Hi, Stacey. I am not jim either. But I downloaded 130 messages via the
internal modem in probably a minute or two. It was much faster than with
the bn classic. I was surprised that the dialup was so fast.
At 9/5/2005, you wrote:
Hi Stacey,
I'm not Jim, but I can answer your question. I usually find it takes
about 3 and a half minutes to download 100 emails. Tonight I had 259
messages and it took just under 10 minutes. My older VN probably would
have taken 15 minutes to perform the same task.
David
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Stacey Robinson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]
>Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 13:44:06 -0500
>Subject: Re: [Braillenote] My M-power Observations thus far
>Jim,
>If you have any kind of dial up access, could you try downloading email with
>that and see how long it takes?
>We don't have wireless yet.
>Stacey and Amigo
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "James Aldrich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: <[email protected]
>Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 12:35 PM
>Subject: [Braillenote] My M-power Observations thus far
>> Hello all,
>> Here are my M-power observations since I received it on Friday, September
>2nd. I'm writing this with the M-power so anyone wishing to evaluate how
>this EMAIL may look once it reaches the list can feel free to analyze how
>well this works as they wish. Just don't analyze my poor writing (grin
>smile)! I hope what I say will ease some of the concerns about this product
>on this list.
>> My wife Dar thought the M-power was lighter when she first saw it out of
>the box. We both were impressed with the newer braille display. The
>intensity of how the dots come up can be adjusted in the braille display
>menu. I haven't seen much difference in the settings of the display so I
>keep it on the default of 5. One can hardly tell whether the display is
>functioning or not. One doesn't notice the thump thump on this newer
>display as the dots change position as one does with the older displays. Of
>course, new is always better than the old but this truly is a sharp display.
>It is a pleasure to read with it. It is a far better display than the
>immediate competition, there is no contest! The M-power display may not have
>the wear and tear of the older displays because of its smooth operation but
>time will tell.
>> I think the speech is clearer perhaps better pronunciation. The speech
>voice is much the same as it was but I think the M-power speaks more
>clearly. It may or may not make a difference to anyone depending on hearing
>loss. I'm more pleased with the speech on my M-power than my 32 BT even
>though I still say the speech on my older unit is quite good! Ear buds and
>headphones work so much better on the M-power. One doesn't need to
>drastically set the volume higher for headphones. I rarely set the volume
>between the speaker and headphones with the M-power.
>> I charged the battery twice since I received this unit. The battery gage
>went to a hundred percent both times and stayed at a hundred percent once I
>disconnected the AC adapter. It went down to 99 percent soon after the
>charger was disconnected and the battery seems to last quite a while between
>charges thus far. On the second time of charging, I noticed that the gage
>was at 94 percent after two hours. I left the M Power plugged in much
>longer and once I got home from church, it was at 96 percent. The
>percentage was the same when I disconnected the adapter. I kept it plugged
>in till the gage reached 100 percent. I think the gage may have calibrated
>this time around which accounted for how long the battery took to charge. I
>didn't get much notice once the battery reached zero percent. I'll know
>more in time about the battery life but I'm not complaining thus far.
>> Kathy Williams take note! I downloaded 133 messages with both BN units. I
>left the messages on the server. The BN 32 BT took 6 minutes and 16.6
>seconds according to the M-power stopwatch to download all 133 messages.
>The M-power took 2 minutes 7.18 seconds according to the BN BT stopwatch to
>download the same mail. Emptying the trash and clearing database space is a
>snap! One barely has a chance to breathe and the process is done! This unit
>is quick! I'm keeping messages on the server for a while longer so I hope to
>update you on how much quicker the M-power is than my older BN BT. Of
>course, one must consider the limited disk space and the processor speed
>when comparing the two units ability to download EMAIL. I like the way the
>M-power turns wireless on automatically when one wishes to go on the web or
>download EMAIL. One still must turn wireless off after being on the web or
>downloading EMAIL. I neglected to say I'm on a wireless DSL connection here
>..
