Chad, the default rate and pitch of speech on the bn is awful, but it's
really much better if you e.g. set the pitch to about 7 and the rate to
10 or 11.  I find the intonation of the bn when reading books much
better than that of eloquence.
Hth
Riana


-----Original Message-----
From: Chad Fenton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: 05 October 2004 01:20
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Braillenote List
Subject: [Braillenote] Impressions of the BrailleNote

Well, after two weeks of waiting, I've received my BrailleNote QT. After

working with it for a couple of hours, I have some fixed feelings.

I'll be the first to admit that the new Braille display is quite nice,
being 
crisp and quiet. The Keynote Gold speech will be something to get used
to, 
as in my opinion, I have been spoiled by JAWS and Eloquence. Perhaps I
need 
to fiddle with the pitch a bit.

My main disappointment was how long it appeared to take to load
documents 
into Keyword or Keybook, especially from a compact flash card. Granted, 
there is mention of large documents taking a while to load, and a couple
of 
the books I tried were anywhere from 700k to 1.5 megabytes as text
files. On 
average, the larger files took around 30 seconds or more to load from a
40x 
compact flash card. To be fair, it was a little less in loading time
when 
loading from the flash disk, perhaps around 15 seconds or so. I'm not
sure 
if this is a software or hardware issue.

I'll keep working with it some more. Playing devil's advocate, I'd be 
curious to learn if this speed issue is similar when working with the 
Pac-mate, whether loading a file from a compact flash card or from its
own 
flash memory, and might take a look at a Pac-mate to compare and
contrast.

Regards,

Chad

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Londa Hauser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Braillenote List'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 9:42 AM
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Wireless cards and getting around lack of Usb

port


> You can use a usb to serial converter.  They don't cost much, and they

> work
> well.  I have a laptop with no serial port and connect to the bn with
the
> converter fairly easily.  Hope this helps.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Chad
Fenton
> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 9:22 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Braillenote] Wireless cards and getting around lack of Usb
> port
>
>
> Greetings, listers.  My name is Chad Fenton, and I will be receiving a
> 32-cell BrailleNote QT within a couple weeks.  I had a couple
questions I
> wished to pose to the list.
>
> It is my understanding that, with the release of Keysoft 6.1, there
will 
> be
> the ability to connect to the Internet wirelessly, provided a network
has
> been set up either in the home, at work, or via a wireless hotspot.
> However, I believe that only certain wireless cards have been found to

> work
> with the BrailleNote, unlike the (Pssst, Pac-Mate), which seems to be
more
> accomodating to a wider variety of cards.  Believe me, it wasn't an
easy
> decision between the BrailleNote and Pac-mate, but in the end I
thought it
> was better to use a laptop for the full version of JAWS, Microsoft
Office,
> etc. rather than a stripped-down Pocket version in the Pac-mate.
>
> At the present time, can anyone recommend a good wireless card that
will 
> be
> compliant with the BrailleNote?  Of course, if it adds 100mb of flash
> storage as well, that's a nice addition.  I did find a fairly good
deal on 
> a
> Sandisk 1gb compact flash card for $108 American dollars off of eBay,
so
> perhaps extra storage isn't a necessity.  I couldn't pass up this
deal, as
> it would have  been twice that amount ordering directly from Sandisk,
and
> because my book collection is around 600mb, but I digress.
>
> My other question deals with a USB port, or rather, the lack thereof
on 
> the
> BrailleNote Bt and Qt models.  Is there a way to get around this?  I 
> suppose
> that even a USB hub requires a USB port to connect it to, but just 
> wondered
> if any geeks out there knew of a way to work around this issue.  If,
like
> the Braillenote Pk, the Bt and Qt models had USB, bluetooth, and
wireless
> connectivity, then it could connect to almost anything.  Of course, 
> Keysoft
> 6.1 will offer wireless, with bluetooth possibly coming in the next 
> release,
> so that's a partial compensation.  USB seems the only connectivity
issue
> that the Pk has and current models of the BrailleNote don't.
>
> Any help with these two questions is appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Chad
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