Hi Paul,
Thanks for responding. I have timed the "I'm talking till my battery
goes flat" discharge and I get 8 and a half hours. This, from a brand
new battery.
There appears to be two possible explanations for this.
1; The battery itself is a dud.
2; Apparently there is an issue with the mother-board flexing and so
draining the battery.
Thus much, so far, I have managed to ascertain hopefully, if I get some
more feed-back from this list, I will be able to arm myself for the
inevitable battle of interests I seem destined to wage with PDE.
Take care,
Sandy.
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Paul Henrichsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: Braillenote List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:41:18 -0700
>Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Thoughts on Technology, Who Uses What and Why
>Hi, Sandy. I will bet I get eight hours using it each day for a
little. It
>would be interesting to see what you get from a full charge and letting it
>talk itself flat.
>I get about ten and a half to ten and three quarters hours, at least that
>is what it was a month or two ago when I tried it.
>At 4/12/2004, you wrote:
>>Hi Paul,
>> Seeing your message here, I just wanted to make you feel better with
>> your battery as I have just received my own replacement one, last week,
>> and I am getting a scant 8 hours out of it. When I mentioned 20 hours to
>> the people at PDE (Europe, I'm in Ireland) they said "20 hours? Never!"
>> and "Where did you hear that?" So, flummoxed, I desisted. but now I am
>> considering sending it back, but what a palaver!
>>All the best,
>>Sandy.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>From: Paul Henrichsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>To: Braillenote List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:04:08 -0700
>>>Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Thoughts on Technology, Who Uses What and Why
>>>Hi, Richard. I agree with you, especially regarding the service and the
>>>units in genera. I also have herd many stories of units going bad shortly
>>>after purchase, and of people who send their units in to get a new
battery
>>>and come back with other problems.
>>>What is going on with quality control here? I asked the same question over
>>>a year and a half ago before I even had a braille note. I have had good
>>>luck with mine so far except that I only get eleven hours of battery life,
>>>but it makes me wonder whether PDI buys substandard parts to save a few
>>>bucks. I would expect that if I spend 6000 dollars on a unit that it
would
>>>have top quality parts right down to the battery.
>>>With my unit, so far so good, but I have only had it four months. I don't
>>>know whether to have a new battery put in this summer at the convention or
>>>not. People tell me that my battery life is normal and then others get 20
>>>hours.
>>>But there has always been a question in my mind about the quality of the
>>>parts in a braille note and why some units seem to have so much trouble.
>>>Shouldn't q and a weed those out before they end up in the market place?
>>>At 4/5/2004, you wrote:
>>>>I believe that I have a few more suggestions for the Braillenote.
>>>>But before I present them I will simply state the following. In the
>>>>early 90s, many blind persons with whom I was acquainted told me that
>>>>they would never use a graphical operating system as it would never be
>>>>accessible and it was not designed with the blind in mind. (as if Dos or
>>>>Linux were)
>>>>What many of those individuals may not have known was, that in the early
>>>>90s, there were quite a number of MS-DOS applications that were as
>>>>inaccessible as some on this list feel that Microsoft Windows is today.
>>>>To me, it isn't whether or not we have a graphical operating system, but
>>>>do we have the software and functionality we need to pursue the tasks we
>>>>require. It's that simple for me.
>>>>As I stated in an earlier post, the Braillenote has excellent Braille
>>>>support. It is a device I can use without speech. Last Friday, I was
>>>>playing with another product, (can you guess which one, the first
>>>>initial is P)and frankly, without speech, that product would not be easy
>>>>to use. Again I submit that if the sole purpose for designing the
>>>>Braillenote was that blind people are incapable of using a graphical
>>>>user interface, I would doubt that I would have ever wanted one. I
>>>>believe in usability, and I think the Braillenote has a lot of it in
>>>>most of its interface.
>>>>However, the problem faced by some of us is that the Braillenote is not
>>>>going to be as easy to integrate with other devices as time goes on.
>>>>Fewer and fewer printers with parallel ports, fewer and fewer computers
>>>>with serial ports, and fewer and fewer printers that the Braillenote can
>>>>communicate with, this is the current outlook.
>>>>My job (or part of it)
>>>>Is to purchase new technology for clients based upon what they will be
>>>>required to accomplish with what devices they receive. I have tended to
>>>>recommend the Braillenote for many of them because I have felt that the
>>>>device was reasonably stable and that it provided great Braille
>>>>support. The PacMate, on the other hand, has only recently gained a
>>>>fair amount of stability and its Braille support is not all that well
>>>>developed.
>>>>However, the scales are in the process of tipping, I'm afraid. a Number
>>>>of my clients who are students have expressed a need for wireless
>>>>network access, the ability to send documents to whatever printer is
>>>>available, and they have also begun to express the need for Office 2003
>>>>support. These are all things that are not out of range, not beyond what
>>>>a portable device should be able to do.
>>>>I don't honestly know how many of these things will be addressed without
>>>>another motherboard upgrade.