>> Being able to listen to streaming audio on a portable device is truly
>nice! I would say the M-power works well on the "free streams". ACB Radio
>was the first stream I tried. It was a snap to get to and listen. I also
>listened to a MONTANA Radio Station stream, and some other streams on Bill
>Sparks dot com as well as radio-locator dot com. I tried to get into the XM
>Radio site, listen at XM Radio dot com. I got into their web site okay but
>when I tried to receive a stream, I was told by their site in no uncertain
>terms that I needed to update my web browzer since my present browzer
>couldn't support the new features in their player. I got such a kick out of
>what I heard, I tried it again! One can get their site as I described it
>above and one must write it together, or one can go to wwwddxmradioddcom and
>select "listen now". One can get a three day trial on their programming
>otherwise one pays $7 a month to get the stream or close to $14 a month if
>one has one of their receivers.
>> WSM Radio is another site which became a "pay site" so doubt it is
>available to the M-power. This is why I say the M-power probably works best
>on the "free streams".
>> Passing files from my PC to the M-power is so much faster now through the
>network. I was able to get both MP3 and wav files to my M-power and play
>them with no difficulty. I was pleasantly surprised to find how quickly I
>was able to copy these files and play them with no difficulty whatsoever. I
>may have found one file that wouldn't play but it wouldn't play on my PC
>either. The playback on the wav file player is very good. I'll have more
>to say about it later. I went to Voice of the Nation's Blind dot org to
>listen to a particular file. I could hear one file from that site with no
>problem but I couldn't hear the file I wished to listen to. I kept hearing
>something about unfamiliar media so couldn't hear what I wanted to hear.
>This morning, I was able to hear the introduction of the May Humanware
>Newsletter on the humanware site. I'll listen to more of it when I have
>time. I can see that I have a wonderful world of streaming audio waiting
>for me when I wish to hear new info
>> rmation or music. I'm looking forward to being a part of this new world
>with my M-power.
>> The most disappointing feature to me on the M-power is the Memo Recorder.
>Perhaps I don't understand digital recording very well! This is the first
>digital recorder I have used at length. The memo recorder plays back wav
>files very nicely provided they were recorded or created elsewhere. Based
>on how my unit operates, this memo recorder is good for voice only whether
>it is on the low quality settings or the high quality settings. One can
>record their audio memos if they aren't too far from the microphone. One
>doesn't have to hold the M-power or external microphone to their face
>though. The default factory setting for recording with the internal
>microphone is level 12. When I attempt to record at this setting, my
>recording is faint and the recording is weak with a fuzzy distorted sound as
>if I were talking through wax paper. The speech is not intelligible and the
>speech is intermittent! Level ten seems to give me the best recording
>quality but I hear a degree of white noise and
>> a slight frying sound in the background of my recording. Speech from the
>notetaker comes in very well for obvious reasons if I happen to leave my
>unit in record and attempt to operate other functions with my M-power. The
>memo recorder in my unit is adequate for memos and I might send voice
>attachments in an EMAIL or two, but I don't think it would record music very
>well especially that piano recital. There are other devices on the market
>which would better serve such a purpose. I think a $20 to $40 cassette
>recorder could do as well or better for a recital than would my particular
>M-power unit. There might be some kind of component breakdown inhibiting my
>unit from recording properly, I really don't know! To my knowledge, the memo
>recorder isn't stereo either. I could be wrong about this conclusion
>though. I can safely say my unit doesn't support levels 11 through 15 with
>the internal microphone. I placed the level with an external microphone to
>35. I couldn't hear anything
>> at all from that attempt to record. I could hear the external microphone
>when I set the record level to a lower setting. I may need to check the
>battery in the microphone perhaps. The playback is fine with my memo
>recorder but I question whether the record feature is working properly in my
>unit. I'll be happy to send anyone interested attachments when recording at
>level 10, 11 and 12. This should show what I'm talking about.
>> Web braille seems to be working better on the M-power. I can now reach
>the listing of braille books at the end of the web page. I can again get
>into the list to download volumes once again. My older BN BT was able to
>get that page as well so maybe NLS fixed the problem, I really don't know! I
>haven't downloaded any books lately so that is for another EMAIL.
>> I haven't interfaced my M-power with my Juliet braille embosser but I hope
>to accomplish that soon! I haven't tried the bluetooth feature so that is
>something I'll look forward to.
>> I'll be happy to try web sites when I can to see how accessible they will
>be for the M-power if that would be helpful to anyone.
>> As I wrote this EMAIL, I noticed the speech cut out for no apparent
>reason. I turned the speech to on request to off and back on again and
>everything was fine. This happened three times while I wrote this post.
>> Thanks for reading!
>> Jim Aldrich
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