, say, when I am in the middle of assisting on the water or in an emergency. My iPod never does that. People not choosing Android as a main platform are not doing so out of accessibility or blind or anything else necessarily, and they aren't necessarily doing it out of fandom.
It's all in what the device does, how reliable it is, and how dependable you can be with it for those that depend on you.
Well I can't wait to get an iPhone... Right now I have the HTC ozone phone with mobile speak, and I just want to throw it out the window!
That's pretty much how I felt about the Motorola Q9H phone I had before switching to the IPhone. It had Mobile Speak on it and I wasn't as impressed with it as I was with Talks on my old Nokia 6682. I still have both those phones actually. Problem was that when AT&T bought out Edge Wireless, the company I was with at that time, the Nokia 6682 phone was no longer supported or insured. Nor did it appear that they carried any of the phones listed as usable with Talks. That's when I got MS and the Q9H. THe phone would not only freee up on me regularly and then take an infuriatingly long time to power off and then back on at that point but it also went through frequent phases where it wouldn't ring when calls came in and then wouldn't create a record of those calls in the call log. The only record of those calls in those instances would be IF, that being the key word, the caller left a message. So when my upgrade time came around last December I decided ont he IPhone. Nor have I regretted that decision. The only real nuisance I have with it is that sometimes Voiceover will act a bit weird and stutter sometimes, but turning the phone on and off seems to correct that problem. But I've never had the phone freeze up on me the way my old phone did.
Also, on a comment to the touch screen problem, guess what all phones are slowly going to the touch screen, even your precious android phones, so guess what, better start learning how to use the touch screen somehow or start using those bluetooth keyboards, because those sliders are being very quickly phased out.
Actually, I do not have the my tuch 4G slider! nor do I want it. To Leo you do make a very valid point thanks fore adding your wisdom to this board. Last before I finish with this board, their are people who are of a age who honestly fore some reason do not get along with the Iphones gesters, why I can not tell you what is their hang up with the Iphone or any touch screen in general.
also you say people should try both platforms before choosing, think of this. some people don't have the ability to try both phones. they don't have a large store, don't have time to try both, or don't have the money to just buy a phone and discover they don't like it.
I wholeheartedly agree with all that has been said. the last poster took the words right out of my mouth.
Exactly. Part of what you get the chance to try is determined by what's available at your local store.
I do use the I pod just fine! but it currently has been deemed "my wife's" device to play with, not interested in it any more after getting my HTC my touch 4G phone. Yes it to is a total touch screen phone but with 4 hardware buttons and a track pad which suits me fine. I will say it probably would not suit everyone just my preference.
Well, I've tried both, and I would have to say I like the iphone more. Granted I tried both for about twenty minutes each, but I was totally lost on android. I managed to randomly select a lot of things, (using talkback because it was the only thing installed at the store), listening to that svox voice grate on my nerves and go to random pages I never wanted to go to. I tried to turn talkback off after I was done, couldn't manage it and had to let the verizon guy do it for me. I got the iphone partly because of the voiceover gestures from my mac, which also work on iphone, and the simple part of it. Is it just me, or does android automatically select things when I touch them? If not for the keyboard, I'd be completely lost on android. With the iphone, I could use it, and (while I do not like on-screen typing at all) I could work it. I would probably get a bluetooth keyboard if I did get the iphone, and use that. But in a pinch, I could use on-screen typing. On android, I can't even use on-screen tapping.
Neither could I when I tried it. Granted onsceen tping on the IPhone is slow for me (the main rason why I might get a bluetooth keyboard), at least I know what the hell I'm doing.
Hmm... I am here to educate people on android, to let them know you can do as much with the platform given that the phone makers, "not Google themselves" modify the OS itself. So for my very last post on this board! Android is as much a viable platform as IOS. I am sticking with that stance no matter if you come over and blow the hell out of where I live lol. ļ
blah blah blah!
