I just bought me an apex and looking forward to receiving it. The model I chose was the voice only version as I already have 2 braille displays and don't need a third. Interesting that I saw this post after purchasing my unit. For me, the apex has some strong selling points and the GPS app is one of them. But I also know that the days of the notetaker specific device for the blind are numbered. The high cost to feature ratio is just too high. I think that the prices need to come down by 50 percent or so to keep sales alive along with updated software. My suggestion to the up and coming blind person is to buy an IPad and an external Braille display and the combo will more than be adequate and you'll get to do twice the stuff at half the price of a BN. The deaf blind community will always need something like a BN as it has the built-in Braille display but I think the future is going to be more of disability specific companies like humanware switching over to hardware only and leaving the software to companies like apple and Microsoft and google. Why reinvent the wheel. Blind people will always have a need for Braille so building good Braille displays at affordable prices should be where these companies should put their research dollars. I bought me a 40 cell Braille display for less than 3000 dollars which only a few years ago would have never of happened. My personal opinion is that Braille displays need to come down in price to around the 1500 dollar range for something like a 30 cell unit in order to make the wide adoption of these useful devices among the blind possible. The notetaker itself should be replaced with a fully functional Braille display only device.
Also, with the amount of different devices out there, doing a task isn't as device specific as it use to be though there are some things that just work better when specifically designed to do a task. The thing is you need to look at what you want to do and assemble the devices to help you complete that task. No one device will ever do 100 percent of what you want. It will always be a combination of devices. At home here I have a 46 inch TV, a microwave, a frigerator, a dish washer my smart phone and a trekker breeze. All of these devices help me to do the things I need them to do but you will never find a device that does all of these things in one box nor would you want it to as you can't put a 46 inch tv in your pocket or a refrigerator for that matter. This past weekend our local gas pipeline supplier were replacing lots of old pipe in the neighborhood and it was our street's turn. There were different kinds of construction trucks along with your basic brooms and ranches and hammers. All of these things were being used in order to dig up the road and replace the pipes. Very educational from my point of view. Technology is a lot like that. Sometimes cost is a factor as to what you will have, and specific training and imagination also come into the picture as well. Disabilities affect people in different ways so being adaptable is important along with knowing your limitations and being open to new ways of doing things. It has always been the dream of humankind to have the holy grail of technology and it is good that people dream because it helps spir on innovation. However, that all in one device will never happen. This has been a great discussion. In the end, you need to do what is right for you and your circumstances. Don't always compare yourself to everyone else, it only adds stress. Marco (from Canada) [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Nusbaum Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 6:33 AM To: BrailleNote list Subject: [Braillenote] Re: [Blindtlk] [nabs-l] notetakers: are they worthbuying anymore? What do you think of these thoughts about HW from a member of the Blind Talk list on NFB-NET? Chris "A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto) The I C.A.N. Foundation helps visually impaired youth in Maryland have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click on this link to learn more and to contribute: www.icanfoundation.info or like us on Facebook at I C.A.N. Foundation. Sent from my BrailleNote ---- Original Message ------ From: "T. Joseph Carter" <[email protected] Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] [nabs-l] notetakers: are they worth buying anymore? Date sent: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:05:05 -0700 I don?셳 think they do, or at least I think their lifespan is limited. First, there?셲 very little that can justify the cost of an Apex these days. It just costs too much. Second, I don?셳 know how many times I have heard the excuse from our chapter secretary that his BN crashed and he needs someone else to get him a recording or produce minutes or something. Both it and the PAC mate have a solid reputation for being about as stable as a house of cards in a tornado. During an earthquake. While a volcano is erupting. And while the PAC mate is supposed to be so great because it can run "standard" software for the platform, most of the software doesn?셳 actually work with it properly and the platform has pretty much taken a back seat to iOS and Android at this point. At the beginning of the PDA revolution, there was Palm. (Actually, there was Apple with the Newton, but I?셫 talking successful PDA revolution here?? Then Handspring came along and produced a Palm that was better than the Palm. There were accessories the people who made it never intended, including a folding laptop-style keyboard called the Stowaray, and suddenly there was no need to lug a laptop in to a meeting to take notes. Plus the thing was SO COOL, and it cost a small fraction of what a laptop did that wasn?