I would like kto add to the information about the iPad that there is an Apple store in Belfast that will give blind people VAT off when purchasing the iPad. However, do not know if any Apple store in the South does same and not sure how much VAT in Ireland in comparison to VAT in UK. Maybe someone on list can inform us if under Irish legislation it is possible for a blind person to claim back VAT on Apple products with Voice Over. This is a topic of debate on some of the UK lists. ----- Original Message ----- From: "NCBI Support" <support@xxxxxxx>
To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2012 4:16 PM Subject: [vip_students] The advantages of owning an iPad
The advantages of owning an iPad Submitted by brianhartgen on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 16:09 I've been incredibly lucky recently as my partner L has just bought for me an Apple iPad 2. I had heard a lot about them, and I often work in largeoffices where people are around me showing off their iPads and talking about them. When this happened recently, I felt I really wanted one and, as I say,I was lucky enough to have it purchased for me. The question I've been asked is, as a blind person, what advantages will there be over having an iPhone 4S, which I also have? I do a lot of travelling each week and so I wanted to lessen the number of things I have to carry around not related to the work I do. The iPad would give me, hopefully, a longer battery life than the iPhone, together with a better quality speaker for listening to music or books as I am a prolific reader. Because of the battery life,, I could also manage all my email andtalk to people on Twitter, Facebook and Skype if I had access to a wireless internet connection. This issue of the length of battery life seems to havebeen confirmed as I am already getting more time from it than I do the iPhone. The iPad really is a mini computer. It delivers no background sound at alland I have found using it a real pleasure. I am comfortable using Safari tomanage our web content on Team-FM, together with the rest of the above. I have also been introduced to iBooks, which if you don't know gives us as visually impaired people acccess to a huge range of books including thelatest best-sellers, and this is going to be excellent. There's such a widevariety!But, I hear you say, you can do a lot of this on the iPhone, so what else isthere?The most obvious advantage is the physical dimensions of the iPad as against the phone. The iPad of course is much larger in size. This means that typing text is far easier I think on the iPad. I have a bluetooth keyboard, (whichI will write about in a moment), but because of the placement of the characters on the iPad it is much more like a QWERTY keyboard than can beaccommodated on the iPhone. The physical resemblance is very similar. I have now become far more confident in terms of the placement of items on the iPad including the keyboard. This means for example if I want to send a tweet ora Facebook post, I can easily do that on the iPad's keyboard without theneed for Flexi or the bluetooth keyboard, just using the one device. I likethat a lot. The other advantage relates to webpage layout. I can appreciate and conceptualise tables on web pages far easier on the iPad because of the greater space which is available. So to the keyboard. I did purchase a case for the iPad with a keyboardincorporated. But I didn't like the feel of it. The iPad is such a well-madepiece of hardware and I wanted a good case to go with it. This case withintegrated keyboard just wasn't suitable. The keyboard could only be chargedusing a USB cable connected to a computer, added to which I felt uncomfortable in terms of the way the iPad fitted into the case. Eventually, I got a conventional leather case for the iPad which accommodates it very well and I am very pleased with that.So in summary, I am very pleased with the iPad and I know I am going to gaina great deal of use from it. I haven't used Facetime on it yet, but I have tested the built-in microphone using Skype's test calling service and itseemed of a good standard. It is important to note that Siri does not existon the iPad, which is fine as I rarely use it.If anyone has any questions about the iPad, please do let me know. But as afinal thought, with the iPad being so readily available, it is very difficult these days to justify the cost of specialist "note-taking" devices, particularly if the user only requires speech output. If youpurchase an iPad, possibly a bluetooth keyboard and some suitable apps, you have everything at your disposal many such devices have offered in the past,and a great deal more! -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. SPAMfighter has removed 1495 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len Do you have a slow PC? 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