Before I'm going to give my impression of my MacBook Pro, the OS and of
course VoiceOver gathered over almost two weeks, let me introduce
myself. I know I've posted already to some topics, but I just haven't
really said anything about myself and I figure it's time to rectify
that. For those who need a warning for long posts:
WARNING: this post may become a bit lengthy, but hopefully it won't bore
you rigid!
My name is Ruud (born in january 1985, so you figure out how old/young I
am). I am from the Netherlands. I started losing my sight when I was 8,
but it took until 15 to go from nearly full sight to the classification
of socially blind. The culpret being inherited Glaucoma as part of the
Rieger syndrome. It's actually a miracle I had sight for a fair amount
of my childhood, because when I got born my eyes were opaque, no pupil
visible at all. So, it would seem I owe the surgery on the 2nd day of my
life for the sighted memories I have.
As far as accessibility goes computer-wise, I started with zoomtext a
few years before I lost my sight and after I learned braille and a whole
new approach to doing things without sight I worked with Outspoken
(fairly horrible sounding, but functional) and after that Jaws.
I am an adventurous musician; both as in "on a musical adventure" as
well as just a person who likes to try things out, like backpacking
through various countries, snowboarding and going to big open-air rock
festivals. As far as music goes, I'm a guitarist/bassist, but I'm fairly
good at playing other known and unknown instruments, like banjo,
ukulele, dulcimer, tin and low whistle, kalimba, kantele, ngoni,
doshpuluur and more. I've recently started learning the piano as well.
My musical taste goes all over the world, litterally.
On to the Mac...
A month ago, I walked into the local Apple store and the first Mac
within reach was the 17 inch MacBook Pro. Unfortunately I had a really
bad first impression. The guy at the store wasn't really helpful, so I
ended up mucking around with an OS that I hardly knew anything about or
a screenreader in that same category. I was however impressed with the
design of the MacBook Pro, because it was the first aluminum
laptop/notebook I'd seen so far and it was about half as thin as all the
other laptops I've owned. I actually left there without a clear idea
about the Mac and VoiceOver. I was sceptical I would ever switch to Mac
even though some of the ideas I had read about on the Apple site still
intrigued me, like the use of the trackpad to map the screen and the
various gestures.
I wasn't going to admit defeat because of a bad first impression though.
Just because of some Apple employee who was unwilling to help and seemed
to like playing with the Ipad more than living up to the high level of
customer service I was expecting actually made me read up some more on
VoiceOver, which admittedly I should've done beforehand.
A few days later I spoke to a blind friend of mine, who (I didn't know
this at the time) has four Macs around the house. He was doing an I.T.
study at the same time as me, so I trust him to have solid opinions
about computers and the accessibility of said computers. He gave me a
good idea of the OS and VoiceOver in comparison to Windows and Jaws.
After that conversation I actually knew where the VoiceOver keys were,
so that was obviously where I got stuck at in the store. I was so used
to (from left to right) control, function, windows, alt, space, rather
than function, control, option, command, space.
A little later I went back into town to just jump into mac and VoiceOver
and work things out on my own. I knew it was going to work anyway,
because of my blind I.T. friend and the fact that (doesn't point any
fingers at anyone specifically) blind people can be really picky about
accessibility and I would've seen way more bad reviews on VoiceOver in
my research jaunts across the Triple-double-u.
to my surprise and considerable relief, this time I got good service at
the same Apple store I went before and chose to purchase a 13 inch
MacBook Pro in the standard version. The 15 and 17 inch models have a
faster processor, but seemed more geared towards video editing to me and
on top of that have a shorter runtime on the battery. The sound setup on
all three is equal, so for my occasional recordings the 13 inch would
suffice, as it beat the specs of my regular PC anyway. More on recording
a bit later though. The people at the Apple store set the Mac up for me
to avoid taking me 20 minutes on something that only takes a few
minutes, which was nice as I needed to do some other shopping in the
meantime without dragging an expensive MacBook Pro around town. When I
got back all was set and I could go homeward again, this time with a Mac.
