I attended the NFB Convention in Louisville. On Saturday afternoon of
Convention Week, there was a meeting to discuss strengths and weaknesses
of
the various notetakers on the market. I won't go in to all that was said,
but in my opinion, when the end of the meeting was reached, the conclusion
was that the BrailleNote was the most stable of the three notetakers
discussed and I can tell you that if I didn't own a notetaker and if I was
in the market for one, I would have chosen the BrailleNote as a result of
that discussion.
I posted a note a few weeks ago asking for folks from the list or from
HumanWare to give me information on BrailleNotes for sale or refurbished
or
demonstration models for a friend of mine. I am happy to say that I got
wonderful response from both list members and HumanWare and as a result of
this, I was able to buy my friend a demonstration BrailleNote at the
Convention. She cried when she heard the news. What I'm trying to say is
that there are folks who can't afford a unit and want one so badly and my
being able to help my friend was one of the high moments in my life. Yes,
she will pay me back, but she's on cloud 9 waiting for her unit, which
will
probably be in her hands next week.
Karen
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 8:28 PM
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
Hello Brenda, you might like if you have time to go back through the
archives and find the hundreds of messages asking for USB, streaming,
better and faster e-mail, a faster processor, voice recording, more
storage... And it was as a result of that feedback that we delivered
BrailleNote mPower. So no it isn't about what HumanWare wants, it is about
what customers want, and we're delighted to have delivered. We're also
delighted to have delivered a package that allows our existing loyal user
base to take advantage of these new features. Of course our work is never
done, and we're always keen to implement even greater functionality as a
result of user input. So in my view there is ample demonstrable proof that
our culture is very customer focussed, and we always strive to make sure
that continues to be the case. I've met many hundreds of people over the
last three weeks here in the USA who seem to think we got it right, and
we'll keep working to satisfy as many people as we can.
Jonathan Mosen
BrailleNote Product Marketing Manager
HumanWare
DDI: +64-3-373-6192
Fax: +64-3-384 4933
Mobile: +64-21 466 736
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.humanware.com
Brenda Mueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
13/07/2005 03:56 p.m.
Please respond to
Braillenote List <[email protected]>
To
Braillenote List <[email protected]>
cc
Subject
RE: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
Who cares what Human Ware wants? What ever happened to customer service?
Maybe Humanware has a cultural problem that will drag pulse Data down with
them.
Brenda Mueller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Ring" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 11:11:25 -0500
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
Ok.
First of all, as I stated earlier, Humanware wants to keep the product
as far from the GUI as possible.
I think there is room for improvement, however, I think that some of us
expect functionality and robustness that simply isn't there.
I don't know any sighted people who download 500 emails on their Ipaqs,
and yet, people on this list do it on their Braillenotes all the time.
However, it seems to me that in order to handle that kind of traffic,
one must perform a good deal of maintenance, and frankly, I'd much
rather use a PC where all I have to do is download and read the mail, I
don't have to free database space, I don't get error messages such as
"the operation completed successfully" (which means almost the exact
opposite of what it says)
I simply am not willing to work that hard to simply read email. I do
feel that cutting and pasting between applications in the ordinary way
should be supported, all I was trying to say is that is you feel that
because you paid a huge sum of money for your Braillenote that it should
have all of the functionality of a laptop, then you were highly
misinformed and you would have been better served by purchasing a small
light weight laptop. When I say you here, I mean anyone.
Remember when our notetakers were notetakers? They served their
function quite well. Now, our PDAs are expected to perform many new
duties, and frankly, they do many things quite well.
Many individuals like the Braillenote family of products because they
are menu driven but they don't present a Windows interface.
Many prefer that interface over a PC. Well, fine. Obviously, this is
one of the biggest selling points for Humanware.
But, Humanware never told anyone that having a Braillenote was the same
as having a laptop.
It isn't.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul
Henrichsen
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 6:52 PM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
I guess the obvious question is why will it never happen? There is no
reason why the programmers could not make the pk act as if it were a
little
computer. Just because people classify the bn as a PDA doesn't mean it
has
to be limited by necessity. PDA's, themselves, do things differently
depending on the price you pay for the unit.
But again, why will it never happen that the bn cannot act more like a
pc?
What aare your reasons for making such a statement?
What the bn does or doesn't do depends on what PDI decides is important
to
implement.
If older braille units had a way to dial numbers, why doesn't the bn
have
this feature? Easy. PDI decided it wasn't important or a feature that
many
folks would use.
Why can't we click on a url within email or copy an address from an
email
easier? Who knows. But there is no reason other than memory limitations
that these features and many others could not be implemented if PDI
thought
they were necessary.
Why not?
?
At 7/12/2005, you wrote:
This isn't a regular computer!
It is a PDA, and all PDA's suffer from limitations that do not show up
in a PC.
Sure, the product should be improved, all products should. However, if
you expect the Braillenote or any other PDA to behave precisely like a
PC, it will never happen.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gabe Vega
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 11:14 AM
To: 'Braillenote List'
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
And I agree with you and I feel the same. But instead of improving the
products they got, they make a new one and rave about it being the best
thing since slaced bread and leave us pk users in the dust.
Sounds like a company we all know and love
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nicole
Torcolini
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 9:09 AM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
I have also noticed in general, not only in email, the block
commands
menu does not work in places that a regular computer would allow you to
paste things. Two examples are the find and replace and creating files
and
folders. I know there are more, but I can't think of them at this
moment.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 4:27 AM
Subject: [Braillenote] Doesn't click, Doesn't Copy
There are some truly annoying features and lack there of with the
Keysoft email software. The awkward way one must handle adding an
address to the address book is prehistoric.It is probably the number
one reason I won't be using my new toy for Email as soon as I get my
laptop back. While it's fun and fast, it's a pain in the neck to
have
to cut and paste from one operation to another just to get the
address
out
of a message.
The next most bothersome problem is not being able to click on an
URL
within an email message. This is truly annoying because while I was
able to use edit commands to hear I was cutting the url, when I got
to
the internet area to enter it for my url selection, it had
disappeared
from the clipboard. Makes it a pretty expensive toy when you can't
use
it for the obvious.
As someone else mentioned, the lack of phone dialing is surprising
since it was a standard feature on both the Braillemate and
Transtype
for over a dozen years already. Where was Humanware when that
standard
was being developed I don't imagine anyone specificly asked them for
a
keyboard either, but they figured out it was expected.
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