hey! cool! I'd buy a pacnote. When will they go on sale!!? That was kind of funny. But it sounds neat. but let's make some changes. We'll combine all three companies. ... Freedom scientific, pulsedata, and gw--micro.
Josh you wrote: Okay, I have a solution to your problem. Let's merge pulsedata and freedom scientific and call it pulse scientific. They could combine their notetakers and call it the pacnote. Then we would have all the advantages of both devices along with all their combined shortcomings. Would this suit anyone? I doubt it. <grin> Thanks, Bob > ----- Original Message ----- >From: richard Van Driel < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: Braillenote List < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 04:38:41 +1200 >Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Another idea for future upgrades: >Hi Kirstyn, >I know what you mean! >When I first got my braille note, it was the best thing going. >I tried the braillelite, and found the speech atrocious. >I have a hearing impairment, which basically means that, the device with the clearest speech is going to get a high score, if it is just as good as the other device with poorer speech. >I will be taking a class on the pacmate in may, (I hope) but I already know that the speech is a little less clear for me because, 1 the speaker is smaller and, 2 the amp doesn't put out as much power as the bn. >What prompted me to get the bn was the fact that I could use the braille display and/or speech. >I taught a class in my church, and being able to use the braille display without speech was a great help there, letting me hear my students and keep track of my lesson without having to mess around with neckloops and earphones. >But I like what I've seen of the Pacmate, in that it just seems more versatile. >What I don't understand, is why pdi keeps harping on the (oh so nasty) graphical interface. >For those of us who use Windows with Jaws, we get along ok with that nasty old gui! >Why does pdi not concentrate on making gui easier for blind people to use by adapting their product to handle commands so that we can use it with the minimum of roundabouts? >I think many things might be automated, so that what might be a roundabout could be done with one menu option or keystroke. >>From what I have read on the pm list for example, there's quite a little roundabout to disconnecting when online. >There is no such problem with the bn, so why not incorporate that same quick way in whatever you use for your system, whether that's pocket pc or Linux or whatever? >One thing that's becoming obvious to me is that Keysoft is out of date and way too proprietorial and inflexible for users who need to modify it. >The Windows ce we use is the same, but even so, it has already built in some of the things that would make the bn more versatile. >The results are sometimes a problem, since we are denied access to the Windows Ce itself, we can't fix some things that, I would assume are handled quite well on regular pdas. >For example, why is there not a way to erase or control the "history file on the ks disk that we heard about some time ago? >It's a windows bile, not a keysoft file, and according to Pdi, the only way to get rid of it temporarily is to do a hard reset. >IF you don't, it eventually takes up all the space on the ks disk. >Furthermore, Ks doesn't use this folder or file or whatever it is. >Ok, so here's my question. >How is this file or whatever handled on a regular pda? What is done so that you don't lose all your memory just from this one thing on a regular pda? >I seriously don't believe that Ipaq or any of the other pda manufacturers or, for that matter, Microsoft would market something with that glaring a defect for long. >No, there is a way this is handled on a normal pda. >Why not take advantage of this Pdi, >Also, why create a trash folder etc, when this is already built into Windows? >Why have a very limited media player if the capacity is already there to have a full one in Ce? >And why have a suite of software that, according to your own admission, is really hard to make wireless compatible when Windows Ce gives you that capacity? >Use a suite that lets us fully have access to Windows capability and make it flexible enough that a user can get programs he wants or needs to work with it. >I don't give a darn if it's a gui or not, all I ask is that it be easy to use and as consistent as possible. >The reality is that most applications that people use nowdays are, in some way graphical, and that people want their technology to keep up. >Make the bn more versatile by, >1 making it possible to script for it (as is done on Pacmate) so that people can add programs. >2 use all of the possibilities of the Windows Ce system, making as much of it as possible available to the user. >3 At least make it possible for users to use some of the stuff available for the pda, such as pocket excel and the latest Pocket word, if not for use, then for translation so that we won't have all the problems with that that we now have. >Use proprietary software only where the regular software doesn't work. >Pm did this with the Windows version of the calculator, and create a much better calculator with more functions. >Because it uses Pocket Pc, it can accept programs that work with regular pdas and because Jaws is a script capable program, scripts can be written so that things that might not work normally on the Pacmate can and do. >That is what the Pacmategear site is all about. >Remember, there are people who use the bn in school and college, and it's important to have as much flexibility as possible. >As for buying a laptop, Kirstyn already answered that one, and besides even though laptops have gotten smaller, in comparison to the bn or pm, they are still delicate and rather bulky, when you consider the case and all, and I think they are also heavier. >WHY drag around a laptop when most pdas could handle what you want to do? >Only one reason, we can't see to use it. >But, if Pacmate can handle all these things, and still be