Dear topic creator,
1. Your topic subject does not reflect your interest of discussion.
2. Since you keep stating Androy is somewhat equal with IOS, can you find some solert vallued points to support your arguement?
sounds to me that, the main reason why you let go of your ipod because you got bored and sick of it. With that attitude in mind, i would have thing and believe you will let go your Androy phone much quicker than you let go of your ipod for the very same reason.
3. now, take Ipod and whatever Androy phone you have, put them both side by side, compare them from hardware, software, security, safety, accessibility etc, and make your statement. i'm very interested to know why, you made your claime that Androy phone is the same if not better than I Devices.
if you able to answer all those 3 question, i'll tell you my 2 sense of word then.
Just a slight correction. It's Android, not Androy. LOL. Not trying to nitpick but if you ever needed to look the phone up. The irony is that part of his claim that he didn't like the touch screen on the IPhone when the Android, some models at least, features a similar keypad. And I'd agree that the Android would be as viable an OS as IOS if, like IOS, it came accessible out of the box. But even a free separate screen reader doesn't quite cut the cracker for me since you have to download it first, whereas Voiceover is right there on the IPhone out of the box. Not onl that but in my experience wth the Android, the Spiel screen reader sucked.
wow. this topic turned into ranting about people recommending the iPhone, when asked for a recommendation of course, to ranting about how some people generally like the iPhone more? Just, wow. Nobody here is saying you can't prefer the Android, and if that's your recommendation, why not get out there and spread the word?
I don't know about you, but if someone comes up to me and asks for a recommendation for a good phone, I'm not going to say, "well, you should just go out and try all the phones and see which works best for you". Like others have stated, if that's the answer people are looking for, you should just go to the store and just try them. And yes, I'm in the majority of people here who would recommend the iPhone, not because it's trendy, but because I like it. It does everything I want it to and more, the drawbacks are hardly annoying, and easy to get around, and of course, what sold me on it originally is the fact you can use it right out of the box. and, just so you know, I used to be one of those people who, just like you, complained about how so many people preferred the iPhone. I complained about the same things before I got one; Why should you have to use iTunes? why should you have to use a touch screen when a keyboard is so much nicer? why is everyone recommending iPods and iPhones when there are so many other products out there on the market? I had a Nokia E71 and loved it, even though in the long run, I couldn't do as much with it. Yep. that was me. I used to curse touch screens, until a few friends showed me just how wrong I was about them. Now I love the iPhone and swear by it, and when I look back on the things I used to say about it before I got one, I feel like such a close minded little prick.
@post1: Dogma much? You may want a career in small explosives. Then again, maybe not.
LOL. And I was one of the nonbelievers as well. Bt then I listened to all those podcasts on Blind Cool Tech about both the IPhone and IPod Touch. That was whhat persuaded me to take a taxi a cople summers ago and head for my AT&T store, where I sat at one of those demo kiosk things and played with an IPhone for about half an hour. I still didn't quite get te hang of it but I started to see then that they were indeed usable. Unfortunately at that time I still had a little over a year till I'd be able to upgrade to a new phone. And since it would get expensive to keep going over to AT&T to keep demoing the phone in half-hour increments I ordered an IPod Touch last Spring, which when last December rolled around had helped me become acclimated enough to IOS that I was able to get into using the IPhone. Is texting a bit slow? Sure, but ironically it's easier for me to make sure I type it correctly since I'm the sort who absolutely refuses to use text shorthand no matter wat. And then of course with the IPhone you have access to the ITunes store and a supply of cool ringtones. Sure there are free places but I never had much luck with those and I'm at least assured that the ones I get from ITunes are likely to be of reasonable quality.
my personal experience at the phone store wasn't great. most of the time, i'm the one who need to educate them as to what accessibility function that a phone have or dont have. but IPhone is kinda obvious, as most of the people that would have know or heard of their accessibility function as Apple somewhat marketing it that way. however, with Android, it won't necessary be the case unless that particular shop or the person who serves you have particular training or interest in accessibility. Also, for new user of Touch Phone, you might get more help and guidance from some other IPhone users than Android phone if nothing else just because its more popular. most sighted Android phone user that i know of prefer Android simply because they got a flash player on board, therefore they can browse those fancy inaccessible website, play inaccessible flash enable games and so on. now, if you ask me, how much that flash player will be helpful for a blind user, i would say is pretty much questionable.
