Hi Very good question but also a lot of it depends on the quality of the earphones you use if you use them and not the speaker.
Regards Adrien -----Original Message----- From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of André van Deventer Sent: Friday, June 06, 2014 10:51 PM To: 'PC Audio Discussion List' Subject: RE: Different Roads For Humanware and Hims Inc Why I wonder is it that all these blind specific mp3 players/recorders do not seem to perform well when you want to listen to music? Certainly my Plextalk pocket which has arguably the best recording capabilities of all these devices sound less than optimal when listening to music through the headphone socket. It seems that the same is true for both the booksense and the xtreme. Certainly music sounds much better through the headphone socket of my iphone than on the pocket. I would think that good quality music playback should be a very basic function! -----Original Message----- From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Brian Olesen Sent: 06 June 2014 06:54 PM To: PC Audio Discussion List Subject: Re: Different Roads For Humanware and Hims Inc hi, Well I'm just happy there is more than one compeditor in the game. It's always for the bennefit of the consumer. The speaker in Victor Stream 2is less then optimal, but I love the physical keys, and so on. We can't win everytime. Best regards Brian -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- From: Dane Trethowan Sent: Friday, June 06, 2014 5:21 PM To: PC Audio Discussion List Subject: Re: Different Roads For Humanware and Hims Inc A couple of things here. I got a VR Stream - First Generation - in 2009, 5 years ago. At the time I was warned about the VR Streams dreadful speaker but - given the size and not knowing any better - I defended the VR Streams speaker, after all it seemed its better to have a speaker than not have one as my previous player - Bookport - didn't have one. So 2009 rolled on and we came to December 9 when I took delivery of an iPhone 3GS and this proved to be an eye opener. Not only did the speaker of this device sound ten times as good, the device had 100 times the functionality of the VR Stream as I was soon to discover. Now yes, the VR Stream is a Daisy/Audio player but the iPhone did all that soon and it wasn't long before I started using the iPhone to play Daisy Books and so forth with, not only that I had the benefits - even then - of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology so I could stream my material and even listen to Internet Radio stations in much the same way as those who use the current generation of the VR Stream do so really, the VR Stream is offering absolutely nothing that we don't already have if we choose to look around. On the other hand, Hims Inc are breaking new ground with their new offering and we find - yet again - that Human Beware are on the catchup roundabout and still trying to tell us all in their marketing stuff that they know the market for the visually impaired? What they actually mean is that they know their own loyal market. On 7 Jun 2014, at 1:04 am, Adrien Collins <adriencollins22...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Dane > > Yes I see where you are coming from, I don't have much use for > bluetooth regarding an mp3 or daisy player such as the vr stream but > to have built in bluetooth for earphones would have been nice, I was > one who requested it but I think I was in a minority. I do use > bluetooth on my mobile phones, for pairing the phones etc and have > unsuccessfully tried to link a bluetooth keyboard but have ordered a > different one so don't give up that easily. I think humanware should > give us the choice, whether they will incorporate bluetooth into a > future product is anyone's guess, they will have to do something good > otherwise they will lose out to the market again, when the vr stream > was first released there was not many similar players but now you have > many more and some of them are better in their own way but it depends > on what you require. I think they had to bring out the new stream mark > 2 rather quickly to keep the market otherwise many people would have > gone away from humanware products in favour of say I devices or > similar gadgets which can do much more in their own way. Again it is > personal choice. What will come after stream mark 2 has gone the whole > way as it will inevitably do in perhaps 5 or more years time, there > will be much different demand. It is good that stream mark 2 has the > wifi so there is several options as to what they can put that to use > with. So far it is just internet radio for me in the uk and Europe and > some book services in the states but of course for me they are not > available. They will add more features in time. > > Regards > > Adrien > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of > Dane Trethowan > Sent: Friday, June 06, 2014 4:38 PM > To: PC Audio Discussion List > Subject: Different Roads For Humanware and Hims Inc > > Hi Adrien, I've changed the subject line to better suit the > discussion. > > I didn't know that a survey was done so thanks for pointing this out. > > I can see how a lot of people wouldn't have rated Bluetooth as being > critical to them but really that does illustrate more than anything to > me just how Human Beware actually work, that company doesn't really > want to market to people in the real world it seems. > > For example, those of us who have been using mobile phones over the > last 10 years now take Bluetooth for granted thus we buy the > appropriate equipment such as speakers, hands free kits, keyboards, > headphones and the like to take full advantage of it. > > Hims Inc obviously want to market their products far and wide to help > those who need good accessibility live as independent life as is > possible and - wherever possible - integrate into a full working > environment and use - wherever possible - all the tools that are > available in the mainstream. > > I don't have any problems with the approach that Human Beware takes > but its not what I want, I want to move ahead and make things as > smooth and as uncomplicated as is possible whereas - with the other > approach Human Beware takes - doing surveys and just making products > specific to survey needs for their blind clients - means some > isolation from the real world of changing technology, again its up to > the user what road he/she chooses to travel. > > > On 6 Jun 2014, at 11:54 pm, Adrien Collins > <adriencollins22...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi Dane >> >> I don't know if you know, last year sometime humanware did > a >> survey of what the users of the vr stream wanted, I think there was >> more demand for wifi than bluetooth, I think bluetooth would mean >> another hardware up-grade, I am not sure. I think bluetooth would >> have been great but as we > can >> use an adapter for listening to bluetooth earphones, it is not much >> of a problem, not for me in any case. >> >> Regards >> >> Adrien > > ********** > > Dane Trethowan > Skype: grtdane12 > Phone US (213) 438-9741 > Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 > Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 > Mobile: +61400494862 > faceTime +61400494862 > Fax +61397437954 > Twitter: @grtdane > > > > I use BullGuard to keep my computer clean. > Try BullGuard for free: www.bullguard.com > > > > ********** Dane Trethowan Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 Mobile: +61400494862 faceTime +61400494862 Fax +61397437954 Twitter: @grtdane I use BullGuard to keep my computer clean. Try BullGuard for free: www.bullguard.com
