Hi all Does anybody on list happen to own one of these machines, updated to Keysoft 9.3 which was released earlier this month? if so, I would very much welcome a discussion with you regarding some weird problems I'm having with the Apex. Actually I have already told Humanware how poor I think their E-Mail client, (known as "KeyMail" actually is). KeyMail does not, for instance, support any incarnation of IMAP which, without even trying, rules out using it with iCloud or any other service which employs only IMAP. IMAP is definitely the way to go regarding mail. POP3 should be phased out, in my humble opinion. But back to the point. KeyMail is so incredibly inflexible that, with a server which requires authentication on sending E-Mail, the inability to define the type of authentication in use, the fact that KeyMail doesn't support any other protocol than POP3 coupled with a few other issues all go to make KeyMail the worst E-Mail client I have ever tried to use, and that includes Microsoft Outlook Express.
KeyMail is really in need of a rewrite, in my view. Although the commands are logical as in they fit the general topology of KeySoft, it is sometimes difficult to jump from one place to another quickly and, although you can now kind of multitask using KeyMail and KeyWeb, along with KeyWord and KeyPlan, there's still a great deal of work which I think the developers could have done to make KeySoft an operating system worthy of calling a modern environment. The hardware specification of the Apex is kind of old-fashioned as well. It has a 100MBPS Ethernet port, Wireless-A/B/G compatibility and only a 512MHZ processor. Officially, KeySoft only allows you to use a 32GB or smaller format SD card. However, I and others have used a pre-formatted 64GB or even greater capacity SD card with goos success. I have tried it with a 64GB card and experienced no ill-effects whatsoever. The Apex has 1 USB client port and 3 USB host ports. This allows you to plug in, for example, a USB memory stick, an embosser four Braille and a printer simultaneously. One of the nice things about KeySoft is its universal and on-the-fly formatting. For instance, if you have a document which you need to print using an ink printer, and also which you would like to emboss using any connected embosser, there is no need to modify your document's format, as it is all done on the fly by the BrailleNote. I haven't personally tried this yet, but I plan to do so shortly. But I have tried playing around with a few documents and looking at the format structure. The files look absolutely fine for embossing, all of the codes appear to be perfectly valid. Conversely, for printing using an ink printer, the format appears to be perfectly correct. Styles and other elements I have not yet tested. I play to do that shortly too. Anyway, all this is really beside the point. If anybody else out there is using an Apex, may we have a discussion? The above-mentioned would be my starting point. If you have had success with doing things like sending authenticated mail, I'd love to know how you managed it because I simply cannot get KeyMail to play at all on the sending side. Regarding application extensions, As I understand it, developers of Windows CE 6.0 extensions couldn't have their applications installed by the user into KeySoft. My understanding is that in order to implement extensions, developers would need to comply with the very strict topology of KeySoft. I can sort of understand that, but if only Humanware would invite third-party developers to enable missing functionality, even with the hardware restrictions we now have, KeySoft could be a far more powerful piece of software engineering than it currently is. HumanWare also charges astronomical prices for their KeySoft extensions, and also their accompanying hardware. Consider: The Concise Oxford Dictionary costs in excess of £100 GBP. The same thing on a Mac or a PC can be purchased for just over 10% of that cost. HumanWAre charges £25.00 for a power cable to attach their power supply to the electrical wall outlet. Consider, the same cables minus the rubber pull-out handle come supplied with any old cassette recorder, radio, even video and hi-fi equipment. HumanWare charges £45.00 for a spare battery for the Apex. They also charge £76.00 for what they term a "Deluxe" case. The "Deluxe" case is now a canvas cloth case instead of the old leather cases which used to come supplied with the older models. All this pricing astounds me to be honest. Anyway, I would welcome comment from any other KeySoft users either privately or on list. Kind regards <--- Gordon Smith ---> <[email protected]> Telephone: United Kingdom: Free Phone: 0800 8620538 Mobile: +44 7907 823971 Europe and other non-specified: +44 1642 688095 United States Of America And Canada: +1 646 9151493 Or: +1 209 436 9443 Vic. Australia: +61 38 8205930 Vic. Australia +61 39 0284505 Fax: +44 1642 365123 Follow Us On Twitter: <http://twitter.com/maciosaccess> Skype: <skype:mac-access-dot-net?call> ------------------------------ ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> ---------------------------------------