>>>>Now, let's talk about service and reliability. My best friend will be
>>>>sending her Braillenote in to PulseData/Humanware for the fifth time for
>>>>service this week. She received the Braillenote in April, 2002. So,
>>>>does that seem reliable? If you had purchased a mainstream product,
>>>>like for example, a VCR, a television, or a stereo and you had to ship
>>>>it back to the manufacturer 5 times in two years could you honestly
>>>>recommend that I go out and buy the same unit?
>>>>I received my first Braillenote on January 28, 2001. By march 28 of
>>>>that same year, it had crashed beyond recovery. At the time, to their
>>>>credit, Humanware sent me a new unit because the motherboard had failed.
>>>>However, less than a year later, the same thing happened again. And in
>>>>December of 2003, the same thing happened. Again, if I had purchased a
>>>>mainstream device and I had had that kind of luck with it, I don't
>>>>believe I would be telling all of my friends to rush on out and buy one.
>>>>To be fair, my current Braillenote was received on June 5, 2003. Thus
>>>>far, it has not required service. (knockin' on wood real hard)
>>>>However, without drawing this out, I could relate at least three other
>>>>stories of individuals who have had to return their product repeatedly
>>>>in order to receive repairs.
>>>>To me, even if some of the suggestions that have popped up on this list
>>>>do not get implemented, I would like to see a more reliable unit
>>>>produced.
>>>>Finally, (my ramblin' is nearly don) to some suggestions. I would like
>>>>to be able to load a large file in less than 30 seconds or more. I am
>>>>not talking about Microsoft Word files, I am speaking of large text
>>>>files. I would also like to not be asked if I want to review previous
>>>>options. And, you already know how I feel about the file manager.
>>>>In closing let me say that I am currently studying a number of products
>>>>and ideas that I will have to consider when recommending products for
>>>>clients of the Iowa Department for the Blind. And, what my future
>>>>recommendations will be will depend largely on how some products evolve
>>>>over the next year or so.
>>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kirstyn
>>>>Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 1:23 PM
>>>>To: Braillenote List
>>>>Subject: re: [Braillenote] Thoughts on Technology, Who Uses What and Why
>>>>Hi Beth,
>>>> I have a couple of questions. Who was criticizing people for
>>>>choosing the BrailleNote and not the PACMate, or for choosing the
>>>>PACMate and not the BrailleNote? Why is it so hard to get one's point
>>>>across, and yet people like you say we should try to understand where
>>>>each person is coming from? Never mind, I think I will not get the
>>>>answer to those questions anyway.
>>>> What I most agree with in your post, Beth, is that PDI accepts what
>>>>we have to say on this list, whether good or bad. It's the fanatic and
>>>>stubborn list member who is having problems listening to observations of
>>>>other users when they find them negative to their taste, and it does not
>>>>matter anymore if the observations were repeatedly explained to be made
>>>>in order to show PDI and users what some of us feel is lacking, what we
>>>>hope should be worked on in a reasonable time, and what consequences
>>>>some of us are willing to take--like GUI--in exchange for an improved
>>>>product.
>>>> I apologize for stepping on the toes of the sensitive BrailleNote
>>>>user. Also, I said the part about the BrailleNote will soon be limited
>>>>to the people with simple computer needs and basic computer skills
>>>>because of the philosophy that blind people should be spared from
>>>>grappling with graphical user interface, even if it means slower
>>>>development of the BrailleNote because they have to write KeySoft
>>>>applications than just adopt Pocket PC or whatever will give more
>>>>flexibility. Neither did I say that PACMate users are power users, I do
>>>>not know where you got that crazy idea. But if the BrailleNote cannot
>>>>catch up in terms of what it can offer to the user, then two blind
>>>>people on exactly the same job but one is using the PACMate and the
>>>>other a BrailleNote will have marked differences in how they do their
>>>>job. They may have the same output, but the one using the more powerful
>>>>product will have an easier time.
>>>> Take Dan's case. If his job requires that he deals with HTML
>>>>messages, and let's assume that there was another blind person with the
>>>>same job but using a PACMate, then that other blind person will finish
>>>>reading the HTML messages while Dan is still saving them to KeyWord
>>>>files so that he can open them in KeyWeb and read them properly. Is
>>>>this a comparison of the BrailleNote and the PACMate? Yes, but that's
>>>>not all there is to it. You must understand that the point here is that
>>>>PDI needs to do something about this because since it is not easy to
>>>>switch from one PDA to another, the BrailleNote user will somehow
>>>>expect--and we do based on our feature requests and suggestions--that
>>>>our urgent needs be met somehow.
>>>>Tired of repeating herself,
>>>>Kirstyn
>>>>___
>>>>To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
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>>>>http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>>>>___
>>>>To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
>>>>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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>>>>http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>>>Paul Henrichsen
>>><[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>><home.pacbell.net/paulh52
>>>___
>>>To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
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>>>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]
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>>http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>Paul Henrichsen
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]
><home.pacbell.net/paulh52
>___
>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
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