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Accessibility features on a Mac
Thread poster: Andy S
Andy S
Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
German to English
Dec 23, 2019

I am on the brink of buying an iMac but it is vital to me that two accessibility features work well.

These are the zoom feature on iOS and Apple Dictate.

In particular I would be interested to know how well they work in tandem, as on my PC right now I have already experienced three crashes of the third-party magnifier app, Dolphin Supernova, which does not work at all well with Dragon, especially in a web browser.

This is part of my motivation for buying a
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I am on the brink of buying an iMac but it is vital to me that two accessibility features work well.

These are the zoom feature on iOS and Apple Dictate.

In particular I would be interested to know how well they work in tandem, as on my PC right now I have already experienced three crashes of the third-party magnifier app, Dolphin Supernova, which does not work at all well with Dragon, especially in a web browser.

This is part of my motivation for buying a Mac, but I don't want to spend all that money only to find I come up against the same issues on the new machine. So I'm interested in feedback from any pros.com members on either of these accessibility features, or better still both together.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Apple Dec 23, 2019

iOS doesn't work on the Mac. If you buy an iMac you get the full MacOS.

I can't speak for zoom on the iOS but you may be interested to read this:

https://www.imore.com/how-use-zoom-mac

As for Mac Dictation: it works very well. I use it all the time. And of course it doesn't crash because unlike third-party applications, it's fully integrated into the operatin
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iOS doesn't work on the Mac. If you buy an iMac you get the full MacOS.

I can't speak for zoom on the iOS but you may be interested to read this:

https://www.imore.com/how-use-zoom-mac

As for Mac Dictation: it works very well. I use it all the time. And of course it doesn't crash because unlike third-party applications, it's fully integrated into the operating system. Same goes for the zoom feature.

Macs don't crash. I think the last time I had a Mac crash on me was some time around 1998.

[Edited at 2019-12-23 11:04 GMT]
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Wolfgang Schoene
Cetacea
Elena Feriani
 
Cetacea
Cetacea  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 03:14
English to German
+ ...
Will never again work with anything else Dec 23, 2019

Tom in London wrote:
Macs don't crash. I think the last time I had a Mac crash on me was some time around 1998.


Even though you contradict yourself (wink, wink...), I have to confirm: Macs don't crash. Mine never have. I'm still eternally grateful to my Californian friend who made me switch from Windows to Mac in 1995 (not that he had to twist my arm; I was fed up by that time). I actually love working with a computer now!


Arkadiusz Jasiński
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
OK OK Dec 23, 2019

Cetacea wrote:

Even though you contradict yourself (wink, wink...)


OK OK they USED TO crash, back in about 1997 with System 7. And of course all Micro$oft applications still crash -even the Mac versions. But I don't like where Apple is going, and I especially don't like the working and environmental conditions in their Chinese factories.

[Edited at 2019-12-23 13:55 GMT]


Cetacea
Sylvia Hatzl
 
Andy S
Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Reassuring and helpful Dec 26, 2019

Thanks - all the answers have reassured me that it is worth the expense.
Even while I was typing this message, Dolphin Supernova crashed.

The only questions now are whether 8GB RAM is enough and SSD vs. Fusion drive.

I am minded to go for Fusion to save money, or does SSD make that much difference?

And 8GB RAM as it is upgradeable.


 
Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann  Identity Verified
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
what is ever enough? Dec 26, 2019

Andrew Stucken wrote:

The only questions now are whether 8GB RAM is enough and SSD vs. Fusion drive.

I am minded to go for Fusion to save money, or does SSD make that much difference?

And 8GB RAM as it is upgradeable.



As with every computer purchase: get as much RAM as you can afford. I'm running 48 GB.

My only regret since last Mac purchase in 2018 was not getting SSD. Even if you get a small SSD in the iMac and use external HDDs for storing data, it'll be a lot faster (and essentially more reliable) than the fusion drive.

DJH


Andy S
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
RAM and HD Dec 27, 2019

Andrew Stucken wrote:

Thanks - all the answers have reassured me that it is worth the expense.
Even while I was typing this message, Dolphin Supernova crashed.

The only questions now are whether 8GB RAM is enough and SSD vs. Fusion drive.

I am minded to go for Fusion to save money, or does SSD make that much difference?

