Hi terry, BrailleNote sales are doing exceptionally well at the moment, because people like the user interface, the functionality, the full and seamless integration of Braille among other things. And I think we've demonstrated a commitment to ongoing development. The power and less power users alike that I talk to tell me that that's why they stick with BrailleNote, and as a user myself, I feel the same way. However, one product can't satisfy all users' preferences and needs, so HumanWare does offer alternatives. We do offer two PDA-based solutions for those who wish to go that route. One is our own maestro product, which I see has been talked about here. This has a very blind friendly method of inputting data, as well as the ability to pair with both Braille and qwerty Bluetooth keyboards. It offers a range of functions including e-mail in the forthcoming 2.0 release, notes, contacts, Calendar, a media player, Victor Reader and more, and it integrates with Trekker. Maestro is not a screen reader, it is an environment we've developed. This means that when you use a function in maestro, you can be sure it's 100% accessible! It works, and it works well. And you have all this functionality in a pocket sized device.
For those who want a screen reader solution for Pocket PC, you can buy Mobile Speak Pocket from us, as we are the master distributors for it in the United States and can distribute it in our other major markets. You can buy it pre-installed on a PDA, or simply download it, install it on your PDA or pda/phone of choice, and buy it after the 30 day demo. This will give you complete access to the Pocket PC environment running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, or Windows Mobile 2005. Of course if you obtain a device with a phone in it, then you can send and receive calls, make calls from your contacts, review your call history, assign ring tones, use your cellular data services and more, so this means we offer a completely accessible option for Verizon and Sprint, as well as tMobile and Cingular which have had accessible solutions for some time. So HumanWare is offering a continuum of products. Obviously when you go the screen reader route, some programmes are more accessible than others, but some people are willing to tolerate that in exchange for trying new applications they can buy or download off the web, and Mobile Speak Pocket is an extremely good solution. At the conventions, we also announced our new Braille Connect lines, starting wit a cool new 12 cell Braille display with vibrating alarm, that literally fits in your pocket. It has a six key Perkins keyboard. It's ideal for working with portable devices, and it will fully support Talks, Mobile Speak for Symbian, and of course Mobile Speak Pocket as well as the Windows-based screen readers. In terms of integration, well I think the first step will be that we want the BrailleNote to work as a Braille display with Mobile Speak Pocket. So if you do use a PDA with MSP, you can control that PDA from your BrailleNote. As for a screen reader on the device itself in addition to KeySoft, that would be a longer term project but I appreciate the suggestion. ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
