[vi-android] Re: using an android tablet
- From: Quentin Christensen <quentin.christensen@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 15:29:50 +1100
Hi Juan,
Welcome to the group, and to the Android community overall!
Talkback (Android's equivalent of iOS's VoiceOver) is quite accessible,
and to a large extent works very similarly to VoiceOver. The key points
I would note are:
- One of Android's advantages over iOS is price - you can buy cheap
tablets from well under $100, however the equivalent to say an iPad
would be a relatively high end Android device - still cheaper than the
iPad though. I know some people who have bought quite cheap tablets and
had fantastic experiences with them, and others which have been lemons,
so particularly if you are going for a budget model, try and find
someone else with one to see if there's anything to be wary of (I've
seen a couple of Bhaun tablets from Aldi which the specs were quite
good, but I would hate to listen to Talkback for any period of time on
the cheap tinny speaker it had for instance)
- Where you can update your iPhone to the latest version of iOS the day
it comes out, Android isn't so speedy - once a new version is released,
it goes to the hardware manufacturers who then tweak it to work on their
devices and slowly send it out to their newer devices - I would
recommend that if you need a particular version of Android (which I'll
get to in a moment), buy a device which comes with it, just to be on the
safe side - if it gets anything newer, take that as a bonus.
- Key Android versions for Accessibility:
- Android 4.1 is when Talkback got explore by touch, which you really
want - this is the minimum version I would get.
- Android 4.2 is the first version which came with a built in screen
magnifier (it works fine with Talkback).
- Android 4.3 brought in a few bug fixes, including the gestures for
Talkback seem to work a bit more consistently.
Samsung is pretty much the most well respected Android hardware maker,
and helpfully, their devices seem to work very well with Talkback.
Nexus branded devices (lately made by Samsung and currently being made
by LG) are considered the 'vanilla' Android experience - Google brings
out a new one with each update to Android itself and uses it to show off
Android - if you get a Nexus device, it doesn't have any of the extras
companies usually put in and they also get updates quicker and for
longer than most other manufacturer's devices.
LG's own branded devices have traditionally not been quite as accessible.
One of the first apps I would swap in a new device, would be to download
Firefox as it is currently the most accessible browser. I believe KitKat
(Android 4.4) has possibly made some improvements in this area - but
none of us have seen it in person yet :)
Regards
Quentin.
On 10/11/2013 3:36 AM, Juan's IPhone wrote:
Hi everyone:
Just a new member here.
I am interested in purchasing a tablet running the android platform. I am
using a IOS 1 but am thinking in trying the android.
How accessible is its speech software?
What recommendations/tips can someone please provide?
Thank you so very much in advance for the help
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