And 8GB RAM as it is upgradeable.


I strongly recommend AT LEAST 16GB of RAM and an SSD. Both for the same reason: everything works better and faster.

To save money, and if (as you say) the computer is upgradeable (but double check that) you could pay for the smallest possible amount of Apple RAM and then buy Crucial RAM and install it yourself. I have done that a few times and it isn't difficult.


 
Andy S
Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Non-Apple RAM? Dec 29, 2019

I had no idea that I could use non-Apple RAM but everything you say makes perfect sense. An SSD and 8GB memory, but upgradeable.

I am wondering if I can get away with a 0.5 Gb SSD if I need to run Parallels Desktop and install Windows in due course.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
a 0.5 Gb SSD Dec 29, 2019

A 0.5 Gb SSD is tiny! I would suggest at least 500GB for your SSD - especially if you want to partition it and install Parallels + Windows.

When I upgraded this computer I used Crucial for both the SSD and the RAM.

https://uk.crucial.com


 
Andrii Vovchenko
Andrii Vovchenko  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 04:14
Member (2013)
English to Russian
+ ...
A few points Dec 29, 2019

If you use Dragon on Windows, you may be accustomed to the best quality recognition. My opinion it that Apple dictation, although good and improving, is not as accurate yet. And there are different types of Apple dictation:

1. Regular or online or keyboard Dictation. It has the most accurate Siri engine in all supported languages. No commands, just a plain text with punctuation.

2. Enhanced Dictation. Available up to Mojave macOS. Some old engine, not as accurate as Sir
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If you use Dragon on Windows, you may be accustomed to the best quality recognition. My opinion it that Apple dictation, although good and improving, is not as accurate yet. And there are different types of Apple dictation:

1. Regular or online or keyboard Dictation. It has the most accurate Siri engine in all supported languages. No commands, just a plain text with punctuation.

2. Enhanced Dictation. Available up to Mojave macOS. Some old engine, not as accurate as Siri. Supports many commands. I could never make it work reliably.

3. Voice Control. Introduced in Catalina macOS. It replaces the Enhanced Dictation. Voice Control received Siri engine in US English. For other languages, it uses the old Enhanced Dictation engine. In fact, Voice Control is now more or less usable in US English only. With other languages and variants it lag or (most often) does not do anything at all. US English is also the only language where you can add your custom vocabulary (with Voice Control, not in any other type of dictation).

As to me, I use Apple online Dictation as my main tool, but only because there is no Dragon for Ukrainian and Russian. It's good for many types of texts (descriptions, dialogues, software strings), but I still need to make corrections. And the lack of custom dictionaries is a big drawback. I can see Dragon is better when I switch to dictating something in English with it.

I would try Apple dictation first to see whether it is up to your expectations. There is a lot of marketing buzz about Voice Control, but even in US English it feels underdeveloped, as if they were in a big hurry. E.g., sometimes a command is recognized, but not executed.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Useful info Dec 29, 2019

Andrii Vovchenko wrote:
3. Voice Control. Introduced in Catalina macOS. It replaces the Enhanced Dictation. Voice Control received Siri engine in US English. For other languages, it uses the old Enhanced Dictation engine. In fact, Voice Control is now more or less usable in US English only.


Thanks for that useful info, Andrii. I don't speak US English. The version of Mac Dictation I'm currently using works very well (i.e. well enough for professional, time-saving use).

As in the case of so many other applications it has abandoned, or made worse (e.g. iWork) Apple has a very bad track record of launching innovative new things that work well for a few years, and then abandoning them - leaving users in a real quandary as to whether to stick with an old OS where everything works perfectly, or upgrade to a new OS that breaks old software and other things.

Macs are still much better than PCs but bad things are happening in the Apple boardroom. From being a technology-led company (that also made a profit), Apple is now a profit-driven company (that keeps coming out with new bells and whistles that effectively downgrade the computing experience). I don't think Apple even cares much about computers any more.

With every day that passes I'm more and more glad to have stayed with El Capitan. I have reviewed the situation over these holidays and have come to the conclusion that I'm still going to stay with El Capitan.