Not only that but you'd have to download the screen reader to put on the Android, whether you choose Mobile Accessibility (the better option I think personally seeing as Spiel seems like a waste of time), or whether you do choose to go with Spiel. Maybe for some that's no big deal but like I said one of the selling points for me with the IPhone was the fact that it was accessible right out of the box. Comparing that to the experience i've had with Android, both personally and from observing other blind users, not just the lady I visited this summer, pretty much sealed the deal for me. If Android someday becomes as accessible right out of the box as the IPhone is now then we'll talk. But the IPhone currently does all I needed in a cell phone. Do I use EVERY function it offers? No, but they're there if I should ever choose to do so. Not to say Android doesn't work for people since obviously a lot of people are using it. Nor would ANY blindusers consider it as an option, much less discuss it, if some of them hadn't decided it was what they needed. But because of its out-of-the box accessibility the IPhone is still and will probably continue to be the more popular option among blind users at least until Android comes up with a similar option, one that doesn't! falsely announce that you have new voicemail every five seconds.
I had to add to this post before letting it die off. I am not sure if any of you here are currently teaching a android to someone but I can say it does have a learning curve. However, so far the person who I am teaching seems to like it better then when she had a I phone. There is a rant on this board that matched this lady's case, "the sells person knew squat about accessibility" so they suggested a iphone. Again! she too was very frustrated, could not wrap her mind around how to interact with its touch screen. So in closing "Iphone" is accessible out of the box great! but its not the device that fits all.
Nor are we trying to say it is. But since a lot of people are familiar with it they're naturally going to suggest it and advocate for it.
Uh, hello.
Honestly, I can't believe that there would be frustrating things on the iPhone, apart from things not being accessible, which is usually the case with developers who don't conform to accessibility standards.
although this is about iPhone, I don't think that there is anything more frustrating than trying to remember where something is supposed to be on the screen.
I don't believe that is the case with iPhone but if it is, someone correct me.
and yes my people who follow android I'm talking to you.
Ok, thought that was frustrating?
what about developers existing in the android world, who don't even know what a screenerader is!
sorry for taking this so off topic but...
again, I think that there isn't such frustrations with apples iPhone, or, is there?
It depends on who's trying to use it. Some seem to take to it quite nicely but a few seem unable to grasp how it works. I was one of tose who didn't think I would be able to, but thenI played with an IPhone at my local AT&T store. Practicing on an IPod Touch also helped. But some people do indeed seem to have trouble figuring out where things are on a buttonless screen. I could understand if you'd spent weeks on it and just COULD NOT! get the hang of it, then I'd say it was a fair try. But I wouldn't consider a few days a really fair try. Then of course you have to figureout what method of navigation works for you personally. I myself use aleft/right flicking motion when I navigate menus and even texting. Yes it's slow but I get things right more often than not.
touch screens aren't always completely easy to get used too no, but with time you can use them quite quickly. i use a conbination of tapping and flicking now but getting skilled enough i can usually tap on or very near what i want. practice makes perfect
Precisely. And that's why I bought myself and IPod Touch. I knew I still had close to a year before my upgrade time came around with AT&T, but I needed to get familiar with how IOS functioned. And I couldn't really see that happening merely through constant trips to AT&T to play with an IPhone in half-hour sessions. It took me months to get to the level I'm at now but I'm glad I took the plunge. Because I firmly believe tat even if physical keyboard phones never go away completely they're going to become more and more dificult to find, much less brannd new. So it seems foolish to me to cling to physical keyboards, at least as far as phones go, JUST IN CASE! we turn out to be right and keyboards are gradually phased out in favor of touch screens.
No, nitrogen, there are some things, like touch typing that people don't like (including me).
yes there are both sides to developers who do not make their apps fully accessible, I can think of a few that I know voice over does not read very well. Same goes for talkback, spiel and moble accessibility. Well off to play with stim stumper on my phone while waiting for a call at work.