Hi Joseph, Thank you for that explanation! It's always good to hear from an expert who knows a lot more about computer programming than the rest of us do and who can tell us if we're even thinking realistically when we make these suggestions.
Thanks, Chris -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joseph Lee Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 6:54 PM To: 'BN List' Subject: [Braillenote] Opinion on new KeySoft features: What is possible, what is not Hi folks, Just a few thoughts on suggestions that were brought up on this list about new features: * Web browser enhancements: a careful examination is in order: 1. Full page loads: It could be possible to change how Keyweb reports itself to web servers by changing the user agent string. With this, the web server is "fooled" to load the desktop version of a site. However, there is a drawback: slowed response, unsupported code and bandwidth usage (especially for modem users). Ultimately, it will not work. 2. Web browser upgrades: It'll depend on how KeySoft was coded to use web browser engine. However, given that web browser (Internet Explorer for Mobile) is tied to the operating system, it'll be quite difficult. Thus, when speaking of web browser engine upgrades, you're asking for operating system upgrade and/or underlying code changes to keysoft.exe, which requires extensive development time. 3. Flash content: CE6.0 (at least the later versions) has basic modules to support Flash. However, given that Flash is being phased out in favor of HTML5 (a later HTML version), it'd not be wise to include Flash support unless there is huge demand for it. * Sirius XM Radio: In order to take advantage of this, you need to buy a satelite receiver. This brings up the question of whether a driver for it exists for Windows CE so that Keysoft can take advantage of it. Speaking of drivers (a program to communicate between software and hardware device): just because there is a driver for Windows 7 does not mean it could exist for mobile OS's such as Windows CE. Also, just because the receiver works on one mobile device does not mean it would work on another device (even when these guys use same operating system). This statement also answers a related question that was brought up a few months ago: you cannot use cellular (3G/4G/LTE) modems unless it was found that the modem driver has been included with KeySoft (so far, none as far as the users know). * PDF email attachments: I'd agree with this; the feature is already here, but I think what the user is asking is a smarter file extension checker to handle case of PDF's (perhaps to give option of converting and opening the text). * DOCX: We'll see. * Media files: BN can play AIFF/AIFC/AIF files already. Also, in order to play other file formats such as ogg, you need a codec to allow KeySoft to understand what to do with these files. Think of it this way: you are given a text file with bunch of one's and zero's in there. The person who sent you this text file says that it is a video file, but you find that you don't know how to decode bunch of bits in that file to play a movie unless if: 1. the person sent you a codec file along with the video file so your machine can play it, 2. The sender told you where to get the required codec file, or 3. you didn't know that you could play that video file using the right program. In our case, it's a mixture of these three scenarios. However, finding the right codec file isn't easy (unless there are some good ones out there): you need to find the codec file that allows a Windows CE device to decode the media file, allows KeySoft to change playing location or other things and runs on ARM processors (ARM CPU's are the ones used on the BrailleNote except for Classic which uses a different CPU). * FM radio without headphones: Not good. To explain this, let's study how radio communication and broadcasting works: A radio chip requires that you have a "line of sight" between you and the radio transmitter such as FM transmitters, TV towers and Wi-Fi routers. In order for radio signals to be sent and received, you need to have no physical barriers between you and the transmitting device (for optimal results), especially if you are receiving a broadcast signal from far away. When a radio signal is sent, it is carried over the airwaves to certain distance. With each passing distance, the signal starts losing quality until the signal is lost completely. This is complicated by the fact that the signal may hit barriers such as a tall buildings. To solve this problem, one could try raising the transmission tower's height to overcome buildings, increase power output of the radio chips or tell the listeners to live closer to the radio tower (with each scenario having advantages and drawbacks). For TV and radio broadcasts (and to some extent, Wi-Fi receivers), you need a device which receives far distant signals accurately (with minimal errors); this would be a radio antenna - a device which conducts radio waves and works on it so the user may understand useful info such as TV shows and Internet sites. In order for this to work, you need to make sure that the antenna and the radio transmitter are on the line of sight (to avoid barriers as much as possible) and at a good location on the machine to get good signals. Let us integrate this information with mPower and Apex: when an FM signal is sent to a BN, the waves would find themselves hitting the outer shell of the BN. This would degrade the radio signal quality, thus you get hissing noise. To avoid this, you'd use headphone cable to do two things: first, to allow the radio signals to hit the headphone cable (which is made of circuits inside which allows radio signals to travel), thereby absorbing the signal for better listening quality, and second, to receive possibly better signals from higher altitude, thereby reducing the chance of interference from other radio waves. Also, you need to note that the signal quality degrades as you move away from FM station locations (same law applies to Wi-Fi connection - when your computer is closer to the router, you'll get better, faster connection). * High quality voices: Can you put more oranges in a box that can hold fixed number of oranges? When you do that, the box would not stand the weight of additional oranges and would start to break, thereby spilling the oranges (both inside and outside). Same rule applies here: better the voice quality, more memory is needed, which is not good, right? Although it has its advantages, when examining current technical specs of Apex, this is not useful in the long term. I think that's enough for today. Hope this helps. Cheers, Joseph ___ 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 ___ 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