accessible to the people for whom it is designed, then, surely, the bn could and if the reason it can't is because of outdated hardware and software, then obviously, it's time for more than just a new planner, although that is good, and a more advanced sync, it's time to update and upgrade and use that which will make the unit more flexible, Gui or not. >Thanks for listening to my ramblings! (lol) >Richard ----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Kirstyn" < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> To: Braillenote List < [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 11:56:05 +0000 (UTC) >>Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Another idea for future upgrades: >>Hi Jim, >> I hope fervently that PDI does not agree with your attitude. The BN users--or I should say, the former BN users--who are now on the PACMate list did exactly what you are telling us to do now just to get us to shut up. They sold their BN and got a PAC Mate. The difference between them and those who, like me, are still hoping to see the BrailleNote keep pace, is that--we are still hoping, while they decided not to and just switched. What PDI and users like you, Jim, should do is not to tell more users to switch or treat those who have as though they made the wrong decision, but to show us that in time, we will shake off the feeling of wanting to switch because the BrailleNote is still keeping abreast. >> Stop challenging BrailleNote users to sell their BrailleNote and get a PACMate because if it is not yet obvious to you, this is counterproductive for PDI. Instead, use your fingers to type a post for PDI, urging them to get their act together and find better ways of facing the competition and prevent their customers from taking the expensive leap of getting a PM. This is not about ranting. This is about telling PDI that we are willing to hang on to our BrailleNotes, but not forever. I'm tired of reading posts from Jonathan Mosen or whoever assuring us that this and that request will be taken into consideration for a future upgrade. Anyone can say that, and who in his right mind will say otherwise? But I want to see action. >> I do not want to see a version 5.2 with just one KeySoft application being improved and the long-standing urgent problems linger. 5.0 was released in late August 2003, 5.1 was released in March 2004. I am disappointed to see that in about seven months time during which PDI was expected to develop an upgrade, we got only a new planner system and a word count feature that only solves the inconvenience of using the spell checker to get the number of words--I was able to check the number of sentences and lines with my BrailleLite. Meanwhile, in the same amount of time, other PDA users got more speed and more memory, and discovered more third-party applications that work well with their product. >> We waited longer for 5.0 and got a bit more, but I still feel it was a half-baked upgrade. We got a stopwatch that could not be used as a countdown timer. We got a media player that plays only MP3 files with certain limitations to sample rates. We got a better translator that does not agree with the speech and so words that appear right in Braille are translated incorrectly to text and read wrong with speech. We got KeySync but it only works for contacts and calendar, not email, and still the speed of synchronization or the choking on large files was not addressed. Add to that the lingering problems with KeyMail and KeyWeb, and the File Manager that lacks some useful functions that Richard posted a rehash of a suggestion that I have seen from other users before but sadly, still no response--concrete response--from PDI. >> Like I said, they are way too slow in playing catch-up. And with a post like yours, users are beginning to think that PDI will never catch up so you are advising us to shut up and get a PACMate. Do you realize that in your desire to defend the BrailleNote, the faster you are causing it to plunge downhill? >> Another misinformation about the PACMate. You do not lose data as soon as the battery goes flat. The Lithium Polymer battery used by newer PM units, or the Lithium Ion used on the version 1.xx units, will guarantee that if the battery goes flat, you will retain your data in 72 hours--that's three days. I do not suppose any wise user will wait for three days before charging the battery. You say, "What if I'm out of town and forgot my charger?" As it is obvious, that's user error and irresponsibility, not the product's fault. >> PM users also save files to cf cards and they do not lose these files when the batteries go flat, even if the cards are plugged in. With the BrailleNote, you may lose the files in your cf card if you had been working on a large file saved to a cf card. The problem with large files getting truncated or wiped clean--which I still experience with 5.1 and .rtf files--is not linked to where you have the file; whether it's in the Flash Disk or compact flash card, you can still lose it. Like I said in my other post, if you overwrite your bacup of the email database with one you did not know was already corrupted, you'll lose that, too, even if it's on the cf card. >> No, I did not write those last two paragraphs merely to compare the PM and the BN. My purpose? To show you and PDI that you cannot claim the BrailleNote is still leading just because of the battery and losing of data, since this is no longer an urgent issue with the PACMate. So stop focusing on what you think the competition cannot do and hail that the BrailleNote can do that. Start looking on what the BrailleNote cannot do, and that the competition can, and do something about it, and please, at least for our money's worth, do it fast while we're still holding on to our BrailleNotes. >>Sincerely, >>Kirstyn >>___ >>To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit >>http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote >___ >To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit >http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
