Hi, I started out several years ago on the Apple iTouch. But when it came to buying a smart phone, I first went with Android and a Galaxy s III. In my opinion, there were three reasons why I came back to Apple and purchased an iPhone 5.
First. Android is very flexible. While this is in its own way good, it has some negatives as well. App developers, for example, decide where they want their app to appear on your device. So, I had my home screen set up the way I wanted and here comes an app that needed to be important enough to be first on the home screen, thus moving every other app down one notch. You can move apps on the home screen in Android, but there is no audio feedback, so you will likely do nothing but even further mess up your home screen. Yes, you can use different browsers and different speech engines. Firefox is the browser that most people who are blind on the Android platform used. Guess what, the very next version of Firefox had lost much of it's accessibility. Skype, as well, was almost unusable. Apple seems to have much more control over apps they allow that does Android. Second. And this seems like a good idea on the surface, you are not stuck with just one phone. There are a number of different phone device developers. I tried a few and they all had their own differences from each other. Some seemed to work with accessibility better than others. Some of this depends on what kind of bloat ware the phone company you choose puts on the device. Lastly, I had a lot of crashes of apps on more than one kind of phone. I don't think that my sighted Android using friends have this problem, so I am left to think that it has something to do with the use of accessibility features. I could be wrong about this, but I finally decided. In my opinion, Android is not yet up to speed with accessibility. Give them a few months, and the entire shape of what can be done and done well on Android is likely to change. OK, now remember, this is one person who had an experience. Others will give you different information. There are a lot of people who are blind who use Android, so it is certainly worth your consideration. I am just giving you my experience for what that is worth, and it is only worth one persons experience. Neal -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Sieghard Weitzel Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 11:23 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: question Iphone 5 Hi Andy, I won't list all the advantages of an iPhone over any other phone if you happen to be a blind user, but here are the main points: Blind or not blind, the iPhone is the most popular single phone, it is one of the fastest, best designed and, in the case of the iPhone 5, I think it is also the thinnest smartphone currently available. It also has one of the best cameras, not necessarily in Megapixels, but it has been proven many times that pictures taken with an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 are better than those taken with another phone which has a camera with a higher Megapixel sensor. This is because just the sensor isn't responsible, it also the quality of the lens and the way the image is processed. For a visually impaired person, the iPhone has by far the best accessibility. Android accessibility is definitely better now than it was a year or 2 ago, but while iPhone accessibility is being improved as well, the iPhone was just as accessible 3 years ago already as it is now. Because Apple has such control over both hardware, the iOS platform and the app store, everything just works. Of course there are bugs as well, but Apple's commitment to accessibility is probably stronger than Google's and while Google seems to improve accessibility as well, the many differences in the hardware from so many manufacturers and the stuff they do with Android to customize it to their liking simply makes it more difficult. In total there are many more games on the iOS side than the Android side. iDevices are the biggest mobile gaming platform and you can listen to last week's "Today in iOS" Podcast which you can find at www.TodayInIOS.com if you want to hear more on that topic. The iPhone may not have as many cool and cutting edge features as Android nowadays since Apple takes a more conservative approach, but keep in mind that it was because of Apple's integration of SIRI into iOS and the iPhone 4S why nowadays Android and other platforms are also doing this. When SIRI first came out some tech pundits laughed it off as a gimmick just as many thought the iPhone itself when it was first released in 2007 was a temporary phenomena and fad which people would soon put aside and forget about. Android may have happened anyways, but to a large degree Android came about because of the iPhone and because of the vision Steve Jobbs had. Whether you buy an iPhone or not is entirely up to you, it's not up to me or anybody else to convince you beyond pointing out the facts, but if you do your homework you will probably come to the conclusion that unless you reject the concept of the iPhone and maybe Apple as a whole for whatever reason, the iPhone is the best choice if a blind person wants the most accessible smartphone. If you don't mind fiddling around and going through a lot of frustration then an Android phone maybe right for you, but if you don't like Apple's control you can always Jailbreak the iPhone which gives you a lot more flexibility as to what you can do with it. Beyond that I would encourage you to search the list archives if you have questions first as after years of list traffic just about everything you can think of has been discussed on here and, as I already said, the Today in iOS podcast is one of the best sources for information about the iPhone and the iOS platform. Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of andrew shipp Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 12:42 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: question Iphone 5 Hi All, I see a lot of vi people using the Iphone 5 or 4s, just lately, most of them tell me the speech recognition is so improved to the Iphone 4s. is this right? is the Iphone 5 better to use than the others? My friend uses the Samsung galaxy note 2 I must say it is a nice phone but the keypad is crap. Is there many games for the totally blind to play on the IPhone 5? So many things I want to know before I think of getting one of these. I must be convinced this is the right phone for me. Andy S -- 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. 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