Voice Over Utility

[spock999]

Hi,

I have just bought a higher spec refurbished MBP 13 with retina. It arrived yesterday and I have been setting it up. Mostly it has been going OK which surprised me as I have not had much Mac experience. I found that the best way was to do the work on my desk with the desktop on and googled anything that confused me.

It wouldn't have taken me so long except I made the mistake in setup of trying the voiceover utility to explain matters to me. It is absolutely awful. Within a few minutes it had completely blown my mind and I was ready to kill! So confusing. Mac is supposed to be intuitive but this just isn't. After a cup of coffee to cool down, I carried on without it and all was OK. Perhaps its just me but I am surprised that Mac use such an awful utility. All it taught me was that I hate it and it did that pretty effectively.

Overall I am pleased. As I expected I am just amazed at the screen quality (the only reason I bought it rather than a PC). So clear and just right for my photos. I was surprised that the world clock widget doesn't do Auckland New Zealand but I have seen a way to correct that when I feel comfortable doing Library edits. But it isn't urgent.

One of the factors that helped me decide on the MBP was a good chat with one of the sales assistants in the Apple Shop in Milton Keynes UK. As a photographer he gave me good info and reassurance that I was doing the right thing.

 

[MacInWin]

Voice over is intended for physically impaired users. It's not a tool most users need or use at all. But if you need it, it works fine.

For setups, the Help function actually gets you to help from Apple. There are also tutorials at Apple on the fundamentals of how to use the machine. Look here.

 

[chas_m]

Is it possible that you've confused the Voice Over Utility (primarily intended for the sight-impaired) with Siri, the voice-activated assistant? Siri is fantastic and about to get more so in the next OS release.

There's also dictation, which I used quite a lot for forum posts such as these. In fact, I am dictating this right now! Saves me a ton of time.

 

[MacInWin]

Is it possible that you've confused the Voice Over Utility (primarily intended for the sight-impaired) with Siri, the voice-activated assistant? Siri is fantastic and about to get more so in the next OS release.

There's also dictation, which I used quite a lot for forum posts such as these. In fact, I am dictating this right now! Saves me a ton of time.

Siri on a MBP? Did I miss something? I thought it was on IOS only.

 

[chas_m]

Sorry, brain slip, you are correct Siri is iOS only. I'm not sure what I was thinking there, maybe because Siri Dictation was the original name of the Dictation feature. In any case, sorry if I caused any confusion.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, Siri is supposed to come to OSX in Mavericks, so eventually we'll have to deal with confusion between the two. So save your post for later and recycle it. (Don't want to waste the energy you spent typing it!)

 

[chas_m]

As a Doctor Who fan, this sort of temporal slippage happens to me all the time.

 

[MacInWin]

Spoilers!!!