Hi, Alex, There's no way I can reply to all of your questions.
I don't think this unit supports video files. It does play MP 3, Daisy, Wav and some others. It reads HTML perfectly well. It handles forms found on the Internet very well. There is no, separate forms mode. You are just presented with the edit box. The keyboard on the Braille Sense is the best keyboard I have seen, and that includes your Braille Note. I have heard about only problem with the keyboard from only one person. I've logged lots of hours on the unit and it works as well as the day I got it. The battery is easy to change. I have not timed how long the battery will last under varying conditions. I usually get a day's work from the unit. There definitely are translation problems from ASCII to Braille and vice versa and the errors are not consststent. If I want to have a document look good, I use ASCII via a USB keyboard. All your questions are negative. This unit has some definite good qualities. The word processor works well. It does what the manual says it does. Formatting is not complete. There isn't a shortcut key for centering. There is a hot key for tabbing forward but you do need a combination key for shift-tab. Forget about printing unless you happen to have a printer which supports PCL 3; it must be HP compatible. The serial port cannot be used for a printer connection. This printing thing is my biggest gripe about this unit. We don't see too many releases. We won't see a release just for bug fixes. A release will fix these, but it will also contain major feature additions. I'm writing this in Braille; the e-mail will first be translated into Ascii, so you may see a couple of translation errors. I should say that the wireless LAN works very well. I have never had a drop-out. In general, data is not lost during a reset unless it has not been saved. All settings will be lost but if these are backed up properly, they are easily restored. I'll let others answer your other questions. I hope this was helpful. Joe G. ----- Original Message ----- From: Alex Hall <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: Friday, Jun 19, 2009 13:44:36 Subject: [GWN] BSP: opinions needed > > > Hi all, > For those of you using the Braille Sense Plus, I would like to > ask you a small favor: could you respond with all the bad things > (missing features, bugs, data corruption, and so on) that you > have found with your unit? I am closer now to being able to get > one of these to replace my BN, but I want to know the "real > story" behind the BSP's operation in daily life before I proceed. > Note that I am a student going into either software design or web > programming, I am not sure which yet, with two years of school > remaining. I know the technical specs, but no one in my state > has one that I can look at and use first-hand; I have only your > responses and the reviews and podcasts around the Internet to > guide me. I would like to know the following, and sorry it is > such a long list, but then again, it is a lot of money. > 1. How annoying constantly pressing the tab and shift-tab key > combos gets? > 2. How often can you do things with a shortcut key to avoid > tabbing five times? > 3. What can the wordprocessor not handle? > 4. What problems do you find when browsing the Internet? > 5. How often does the unit lock up, resulting in a reset and > therefore a loss of data? > 6. What problems still exist with the email program, even after > the firmware updates? > 7. What external device compatibility issues, if any, have you > found? > 8. Can Bluetooth do object exchange, and is it stable? > 9. Can you browse networks? > 10. How is printing as far as formatting, printer support, font > changes, retaining page setup (such as centered lines, line > spacing, etc)? > 11. How is the Braille display after months of use? > 12. Is Wifi stable, or does it often drop connections, connect > to networks it cannot actually see, you get the idea? > 13. Can it take SDHC cards? > 14. Does the DSL jack always work properly? > 15. How is battery, with and without wifi, bluetooth, and so on? > 16. Can you turn on and off speech and braille independently? > 17. If you came from a BN, how is the Braille display scrolling? > 18. How does it handle translation to and from grade 2? > 19. Can one use computer braille languages other than English? > 20. How does the LCD display work in real-life applications? It > is a good concept, but is it easy to display what you want, to > turn it off, and so on? > 21. How easy is it to buy and install a new battery? > 22. If you are a student, what problems have you found in > classes, such as unsupported files, trouble with emails, and the > like? > 23. For GWM staff: any plans to incorporate Nemeth, UEB, or > other useful codes? > 24. What media file size cannot be played? If you play a 150mb > DVS movie, for example, will it work / will the system bog down > any? > 25. How does the unit react to high heat and/or humidity? Cold? > 26. How are new lines represented? On the BN, they can be a one > or two cell intentation on the display, or an ed sign followed by > a people. I always set it to indent one cell, since there is no other > reason for the display to ever indent in text, so any indent is a > new line and it feels more like a Brailled document and makes > more sense, to me at least. > 27. Is there a limit to the number attachments in an email? The > BN will not send more than 7, I believe. > 28. Technical: what Javascript does the unit support? For > example, the BN supports onload, onunload, and onclick, but not > onchange, onfocus, onkeypress, and the rest. > 29. How is filling out fields on the BSP? > 30. Have you run into issues where keys would stick or in any > other way not work? > 31. What version of JS does the browser have? Will it support > dhtml (the innerHTML method on objects)? > 32. Overall, how do you like your unit for what you do with it? > Please tell me anything you do not like about the unit, even if I > did not cover it? > You can reply off-list to avoid Raul's or Jeremy's wrath (JK > guys). Thanks in advance for any responses. > > Have a great day, > Alex
