When did you get your MacBook Air? Sounds like you got your Sony in 2008. I bought an Asus ultrathin laptop in 2011 for around $1,000 USD. It isn't as thin as the MacBook Air, but it is thinner than the MabBook Pro. It's specs compare more to the MacBook Pro than the MacBook Air. When I bought the Asus, I was mainly deciding between the Asus and the MacBook Pro, but the Asus won out. Note, I never considered a Sony laptop since they weren't getting high marks on quality or customer support at the time, and I always found Sony's to be a bit pricey. I'm not sure when you got the MacBook Air, but laptops and manufacturing processes have changed since 2008, and prices have come down since then as well, so I wouldn't compare a laptop from five years ago straight up with one that was purchased in the last year or two.
It's a fact that JAWS isn't developed by MS or bundled with Windows, so it isn't going to be free or included in the price of Windows or a PC. Apple's products and Apple's model definitely have their advantages. Like I said, I entertained getting a MacBook Pro for my last laptop. That doesn't mean that they're for everyone though, or that they're going to meet everyone's needs. I know for a fact, that I would not have had the job I had for the last dozen years, if I hadn't started using JAWS and Windows in the late 90's. Maybe I'm just ignorant for not seeing the light and becoming a Mac convert, but Ubuntu/Windows meet my needs right now, and although I may add Mac to that list, I'm not ready to add another OS and screen reader to my LIST OF TECHNOLOGIES i NEED TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH. On 24/10/12 14:09, David Chittenden wrote: > Yes, the Jaws upgrade for those in the US and Canada is $200 for two > upgrades, or $100 per upgrade. Upgrades can come out once to twice per year, > usually once per year. Wow, what a bargain. Windows upgrades are over $100 > per upgrade, depending upon your flavour of Windows, and come out once every > two to three years. Therefore, you have a total upgrade cost of around $100 > per year. > > Mac OS10 releases a new upgrade about once per year. In that major upgrade, > Voice-Over is automatically also upgraded. When minor Mac upgrades are > released between the major releases, VO is also upgraded. The total cost per > major upgrade is $30. Though the original Mac is more expensive, the upgrades > are significantly cheaper. > > My last Windows PC was a Sony laptop with a 13" display that weighed 4 > pounds. It had a dual-core Pentium 2.5 GhZ processor running 4 GB Ram. I > could keep email, four or five MS Word documents, and three or four web pages > in IE and/or FireFox all running at the same time before the system started > falling apart. I had to reboot every day. > > My MacBook Air 11" weighs around 2 pounds, has 4 GB RAM. The processor is a > Pentium 1.7 dual-core processor (I believe), so it should be less powerful > than my older Sony. On it, I often have 10 web pages open, Preview reading > four or five PDF files, Pages with one to three documents open, TextEdit with > a couple documents open, Mail, and EndNote running to manage my references > for Pages. With all of these open, I run iTunes occasionally to back up my > iPhone. My MBA can run for days with all of this running and not need to be > rebooted. > > My Sony was purchased in October, 2008, and cost $2500 just for the laptop. > Sure, I could have gone with a less expensive laptop, but I did not want to > lug something around with me to the three different clinics I was working at > which weighed 7 pounds. Even a 4 pound machine, along with a Braille display, > gets heavy. > > My MBA, on the other hand, cost me a total of $1700 including Apple's > three-year total care warrantee. > > So, for $800 less, I got a machine which weighs half what my previous machine > weighed, has the same memory, has a slightly less powerful processor, runs > many more programs simultaneously, and with a three year complete worldwide > warrantee. Oh, and that price also included the screen reader. > > A note about the service plans. My Sony came with a two year warrantee. The > warrantee was only good in the US. When I moved to NZ, I was no longer > covered. Also, the warrantee did not cover the power supply as this component > was outside the laptop casing. I know because I had to replace my original > power supply after a power surge fried it in January, 2009. > > For my MBA, the power supply stopped working last month. I took it to the > local Apple store here in Wellington. Because I have the three-year service > plan, the power supply was replaced by Apple for free. I purchased my MBA > whilst visiting family in the US last year. The warrantee is worldwide and > does cover everything. > > > David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA > Email: dchitten...@gmail.com > Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 > Sent from my iPhone > > On 25/10/2012, at 2:18, Ron Pelletier <ron.pellet...@sympatico.ca> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Once you have JAWS, the SMA is around $200 for the pro version and allows >> you 2 upgrades and they only come once a year. Of course, periodic updates >> every 2 or 3 months are free. I agree that the initial price is high but, >> keeping it up is not a major deal >> >> Ron >> & Danvers >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf >> Of Chris >> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7:38 AM >> To: viphone@googlegroups.com >> Subject: Re: Mac verses Ipad >> >> I wonder if the $200 is actually for a JAWS upgrade or something. >> >> >> Christopher Hallsworth >> >> On 24/10/2012 10:58, Neil Barnfather - TalkNav wrote: >>> Sieghard, >>> >>> You are correct that for accountancy purposes, even here Windows is the >> only option, we too use Sage, and for that I have to use Windows via Boot >> Camp. >>> >>> I am very interested to learn that JAWS 14 will support Windows 8 on day >> one, that is interesting very much to me. You say the days of waiting for OS >> support are over, sounds like they are, but, even Windows 7 took FS 6 months >> to support. So this is only a change in the last 2 years. >>> >>> $200 is Excellent, here in the UK our FS resellers gouge the heck out of >> us. With a premium license for JAWS costing £1200 around US$1900 and with >> the SMA costing £400 around