Hi Richard,
Again, this is misinformation about the competition that needs to be
corrected, or PDI will continue to think that the BrailleNote is still ahead in
the game and they do not need to pick up their pace in catching up. I can just
hear it, PDI and PDH marketing people telling blind folks who are deciding on
whether to get the BrailleNote or consider another PDA, "You don't want the
PACMate because you lose data easily," but they will mask the more serious
problems with the BrailleNote.
Richard, you cannot form a sound opinion about the PACMate just because you
know one person who uses it. I don't know your friend but it's highly possible
that she is not a good PACMate user. This is why I would rather subscribe to
the PACMate list and base my opinions from the posts of different people than
just on one person's experience. They have blind people there who are known to
be power users of adaptive technology, and some of the good BrailleNote users
that were a source of knowledge on this list have transferred to that
list--even the webmaster of the PACMateGear website is a former BrailleNote
user. If these people and average PACMate users do not lose data, then the
problem is with your friend.
The PACMate has a sprite backup utility aside from the ability to backup
your files and settings to a computer via ActiveSync. The Sprite Backup is
used when you do not have a computer to back up to, like when you're on the
road, so this is like what we have on the BrailleNote, but better and faster
because it can backup files and settings. This is not something you buy
separately, it comes with the PACMate like the other preinstalled apps--Pocket
Excel, MSN Messenger, a calculator with scientific, statistical and financial
functions, Windows Media Player which is a real media player because it can
play not only MP3, but also .wav, .wma, among others.
Anyway, if your friend had regularly made backups, she would not have lost
everything. Even if she had to restore all files--as well as settings that the
BrailleNote cannot do--then she would have lost little, if any. And like I
said, ActiveSync works fast with the PACMate, so restoring her files--as I have
seen people say on the PM list--will only take 5 minutes more or less. PACMate
listers who said they lost a lot of data also end up admitting or realizing
that it was their fault because they had not done any backups.
A BrailleNote user who does not backup her email database and large files
regularly also run the risk of losing so much data, and in the case of
databases getting corrupted and large files getting truncated or wiped clean as
many of you have reported even after the supposed fix in version 5.0, the data
lost is no longer retrievable. There is no such thing with the PACMate that is
not retrievable as long as you have it in your backups. With the BrailleNote,
if you have overwritten old copies of the email database with a new one that
you did not know was already corrupted by the time you did the backup--and I've
seen this happen to one person on this list--or if you have replaced a backup
of a large file after you have modified the one in your Flash Disk which you
think you have safely exited, but it turns out to be wiped clean because the
dummy file in the KS Disk crashed--which is the problem we, including myself,
have experienced with large files--then restoring them w
ill not help. Again, I have not seen such a problem reported on the PACMate
list, where a Bookshare user had once posted about the BrailleNote being a
headache for some volunteers who keep losing the books they were editing.
As for Braille support, I do not think your observation is accurate because
there are PACMate users on their list that use the Braille display with JAWS
muted while they are in the classroom or in a meeting, and they do not have any
serious problems. Though the Braille support on the PM needs improvement, what
FS needs to catch up with in this regard is little compared to the daunting
problems with the email system, browser capabilities, file management,
available memory, processor speed, connectivity, and other useful applications
that the BrailleNote and PDI are facing. Do you see my point now?
The more that users kiss PDI's ass in saying, "Oh yeah, you're right, the
BrailleNote is still leading and who cares if the BN cannot do the things that
the PACMate can do, we have better Braille support anyway, and no graphical
user interface", the more will PDI sit comfortably, believing that they have us
believe that they are still safe from competition and miles ahead, when
actually they are miles behind. What happens then? We get a software upgrade
that improves only the planner system, while we watch in envy as PACMate users
gain access to programs that give their machine more speed, more memory, and
greater flexibility in the same period of time.
What will the BrailleNote fanatics do? Tell those who write the way I do to
stop complaining and get a PACMate. I wonder if this is really what PDI wants
to happen. Leave us here making suggestions, they will not respond at a
satisfactory pace, and when we complain, we are pushed further to the other
side of the fence where the competition rules. Is that the correct response
when the BrailleNote is being compared with the competition? If this is the
attitude PDI will take, then the BrailleNote's market will soon be limited to
young students, beginners with computers, old folks who want to be spared of
techno jargon or are intimidated by technical terms, and those with simple
computing needs.
Let's just admit it, the PM is winning, and if PDI wants to regain the
lead, not maintain it because they've lost it but regain it, then they need to
prioritize more urgent requests and come out with more impressive upgrades.
That's my point, I'm not posting to convince you guys to get a PACMate, but to
urge PDI to respond better to competition. As I see it, the tactic being used
now is to count on misinformation about the competition and mask serious
BrailleNote inefficiencies and problems with stuff like "it has no graphical
user interface" or "it is not meant to be a laptop or computer". You can only
use that marketing ploy for so long, believe me, because users will wisen up.
You also expressed some concern for deaf-blind users. Do you know that
with the PACMate, you can use TTY and connect it also to a cell phone, and so
someone, I cannot recall his name right now, was the first deaf-blind person to
use a cell phone with TTY and a PDA? Can and does the BrailleNote offer that?
But again, that's not the point of my original post. If I seemed to have
compared the BrailleNote and the PACMate, it is only to stop BN users from
turning a blind eye to the reality that even though one product has some things
that the other cannot do, the BrailleNote has so much more to catch up with,
yet PDI responds slowly with fewer and less impressive upgrades in a given
year. PACMate has more to offer to begin with, and the scary thing is that the
FS team moves faster. Like I said in my other post, I am not sure of the
reason for this.