셳 as fast or as convenient to the task! Of course, none of this is accessible. Fast forward about 15 years or so and today sighted people likely use an iPad or Android-based wannabe tablet for the same purpose. They may or may not use an external Bluetooth keyboard. They could use an iPhone (or wannabe) for the same purpose, but the sighted like having big screens that are easy to see, so the preference is the iPad. But the blind can tell you that the iPhone is just as useful, and perhaps more so because you can?셳 stuff an iPad into a pocket (unless you?셱e wearing a Scott-E-Vest which is just comical and not really the point.) There are flip-out keyboard cases for the iPhone 4 (which are a great idea for any blind user) and small Braille I/O devices that are much more comfortable to ear than the brick-like note taker of yesteryear. And accessibility is improving, in general, on the iPhone. Even the Android platform is starting to see some movement in that direction. At some point either platform will be viable to the blind, at least as effective as a PAC mate, probably as easy to use as a BrailleNote, and cheaper than any of the above. If anybody has a future with the form factor of the traditional note taker, it?셲 LevelStar, which figured out that having their own custom software just doesn?셳 make sense anymore. They?셱e building on the proven interface of the Icon (their own software) and putting it into Android itself giving you the ease of a BrailleNote and the function of an Android device. And if the guys at LevelStar stay true to form, they?셱e going to bring it to you for a lot less than HumanWare does. Neither iOS nor Android is ready to replace KeySoft IMO, but KeySoft is still the same program HumanWare has been schlepping for decades now with big ticket upgrade fees for small, incremental feature additions. In fact, I remember the "major" upgrade (with SMA usage or paid outright) for KeySoft 7.5 to add RFB&D book support to my little PK less than six months after I bought the thing! More than a year ago, I read a blog article from the CEO of Serotek about the "blind ghetto" technology. He was talking about Freedom Scientific and HumanWare specifically, and how neither company seems to truly innovate. Why should they? So far they?셶e been able to foist minor evolutions of products that are becoming less and less stable for exorbitant upgrade fees, or make minor revisions to a product while maintaining an existing price point. The exceptions for HumanWare were the Apex and the Victor Reader Stream, the former of which saw a massive cost increase that isn?셳 going down anytime soon, and the latter was made some five years ago. Meanwhile new players are filling the market with devices that are better than anything any of the big players has to offer at a fraction of the cost. Companies like LevelStar, HIMS, SeroTek, and even GW Micro has dipped its toes in the water here and there. They are still making blindness-specific products, but they?셱e taking a fresh look and realizing that if they can?셳 deliver products that are better or cheaper or both than the legacy dinosaurs (and each other), they will die out. The BrailleNote will die off because people will move on. There are still people out there using Braille 'n' Speaks, but not many these days. The BrailleNote will follow suit. The PAC mate is halfway there already, if you ask me. Joseph - KF7QZC On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 10:01:57PM -0400, Chris Nusbaum wrote: Hi all, I don't have a set opinion on this matter as of yet, but I'd like to initiate the discussion. I'm noticing a trend in the blindness technology field: PC's can do most everything a notetaker (BrailleNote, BrailleSense, PacMate, etc.) can do, with some obvious changes and differences, and in some cases can do and support more than the notetaker. This is also true with the ever-improving accessible smartphones and tablets: the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, (the semiaccessible) Android phones, the KNFB Reader, etc. Yes, the notetakers have built-in Braille displays, but you can also install a stand-alone Braille display on a computer to display what's on the screen, or you could just buy a screen reader (text-to-speech, not text-to-Braille) as a replacement for the Braille display... that is, if you think it is in fact a replacement for refreshable Braille. That's another question for all of you in this discussion. So, here's the question: with all the advancements and capabilities of a computer and screen readers or stand-alone refreshable Braille displays, is it worth it, in your opinion, to buy a notetaker anymore? What, given all the things a PC can do, is the real purpose of the notetakers now? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Chris "A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto) The I C.A.N. Foundation helps visually impaired youth in Maryland have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click on this link to learn more and to contribute: www.icanfoundation.info or like us on Facebook at I C.A.N. Foundation. Sent from my BrailleNote _______________________________________________ nabs-l mailing list [email protected] http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/carter.tj oseph%40gmail.com _______________________________________________ blindtlk mailing list [email protected] http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindtlk: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/dotkid. nusbaum%40gmail.com ___ 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. 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