I fully agree.
actually, i also tested this device about almost 9 months back and voiced
the very same words expressed by Prashant. they promissed me to rectify at
least the recording part. but after reading Prashant's review, nothing
seemed changed.
It is really sad that they are still insisting on the same principle and
suggestions are simply overlooked.
Regards.
Sandesh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Prashant Verma" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:47 PM
Subject: [AI] The Audio Book Reader - a review
Dear all,
I tested the Audio Book Reader (ABR) which was in news these days and
thought of sharing my views on it.
The device has been designed by a NGO called samdristhi chamta vikas awang
anushandhan which abbreviates to the accronym Saksham in Hindi alphabets.
Please note that this is a different organisation and Saksham Trust Delhi
associated with Mr. Dipendra has nothing to do with it.
Representatives from this Nagpur based NGO came to my office to
demonstrate the ABR yesterday I.e. 7 Sep 09. The Maha Mantri of the NGO
said that they were working for the all round development of the visually
impaired that is samagra vikas and that they have officers all over the
country. The name was acquired one year earlier but they had been working
under a different banner for many more years.
The ABR is about the size of a bar of soap, slightly thicker and heavier.
it has a memory card protruding out on one side and six soft touch buttons
on the top.
On switching it on, it gives a welcome message, informs about the battery
level and then offers to read the manual. All this is in a female recorded
voice.
The keys do not have a voice promt attached to them, they just give a
beep. The idea is that since there are so few buttons and few functions
visually impaired persons can operate it easily and that is certainly the
case. It does not have a in-built speaker and one needs to use a headphone
or a ampli speaker. they have also designed a headphone jack attachment
which allows you to connect 10 headphones at a time for group listening.
The unit costs Rs. 4000 to individuals with a 2 GB memory card. With the
attachment it costs Rs. 5000. It is available through this organization or
their representatives only.
The biggest drawback is that it can play only Wave files and that too of a
specific sampling rate and bit rate. It can only play .wav files recorded
at 8000 Hz and at 8 bit per second.
This means that you cannot simply copy your mp3 files on the memory card
for reading. you need to get them converted to this particular wav format
first.
considering that mp3 is the dominant format now-a-days and that several
other alternatives are available, I wonder if this device will find any
takers. Besides it offers to propogate yet another format for talking
books which is non-standard and not approved or followed by any other
organization around the world.
Further, this device has no other function, you cannot record or listen to
FM as is the case with most flash memory based pocket devices now. In my
opinion, it is worth waiting for the Buddy player which will have all
these facilities with DAISY books player and at the same cost.
Prashant Ranjan Verma
Manager
DU-NTPC Foundation ICT Training Centre
Tutorial Building, Faculty of Arts
University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Ph: 011 27662602
Personal website & blog at: www.prashant.myehome.in
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