Interesting comments, Good fuel for speculation. For myself, I'm not even sure the PC as we know it will be much in use by 2015. I just bought a brand new macbook pro, and from where I'm sitting, I really believe this is the last laptop computer I will ever own. Palmtops are already good enough to replace laptops for email, web browsing, instant messaging, video calling, document editing, and many other tasks. It's our own comfort level that is taking a while to catch up. I think by 2015 the only people using the desktop pc as we know it might be corporations or businesses with server requirements and possibly high end gamers.
Palmtops cost less to the user. They're built cheeper. They cost much less to ship which is important in our economy where fuel is becoming a huge concern. They generate a fraction of the material waste. They reduce cable clutter. They take up less space on a show room floor. Everyone can have their own. It will connect wirelessly to your livingroom home theatre to provide high end sound and video or to your home storage to stream anything you want from your music or movie collection. You can take it anywhere with you. You can justify the cost every year or two if you want to. And for us, a relatively large number are coming with accessibility features that aren't useless built right into the device or made available for a fraction of the cost of current PC technologies. Speaking as a person who's interest in computers for their own sake has really waned over the past 10 years to a point where I just want a computer that does what I need to get on with my life with no futzing around; I can't wait for the pda revolution. Right now most of us have both a pc and a handheld, but even as early as three years ago I've been talking to people for whom a pda was all they needed. By 2014 I doubt I'll be doing all that much with my now new custom built mbp. Best, Erik Burggraaf User support consultant, Now posting occasionally on twitter at eburggraaf, 1-888-255-5194 http://www.erik-burggraaf.com On 2011-06-18, at 6:16 AM, Cory Martin wrote: > Hello, > This is one of my sleepless nights where I fall asleep listening to > tech news podcasts and such (yes I am a real nerd), and I just wanted to > comment on the following: > Note in advance this is not a rant, I and anyone else have to admire > the work that GW Micro does in trying to insure compatibility of products > over a very wide market. I may express frustration at times with things like > anybody else as an end-user, however the work that a screen reader developer > has to do is staggering. > I am however very concerned with the prospects of Windows 8. There are > a few reasons for this which I will explain as follows. > I've listened to a podcast that someone did on an unreleased build of > Windows 8. Don't ask me how they got ahold of this, I do not know. I > suspect they were certainly not authorized by Microsoft to have it. None the > less they had it and this is what we now know. I learned of this through the > Serotalk podcast and those who are interested can refer to that for more > information or to listen for themselves. No, this podcast is not by Serotek, > they just refer to it. Microsoft is puting some real genuine effort in to > improving Narator in Windows 8. I'm guessing that Apple really played them > hard in terms of accessibility and now they look really sorry compared to > what Apple has done. Apple of course has an easier time of it as all their > hardware is uniform and released by them and thus controlled by them, so > Voice Over works great because they know exactly how it wil behave in various > situations and can predict it very precisely. However, Narator will no > longer be that sluggish program which can barely do anything. Granted it is > in no way able to compete with what Window Eyes can do, but what they're > doing with it is impressive, based on this early beta. This in itself can > only be a good thing for me. As a computer nerd and tech and someone who > installs Windows and does far more than just uses a computer at a casual user > level, having a more powerful screen reader built in can only be a good > thing. I originally got System Access exactly for this purpose, because I > could plug it in to a customer computer and not have to install anything, and > other than some temp files when I remove my U3 drive at the end of my work > session, their computer has not been modified or had anything extra installed > on it. I do not use System Access for daily use, but it certainly is good > for that short computing session where you don't want to change someone's > computer with intercept drivers and such. So having Narator is a good thing. > However, some of the other things that Microsoft is doing are quite > frankly really scary for us as blind Windows users. According to the Windows > Weekly podcast, Windows 8 which is scheduled to ship in mid 2012 will employ > a whole new user interface. They apparently are adopting a look something > like that which you get on a Windows Phone 7 device or tablet device, along > with multi-touch features and tiles. This interface will apparently be > available on all Windows platforms, from desktops and laptops up to tablets. > Fortunately this interface can be switched off and Windows will behave much > like Windows 7 does, however as we know if DOS and command line applications > are any indication and as indicated in the podcast, the old style of user > interface with a desktop, start menu and system tray, will be going away, > probably with Windows 9 in 2015. On top of this, I was told that the new > Windows 8 will not allow mirror drivers which most screen readers today rely > on for functionality, so a whole new way of accessing screen information will > be necessary. Apparently Microsoft considers mirror drivers to be a security > risk. Hopefully this is not true. This new Windows is going to be pushing > for more applications which are cloud-based and rely on HTML 5 standards. > Again this is not a complaint, I'm sure GW Micro already knows these > things and likely already has some preliminary plans in place for dealing > with them. But I just wanted to stress that definitely I believe that > improving Window Eye's ability to handle HTML should definitely be a major > priority for the next release. If this is done ,this I would assume would > not only help Window Eyes deal with web browsing better, but also > applications in general, especially if all the new Windows applications are > going to be based on this new HTML 5 standard, along with APIs to interface > to them. The good news is, that in the demo of this pre-release of early > Windows 8, the podcaster had Jaws, NVDA and System access working with > moderate success, with System Access being the winner due to its virtual > mouse feature. He was supposed to demonstrate Window Eyes but didn't, I > think he got side tracked by some of the issues he was having. > Either way, things like this are still a good way off and not something > people should worry about as an immidiate concern, but at the same time I'm > sure and hope that GW Micro is aware of these issues and preparing for what > they will have to do to keep Window Eyes working in such a drastically > changed user interface. Although a good thing that could come out of this > might be opportunity for Window Eyes to find itself on to new tablets and > more portable computers. Window Eyes on a windows 8 tablet to compete with > the Ipad would be very cool. > Just some thoughts, I hope nobody is offended by this. > > Cory > > > Sent from my iPhoneIf you reply to this message it will be delivered to the > original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your > message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to > [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. > > GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can > manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. > If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv.
