Hi David and list,
Sometimes the stream has to catch up with itself and this depends on one's
connection speed etc. This is more problematic on a land line or phone
connection but then, I'm with you, I'm enjoying the audio streams I can
hear. I'm very pleased with my M-power thus far.
Jim
At 06:27 AM 09/05/2005 , you wrote:
Hi Jim,
I can't comment on the braille display, but I agree with you about the
speech, the weight and the speed in the mPower, compared to my older
Voicenote QT.
I was also able to listen to the Humanware May 2005 newsletter, but
noticed on some of the links that the speech kept pausing, then
continuing from where it left off. I wasn't too concerned about this, as
I know this happens on regular pc's as well. I also listened to
Jonathan's audio tour of the mPower without a hitch, as the speech came
through quite clearly. I was very impressed indeed.
I have charged my mPower 3 times since the arrival of my unit and twice
the unit got to 100%, and the battery reached 99% on the other
occasion. The battery has also gone right down to 0%, and thank goodness
I have not had to perform the dreaded reset.
David
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "James Aldrich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [email protected]
>Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 11:35:14 -0600
>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 he!
a!
> r 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 whit!
e!
> 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 hea!
r!
> 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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