[Edited at 2019-12-29 15:40 GMT]


 
Andy S
Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Andrii's cautionary words Dec 30, 2019

Thankyou Andrii. It is a lot of money to commit so I need to be sure. I think your suggestion of trying out Apple Dictate is a good one.

I am a big Dragon user on my PC, but just have to work out how to do this, unless I buy an iMac and try it out, but I do not want the hassle of returning it.


 
Olivier Vasseur
Olivier Vasseur  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 03:14
Member (2004)
English to French
+ ...
upgrading macs... Dec 30, 2019

Andrew Stucken wrote:

I had no idea that I could use non-Apple RAM but everything you say makes perfect sense. An SSD and 8GB memory, but upgradeable.

I am wondering if I can get away with a 0.5 Gb SSD if I need to run Parallels Desktop and install Windows in due course.


You have to be careful because upgrading iMac is not easy, since the whole computer is hidden behind the screen. The only thing you can do without opening the machine is adding memory (to open an iMac you need to lift the glass screen with suction cups, which means for most people asking a technician to do it). Worse, adding memory without opening the iMac (meaning you open the memory compartment instead of taking off the screen), is only possible on 27" iMac.
That being said, unless you absolutely want the 21,5" iMac, you should definetely buy as less memory as possible from Apple. You can find third-party memory for half the price charged by Apple.
Apple SSD are also very expansive, though that might be partially justified, since I remember reading they use only high-end SSD. I'm not a specialist, but I did some research about this when I changed my iMac this summer. From what I gathered, the Fusion Drive was a good idea a few years ago : it's a combination of a HDD and a small SSD. from the user's point of view ,there's only one drive. You store your files and program as if there is only one big drive, but the system store the files which are most often accessed (including the OS) on the SSD. That works well, and the system seems to choose quite efficiently which files to store on the SSD for more speed. BUT : it was a compromised solution that should have been replaced by entry-price SSDs.
Wehn I replaced my my 7 year-old iMac this summer, I chose a 27"" iMac (2019) with 2TB fusion drive (128gb SSD), because of the price of Apple SSDs, even though the Fusion Drive is outdated. Start-up is much, much, faster : around 30 seconds instead of several minutes. For TRADOS, I chose to use an external 250 SSD with a Paralllels Virtual Machine on it (Windows 10). I use the usb 3 gen 2 port (that is the 10Gb port, in case they change the name again). Starting Parallels and TRADOS is much faster than on my old Mac, almost instantaneous (though of course the processor is faster and I have much more memory). This is when starting a "paused" virtual machine, which is like quitting sleep mode. Re-starting Windows takes a little longer but is still quite fast.
I put as much memory as possible without removing the 8 GB provided by Apple, which means adding 2 X 16 GB, for a total of 40 GB. My old computer worked with 16GB but the new one often uses 30 GB or more. MACOS tends to use as much memory as available to speed us things.
So, I would recommand a SSD if you can afford it, but a Fusion Drive with an external SSD for Trados works well for me.




[Modifié le 2019-12-30 17:06 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
RAM Dec 30, 2019

Tha reminds me of one occasion on which I was experiencing difficulty installing new Crucial RAM in a MacBook Pro.

The Crucial website gives you a small application that you run on your own computer, and then tells you what kind of RAM you can install in that particular model. It also tells you how to install it.

But sometimes it's more difficult than it looks.

On that occasion I called Crucial and they very kindly guided me through the process, while I
... See more
Tha reminds me of one occasion on which I was experiencing difficulty installing new Crucial RAM in a MacBook Pro.

The Crucial website gives you a small application that you run on your own computer, and then tells you what kind of RAM you can install in that particular model. It also tells you how to install it.

But sometimes it's more difficult than it looks.

On that occasion I called Crucial and they very kindly guided me through the process, while I was talking to them.
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Andy S
Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:14
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Hardware decided, med to check Apple Dictate Dec 30, 2019

I am learning a lot about Macs here, thank you gentlemen.

I was planning to get a 27 inch iMac so I will definitely go for 8 GB RAM (with a view to upgrading using non-Apple memory) and as big an SSD as I can afford.

I think the last potential hurdle is to gain enough confidence in Apple Dictate to warrant the purchase. I have a neighbour with an iMac so will be asking him if I can tried out on his machine.


 
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Accessibility features on a Mac






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