Very good review, It is nice to read some of the drawbacks of a VO user on an iPad. It was well thought out and every displeasure was expanded upon. I hope even the people who disagree with the review don't go postal on us. Pleas. lol. I hope someone can put together their disagreements in a logical, respectful, and concise manor. I think the list would benefit greatly from such a post instead of a emotion filled rant. lol On May 5, 2010, at 1:23 AM, Bryan Smart wrote:
> OK. So, I've had my iPad Wi-Fi+3G for less than a week, and I've already > decided not to keep it. There is so much of a euphoric glow on some of the > lists about the wonderfulness of this device. I'm the type of person that is > always eager to investigate new technologies and ways of working, and so > expected that I'd agree with the generally positive reception. I don't. > > I have experience with the iPhone, and, other than the fact that it is slower > to operate than a device with buttons, and that the battery life is terrible > when compared to most mobile phones, I thought that it was an impressive > piece of tech with an advanced approach to user interaction. > > I was excited about the iPad, and expected it to bring everything from an > iPhone, only improved. First, the iPad would have a larger screen, so it > should be possible to more easily move my finger directly to the position of > known controls in order to speed up the operation. Also, the iPad would have > a significantly larger battery than the iPhone, so I could spend hours using > apps, even wireless apps, without having to worry about draining the power > away. > > The only universally great thing that I can say about the iPad is that the > battery is spectacular. With the screen brightness set to low, it runs for a > very long time. I've spent hours streaming movies via Netflix over 3G, and > the battery just keeps on going. > > Unfortunately, that's where it all ends. It isn't that I think that the tech > behind the iPad is necessarily bad. If you want this experience, though, as a > blind person, you're better off with an iPhone. > > Why? Well, let's compare the iPad to the iPhone 3GS. > > The iPad has a larger screen. If you're sighted, this is great for watching > video. Watching movies on a tiny phone screen has got to be an eye strain. > Blind people don't watch movies, and we can listen to them just fine on an > iPad or iPhone speaker. > > I thought that the larger screen would help with VoiceOver, but, actually, it > makes things worse. When you work an iPhone, placing your finger at different > positions on the screen only requires wrist movement. The iPad screen is huge > when compared to the iPhone, and you must move your entire arm in order to > navigate the screen. This can become tiring after hours of computing, because > your arm can rarely rest on anything. If you don't hold your arm up, with > your fingers angled down, you're likely to bump the screen with part of your > wrist or forearm, causing VoiceOver's focus to jump to some random position > on the screen. This is particularly frustrating because there is so much > content on an iPad screen. If you navigate through controls by swiping, > you'll be swiping and swiping and swiping and swiping to get to where you'd > like. Of course, you can directly explore with your finger, but I've noticed > that, in several places (like the App Store and Safari), tapping somewhere > doesn't necessarily mean that swiping will continue from that point. In many > places, I'll tap at a point on the screen, but, when I start swiping, > VoiceOver will always start from the top of the screen. So, in those > situations, if you accidentally touch the screen with some other skin while > swiping, or if VoiceOver mistakenly interprets a swipe as a tap, then you'll > lose your place, and need to start from the top of the screen. In the App > Store in particular, I've swiped myself to frustration. > > The size of the screen is also not convenient for holding the iPad like you > would the iPhone. It must rest on your lap or a table. And, with me pushing > and tapping on it with both hands, I've had some situations where it has > nearly slid off of my lap. With the screen being made of glass, that is not a > great thought to ponder. So, I think that the screen size is not only wasted > on blind users, but is also a drawback. > > The on-screen keyboard is a bit nicer to use on a large screen. However, the > touch-typing mode makes even one-handed typing on a small screen a breeze. > Besides that, the larger screen meant that a lot more arm motion was required > to type on an iPad. I tried the two-handed typing approach in landscape mode, > but find that, no matter how well you place your hands, typing is very > mistake prone. For anyone that finds it hard to type for extended periods of > time on the iPhone, you can use the iPad keyboard dock with it when the next > iPhone OS comes out. > > VoiceOver is worse on the iPad. I'll just put my flame retardant suit on > right now for the hordes of people that will respond and tell me how I'm > wrong, how wonderful it is, and how it must be me. Well, I've used an iPhone > extensively, and I've used the touch gestures on my MacBook Pro a lot, so I > think