If it is because the FS team has more people than the PDI development team,
then we will be seeing the PDA equivalent of the JAWS versus Window Eyes
competition. Window Eyes started being ahead of JAWS, just as the BrailleNote
started by killing the BrailleLite Millennium and reigned the notetaker market
for more or less three years. Then JAWS for Windows gained some ground--as the
PACMate has--and now I would not be surprised if 90% of the people on this list
are JAWS users. But I believe that part of the success of JAWS is that FS has
more people working on it than GW Micro has on WE, and so JAWS upgrades come
out more frequently and offer more. If this is the case with PDI and the
BrailleNote versus FS and the PACMate, then even though it's hard for us to
accept it, I think more of us will go down the route that other BrailleNote
users, who I see now on the PM list, have taken. This is given that we can get
the funds for the PM, but if some folks found a way, I'm
sure others will also, once they realize it's the better option.
I'm thinking, if PDI cannot keep pace with FS because they have fewer
people and resources, then maybe what they could do is bring down the price of
the BrailleNote and VoiceNote to give them some competing edge. The PM with
40-cell, not just 32-cell, Braille display sells at the same price as a
BrailleNote QT-32--$5,900. Unlike PDI, FS does not charge $100 more if you buy
the model with the QWERTY keyboard. For that price, and more flexibility, a
blind person who has some computer skills and is not intimidated by GUI will
find it a wiser purchasing decision to get the PACMate. But if the
BrailleNote, even though it offers less, will be priced lower, then the user
with the same skills and is not intimidated by GUI will ask himself, are the
things that the PACMate offers over the BN will be things I need on a portable
device or can I just get that out of my desktop? Currently, with the equal
price, a blind person will think, "If I'm going to shell out the same amount,
might as well get the product that offers more."
On the other hand, if the reason why PDI has difficulty catching up with
the PACMate is that the task for FS is easier because they only need to script
JAWS to make it work with PPC, and they can also take advantage of the SDK from
Microsoft, then the solution I can see is for PDI to abandon KeySoft--which is
technology for DOS, in the first place. I wonder if it has ever occurred to
PDI developers to tie up with a screen-reader manufacturer like GW Micro or
Dolphin and work to import Window Eyes or HAL to PPC. This will give them more
flexibility, and a chance to catch up with FS and the PACMate, aside from
helping the screen-reader to gain some popularity. If there are some aspects
of PPC that they think are not good, like PocketWord, only then will they come
up with something that is proprietary, like the FSEdit that was added to the
PACMate. Even if they had to do this, the task will be less monumental,
because they only have to write a proprietary application, no
t the whole suite of applications. PDI can also go down the route of the
ELBA, and replace Windows CE with Linux and a synthesizer which will work with
it. In this way, the competition will become more interesting, and BrailleNote
users like me will have a sense of hope instead of a sinking feeling that my BN
will turn into an oversized paperweight.
These are just suggestions, a little brainstorming from a BrailleNote user
who is still hoping the best for the product, some musings that PDI may or may
not disregard. I realize that it may take time to import a screen-reader to
PPC, just as it took FS some time to do this with JAWS on the PACMate, but I
trust that the PDI developers are capable of doing this once the company agrees
that this is the chance they have left to catch up. Well, then do what FS did,
when the BN came out and stomped on the Millennium. FS continued to sell the
BrailleLite and Blazie notetakers at a lower price than the BrailleNote, while
they were developing the PACMate, rigging it to blow away the BrailleNote when
it was finally released. PDI can lower the price of the BrailleNote and
VoiceNote to give them some competing edge over the PACMate, continue coming
out with not so impressive upgrades like what they are doing now, and still
earn some profit. Meanwhile, they can develop a new Bra
illeNote, one that also uses PPC and not the antiquated KeySoft that limits
the user so much, and blow away the PACMate when it is finally released 18 to
24 months later.
I do not know what PDI plans to do about the competition, but my concern
really is to let them know that users are aware of the PACMate and its many
advantages over the BrailleNote, that users who want more for the BrailleNote
do not care about graphical user interface if, in exchange for that, we get
more power and usability out of the product, and that we are not to be mislead
with misinformation about the competition just to mask the flaws of the
BrailleNote, some of which have been around for years. I understand the bitter
reaction of some users to my postings because they are probably thinking that
I'm persuading BN users to switch to the other product, and they cannot do this
easily because they do not have the money. But I repeat that this is not my
intention. I would appreciate it more if my posts will result in a better
response from PDI in improving the BrailleNote in order to keep their current
customers, than to encourage people to drop their BrailleNotes a
nd find the funds for a PACMate, or take advantage of the trade-in policy FS
has for the BrailleNote.
One last note, to the person who keeps babbling about the LapTalk, if that
product is the better choice than the PACMate or the ELBA which has some of the
features we have been asking for on the BrailleNote and others say our requests
are unreasonable because we are expecting the BN to become a full-pledged
computer, then doesn't it ever make you wonder why Beyond Sight remains a small
and struggling company and the LapTalk does not even sell well? Stop basing
your opinion merely on product description, find a user; better yet, find many
users like on a mailing list.
To those who have problems subscribing to the PACMate list, you can go to
http://www.pacmategear.com and find the subscription link there.
Sincerely,
Kirstyn
