I would recommend against getting rid of the serial and parallel ports just yet; I use the old parallel port for embossing. USB would be nice but would be a major upgrade of the physical hardware.
Susie Susie Stageberg Project ASSIST with Windows Iowa Department for the Blind (515) 281-1351 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Welty Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2005 11:26 AM To: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Future of BrailleNote hardware First you should get the PK, because it has much of what you want. Second, I use the parallel port myself. Third, people are going to start making programs for the BN family. It may take time, but we must wait until then. Mike the star trek guy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Lawlor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Braillenote List'" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 11:30 PM Subject: [Braillenote] Future of BrailleNote hardware > Hello list, Although I am sure in the coming months we will see some > exciting software upgrades for the BrailleNote family of products I > feel I must express my concern on the lack of modern day hardware for > the BrailleNote/VoiceNote family. I would welcome comments from all > users on this subject. I would like to note although I talk about > software development I am not a developer so comments from software > developers would be welcome. I feel if I am going to use this platform > as a business tool in > coming years it is necessary for me to make my views known on the > limitations of the current hardware as I see it. Therefore, I am putting > my > comments on this list so we can hopefully establish some dialog on this > topic. Before I point out the negatives with this unit I would like to > mention some of the positive points these units have to offer. > > 1. The BrailleNote has a good clean simple interface. It is nice to be > able > to work with the same type of menu structure regardless of the application > you are in. > > 2. Braille support is consistent throughout the suite of applications. > > 3. The Braille display is very good. I do not have any complaints > here. > > 4. Good battery life. It is nice to be able to charge this unit up and > have > enough power for a week of usage. No extra batteries are necessary. This > is > a good thing. > > 5. I like the ability to be able to turn the unit off and still be in > the last application used when the unit is powered back up. This is > very good. > > 6. I like the idea of having a 32 cell Braille display in a compact > unit that can fit into a book bag or briefcase. > > Now I would like to talk about the problems I see with the current > hardware > configuration as it stands now. > > 1. There is No USB connection. if a user wishes to connect the > BrailleNote family to a modern day laptop it is necessary to use bulky > USB to Serial adapters to make this happen. The main problem with > serial connections is that they are very slow and not suited for > transferring large files in the multimegabyte size. My current dell > laptop does not have a serial port built in making this task a > cumbersome process for when one wants to use the Braille display of > the BrailleNote or transfer a file from the unit. Yes, I > know a flash card reader will solve the latter problem and I do have one > of > these. > > 2. No blue Tooth connection. If one wishes to run the excellent > BrailleNote > GPS product from Sendero group it is necessary to carry an extra battery > box > containing a serial to USB adapter for the EarthMate GPS receiver. If the > BrailleNote family could support Bluetooth the user could do away with the > extra battery/cable kit and just carry a compact Bluetooth receiver. The > Bluetooth connection could also be used for use of the Braille display on > the PC. > > 3. No modern day processor - As I understand it the BrailleNote family > currently runs on the MIPS platform at 133 MHZ. I can see this > presenting problems for developers who wish to develop software to run > both on the BrailleNote Family (MIPS) and the new PK (XScale). If > Humanware's goal is to have third party developers write software for > there products it would make > much more sense to have both products running on the same or similar > hardware platform. This is currently not the case. Why should developers > have to deal with two platforms and maintain two code bases to write > software for a very small number of users? How difficult will it be for > Humanware to have a trained support team to deal with each platform? This > in > the long run is going to drive up the cost of development. The main goal > should be to bring the cost of software development for these devices > down. > Given the current hardware state of this product I do not see this > happening > anytime soon. > > 4. The BrailleNote family currently has no way to input and output > stereo audio. The ability to input and output stereo audio would make > it possible for truly accessible recording software to be written > giving the blind user a truly accessible digital recorder. I don't > know of any hardware based digital recorder which will allow the blind > user to do basic things such as > set and read input levels or see how much time or space is left on a > flashcard. Voice over IP is another issue. Given the fact that it is > possible to have voice over IP applications such as Skype run on handheld > pocket pc devices I feel this will become an important issue as Voice over > IP becomes more prevalent in the work place. Devices like the BrailleNote, > given the right hardware and software, could really shine in these areas. > My > use of Skype on the Pc, even with scripts for my screen reader, has not > been > the most straight forward experience. > > 5. The current serial and parallel ports should be done away with. > Given > the > fact that most of the current crop of laptop computers do not come with > these ports indicates that the market is not looking for such legacy > hardware anymore. We would be much better off if we could connect to > modern > day USB printers. hard discs, audio devices, barcode scanners, and the > list > goes on. > > I look forward to people's comments on the future of this product. I > feel the BrailleNote could have a lot more potential if resources were > directed to the above areas of improvement. > > Doug > > > > ___ > 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 > > ___ 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
