Hi everyone, I was recently alerted to some discussion on this list
regarding things I supposedly said at a private lunch that I attended in a
personal capacity. I'd like to offer some comments, and specifically,
correct some misreporting of things I am alleged to have said and put them
in context.
Regarding the reported conversation at the ACB Convention, I have met Cheryl
Edwards twice, in both cases because I am a good friend of her husband. We
exchanged e-mail when I worked for HumanWare, and have Skyped on a couple of
occasions. Although Convention times are busy, Paul, Brian Charlson and I
always try to make time to get together, really because we're three blind
guys who like each other's company. It was in this context, and not in my
professional capacity, that we managed to find time for lunch just before I
had to catch a plane out of Minneapolis. Paul, Brian and I have been friends
for nearly a decade, and understand that we can be free and frank with each
other on the understanding that what is said is said between friends. In the
process of chatting about a range of topics, and mindful that the ACB
resolution was in the works, I did express some personal concerns about
Apple, in particular in the context of the touch screen on the iPhone which
I was concerned would be emulated by other manufacturers, and regarding
frustration I had experienced as a Windows access technology user attempting
to use iTunes for certain tasks. Brian hartgen's updated scripts for JAWS
will address some of these concerns. nevertheless, the application is not
accessible out of the box in the same way that many other media players are.
As someone who loves audio, this was of concern to me personally, and we
were discussing this among friends. We also had a lively discussion about
off screen models, document object models and user interfaces, again a topic
that interests me as a blind guy talking to others who share my interest. I
do think that everyone is entitled to have a meal with friends and express a
personal view, and in fact I went to some lengths to emphasise this to
Cheryl. I regret very much that this basic courtesy hasn't been respected,
and that my comments have been quoted very much out of context.
When I worked for HumanWare, it is indeed correct to say that I advised
Cheryl that synchronisation between the BrailleNote and the Mac would be
unlikely to receive attention. This is because the BrailleNote does not use
the synchronisation routines built into ActiveSync, but rather uses its own
sync routines running under the Dot Net Framework. The challenge of a
proprietary platform is that you're forced to pick those issues that has the
impact on the most people, and during my entire time at HumanWare, Cheryl
was the only person that ever made an inquiry of me about synchronisation
with the Mac.
Regarding PAC Mate, which Cheryl did raise, the situation is much more
positive because of its architecture. I commented that so far, both in my
current job and my previous one, that I had personally received an inquiry
about Mac compatibility once a year, in each case from Cheryl herself. I
further went on to comment though that PAC mate was a true Pocket PC. I said
that I thought it highly likely that the Mac would have an
ActiveSync-compatible client, and if it did, you could indeed synchronise
your Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Tasks. Because I've never received an
inquiry about this during my time at Freedom Scientific, it actually didn't
occur to me to check, hence my comment about the apparently small number of
Mac users. I like to try and have answers to these kinds of questions, no
matter how many people ask them, and on that basis undertook to become
familiar with the issue. Since then, I did some Googling and found out about
Missing Sync, which would appear to me to fit the bill nicely. This will
mean that I can give a more precise answer next time. I am pleased that PAC
mate can be used with a Mac for those who choose to use it.
As Greg has stated, Freedom Scientific is only too happy to work with
whoever to test these things, as we did with him at the NFB Convention. Why
would we not. We'd like you to buy our hardware.
Regarding James's comments, my reason for asking him why he used a Mac was
that I was genuinely interested, as I've not had the opportunity to use one
myself. At home, I'm a very happy Windows user, with no strong motivation to
change as an individual, so was keen to learn from someone who new both
operating systems what he perceived to be the strengths and weaknesses. I
really appreciated the clarity of James's answers.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify these issues. We endeavour to make the
PAC mate and other blindness hardware useful to as wide a variety of
customers and potential customers as we can.
I've been looking through the archive and have enjoyed it.
All the best.
Jonathan
