What a fantastic post! I too used the competition for about 6 months and got fed up with the problems and went back to a BrailleNote mPower BT18. I love the interface, the GPS, dictionary and a lot of the other great features that HumanWare have provided us with over the years. Having been a keysoft user scince 1996 on other humanware products and having used a BrailleNote since 2002 I must offer my thanks and congratulations to HumanWare for creating such an excelent product!
Scott Erichsen Sydney, Australia -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Ring Sent: Friday, 20 July 2007 2:48 AM To: slery; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Alex Parks Cc: [email protected] Subject: [Braillenote] My general comments I have used the competition's product for three years. I have finally concluded that it is too unstable and too risky to use as a note taking device. I don't know all of the reasons for this although I suspect some things, but in reality, when you need a device you can rely on, the Braillenote still wins. I would like to be able to install other software programs on a Braillenote, and I would like to be able to read html email without having to do anything special. I would also like to see improved Microsoft Word support, but when reality imposes itself on life, one thing is clear. The Braillenote from HumanWare and The Braille Sense which is sold by GW-Micro are both far more stable than the competition. And so that we leave no ambiguity here, the competition is the Pac Mate from Freedom Scientific. There was a seminar given at the NFB convention that I attended. This seminar featured a discussion of the new upgrade that the competition will be making. When it came time for questions and answers, I asked a certain gentleman (Mr. Mosen) if this new upgrade would address the instability issues that I have noticed in their product. I explained that four people, myself and three other co-workers have for all intent given up on their product because of its inherent unreliability and instability. Mr. Mosen simply said that others weren't noticing issues like these. Although I am getting a strong feeling that HumanWare is moving towards PDA's and Blue Tooth Braille displays along with third party (Code Factory) software for screen readers rather than their flagship product, the Braillenote, I believe this would be somewhat unfortunate. How many sighted people read books on their PDA's? Those of you who have some vision, or for anyone who has held a PDA in their hand, the screens are extremely tiny. How many sighted people would need to listen to Daisy books on their PDA's? How many sighted people would take extensive notes in meetings or lectures using the little stylus that comes with a PDA? Blind people want and expect things that are simply not offered by mainstream PDA's. However, there is a price. The market is too small, and therefore our products cost way too much! I'll go crawl under my stone now, but I truly hope that HumanWare does not abandon the Braillenot in favor of mainstream solutions which will simply not meet the needs of all of their customers. ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a copy to the list as well. 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 ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a copy to the list as well. 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
