Dear List, I have read the threads about the BN's hardware and the future of the BN.
Apparently, some of the features people would like to see are impossible to put on the BN because Windows CE can't handle them.
The hardware changes would be quite expensive and I, for one, couldn't afford to plunk out the money to buy a new BN.
I have thought of several solutions which would make it possible to have the best of both worlds.
Let's have a version of Keysoft for Windows! A person would have all the advantages of Keysoft--the word processor, planner, calculator, braille or QWERTY input, braille and speech output, (when you connect your BN to your PC or you use one of those displays Humanware sells--I've forgotten its name), choice of speech synthesizers, (if Keysoft supported other synthesizers), and you would have all the capabilities of the PC: good speakers, the ability to listen to music and books from the internet, the ability to access web pages Keyweb won't presently access, choice of email programs, bluetooth capability, USB, serial and parallel ports, (if you have them on your PC), plus you could turn Adobe files into text and read them, you could use any printer, including ones with Windows software, and you could use cell phone software too! If your BN was in the shop, you could still read and write print or braille documents using Keysoft or your favorite screen reader. If you already have a PC and a BN, all you'd have to buy would be Keysoft for Windows!
There is another alternative Humanware could do--make a BN which would run on Windows! But I think it would be much less expensive to make a version of Keysoft software which could run on a Windows PC.
Humanware could also make a BN for Linux, but that would probably be expensive, too.
If Humanware came out with a version of Keysoft for Windows, I'd be interested in buying it.
Terri Pannett, Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA. Army MARS call sign AAT9PX, California
