Hi Grant, thanks for sharing your observations about your new BrailleNote
mPower, and I'm glad you like the unit. I've had my BrailleNote mPower for
nearly a year now (where's the time gone?), and I'm happy with it for what I
need it for, which is for note-taking in lecture class. I sometimes use it
for internet on the move, but that's only if I'm not near a computer, and
how I use it; it costs money, so I try to avoid it. I did use the wireless
card that came with it once, and I found Keyweb to be lightning fast when it
comes to loading web pages. So yes I'm impressed, and I wouldn't trade it in
for anything else. Please share more of your experiences with us; we'd love
to hear from you. Thanks and take care.
Why not join my Blind Hobbyist group? To join, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks, Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Grant Hardy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 10:07 PM
Subject: [Braillenote] Initial BrailleNote Impressions
Hello All:
Last Friday, I received my shiny new BrailleNote mPower.
I'd like to take a moment to give you my initial impressions of this
notetaker, if you're interested. Before I do so, though, I would like to
say that I have found it far superior to the notetaker I was previously
using. Its responsiveness, braille support, ease of use, multilingual
support, and documentation are all far better than my previous notetaking
device.
I have just a few observations, however.
The BrailleNote's Microsoft Word support really needs some work - in fact,
I would say that improving the support for Microsoft Word files within the
next release of KeySoft is absolutely essential. To my horror, I was
unable to open a simple Rich Text file produced with Microsoft Word (and
thus, containing MS Word tags) from which I needed to give a presentation,
today; consequently I had to rush to a computer to save it in plain text.
This is unfortunate.
Aside from the flaws with Microsoft Word files, I find KeyWord to be a
pleasure to work with: I love being able to deal with a multi-level
directory structure right within KeyWord, and I find KeyWord's braille
translation and formatting features to be excellent - though it would be
good to have the option of setting a specific font type and size in
addition to the style.
I was disheartened to see the inaccessible registration scheme that
Humanware has put into place. I received a print registration card and
had to get a sighted person to fill it out for me - isn't this ironic? It
actually creates a rather bad initial impression!
The BrailleNote plays far more streams than my previous notetaker could
handle, though there are still some which clearly should play that produce
errors. Here is an example.
http://scfire-nyk-aa02.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1074
(I should note that I've written to Humanware's technical support
regarding this issue and have gotten no response within three days.)
A disappointment was the FM Radio. Its reception makes using the radio
hardly worth it.
On the plus side, though, I've very much enjoyed the memo-recording
functionality that's present in the BrailleNote. There are just enough
settings to give me all the control that I could want!
KeyWeb should have a setting to separate links onto their own lines, and a
few websites I've tried don't work properly in KeyWeb, but aside from
that, I like it a lot.
So, while the BrailleNote needs some work, and the registration procedure
needs a facelift, I still like it enormously. I shall share more in the
future!
Cheers,
Grant
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