One thing that may be a bit of an issue is that looking at Jaws, NVDA, Window-Eyes and even adding System Access to the list, Window-Eyes is the only one out of the four that apparently has no ability to be used on a Windows 8 tablet. That may be an issue that Microsoft hasn't taken into consideration.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Daniel Hawkins Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 1:02 PM To: Mac Visionary Subject: Re: Looks like Windows is also heading toward full screen reader built in Lol, Windows 3.1 is a little before my time. But in a way Microsoft is trying to catch up, their Windows 8 Pro can do both do the ARM based Windows 8 apps and are cross platforms. Apple are slowly intregrating IOS and Mac. And Google have the Chromebook. As ARM based cpu get more powerful that can bridge the gap between Intel based OS it will be streamlined soon. Even Linux is now getting into ARM bsed OS. So in that case, I still think the three major screenreaders will be around.Unless JAWS can't keep their contracts, they will be forced to lower their prices, so we will see. Daniel Hawkins - Posted from my Macbook Pro 2012 15in. Macbook Pro 2.3 Quad-core i7 4GB DDR3 500GB HDD Dual Boot: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-bit On Jan 20, 2014, at 5:45 PM, erik burggraaf <[email protected]> wrote: Hey guys, Another thing has occurred to me about this. As you know, window-eyes has been under developed for several years. You might not be aware that the personal computer is set to go on the long tail in 2016. Sales of personal computers have been falling by about 30 per sent per year. April 2013 was the worst quarter for PC sales in 20 years. In 2012 smartphones made up more than 50 per sent of all cell phone use in the United States. In 2013, Tablet sales exploded and the tablet is poised to out sell the personal computer in 2014. It will take a long time for corporate and government to catch up, but they are both already in the mobile space. Where do jaws, Window-eyes, and even NVDA fit in to the 5 year trend of the over all market? Especially with IPhone and android being very high quality accessibility choices and new accessibility features emerging on Blackberry to compete with the other two leading mobile platforms. Remember when windows 3.1 came along and people started competing for access to windows? How many market leading companies raced to add accessibility features. Let's see. henter-joice, gw michro, synthavoice computers, artic, dolphin, AISquared. How many of those companies, most of whom are still with us, have competed for anything in the mobile space? AISquared, codefactory, that's all I can think of. Humanware and AFB have stepped into the mobile space but their efforts have met with mixed success. Very few of Our so called leaders in accessibility are hungry for shares of the new economy the way they were when windows 95 came out and blind people could somewhat use it. Could it be that there is no money or not as much money as we think in the window-eyes for office move and that it's part of an exit strategy to keep as much value in the product as possible for as long as possible? I'm sure Dan and Doug have rock solid RRSPs/retirement packages So do Eric and the other FS bigwigs. These people aren't showing the drive to innovate that they once did. They are in fact, stodgy. What has GW done for us lately? Proprietary desktop applications for skype and facebook, both of which are much more accessible in the mobile space to begin with and both of which are better suited to the mobile space than the desktop space IMHO. It's GW's attempt to coast through for another couple of years until the pc space evaporates and the heads can retire. All speculation on my part. I loved window-eyes when it was on the cutting edge. I just don't see it now though. Best, Erik Burggraaf Ebony Consulting toll-free: 1-888-255-5194 or on the web at http://www.erik-burggraaf.com <http://www.erik-burggraaf.com/> On 2014-01-20, at 5:45 PM, "Christina C." <[email protected]> wrote: I do not understand all of the ins and outs of this but overall it appears to be a positive thing for blind and visually impaired as well as for others with various disabilities and challenges requiring adaptive software and equipment. I did crack up at the line about being leaders. LOL! They are behind the ball if you ask me. I love apple and my mac and that is where my loyalties are at this point. I do think this opens doors and that can always be a good thing. Maybe this will benefit me in some way in the future especially since I'd like the ability to use a robust OCR scanning software with a camera instead of a traditional scanner. Maybe one day I will consider putting windows on my computer with boot camp or a virtual environment. So, for me this topic is important to discuss even though I am a mac user. Christina -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
