Hello Eric and list,
There is a California Company selling the Pronto Notetakers. One of these
is very similar to the PK with more features but one pays for it! I too
believe the trend is towards the cell phone, Netbook perhaps, and other
portable devices which can by bluetooth or some other means work with a cell
phone. Apple's Voiceover is built into the I-phone as well as their various
Pcs. What we end up with certainly will be interesting indeed! I'm already
experiencing the limitations of the present notetaker since it will not
connect to my router as presently configured. Everything else works. Those
braille displays which can work with many devices are coming down in price.
I did say some years ago Hims and GW Micro brought down the price of a
notetaker but then allot of other things came into being and the field is
very compeditive right now!
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "erik burggraaf" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: [GWN] comments about future of braille Notetakers on Adelaide
Radio
Nah Jo, Believe me, no one will be more sad than I am when the notetaker as
we now know it is a thing of the past, but it's going to happen, and the
timeline is somewhere between 2013 and 2015.
Consider, the braille note PK was just discontinued two weeks ago, and
nothing is coming along to replace it. No demand for such a thing.
Consider the term Apex. That's not an acronym for something, or a word
that the humanware marketing department threw out there because they thought
it sounded spectacular. The apex will be the last of it's kind the way
things stand now. It can honestly claim the title of best ever, because
there will be no other.
Consider that the braille sense is in it's what fourth year. With 1 ghz
processers common in off the shelf pda's, and solid state hard drives a real
viable consumer option, it would not be unrealistic to suppose that hims
could bring out a braille sense ultimate or some silly thing that blows the
apex out of the water. They don't tell us everything, but I do not think
it's likely to happen.
Then consider the research that is going on into full page braille displays.
Who will want the classic one line display when a full page can be had for
%10 of the cost? me, but I would be content with a slate and styles
formfactor of about 4 lines or so for even less than that.
As far as the initial outlay goes, it may be a little cheeper buying an off
the shelf pda, and then adding mobile speak, mobile geo, and a braille
connect or a bc640 to make the package, but it all depends on what notetaker
you buy and the difference is likely to be pretty marginal.
The value of buying an off the shelf pda, and using a motular system is
this. Suppose my braille display on my notetaker has a bumb sell. Back it
goes to the service centre, taking my life, appointments, notes, college
textbooks, client databace and so on with it. The company may offer me a
loaner, or they may not. When my braille display fell into router cap
trouble, it went to the factory, but my pda stayed here. So it sucked to be
without braille, but at least my life stayed here.
When I buy an off the shelf pda, that pda has much more current features and
support than my proprietary note taker, and it get's upgraded a lot more
often. My Mobile speak has had a face lift every 8 months or so since I
bought it, and I've only had to pay for one upgrade. Same with my mobile
geo. I'm using current maps all the time, and I get new features once or
twice a year. If it costs me a couple of hundred every year and a half or
so to keep current, at least it gets updated regularly, and it's better than
paying a grand for a new trekker breeze every 2 years. Same with my windows
mobile pocket pc. If the next one I buy is version 6.1, I'll be able to
upgrade it to 6.5 for free. 7 will kill my joy, but the IOS get's updated
once every 12 to 18 months with minor updates in the mean time, and every
major update offers a whole new and much improved screen reader. Now
granted, the IPhone isn't as advanced in terms of accessibility as mobile
speak or talks, but it is more than adequate for most users at this point.
It's comfortable, functional, and cheep, and it gets updated far more
frequently than a $6000 proprietary PDA.
If my off the shelf PDA dies, I just buy a new one for $300 and all my
access technology transfers over including my $6000 braille display.
Furthermore, All of my modules together, phone, display, and gps receiver
take up less than 1 quarter of the space that my braille sense does.
Everything fits in a pocket. The only drawback is that my braille connect
didn't come with a case, so I can't use it unless I'm sitting down.
This time next year, you are going to see a pda phone running windows. On
that day, I'll be thankful as hell that I didn't let my window-eyes SMA slip
when I switched to apple, unless the Iphone gets to a point where I can use
it in my job the way I use my windows mobile device before windows phones
take that direction.
Developers will simply get to a point where they can no longer justify the
amount of time, money, and effort that goes into making a proprietary
notetaker device like the ones we currently enjoy.
Best,
Erik Burggraaf
Check out my first ever podcast tutorial, Learn braille using the braille
box.
Visit http://www.erik-burggraaf.com and click podcasts to read more and
subscribe.
On 2010-08-12, at 11:52 AM, Joe Orozco wrote:
Man, I hope you're wrong about the death of the notetaker. True, there
are
a lot of limitations, but there are so many benefits to a unit that boots
up
quickly and is in one piece versus separate units. This is partly my beef
with GPS solutions on the smart phones that require the phone, the
software
and a separate bluetooth receiver even though the smart phones's internal
GPS receiver and software work quite well on their own for sighted people.
Me, I'm thinking the projection is more applicable to the Pac Mate that
physically can no longer compete with HIMS and others.
Joe
"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
-----Original Message-----
From: erik burggraaf [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:24 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [GWN] comments about future of braille Notetakers
on Adelaide Radio
Hum, Mr. Drummond isn't news on the death of the portable note
taker. I kind'a hate to see it go, but It's just not
economical in the current technology market. A lot of us have
been saying that for years, even as we rejoice that people who
need them still buy.
What's interesting about this guy is, he's toting jaws and the
focus 40 blue, which are about 5 years behind the technology
curve, as the advent of the death of the note taker. Now
whether you're a fan of freedom scientific or not, and you all
know I come firmly down on the side of not, You have to admit
that window-eyes, mobile speak, talks, humanware devices like
the braille connect, and alva devices like the bc640 have been
around a whole lot longer than the focus 40 blue, and do a far
better job on the portability and compatibility fronts than
jaws and focus.
Did you also notice that the north american scanner manufacture
was pointedly not mentioned by name, and that the model of the
optelec scanner was conspicuously left out, but jaws and the
focus 40 blue were mentioned repeatedly? Would any one in the
class like to tell me who has exclusivity on freedom scientific
products in Australia?
I could be making too much of it, But I guarantee you that is
how the top brass of the freedom scientific distributer in
Canada would have handled that interview, and I don't have
anything against the guy personally. That's just the way it is
with FS and the people who work for them.
Have fun,
Erik Burggraaf
Check out my first ever podcast tutorial, Learn braille using
the braille box.
Visit http://www.erik-burggraaf.com and click podcasts to read
more and subscribe.
On 2010-08-11, at 9:32 PM, peter greco wrote:
I interviewed Rob Drummond from Quantum Technology in
Australia and he made some interesting comments about the
future of braille notetakers.
You can hear these comments go to,
www.rphadelaide.org.au/Webcast.html
Rob's on the program Focal Point about 10 or 12 minutes in.
Peter
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
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
