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The personal site of Jamie Knight, an autistic web developer, speaker and mountain biker who is never seen far from his plush sidekick Lion. View the Archive

Topics: Autism Development

2015 MacBook First Impressions.

I’m trying out a 12” MacBook to see if it can replace my dying work Mac. After using it for 3 days i am ready to share some first impressions.

Hardware Thoughts.

The MacBook is not like other Macs. The engineering approach and the design is borrowed heavily from the iPad line.

If an iPad and a MacBook Air had a baby, it would be the 12” MacBook. This is both good and bad.

On the good side:

And on the bad side:

In use.

Over the course of the last three days i have used the Macbook on 2 different desks, on the sofa, in bed and in the back of a taxi.

It worked well in all places. It worked really well in the back of a taxi. It fits on my lap with space to get a comfy typing position.

When on my lap, the low weight is also a problem. It will bounce of my lap when i am typing fast. I have to keep a little finger out to hold it in place!

I have used it for writing, coding, chatting, light photo editing and for generating speech.

It’s worked, but for tasks like coding and light image editing it’s is a bit slow. I would be skeptical of how long this laptop would last as a coding machine. For work it needs to last 3 years, I think that might be a bit ambitous. It may just work as a personal machine, but it’s hard to tell.

It’s not as capable as i am use too, so i have to think about how i am using it and make sure i close tabs etc.

Even with careful managing of resources it still feels a little bit laggy in places.

Is this the future?

I can’t write about the MacBook without addressing the question about it’s place in “the future of computing”.

Apple tends to set trends, the MacBook Air started the last wave of ultraportables and it possible the MacBook will start a new wave of “ultra ultra portables”.

That makes it interesting. The real achievement is not in the performance but in the power used. It does with 6 watts of power what took 15 watts a few years ago and 45 watts 4 years ago.

I think one day we will see an ARM Mac (the iPad Pro is very close!) but i dont think thats going to happen too soon. The MacBook is impressive, for its size, but from my first impressions you do have to be a light user to live within its limits.

I think apple is on to a winner with the basic concept for the MacBook. For some users this Mac would be an all day capable machine, like the Air, it might be another generation or two before thats true for most users.

Closing thoughts.

I am impressed with the MacBook but i think i can already rule it out as a work laptop. I can’t see it is lasting three years even for the lightest of coding tasks. A Retina MacBook Pro + iPod Touch is a better combination. Proper laptop when i need it and a super portable device for when i am on the move.

For personal use i can consider an upgrade earler in the cycle. To changes from my current MacBook would cost me about £150-200 and that’s not a huge price to pay for a laptop which may better fit my personal computing needs.

This is only a first impression, so i will see how it works out over the coming week before i make a decision.

Published: 19 March 2016 | Categories: , Permalink

Letting go as an accessibility specialist.

I really love what i do. My job is to basically float around the BBC and help teams to make things more accessible. Just this week i helped the media player team make our video player better for keyboard only users, and more friendly to older users.

However, the hardest part of the job, the bit which drives me away and challeges my resolve is learning to let go.

The role of my team is to recommend and support, we dont take product decisions. Therefore, from our perspective we see teams “get it wrong” and can feel ignored.

When this happens, we all feel for the users as we know that something could be better.

Learning to accept that our role comes to an end and teams stand and fall by thier choices is extremely hard.

I find it even harder when it comes to decisions which will exclude autistic people. It lands so close to home that i have a really hard time keeping my passion and emotions out of the discussion.

Thats about all for this post really. I think its someting everyone goes through. Often change is achieved by looking at the wider context and not obsessing over individual battles.

I have to focus on the good we do and trust that given time things will come together and improve. Bad decisions will be reviewed and excluded users will be included once the mistake it understood.

At a time when so much in my life is a struggle (speech, housing, travel) it just adds an extra layer of complexity and means that i need to police my actions extra strongly in order to ensure i build bridges and work constructively with others.

Published: 19 March 2016 | Categories: Permalink

Why I traded my iPad for an iPod Touch

Today I traded my iPad Mini 2 (16gb) for a current generation iPod Touch (32gb) at one of the technology trade in stores in town.

A few months ago I would have seen this as a crazy move. After all, in theory the iPad is much more capable and more like a ‘proper computer’. I saw the iPod touch is as a cheap gateway device to give to kids etc.

However for my use case, the swap was a strong upgrade. Here’s why.

1: Software.

A computer is only as useful as it’s software and without a doubt the iPod Touch has a much better, broader and more robust software library than the iPad.

The iPad ecosystem is not bad but it’s just not as active. Big iPad releases are rare. From memory I can’t name any iPad only software!

I don’t find the iPad that much more capable. I can do most of the same things.

For example Coda for iOS makes web development a surprisingly fun, fluid and enjoyable experience on the iPod Touch.

In my day to day usage there was nothing I could do only on the iPad. There was stuff which was easier in theory but in practice it was harder due to the ergonomics.

2: Ergonomics & Keyboard

It’s really awkward to type on the iPad mini on anything other than a desk.

I’ve never had a compelling reason to learn the iPad keyboard. I’ve always got too annoyed with it and given up.

I use the iPod touch like my phone. I can curl up somewhere comfortable and type with my thumbs.

The iPod touch has the same basic keyboard as I have been using daily since 2008 on my phones.

In practice, if I want to write or code it’s a choice of keyboards. Big touch typing keyboard (Mac) or speedy thumbs (iPod / iPhone).

The touch typing with full fingers on the iPad mini just doesn’t work for me.

3: Performance & Storage.

The internals in the iPad Mini 2 struggle to run iOS 9 smoothly. Even with all the graphic turned down its not responsive to inputs.

However the iPod Touch is really impressively fast and smooth. It has the graphics might to power through the iOS 9 visual effects and it’s never missed an input.

I find it much easier to get stuff done on the iPod. I can flow around switching between apps (eg coda to safari and back) and it feels smooth.

The iPad feels like a laggy mess.

Finally, the iPod Touch has twice the storage for the same cost. The trade cost me nothing. I got an almost new iPod touch for my 2+ year old iPad.

Final Words.

The iPod touch is a really incredible little device and I am extremely glad I tried one. I’ve had one for work for a while and it’s been great.

Perhaps in a few years time the iPad will become compelling again. But at the price point I’m working at, i think I got a fantastic deal today and am very happy with the swap.

Published: 12 March 2016 | Categories: , Permalink

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