On 28 Jul 2011, at 00:21, Marco M wrote: > I was thinking about what was said about having the apex sitting in the same > case as your laptop. Why would you carry around something you aren't using?
I guess the laptop came first, and the BN as a hopeful second. I had not anticipated that I would make it with just the BN alone, and, I am sorry to say, I was right. I am going to swap the keyboard when I get home. Even iOS would not have made the stretch for email, as much as it can do, it is not a vast processing machine; it's just better equipped, software-wise, than the BN in matters of general-purpose applications. > Would you consider selling it? I would, but only if I have exhausted all other possibilities of getting the thing working and in pristine, polished condition as a braille terminal and hopefully also as a bug-free notetaker. I'd use whatever money I got to buy a dedicated stand-alone braille terminal then. I would need to find a model that will work over both serial and USB/Bluetooth, so that I'd be compatible with Linux and Apple products. > I already ordered a voicenote so couldn't make an offer otherwise I'd made > an offer since I would give it a good home. You are right though about the > laptop having so many more features... although personally, I'm a windows > boy and would never buy an apple laptop since it wouldn't be able to > directly run ms office 2010 without having to load a bunch of convertion > software in order to run windows software. . One of the strengths of the > BN apex is the replaceable battery. None of the apple products that I know > of has this capability though I will still end up buying one of their > products just because it has accessibility built into it. First I'll have > to pay off my VoiceNote before that happens. To Windows software, yes, I have brought along a working virtual machine image of Windows and VMWare Fusion. I was using it recently to play TADS games that would not run on the BN. Office documents do work with Apple's native tools, though not as well as with Office, because Microsoft's file formats are closed. Use OpenDocument Format instead; that is a genuine open standard. Unfortunately, the BN doesn't support it. As to the battery, I think it's overrated. You can of course take your device to an Apple service centre if it's within warranty and have it looked at, including AppleCare, but in general the battery is close to the life of the product anyway, in practical terms. I give laptops a minimum of 3 years and phones two, but it's generally less if you're following the curve and always keeping yourself up-to-date. Having said that, my iPhone 3GS is yet to be thrown away because of a dud battery, and it has passed the two years AppleCare cover plus an additional 5 months without a single incident of battery failure. We must be careful not to judge all products by HumanWare's standards. Cheers, Sabahattin ___ 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
