Aqua Taskforce

jasper wrote on December 28, 2008, 8:07pm

I have to say, the zoom is great for this as a solution. I am, however, pro increasing the size as an option in accesability. Changing the font - no.

ebaur wrote on December 29, 2008, 7:39pm

If the menus are too small, isn't the text in the applications also too small? It seems to me that zoom is the right solution for this, or text to speech (which I suppose might be overkill for many people, since they aren't actually blind).

I voted for this one, but I don't expect that you'll see it any time soon, at least not while Steve Jobs is in power. He seems adverse to people being able to change the looks and feel of the OS.

MicrowaveDave wrote on December 30, 2008, 7:58pm

I'm definitely not criticising you, but you've obviously never worked with somebody with limited sight if you think Zoom is the solution. Try using your computer all day with the screen zoomed in, it's very unpleasant and can actually make people feel nauseous. Can you look at a photograph using only a magnifying glass? It's not fun. Can you watch TV using a magnifying glass? No. The ONLY thing, yes, ONLY thing these people can't use is menus. So isn't it easier to simply make the menu font larger (as is available in every single other GUI OS on the planet)?

Text in almost all Apple applications is too small for some people. I should probably add to the annoyance that the default system font cannot be changed, meaning Address Book, Safari, Calculator, Font Picker, Colour Picker and other Apple software is also virtually useless to people with limited sight. Luckily the Finder itself can be set to use large fonts up to 16pt and large icons make things easy to find and manipulate. Many third-party applications allow users to pick their own fonts. If they didn't, people would all be restricted to using Windows or OS 9 (which are both completely configurable font-wise).

Entourage can be set to use enormous fonts for reading emails, and can be set to use large buttons. Firefox can be set to default to using large fonts, and large toolbar button schemes can be used to make it easier for people to click on big buttons. Unfortunately, all third-party applications also use the menu bar, meaning Firefox bookmarks are difficult to read.

I should add that one of the people I help out only has one arm, so he can't press the Control key and use the mouse wheel at the same time to enable the zoom function. The keyboard shortcut to enable zoom requires him to use Sticky Keys, and it's set to Control-Option =, so every time he needs to look at a menu he needs to press that key combination, then move his hand to the mouse and select the menu, then go back and press Control-Option - to turn off zoom. He uses Windows now because OS X simply doesn't cut it for him. He used to use OS 9 but of course it can't access most websites these days and he can't video chat with his overseas friends.

Just because people are slightly disabled doesn't mean Apple should force them to make do with a crippled computer system also.

jasper wrote on December 31, 2008, 2:29pm

First, I use Zoom all the time. My eyes are crappy, I can't read subtitles on my TV from two meters distance with my glasses on. It's great accesability.

Second, Safari's zoom is great. Enlarging the fonts doesn't enlarge the entire site and give you horizontal scrollbars - no, it still fits (it's just larger).

Third, changing the menu font is not adviseable since Helvetica is about the most readable font out there and so is Lucida Grande. Let me point out that I'm not against enlarging them, though. I am against giving users hundreds of options to work with and complicating things.

Fourth, stop living in the past. OS9 was fantastic, yes. It was a tricked-out OS7 but it has died. I know you love the past and love ciriticising OSX for some reason or the other, but you always make such a ginormous deal out of it. Yes, Apple should add this, just say that and be off with it. And 'cripple computer system' - you make it seem as if OSX just sucks. The Zoom functionality is very usefull. Window's Zoom is about the least usefull thing I've ever seen - it's hard to follow, complicates things and works only half the time.

Anyways, that's my two cents.

MicrowaveDave wrote on December 31, 2008, 4:57pm

"I am against giving users hundreds of options to work with and complicating things."
Sounds just like it came from Steve Jobs' mouth. Fucking idiots like you who don't give two shits about other people's opinions or suggestions are the reason why Mac only has less than 10% market share and is virtually useless in a corporate environment. Obnoxious egotistical Mac zealots are a huge part of the reason why people hate Mac computers so much, even if they are better for some things. You shouldn't be so full of yourself, you use an OS that is in the bottom 10% of computer users worldwide, don't you think they'd sell more if it actually worked better? I wonder, do you spit or swallow after sucking Steve Jobs' dick?

"Fourth, stop living in the past."
Why the fuck do you even bother reading this website if you love OS X so much and think it's so damn perfect? Is it the only website you haven't been banned from yet? You really are an obnoxious bastard jasper. Your two cents aren't even worth two cents anymore with the economic crisis and all. Happy New Year.

jasper wrote on January 5, 2009, 2:46pm

The reason OS X is so unpopular is simple. It's not that MacOS is bad and lacks features that 0.1% of their target market use, but everybody stumbles upon? Here's the problem MicroWaveDave: you are so focused on what you WANT apple to do about things, that you forget they have to IMPLEMENT them - and implementing is not just writing code. It's finding a place for it's options that usefull, the spending of money on something trivial, designing it, advertising it. It's a business.

Also, I can ignore the dirty comments you made. (Hey if there was an administrator you'de be kicked out in no time for the sexual content you describe). But don't dismiss my comments like that because I look from a point of view different than you guys. Market a system, see what's usefull, see what's unnecesarry. See what features we should have, and wich we don't need. My reasons so far have been accurate and simple, and your solution were always 'OS9'. In your sense, more people had OS9 than OSX. OS X doesn't sell well. Let's just look at the company you so greatly hate after the return of the genious marketeer Steve Jobs, who sold millions of iPods, brought Apple back from bankrupcy, helped make a fantasticly popular phone, knew what people want in this economic crisis - yes, Apple is still soaring high in this economic crisis. Apparantly people are willing to cash down a little more for a mac, even though there's a economic crisis. But PC sales are sinking. People complain about Vista, slowdown and malfunction. Macs do not have these prejudices. Weird huh?

Why Apple doesn't have 90% market share, and doesn't want it - The Big Three reasons!
#1 - Apple sells hard + software. They don't want to sell their OS to everyone. So you're stuck with two choices: buy a premium computer or buy a cheap one with Windows. Now there are a lot of people or corporations in the world who didn't want to invest too much money in this. Certainly in the starting days of IT. So Windows got the upper hand with cheaper hardware and simple avaibility. By the time IT realised how good it was that Microsoft made crappy software that IT could help fix and keep their paychecks coming, Windows had a Lion's share.

#2 - Apple can't sell 90% of the worlds computers! It can't make that many at all. They have to ramp up production every year, but they still get them out the door. Even if everybody would want one, Apple couldn't make them all. It doesn't matter, because:

#3 - Apple is worth almost as much as Microsoft, except it got only 10% of the market. yes, you can grow, but do it slowly and Apple has got long-term sustainability. Apple is almost worth double on NASDAQ, for example. Search for AAPL and MSFT, and the comparising is ridiculous.

Sorry to go off topic here for a second, but stop being so emotional and start being a rational human being. Yes this site is about minor things, but think about them aimed at consumers, and Apple's target markets. See if there is any reason they should do it other than 'I just think so'. MicroWaveDave posts reasons, but dresses them up so silly it's strange to look at.

So happy newyear MicroWaveDavy, and let's hope you never tell an something as gross as your homo-erotic scene you mentioned in the previous post! It makes you look so disturbing.

PS: Never been banned in my whole life! You got experience? I'm sure if you start throwing around more sexual comments, administrators will start banning you (describing in the tiniest detail what happens, like you were there yourself)!