US$700. >>> >>> I do accept that the none pro versions of JAWS are about 2/3 of these >> costs respectively. >>> >>> Never the less, for none US/Canadian clients of FS, we are all screwed by >> our local dealers. If Freedom Scientific could stimulate competition within >> the market by opening it up, i.e. I could buy from any dealer within the >> world. That would stimulate excellence in resale, promote competition and >> help promote cost equality. As it is right now, I cannot buy from a US or >> other dealer, even though it would save me half the money. >>> >>> Playing with a Mac in a store is never a good idea from the blind point of >> view, buy one and take it home, it wouldn't work for your accountancy needs, >> but, you can run boot camp etc. >>> >>> With Mac you can operate Voice Over in several ways, one, that gets little >> press is Quick Nav, Quick Nav allows for one handed access to your Mac. The >> maximum key presses are two at a time. >>> >>> I once said that using a Mac was like being an octopus, owing to the >> amount of keys you had to use, but that is with their traditional keyboard >> interface, you can use numberpad commander, quick nav, and also track pad >> commander, which is like using an iPhone etc. >>> >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Neil Barnfather >>> >>> Talks List Administrator >>> Twitter @neilbarnfather >>> >>> TalkNav is a Nuance, Code Factory and Sendero dealer, as well as an >>> Apple iOS, Macintosh and Android accessibility specialist. For all >>> your accessible phone, PDA and GPS related enquiries visit >>> www.talknav.com >>> >>> URL: - www.talknav.com >>> e-mail: - serv...@talknav.com >>> Phone: - +44 844 999 4199 >>> >>> On 24 Oct 2012, at 09:28, Sieghard Weitzel <siegh...@live.ca> wrote: >>> >>>> Hello Neil, >>>> >>>> Disagreeing and discussing this topic is of course good and >>>> stimulating. I don't own multi-national businesses with thousands of >>>> employees, but I do own a retail business with 4 or 5 employees and >>>> maybe I could make a Mac work for me if I really wanted. I am on my >>>> computer all day long both for work and for play/recreation/keeping >>>> in touch with friends and family and having been a Jaws user since >>>> 1989 to me it's maybe all about what I feel comfortable with and >>>> about muscle memory. It is of course also about the applications I >>>> use, my point of sale solution is Microsoft Retail Management >>>> Solution which is one of their Dynamics products, I am using Sage >>>> Simply Accounting which as of this upcoming version is being renamed to >> Sage 50 as my accounting program and I do all my bookkeeping, payroll, tax >> filing etc. >>>> Then of course there is Outlook which I use as my mail client along >>>> with my Office 365 subscription which gives me full hosted exchange. >>>> We also scan and electronically file all invoices and most paperwork >>>> for which I use Nuance Paperport and I use Excel every day as I get >>>> many order forms from companies in Excel format. Lastly I do of >>>> course use the Internet extensively. I realize the Apple also has a >>>> point of sale solution for retailers, I am sure there are probably >>>> accounting packages out there although here in Canada Sage Simply >>>> Accounting is very widely used because it has all the tax tables for >>>> calculating the payroll deductions (Employment Insurance, Canada >>>> Pension Plan and Federal Income tax) which I have to submit to the >>>> government each month and I am not aware that they have a Mac >>>> version. Anyhow, as I said, I'm sure it's all doable, but at this point I >> am not doing it. >>>> >>>> I went into an Apple Store last year and spend about an hour playing >>>> around with Voiceover and while this of course is not nearly enough, >>>> one thing I found very difficult is the fact that often you have to >>>> press so many keys together. I became blint when I was 16 and built a >>>> pipe bomb which exploded when I was holding it in my hands and I had >>>> extremely bad hand injuries. As a result I only have 3 fingers on >>>> each hand, I lost both the index and middle finger on each hand and I >>>> found it very difficult to press some of these key combinations. >>>> Maybe there are work-arounds for that as well, I assume you must be >>>> able to assign different key combinations as you can in Jaws and of >> course Voiceover has come a long way in the last few years. >>>> >>>> As for the cost, well, to me giving $200 to Freedom Scientific every >>>> 2 years to maintain my SMA really is not a big deal. I don't think >>>> they can get enough revenue out of selling new licences to pay their >>>> people as they are a small company with a limited number of products. >>>> I find Windows 7 with Jaws >>>> 13 and now 14 to be very stabil and the days when you have to wait >>>> months until a new OS is supported are over as well. The final >>>> release of Jaws 14 was released a couple of days ago and Windows 8 >>>> officially starts shipping I think this Friday or next Monday, so the >>>> timing is perfect and Windows 8 is fully supported from day 1. >>>> >>>> I am at this point not even going to worry about whether I can or >>>> cannot use a Windows 8 tablet. I am very interested to see whether a >>>> true Windows 8 tablet like the Surface and by that I mean an Intel >>>> based tablet not one with Windows RT will be able to run Jaws and I >>>> guess we will find out soon enough. But the iPad of course dominates >>>> the tablet market and another thing I can't wait to see is when >>>> Office will be available for the iPad, from what I hear from the >>>> sources I follow this could happen as early as Q1 2013 and then of >>>> course it will be interesting to see whether it is accessible with >> Voiceover. >>>> >>>> OK, now I really do have to sleep, let's continue to disagree another >>>> day >>>> *smile* >>>> >>>> >>>> All the best, >>>> Sieghard >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" >> Google Group. >>>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >>>> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>>> >>>> >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google >> Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google >> Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >> >> > -- Christopher (CJ) chaltain at Gmail -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en.
