Okay. I have not been following this thread but let me try to
put it to rest:
mainstream tech devices such as smart phones or PDAs have been in
development for a long time. More importantly, they have
thousands of people working on them, from Microsoft to the
developers of third-party apps (like Skype) who adapt their
products to all work together. Microsoft provides the base,
Windows, and gives programmers access to Windows functions
(through what is called an A P I) so that other software can work
with Windows on these mobile devices. They can beta test their
creations on a huge number of people as well.
Now we look at Humanware. They are a single company with one
programming division working on Keysoft. They use Windows but
have to modify almost everything they do to get ks to work
correctly with Windows. Part of the reason they have not
upgraded our CE version is that it will require a rewrite of
Keysoft itself, which is a HUGE undertaking. They have no
third-party developers; they can't say, "Okay, you adapt your
product to work with keysoft while we work on other things"
because no one else can code for keysoft and writing an sdk
(software development kit) to let others write programs for ks
(supplying a public ks api) would take a lot of time which could
be spent building other programs for us. This is why, although
it is very reasonable to expect our devices to behave just like
any other, they simply will not. If positions were reversed and
the blind tech market were the big fish in the pond, then the
sighted would be asking why they couldn't do all the stuff we
could and it would come back to the exact same thing: the smaller
the market, the longer it takes to catch up to the bigger market,
but the biger the big market, the faster it pulls ahead of the
smaller. Not a very nice spiral, but there you have it.
I get just as frustrated as the next person when I cannot instant
message, open certain web pages, have my work erased by keyword,
and so on. I am not saying that I am oaky and happy with it, but
that is the way it is until we get that sdk. Once that happens
people will be able to write their own ks apps, but providing
that sdk could mean not getting the upgrades we all look forward
to.
Have a great day,
Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Scholes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "BrailleNote mailing list" <[email protected]
Date sent: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:36:33 -0000
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] skype
Is it just me who is getting tired of this bloody topic? You
can't get Skype
on the BrailleNote, deal with it!
John Ramm wrote:
Hi Ann
I thought that was a little harsh.
In these days of Mobile phones that can do almost anything, is
it
really that unreasonable for a blind person to want their
braille
device to be able to do the sort of things that their sighted
friends
can do with their PDAs? I don't really think so.
Humanware are clearly thinking of the braillenote as far more
than a
notetaker, judging by the kinds of features they include.
Having said this, you could very well have your tongue firmly in
your
cheek.
Talk soon
John Ramm
At 11:26 17/03/2008, Ann K. Parsons wrote:
Hi all,
The BrailleNote is a notetaker, *not* a computer. You want a
small
device that you can add chat programs to, but give up complete
Braille support then sell your BN and get a PacMate and spend
the
rest of your life struggling to figure out if Windows CE will or
won't work on your product have one that comes in two parts,
have
one that doesn't mirror every single message in braille. Fine.
You
want computer programs, get a computer!
Ann P.
--
Ann K. Parsons
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web site: http://www.portaltutoring.info
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