that I'm pretty familiar with how everything is supposed to work. On > the iPad, for gestures to work, I must over-act them. On my MacBook or > iPhone, a little flick of my finger is enough to indicate that I'd like to > move to the next item. On the iPad, I must make a huge swipe, extending a few > inches. Small flicks will work, sometimes, but VoiceOver is very likely to > just interpret the flick as a tap, and jump my focus. As I've said before, > given how huge the screen is, and how the control order is broken in several > important places, this is extremely frustrating. Having to make huge swipes > means that my whole arm is involved, and swiping and swiping and swiping with > your whole arm will really make your forearm sore after a few hours. > Sometimes, the screen won't even register that I touched or swiped. The > iPhone screen seems much more sensitive. > > The speech glitches at high speed. At 90% or above, Samantha can't say > "search", and other words, without chopping off the ends. > > And, my largest complaint about VoiceOver on the iPad. It doesn't recognize, > in most cases, when the screen updates. This seems to be most noticeable on > screens that use HTML/web content. Say that you are in the App Store, or > Safari, and you tap a link. You know that a new page/screen must have loaded. > Sometimes you'll hear the audio cue indicating that the load completed, > sometimes not. However, most always, if you start swiping, you'll realize > that you're reviewing material from the old page. You must tap somewhere on > the screen for VoiceOver to realize that, in fact, the screen has changed. > This is annoying for purposes of situation and orientation. > > Here is how it should work. You double-tap a control. You wait. You hear the > completed audio cue, and VoiceOver speaks the first item on the screen (which > now has focus). Now, you can either start swiping through controls, explore > the screen with your finger, or two-finger-swipe down to start reading the > screen. > > This is how it works, though. You double-tap a control. You wait, and wait > and wait. You don't get any feedback about what is happening, so you start > exploring the screen with your finger. If the screen hasn't finished loading > yet, then VoiceOver will either repeatedly click at you, or else you'll hear > absolutely nothing (because VoiceOver is frozen up). Once the screen finishes > loading, all of that tapping and touching that you did while VoiceOver was > frozen will be suddenly processed, and VoiceOver will start going crazy with > clicking and speaking fragments. Now, you aren't sure where you are, so you > must four-finger-swipe up to get to the beginning of the screen, then start > exploring. > > Another way that this can work out is that you double-tap a control, and > VoiceOver will say something (supposedly the first control on the new screen > "cancel button selected", or similar). When you start swiping, though, you'll > hear the contents from the last screen. So, you first tap somewhere on the > screen to force VoiceOver to realize that the contents have changed, then > four-finger-swipe up to go to the beginning of the screen, then, finally, > start exploring. > > Honestly, this is ridiculous. It is hard to believe that Apple couldn't catch > such a problem. I guess that web support had minimal testing. Lots of apps > use imbedded web content, though, so this happens in all sorts of apps from > Wonder Radio to Net Flix. > > As a final VoiceOver thought, I've noticed that the iPad is experiencing a > problem that the iPhone had early on in its life. For those of you with an > iPad, lock the screen. Now, put your ear up next to the speaker. Hear that > hiss. Now, put your iPad down for 5 minutes and come back. Still hear that > hiss? That is the sound of your iPad's audio hardware constantly running and > draining your battery. So, while the iPad's battery life is impressive in a > continuous run (like watching movies back to back), it sucks in a similar way > to the iPhone where you'll go to sleep with a full battery, and wake up with > 70% or less. There is no reason for that on an iPad, since the iPad isn't > doing sync for Visual Voicemail and all of the other AT&T phone to tower > chatter. That open speaker, though, is probably the cause of most of the > drain. > > I'm further discouraged to hear that the iPad won't be receiving an OS update > until the Fall. So, I suppose that these VoiceOver issues will stand for at > least 4 or 5 months. There will be a new iPhone, and a new version of the OS > for everyone else, in about a month. A major OS update almost certainly means > an update of VoiceOver. > > So, in the final analysis, the larger screen makes the iPad harder to work > for me, and VoiceOver has more problems than on an iPhone. The larger battery > is nice, but that isn't enough. In my mind, the iPhone is all the iPad that a > blind user needs. > > If you are thinking of returning yours, better decide fast. You only have 14 > days after receiving your iPad to return it, and, even then, you must pay a > 10% restocking fee. > > The iPad is an interesting device, but I'd just rather use an iPhone, I think. > > Bryan > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
