u can stream netflix over 3g on the ipad? With what? And, would it work with the touch, or iphone? If so, 1 more reason for me to get one!
On 5/5/10, Bryan Smart <[email protected]> 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 [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > 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 [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
