Macbook Air with VO or Asus Ultrabook with Jaws?

By Jayson, 26 December, 2013

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

I had used pc computer with screen reader Jaws during all my life, and will in these days buy a new laptop, but I'm confused and wondering something.
Will I continuely use pc with Jaws cuz of I can that commands and have good experience and buy a Asus Ultrabook by screen reader Jaws or drive a Macbook Air with VO? There's a great difference between this models. I haven't had any problem with Jaws for pc but Macbook Air will work 100% great also is it true? What's your opponion and have you some tips?

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Comments

By Piotr Machacz on Sunday, January 5, 2014 - 11:26

I'd personally go the Mac root. Surprisingly enough, it would probably end up being cheeper in the long run, as a JAWS license is very expensive, so any savings you could get out of getting a cheeper computer wouldn't matter thanks to the JAWS license. Speaking of price, not saying this is always the case, but what I found when learning about any new ultra books was that even they cost as much, or sometimes more than a macbook air, almost nothing could compare with it (built out of plastic, very slow CPU, only 5 hours of battery usually). Also, there's no reason why you can't run any Windows programs on a Mac, either through a VM, or with bootcamp. In fact, there is a podcast on this site which describes running Windows with JAWS on a 2013 Macbook Air which may be helpful to you.

By Serena on Sunday, January 5, 2014 - 11:26

hi, well, i am not sure what kind of ultrabooks they sell where you are, but the ultrabooks they sell here, are made of mettle much like the air, some of them even look similar to an air, and get good battery life. though not quite as good as the new air, they still get 7 to 10 hours of power. also, if windows is what you are used to, ultrabooks will blow your mind as to how fast they will run windows. but yes, in terms of cost, a new ultrabook plus jaws, is going to cost loads. and you can get a very nice macbook air for that price, if not a little less. it really comes down to what you do with it, and whether or not you will like having to deal with voiceovers quirks, and the amount of keyboard presses you have to use, minus using the trackpad of course. i am still considering a mac air for my next computer, but that won't be for a year or two. i have no need to buy a new one right now. this toshiba is awesomely powerful, and only cost me a grand. no mac i could buy for that cost would be as powerful. but i am still thinking about a mac air. course, if i am then going to run windows on the mac as well, there is an extra cost. that will be a good 150 to 200 bucks i think. either way, good luck with which ever way you go. they both hold very good offerings. and for that matter, you may even want to check out the windows hibred computers. part tablet, part laptop. they are awesome. and you can pick those up for the price of a good mac air. so there is another option.

The kind of Ultrabook I'm looked up costs the same as Macbook Air here where I am. The battery power is running up to 8 hours at this model. I'm gonna getting Jaws as accessibility, that includes a license. But what I heard that there's things that still works better with Jaws than VO in Air. and it's gonna be difficult to coming up any solutions for that work. Yeah I agree with you that Air and Ultrabook looks like the same that by helping of processor of last Intel Core would make Ultrabook very quick and fast, So I didn't see any great difference either.

Hello. I haven't priced ultra books, but also keep in mind, unless you have used windows eight, and i've had very limited knowledge ofit, you may also be putting yourself in the same position as you would with the Mac. That being, new operating system and maybe, new ways of using Jaws. Let's say for kicks, the ultra book costs 1300 dollars. You have your upgrade of the Jaws license, but say you stopped at version 13. You're at 15 now so that's another four hundred dollars, if my math is right. That brings cost up to around 1700 plus two hundred every year to keep that software maitenance agreement up to date. Remember if you let it lapse once, you'll be out however many upgrades it takes, to get to the current version. When I had Jaws eight, I upgraded, literally when the product shipped, the software was released. so my money went ot that upgrade, not to maintaining my SMA. All of this ot say, macs aren't better then windows, and like I said I haven't seen these other computers people are talking about. I'd advise you to go to an Apple store if you can, or play with a friend's to really try things out. God luck.

By Michael Hansen on Sunday, January 5, 2014 - 11:26

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Hi, Like others have said, it really depends on what you are wanting. If you want to learn the Mac and VoiceOver, get a MacBook Air. They have great battery life and run well. Choose your storage wisely, though, as it isn't user-upgradeable. If you want to stay with Windows (something I totally understand, as I'm still there) you have 2 options: 1. Buy a Windows 8 ultrabook. Windows 8 is very different, but experienced users on here will tell you that they love it. 2. Buy a MacBook Air and run Windows 7 or 8 using Boot Camp. While the Apple hardware is great and the AppleCare support plan is hard to beat, this is an expensive route because you will have to pay for a license of Windows, around $200 in the u.s. for a standard edition of Windows 7 or $120 for Windows 8.1. But the build quality of the notebook itself is great.

Good morning. One of the things that is important to remember is what you want to do with the machine. Productivity such as word processing, spreadsheet creation and creating presentations has for a long time made the decision for people to stay with Windows. Since the upgrade to Mavericks and the newer versions of the office apps iWorks for mack accessibility has greatly improved and has slapped a wonderful gray area in to this decision. I'd say think of what you want to do with the machine and then be sure the programs available will meet your needs. Yes! Please!! go to an apple store and actualy try a mack with the software you need. There happy to help.

By Maria on Sunday, January 5, 2014 - 11:26

Hi. I am looking to getting a laptop in the near future. I have chosen to go with a mac book air. Mainly because I already have a mac mini and love it. I also love the amount of battery life that I will be able to get from it. I plan to run windows 7. IF you're looking for a reasonably priced copy of windows 7 look on ebay. Make sure it's the full version and not an upgrade version. I figure this way I have the best of both worlds. the mac os which is the thing i use primarily and windows 7 if I need to do anything in windows. Will go for the most storage I can afford but don't mind using external drives. I hope this helps

It's also worth noting that the 13" MacBook Air is rated for 2 more hours of battery life than the 11". It is also more expensive, though.

If you choose windows, wether it's on its own, or if you have a bootcamp situation going on, as the subject line says, let me remind you guys about NVDA which is a pretty awesome open-source screenreader. I'll be honest...when I first got it it really didn't work very well. That was ages ago though, and the program has grown a lot and has gotten loads better. Plus you can't beat the price, it's free thank you very much!So if you end up going the mac route, but don't want to have to spend more on the SMA for JAWS, NVDA is quite definitely something to think about. If you get an air you're dropping a whole lot of cash anyways, so if you put windows on it you could save loads every year on the price of a SMA. You'd have one on the windows side for free, and one on the mac side that's built in, so that's a good thing to consider as well. I've become a huge fan of NVDA and use it a lot. I have 3 screenreaders on my windows 7 machine so it's definitely worth looking at especially if you're dropping a lot on a mac like I mentioned before. You could save yourself a load of cash.

By Ekaj on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 - 11:26

Definitely agree about NVDA! I've used it before and it's great. One other option to consider, if you're in possession of lots of money, is Serotek's line of products. They have monthly payment options for the System Access Mobile Network and I think for their other products as well. Having said all that, I love my Mac Book Air. I got it a couple days after Christmas and am still learning, but it is working great for me thus far. The fact that Voiceover has been included makes this a truly nice option if you want to go the Mac route. I have not yet attempted to run Windows on here, but I know it can be done and I listened to the podcast about Bootcamp.