Folks, in late January, HumanWare began shipping KeySoft 6.1 for the BrailleNote and VoiceNote BT and QT. For customers who have kept current, this means that even a BrailleNote purchased five years ago can still have the latest in connectivity and functionality. When you purchase a HumanWare product, you can be assured that you're investing in a product that will serve you for years to come.
The upgrading of the entire operating system has been an ambitious project, and largely this aspect of the upgrades has gone far better than we could have reasonably expected. And I know I've personally loved getting messages from thrilled customers who have e-mailed from a cafe, or some other place where they've found wireless access. There are, however, some e-mail defects in the 6.1 release which have been discovered as more people start to use KeySoft 6.1. It is pleasing to note that we've received highly favourable comments on the speed improvements with marking large amounts of e-mail and performing tactions on it, as well as the vast web improvements. While e-mail is working very well for some customers, the e-mail is not at present performing with a consistency that meets our standards, or more importantly, the standards you've come to expect of us. We take this seriously. I want to explain a little about why this is happening, and what we're doing about it. Because of the change of operating system, the benefits of which are being enjoyed by many customers already, it was necessary for us to rework some of the core componentry of the e-mail client in this release. This was extensively tested, both internally and with our excellent and hard working team of beta testers. Questions have been asked on this list about how some of these issues could possibly have been missed during the beta process. And this gets to the very heart of the matter. By and large, the e-mail was working well for those using KeySoft 6.1 during the test phase. And it is working well for some customers who have received it in he mail. There are documented standards governing the way that e-mail clients and servers talk to one another. However, not all servers and clients play by these rules. Small variations in the conversation that takes place when e-mails are exchanged or in the format of specific e-mail messages may cause issues. We were able to work around most of the ones that were discovered during testing, but now that customers have the package in their hands, there is clearly more we need to do. Also on the list, we've been asked why we couldn't have released a public beta, as some other assistive technology companies do. Those of you who have been customers of ours for a while will know we have used this approach in the past. In this instance, it wasn't practical because of the operating system upgrade. The upgrade needed to be made available on physical media. The stabilising of e-mail in KeySoft 6.1 is our highest priority. Already, we have begun work on a KeySoft 6.11 release. If you have KeySoft 6.1 right now, and you are one of those experiencing e-mail issues, please write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] We'll select a team of people experiencing these specific issues to be beta testers, and work with us to offer you a more consistent experience across different ISPs. If you write, we need to know precisely what issues you have, and what ISP you use as it seems that particular servers have an impact. As was documented in the release notes for KeySoft 6.1, the Superdisk drive was not supported in the initial release. However, its manufacturers have been extremely helpful, and we now once again have a driver that will work on the new operating system. This support will be incorporated in KeySoft 6.11. After we have stabilised the e-mail in KeySoft 6.1, these fixes will also be made available in a new version of KeySoft for BrailleNote PK users. We deeply regret any inconvenience caused by the e-mail issues. Software is complex, especially an upgrade of this significance. While we wish the issues hadn't presented themselves, what counts now is just how committed we are to resolving them. I can assure you that nothing is a higher priority for us. Thanks for reading. Jonathan Mosen BrailleNote Product Marketing Manager HumanWare DDI: +64-3-373-6192 Fax: +64-3-384 4933 Mobile: +64-21 466 736 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.humanware.com
