Hi Vicky and Richard; I am with you Richard, I do not want to ever see HW take away the combination of a Braille display and notetaker combined. They can make blue tooth Braille displays so the blind have the ability to choose but I love the combination of notetaker and Braille display as one. As I said earlier, if they would find a way to creat a payment program so as many as possible could convert to the m-power, then they could keep the m-power alive and create displays to go with the boice note and computers. HW, please do not eliminate our Braille display and note taker combination!
Terry Powers -----Original Message----- From: Vicky Collins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 11:18 AM To: Richard Ring; slery; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Alex Parks Cc: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] My general comments Hi Richard and All, This message from you is quite a surprise, at least for me, anyway, as I thought you were a staunch supporter of the PAC Mate. Oh, sure, I know you are familiar with the BrailleNote, but had no idea you were thinking of making the switch. As for myself, grin, although my tendencies certainly lean toward my PK, I'm happily not claiming any extreme loyalty to one specific product. I do have a Pocket PC device, and have even used it a few times with my PK and mPower to have a Braille display for the PPC device. However, I just haven't gotten the hang of, or even wanted to, use it that way on a regular basis. Now, if I'm wanting to be extremely portable, I do enjoy having all my info on my Pocket PC device, and then being able to have that put safely away, and out of the way, in my purse. But, should I want to do any really serious work, such as writing and reading email or reading and editing word processing documents, then I want my note taker with its more comfortable keyboard and readily available Braille display. I don't want to have to deal with pairing/activating a device via Bluetooth, and then just hope that Bluetooth connection maintains itself for the entire time I want to use the Braille. As for HumanWare possibly shifting their focus to portable Braille displays and mainstream PDA devices, and kind of away from the BN; I'm wondering if they have actually made a decision as to how far they want to go in this regard? I mean, if one listened to that BN chat last week, Maurice seemed to be indicating that they were still looking at all options. Of course, I wouldn't expect HW to say what they are actually planning, as they wouldn't want to tip off the competition. But, maybe they are trying to gauge what their consumers want, and thus see if they would be successful in their attempt to go more with the Bluetooth and portable Braille display solution. Vicky Collins [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Ring" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "slery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Alex Parks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 12:48 PM 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 ___ 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
