[Athen] iOS frustrations -- what are your thoughts?

[Robert Spangler]

Hello Debee, you are correct in that the paradigm is much different with a
mobile device.  iOS uses a sandboxed approach, where they dictate
specifically which apps will open which files.  A lot of this is to do with
the fact that they want you to use their default apps, but also the more
control that is given to the user, the more likely something is to break,
or the more likely there will be a security issue.  The security of a
mobile device is much more involved since it's always moving, always prone
to theft, hacking, etc, so Apple has elected a more locked-down approach.
This issue of not knowing in which app a file will open, plus the
unintuitive methods for navigating and editing documents is why I could
never use an iOS device as my primary device, or even as a laptop
replacement.  A PC-based solution wins hands down every time.  Android is
much more open in that regards, but it has its own host of issues which
would take up an entire different thread.  On the bright side, however, iOS
is becoming more open - slowly, but surely.

If you needed to do some reading on the go, however, iOS is great for
that.  I would purchase an app such as VoiceDream Reader, which reads many
different file types as well as keeps your reading location.  I would then
choose one file format that I know works well, such as PDF, and convert all
of my readings to that format prior to traveling.  You would then have to
determine how to get the files to your device; VoiceDream allows you to
open the file browser from within the app, or to connect to your Dropbox
and Google accounts.  A bluetooth keyboard and the Notes app would be
sufficient for writing things down from the readings.

I know people want more portable solutions, and ones with longer battery
life,.  Unfortunately, however, I have not found any mobile device to be as
intuitive and bug-free as a PC-based solution with a screen reader.  The
last time I even tried to read a conference agenda in Word format using my
phone, the focus jumped all over the place and I just gave up.  My phone is
great for reading things, taking notes, keeping up with finances,
communicating, etc, but not for productivity tasks such as word processing
or studying.

Robert




On Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 12:23 PM Deborah Armstrong <
armstrongdeborah at fhda.edu> wrote:


> I always suggest to print-impaired students that reading things on their

> iPHONE or iPAD during their commute is a good use of time. But showing them

> how is a different matter entirely.

>

>

>

> I myself have found it terribly inconvenient to transfer common formats,

> MP3, html, rtf etc. to my phone. For example, if I save a file to

> one-drive, and then locate it in either the Files app or the one-drive

> native app, I often can’t just start it “playing”. I have to pick “share”

> and then I get what seems to be a random list of apps, some of which don’t

> even open my file.

>

>

>

> For example, I had a web page that I wanted to read offline. I saved it to

> my hard disk, and made sure I could open the offline file in my browser. I

> then moved the HTML over to One-Drive. But later when I tried to open it,

> iOS wanted to run a podcasting app that didn’t even show the HTML file.

>

>

>

> I’d like to tell iOS to make VoiceDream reader the default for epub and

> RTF files; I’d like safari to be the default for html and I’d like the

> native iOS audiobook player to be the default for MP3.

>

>

>

> If I pick an Mp3 off the web, the phone will start streaming it

> immediately. But if it’s in cloud storage, that doesn’t happen. If I save

> an MP3 in dropbox, I can play it by tapping on it, but if I save it in

> Google drive I cannot, in both cases using each cloud storage’s  native

> app. Even the “open in” list for each app is a bit different; is their no

> way I can standardize an “open in” list so that it is app-independent?

>

>

>

> And different disabilities will have different defaults they want to use

> for reading different file types. Yet, iOS seems to not always show on the

> share sheet everything that’s available or even put them in order by which

> filetypes they handle best.

>

>

>

> As a Windows user, maybe there’s just something basic I don’t understand

> about the iOS paradigm. On my Windows PC, I can choose which app will open

> a file and it just happens after that. No sharing, no list of random apps

> that are unrelated.

>

>

>

> Thoughts?

>

>

>

> --Debee

>

>

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>



-- 
Robert Spangler
Disability Services Technical Support Specialist
rspangler1 at udayton.edu
Office of Learning Resources (OLR) - RL 023
Ryan C. Harris Learning & Teaching Center (LTC)
University of Dayton  | 300 College Park  |  Dayton, Ohio 45469-1302
Phone: 937-229-2066
Fax: 937-229-3270
Ohio Relay: 711 (available for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing)
Web Site: http://go.udayton.edu/learning
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