[fb-exchange] Mixing the old with the new. Nokia C5 and iPhone 4S.
- From: "Dominique Farrell" <hollyandopal@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "f B Exchange" <fb-exchange@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:14:47 -0000
I took this from Darragh's Website and I completely agree with all he has to
say.
I'm sure you couldn't care less what phone I'm using or why, but I want to
explain something to you.
I am now using a Nokia C5 for day to day phone needs. I haven't completely
moved away from the iPhone but for making and receiving calls and sending text
messages there's just no beating the convenience of a classic mobile phone.
When I want to dial a number I simply key it in on the numeric key pad. When I
get a text I can respond to it with one hand if I want to. When I'm looking for
a contact I dial in the first few letters and it searches for it. Finding Frank
for example takes me less than two seconds. Finding frank on the iPhone takes a
lot longer.
That's not to say that I have anything against the iPhone or I have gone away
from Apple products. I just got sick of fluffing around with a phone when all I
wanted to do is answer or hang up a call. In fact, I'm going to get my
frustrations out here by listing some of the things that are driving me crazy
about the iPhone. Read on though. I'm going to also tell you why I carry an
iPhone around with me as well.
a.. When I hang up a call I should be able to press the power button but this
only intermittently works. It is fixed in some updates but breaks again with
the next.
b.. Taking the iPhone away from my ear causes it to go to loud speaker. I
know this is by design but it's irritating.
c.. A bug that has been on the iPhone since IOS4 has caused Voiceover users
to encounter an issue where while on a call the phone intermittently switches
back and forth to the loud speaker.
d.. Texting on the iPhone on-screen keyboard is horribly slow, cumbersome,
unproductive and difficult. Even Flexy isn't great if you're in a noisy area
and you can't hear the phone. Also, it's badly designed when you're holding it
up to your ear to hear the text to speech synthesizer.
e.. Bugs are frequently not caught or not fixed. For example, in IOS 6,
Voiceover should speak new notifications when the screen is locked if the
option is enabled but this no longer works. This senseless disregard of simple
bugs has turned me off Apple to a large extent. In fact, because of this I
recently sold my Mac book air.
f.. The battery life is absolutely terrible. I charged my Nokia C5 on Sunday
evening and I won't need to charge it until tomorrow night. Imagine that. Three
days of phone usage on one charge!
g.. The iPhone is too big and it's getting bigger! I don't like the extra
bulk of the iPhone 5. I also don't like having to put a case on my phone. If it
is vital to have a case on a phone to stop it from becoming easily damaged then
the phone is badly designed.
The iPhone is still brilliant. As I said before, I don't want this post to seem
like I'm gone against this product. I still carry one around with me and I use
it when in range of wireless networks. I know you might think this is crazy and
I would ordinarily agree with you but access to the Internet and apps simply
can't be rivalled by any other phone. The iPhone has more apps than any other
platform and with thanks to the voiceover screen reader as blind people we have
the benefit and luxury of having access to the vast majority of these. It's a
fact that I simply wouldn't want to do without the connectivity provided to me
by the iPhone however again, as a simple phone and text utility the iPhone has
a long way to go before it is efficient in comparison to classic mobile phones.
In fact a few people have commented that call quality is clearer when I speak
to them from the Nokia C5 and I also find that I can continue a conversation
for longer when traveling home by train than I can when using the iPhone.
I have examined other platforms however although I think they have a lot of
merit for most mobile phone users, they unfortunately can't compete with the
accessibility of the iPhone. Specifically Android, Blackberry and Windows
phone. The Android platform has a screen reader and it is making slow and
steady progress. I would like to see this reach the point where it can meet the
expectations of usability and efficiency set by the iPhone. The Blackberry
platform has also improved recently but the stability of the screen reader on
this platform doesn't seem to have lived up to the hype. Finally Windows phone.
Ah, good old Microsoft. No accessibility for blind users at all. There's
absolutely no screen reader on this platform. I can only hope that they'll fix
this soon because I actually like what I've read about this platform so far and
I have really enjoyed using previous versions of Windows mobile. I know that
since 7.5 the platform has changed substantially but I loved the
interconnectivity between the mobile and desktop platforms.
I want to say something to you about Windows Mobile for a second. In the
nineties Microsoft launched a mobile platform. The user interface was based on
the PC desktop. This idea was a complete disaster. Microsoft had to completely
change their approach to Windows mobile to win any kind of market share. It was
acknowledged that the expectations and requirements of users were vastly
different for both platforms. This bought about the lovely idea of the today
screen that we have enjoyed on Windows mobile for about ten years. In Windows 8
and Windows mobile 8 this today screen has become much more powerful with its
evolution into the start screen. In 2012 Windows 8 for the desktop and laptop
has taken on a look and feel similar to Windows mobile. About twelve years on
from the catastrophe that was Windows CE for mobile devices with its user
interface based on the desktop version of Windows we now have Windows 8 for the
desktop based on the user interface on mobile devices. So, I have two questions
for you. Is Microsoft looking at another disaster or do users really want this
new and improved today screen on their desktops. I'm not sure. For me, I wasn't
too happy with Windows 8. I found that even after customization of the
environment it was still trying to push its own objectives onto me. Use
Microsoft services for sign on, cloud storage, search, mail and chat. Of course
they can't be anti-competitive so alternatives are available but it's easy to
see what the preference is. Your thoughts are welcome.
The dodgy domain of Digital Darragh
Guiding technology.
www.digitaldarragh.com
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