Keith,
The BN family lasts a lot longer on the battery than a laptop. I just got a
laptop and I get about 8 hours between the two batteries. One battery is
bigger than the other. If you check your percentage on the battery, and you
see it is getting low, recharge the battery the night before. I have used
GPS extensively and have never had my Voice Note go dead on me.
Matt Roberts
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith Bucher
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 6:59 PM
To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Braillenote] Risks Indeed!
Why is it that nearly every commercial manufacturer of notebook computers
offers user replaceable batteries? The more power a computer draws, the
more important it is to have a user replaceable battery.
Recently, I saw the following quote from a message by Mike May on the
Gps-Talk list: "We have enhanced the manual route creation software.
You can now designate manual waypoints as Straight, Left or Right. You can
add custom descriptions like 4-way intersection or "slight bend in
path."This makes routes created across a campus or in the woods extremely
versatile."
What hapens when you're in the woods and your nonuser replaceable
battery goes south? Belly Up? Dead? Runs out? Sure, maybe Freedom
Scientific didn't get it right the first time, but at least they tried.
>From what I can determine, Humanware has no product for which one can
replace the battery.
I saw a question the other day from someone asking what it would cost to
get a battery installed at one of the consumer conventions.
Then I saw a price of $500.00. This price doesn't even deserve a comment.
Jonathan, as you said, "Remember, these devices draw much more power than
does a mobile phone or MP3 player." I totally agree. In which case,
wouldn't it be even more important to have a replaceable battery?
And another thing. I know that the Braille Sense is new and has
some bugs, and doesn't yet have the popularity of the braillenote
family. But by golly, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm
giving Dan and Doug credit where credit's due. At least they
are starting out on the right track. They're giving us the
independence and portability of having a replaceable battery.
Something Humanware has never done, whether it be the Keynote
Gold, Braille Displays, or the Braillenote family of Products.
The more battery power any item consumes, the more important it is
to be able to replace the battery. Remember Mike's example of the
walk in the woods? You might also be on a downdown street in a major
city when that nonreplaceable battery goes dry. If you're unfortunate
enough to be at the aCB convention, you'd better hope you have enough cold
water until you're rescued by UPS.
It boggles my mind how a company can come up with a
device with so many enhancements as the Braillenote, but yet be so
hamstrung when it comes to common sense. No, not Braille Sense, but
common Portability Sense. Is it portable or isn't it?
How about it guys? Did it really cost $500 when you got those batteries
replaced at the consumer conventions this summer?
Keith Bucher
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