hi, Mike and All, I certainly agree with what you said here. GW Micro is in a difficult position because, although they chose to import a well-made product, they gave up control over its development. Well, perhaps the input which GW gives to HIMS is listened to, and we might see features we suggested, the lag time between bug-fix releases is unconscienable. On its own, GW never produces any product without working quickly to fix problems which might not have shown up during initial testing.
Nothing I will ever say is intended to discredit GW Micro. Rather, I feel badly that the company finds itself in a position where it is powerless to do what I'm sure it knows all too well what should be done. Joe G. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Freeman" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, May 15, 2010 13:11:27 Subject: Re: [GWN] more frustrations > > > Joe: > > I have stayed out of the discussion to this point in that I think both Sense > product complainers and Sense product defenders have points. > > As you say, the BS and VS are PDA's, not full-fledged computers. Some of the > complaints (lack of Flash support comes to mind) are inherent in the PDA > experience and, in fact, are also problems with the iPhone and iPad. In > waxing vituperative on such lacks, I sometimes think we, the blind, fall > into the trap of believing that if a product is expensive (even if, as you > say, the bulk of the expense is in the braille display), automatic support > of everything from Flash to javascript to Ajax should be expected. Sorry > folks but this ain't a-gonna happen. These note-taking devices were from the > beginning, are now and ever shall be, expensive PDA's with wonderful braille > displays. Sighted folks come up against these limitations all the time; you > just don't hear about them because they just go out and buy a more powerful > Netbook or computer. > > Again, I agree with you re fixing bugs. But this isn't just a problem of > HIMS or GW Micro. Lurk on a BrailleNote list for a while and you'll get an > ear-full (more of this later). My observation is that all adaptive tech > companies see themselves as walking a fine line between the need to develop > new products (read more fancy gewgaws and glitzy feature-laden products) and > the need to squash bugs in the current product line. If I were to run such a > company, I would pledge to develop only one product every three years, > spending the intervening time squashing bugs in the already-developed > products. But I can't think of a company from DDI Products (think Prodigy > Voice talking blood glucose monitor) to FS to Humanware to HIMS that carries > out this strategy. Once it is admitted that one must develop new products > even as one is squashing bugs in already-introduced products, one is > immediately faced with the problem of allocating scarce programming and > technical resources between the two tasks. I doubt that any adaptive tech > company is going to get it right to the satisfaction of a majority of its > product user base; one can't please everyone. > > But back to Humanware. Almost everyone I've talked to about Humanware's tech > support and product development other than those who work for HW say that > it's getting worse and worse and worse. > > The choices we face are not so much between good and bad products but > between somewhat equivalent products each of which has flaws ranging from > irritating to fatal and which of them we decide we can put up with. > > Mike Freeman > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Joe Giovanelli" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2010 9:53 AM > Subject: [GWN] more frustrations > > > > hello, > > > > I have read many comments about our frustrations with the Braille Sense > > products. I don't recall anything being said about the bugs which are a > > part of those products. We can talk about all the great features we'd > > like to see. How about all the bugs we bought when we spent our > > hard-earned money. Printing is a joke. Only one PCL is supported, and > > that language is as old as the hills. I can't help but thinking that > > there must be a vanilla driver out there which would permit many more > > printers to function. Of course, if Windows CE is upgraded, more drivers > > could be installed. > > > > I hope that HIMS will have the sense to upgrade its version of Windows the > > way that Humanware did. It won't be long before HW will be able to do > > lots more things than the Braille Sense products can hope to do without > > that upgrade. > > > > The Schedule Manager has its own built-in bugs. > > > > I could go on about bugs. I have this to say. It can be a problem to > > come up with new features. HIMS should know that if it does not add new > > features, it should, at the very least, fix known bugs, which we > > unknowingly bought when we purchased Sense devices. > > > > > > I would suspect that GW sells more Sense products than most any other > > company, so it should be possible to pressure them into caring about us, > > the owners of these products. > > > > GW Micro has done its great job with technical support where such support > > is possible. They can't offer support in the case of products which they > > do not have the source code. My hat is off to GW for putting up with all > > of us frustrated users. GW is stuck with a company which apparently > > doesn't care about its customers. GW is stuck and so are we. > > > > > > i'm retired and do not have the money to junk my Bsp and try an Apex. > > > > On the other hand, we should remember that we are not talking about a > > full-fledged computer. We are using PDA's. Most of the money in volved > > with the BSP is tied to the Braille display. If one could add Braille > > displays to our netbooks, they'd be pretty expensive. > > > > The recorder does not perform well. Even if we record a wavefile, the > > frequency response is not great. I could easily hear that the playback of > > a wavefile lacks highs compared to the source from which the recording was > > made. I'll spare you the rest of the recorder's problems. If you can > > check out a Braille Plus, you'll find an excellent revercorder, despite > > that it does not produce wavefiles. The bit rate of MP 3's can be set > > high enough so that the audio is substantially the same as that of a > > wavefile used to produce a CD. > > > > I do not expect Flash or Java Script support. I do have a right to have a > > device which truly works as advertised. > > > > > > Joe G. > > > > If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, visit: > > > > http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv > > > > If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, visit: > > http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, visit: http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv
