Blog: MMmm, I hardly taste the poison in the Apple-flavored Kool-Aid! Confessions of a Nokia Fan-Boy...
by Ted MC from BlindMind.net
Well, ok maybe I can taste just a tiny bit of poison....I think they call it iTunes. But it gets rather lost in the vast amount of useful, and yes accessible, goodness.
I am talking about having taken the plunge and chosen an iPhone 4 to replace my Nokia N97 which was 18 months into its 24 month contract, and the provider was willing to waive the remainder of the contract in order to re-commit me for another 24 months. I did waver and ponder for quite a while, tossing up the Nokia E7, a Symbian 3 device similar in look and feel to my N97. Same horizontal slide-out keyboard. But unfortunately, same thickness and even a bit heavier than the N97, which I always thought of as a brick.
So what in the world would possess me, a long-time Nokia fan-boy, and Apple Resistance League chairman, to suddenly switch teams? To jump the proverbial fence? I think we'll stick with the 'jumping the fence' analogy...I don't like the mental image of "team switching" if it's all the same to you all!
Well, for very practical reasons, I think. Here's a random non-prioritized list of what was going on in my head as I tried to decide which road to take:
1. No less accessible than Nokia S60.
2. Much better touch screen implementation than Nokia.
3. Really like having the horizontal slide-out QWERTY on Nokia...could get an E7?
4. S60 has an end-of-life date of less than two years...is anyone really still making much in the way of apps for them?
5. How much real development is going to go on by Nuance to continue developing Talks & Zooms? Won't it really just be bug-fixes and new handset-specific fixes from here on out while they ponder their future? (This question might be less provocative if Nuance would actually say something substantive about its future...)
6. Nokia still has clearly superior hardware as I got to test in realtime pitting my N97 against both an iPhone 4 and an Android OS Galaxy Tab trying to pick up a far away WIFI signal. The iPhone 4 barely saw it and seemed to waver back and forth...the Galaxy Tab could see it but couldn't really get a connection. Meanwhile, I was already finished connecting and updating/downloading the 17 or 18 podcasts my phone was subscribed to. Thanks Nokia!
7. I really like the implementation of oiceOver, but will I miss the power of things like app-specific settings in Talks, or the choice of voices?
8. Will Talks make a comeback if and when Microsoft supposedly will enable accessibility in future releases of its Windows Phone OS? Have they been honest in past when paying lip service to accessibility in its PC platform, then not really delivering?
9. What's my best available choice for a fully accessible device for the next 2 years of my life?
10. What about all the apps and accessibility software I like to use on my phone? You mean I can read PDF's on the iPhone? And the store is accessible? And things like OCR, which cost about $600 to do on a Nokia cost about $6 on an iPhone????
11. Things like the Audible app are accessible on iPhone? Ok, I'm getting close here...
12. Local useful apps such as not only booking a taxi with a press of a button, but then seeing how far away it is using the GPS in the taxi is only available on iPhone? And my local public transport schedule? And being able to program my cable TV box right from my phone? Really? I can only do those things on an iPhone? Is it really likely that any of those things, with what we know today about Nokia's future, will still come out for S60? What's the address of my mobile phone provider retail shop again?
And so the conversation in my head went. Even more surprisingly, the voice I heard all those things spoken in was "Karen"! Yes, that was another good thing about jumping the fence....I was already using Karen on my N97.
Please, I hope no one takes any of this as a suggestion for what is right and correct for anyone else. I think it's great that there are multiple options available. I have a very good friend who just re-upped with Nokia and got the E7, and he seems both happy and mostly sane, so I have to take his word for it that it is a perfectly acceptable, viable alternative to the pure bliss and joy that is Apple marketing. <grin>
'Nuff said.
Well, ok maybe I can taste just a tiny bit of poison....I think they call it iTunes. But it gets rather lost in the vast amount of useful, and yes accessible, goodness.
I am talking about having taken the plunge and chosen an iPhone 4 to replace my Nokia N97 which was 18 months into its 24 month contract, and the provider was willing to waive the remainder of the contract in order to re-commit me for another 24 months. I did waver and ponder for quite a while, tossing up the Nokia E7, a Symbian 3 device similar in look and feel to my N97. Same horizontal slide-out keyboard. But unfortunately, same thickness and even a bit heavier than the N97, which I always thought of as a brick.
So what in the world would possess me, a long-time Nokia fan-boy, and Apple Resistance League chairman, to suddenly switch teams? To jump the proverbial fence? I think we'll stick with the 'jumping the fence' analogy...I don't like the mental image of "team switching" if it's all the same to you all!
Well, for very practical reasons, I think. Here's a random non-prioritized list of what was going on in my head as I tried to decide which road to take:
1. No less accessible than Nokia S60.
2. Much better touch screen implementation than Nokia.
3. Really like having the horizontal slide-out QWERTY on Nokia...could get an E7?
4. S60 has an end-of-life date of less than two years...is anyone really still making much in the way of apps for them?
5. How much real development is going to go on by Nuance to continue developing Talks & Zooms? Won't it really just be bug-fixes and new handset-specific fixes from here on out while they ponder their future? (This question might be less provocative if Nuance would actually say something substantive about its future...)
6. Nokia still has clearly superior hardware as I got to test in realtime pitting my N97 against both an iPhone 4 and an Android OS Galaxy Tab trying to pick up a far away WIFI signal. The iPhone 4 barely saw it and seemed to waver back and forth...the Galaxy Tab could see it but couldn't really get a connection. Meanwhile, I was already finished connecting and updating/downloading the 17 or 18 podcasts my phone was subscribed to. Thanks Nokia!
7. I really like the implementation of oiceOver, but will I miss the power of things like app-specific settings in Talks, or the choice of voices?
8. Will Talks make a comeback if and when Microsoft supposedly will enable accessibility in future releases of its Windows Phone OS? Have they been honest in past when paying lip service to accessibility in its PC platform, then not really delivering?
9. What's my best available choice for a fully accessible device for the next 2 years of my life?
10. What about all the apps and accessibility software I like to use on my phone? You mean I can read PDF's on the iPhone? And the store is accessible? And things like OCR, which cost about $600 to do on a Nokia cost about $6 on an iPhone????
11. Things like the Audible app are accessible on iPhone? Ok, I'm getting close here...
12. Local useful apps such as not only booking a taxi with a press of a button, but then seeing how far away it is using the GPS in the taxi is only available on iPhone? And my local public transport schedule? And being able to program my cable TV box right from my phone? Really? I can only do those things on an iPhone? Is it really likely that any of those things, with what we know today about Nokia's future, will still come out for S60? What's the address of my mobile phone provider retail shop again?
And so the conversation in my head went. Even more surprisingly, the voice I heard all those things spoken in was "Karen"! Yes, that was another good thing about jumping the fence....I was already using Karen on my N97.
Please, I hope no one takes any of this as a suggestion for what is right and correct for anyone else. I think it's great that there are multiple options available. I have a very good friend who just re-upped with Nokia and got the E7, and he seems both happy and mostly sane, so I have to take his word for it that it is a perfectly acceptable, viable alternative to the pure bliss and joy that is Apple marketing. <grin>
'Nuff said.
Posted by Ted Mc at 26 Apr 2011, 10:47 AM 
Categories: News - Mobile, Blind, Reviews - Hardware, iPhone, S60 3rd Edition, Low Vision, OCR, Android, S60 5th Edition, Microsoft, News - Hardware, Apple, iPad, News, Accessibility, News - S60, Advocacy, Nokia, News - Symbian, Nuance Talks/Zooms
Tags: Apple iPhone 4 Nokia N97 Apple vs Nokia Voiceover Nuance Talks and Zooms accessibility blind low vis
Categories: News - Mobile, Blind, Reviews - Hardware, iPhone, S60 3rd Edition, Low Vision, OCR, Android, S60 5th Edition, Microsoft, News - Hardware, Apple, iPad, News, Accessibility, News - S60, Advocacy, Nokia, News - Symbian, Nuance Talks/Zooms
Tags: Apple iPhone 4 Nokia N97 Apple vs Nokia Voiceover Nuance Talks and Zooms accessibility blind low vis
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