Hi, Rob,
The trouble with small hand-held devices is (1) their keyboards are too
small (2) they don't have braille displays built in and they may not even
support an external braille display. I prefer reading braille to listening
to speech. I'd rather use a QWERTY keyboard than a braille keyboard so if I
bought a hand-held device, I'd want to be able to plug a QT keyboard into
it.
There are many people whose hands can't handle the small stuff, so there
will always be something out on the market for those who prefer larger
PDA's.
I don't care if the PDA is a modified one, or one like the BrailleNote
designed for the blind--no PDA can take the place of a PC because the
software is not as powerful. If the unit is too small, the hardware won't
stand up to wear and tear either.
If HumanWare should decide to discontinue the BN, they should have the
honesty to give their customers notice and they should support existing
models for at least another 2 or three years.
I realize that technology changes all the time, but those of us who have to
buy their own notetakers and PC's can't afford to plunk down money for new
hardware every year.
Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Lambert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Terri Pannett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 6:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] I don't trust them anymore
Terri,
I noticed your comment about the braille note possibly being dropped.
Quite frankly, I wouldn't care if they did. I love the Braille Note but
let's face it, having something that you can hold in your hand like the
Maestro or Icon, or something that can fit in your pocket like the Voice
SENSE or a PDA phone running Windows Mobile and the Mobile Speak screen
reader...that's the future. I'm not even looking at the Wave CD player;
I'm looking at the Stream MP3/DAISY player because I want a pocket sized
player that can work with the new NLS books - and the BPH Flash player is
not going to cut it. Personally, if I had the choice, I'd not even
consider the Braille Note and just get the Maestro or pop Mobile Speak
onto a cell phone from my wireless provider. Also, this is just my two
cents, but I think that by now the PCMCIA card should have been removed
for a WiFi card. I understand how it's difficult to put one in, since
technology changes so much, but I know for a fact that the
PCMCIA card that the BrailleNote takes has been replaced with a card
approximately 1/2 that size and the only thing it's being used for is an
external Wireless modem from Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T.
Terri Pannett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dear List,
I've been a HumanWare customer since 1995. I have spent thousands of
dollars in hardware, software, maintenance agreements and so on.
I'm not going to spend a penny more.
I'm not going to buy something new immediately, but I'm going to be
interested in seeing a demonstration model of GW Micro's notetaker. I
know
that the time will come when my BN will no longer work and when that
happens, I'll buy a notetaker from someone else.
It wouldn't surprise me if HumanWare dropped the BN altogether in favor of
other products such as Daisy players and modified PDA's and modified cell
phones.
No, I don't trust HumanWare anymore.
Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.
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