On to VoiceOver...
When back at home I started the MacBook I immediately got the VoiceOver
tutorial and was strangely excited. It seemed to cover all the basics
and after that I was quite confident about using VoiceOver. That left
one issue though and that was the difference between Windows and Mac on
the most fundamental "how to get stuff done" level. The first thing I
wanted to do was to check out TextEdit, but couldn't find it in the dock
or anywhere, except when I typed it into Spotlight. I didn't even know
where the apps were located, but thanks to another research jaunt online
I found the answer fairly swiftly. I messed with that for a bit and got
the novelty of being on an area and interacting with it down fairly
quickly. I didn't go online for a few days in order to get familiar with
the OS first, but eventually the time came and I got to experience the
web item rotor, which makes browsing a bit faster than what I was used
to. So, another good experience in the bag there. that next to the whole
skype issue, which we have heard quite a bit about on here. I basically
wanted to get skype running to check the internal microphone, speakers,
webcam and the level of VoiceOver being picked up in a conversation or
overpowering the person on the other end. So that had to wait till I had
the issues sorted. When I did, Voiceover didn't interfear much with the
conversation, the mic and speakers sounded clear, picked up no internal
sounds too (which on netbooks or laptops is a big issue) and and the
webcam had no problem picking up the clock in the kitchen clearly, which
was about 7 meters or 23 feet behind me at the time. So that was all
very nice.
While I'm talking about the sound settings here, let's jump to
recording. I only got the Ilife 11 DVD a few days ago, so my first
recording test was with Garage Band, which wasn't very spectacular and
accessible by then. Then I tried the trial version of Amadeus pro, which
yielded far better results with the internal setup. When I hooked up my
M-Audio FastTrack it became very interesting though. On my windows
machine if I hook up the FastTrack it takes over all sound, both in- and
output, including Jaws. But everytime after Jaws speaks the FastTrack
gives me a series of crackling sounds. Apparently it doesn't like
running simultaneous with a crappy built-in sound card, which is still
set to the standard card in general. Separating Jaws on one card and in-
and output from the recording program, Sonar in this case is a real pain
in various locations I don't have to mention. So, on the MacBook I
installed the drivers, hooked up the M-Audio and miraculously VoiceOver,
without any mucking around whatsoever came through the built-in
speakers. One more point for Apple. Then I went into Amadeus pro, set up
the in- and output through my FastTrack, perfect! It couldn't have been
easier as far as I'm concerned. Obviously Amadeus Pro doesn't come close
to the power of recording and editing with Sonar, but now I've started
messing with Garage Band and maybe have to try out some other apps for
recording, arranging and editing sound. The internal stuff is good
enough for quick recordings, but if I want to up the professionality I
can hook up my FastTrack without too much bother, which makes me a happy
camper!
Back to VoiceOver, I've gotten to the point where I navigate using both
keyboard commands (quicknav included) and trackpad gestures. I dig the
flexibility this gives me and also how on a Mac, without ever having
seen the OS visually I still know where what is on the screen and where.
Contextually this gives me a higher idea about the layout, which is
something that I've always missed in windows.
I also hooked up my Alva Satellite braille display, four seconds later
it was recognized and working. I have discovered that I prefer my
braille display more in Windows than in Mac. In windows it does provide
some more context with one than without one.
Conclusion: I like my MacBook Pro, the OS and VoiceOver. I still need to
find the right apps to suit my needs though, but that's not surprising
really after just two weeks. Does this mean I'm going to throw away my
Windows machine now, then the answer is no, I'll let it live out it's
life being used, but I'll definitely be using my Mac as well, often
simultaneous probably.
If, after this whole "hopefully" not very boring e-mail epic and an
indetermined amount of lost minutes you'll never get back again you want
to talk to me about music, macs or whatever, feel free to add me on
skype. My skype name is: bemel1
If you're really unlucky I might write some more of these as time passes.
-- Ruud
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