What is so hard about os x news? also, why do you have to completely
kill the pc? Why not just use a pc for what you need it for and the
Nac for the rest?
What kinds of usage questions do you have?
--
Jonnie Apple Seed
With his:
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s
On Dec 27, 2005, at 12:45 PM, LARRY WANGER wrote:
"I find it interesting that you insist you can't do
things that folks have repeatedly stated is perfectly doable."
I'm unsure of how to respond to this. I've tried suggestions that
folks have offered. However, some of those have involved learning
how to interact with the Mac in terminal mode. Just another layer to
learn and work through and frankly getting a new computer and
switching operating systems to a format widely proclaimed to be far
better than Windows should not involve so many more steps. You may
pass this off as someone who is not a tech oriented person or someone
who just doesn't understand computers who tried this and decided it
didn't work. The truth is I've spent many hours and worked very hard
to find solutions and make this work. Like it or not, I had far
fewer problems when I was using Jaws and Windows. Yes, security was
a concern and Windows just presents a lot of problems but the trade-
off is that I was able to use it effectively.
Check out my blog at http://lsw999.blogspot.com/
Larry Wanger
----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Siegel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: The $199 question
OSXnews works just fine with voice over, and it's download page
isn't difficult at all to navigate. It's been mentioned here
before multiple tines. I find it interesting that you insist you
can't do things that folks have repeatedly stated is perfectly
doable.
But, to each his own.
However, I find the procare thing a bit disturbing. When I got my
mac, I was clearly told that procare would cover amy questions I
might have, including voice over related ones. I'd call apple
back, and ask if what you were told is true, it's possible the
person who said that wasn't properly informed as to the current
state of affairs.
On Dec 27, 2005, at 12:17 PM, LARRY WANGER wrote:
Well, one of the very apparent differences between my past use of
Windows based screen readers and my new experience with VO is
kind of surprising to me. There just isn't support available
from Apple.
Here is some background.
I've asked a few times about different programs that I could use
to meet my needs with my Mac and access to class newsgroups that
I use in conjunction with courses I take as well as insuring that
I have access to normally used file formats like Word, Excel and
PowerPoint. You guys have offered some good suggestions. I can
use text edit for word documents. I should be able to use iWork
or Apple Works as well for many of these purposes but I've tested
both products, Made by Apple I might add, and neither works with
VO. Additionally, I was able to activate the Office 2004 test
drive that came on my Mac and none of the applications in that
suite of programs was accessible either.
Beyond this, I called the University technical support line to
ask what programs they support for use with newsgroups on the Mac
and they were able to suggest Thunderbird and or Onterage which
are available. I tried Onterage as said with the Office suite
and it would not work and could not get Thunderbird to allow for
access either.
Finally, out of frustration, I called Apple and tried to ask
questions, thus the subject line of this message. I was told
that because I have the Apple Care plan that I could get tech
support but the questions I was asking about VO are usage and
therefore I would need to pay $199 to talk with someone.
Guys, this is beyond ridiculous. I've been patient and worked
very hard to make the Mac work for me. I really like it too but
the bottom line here is that the computer must meet my needs and
it shouldn't be a project to make it do so. I've spent now
nearly 2 weeks with it and clearly know what I need it to do.
Unfortunately, I'm not getting it to do that. Many of you will
argue that I should be patient and keep working with it.
However, the bigger issue here is that for Apple to make it in
the blindness community and to be a mainstream product, they must
realize that probably 99% of blind people...or anyone else for
that matter, won't have the patience and tech skills to continue
to work with it. It must be user friendly and ready to go right
out of the box and folks, it isn't!!!
Perhaps in the future the Mac will make it but its not working
for me right now. Someone made the argument that it's only been
six months since VO has been available and eventually it will
get there. I'm sure this is the case but that won't help me at
this moment when I need it to work for me now. I'm really unsure
on what to do at this point but its clear that while I can use
the Mac to read and write Word documents, I can not work with
Excel or PowerPoint documents and I can not yet at this point
subscribe or work with newsgroups for my classes. Someone
suggested using Snownews but remember, not all of us understand
this advanced garbage that was on the page there and I could not
even tell which version to download.
I'm trying to balance maintaining a clear overall picture of my
experience here which has been relatively good with the major
short- falls that I find with some specific issues I've got.
Realize though that one buys a computer to perform specific tasks
for them. I clearly know what I need to do with it but the Mac
thus far is not allowing me to do so. I'm increasingly unhappy
with it and may in fact need to return this. I expect some of
you to have some sharp reactions to this.How could anyone go back
to a PC after experiencing the Mac? I can see that point but if
the computer won't do what I need it to do and Apple wants $200
each and every time I want to ask a question then what is the
point. I might as well keep paying Freedom Scientific or GW
Micro the high price for a screen reader and get support as part
of that package. I fail to see how Apple defines tech support
verses user questions but maybe someone has some insight on that
as well?
Check out my blog at http://lsw999.blogspot.com/
Larry Wanger
Check out my blog at http://lsw999.blogspot.com/
Larry Wanger
