I’m thinking of the Blaze ET myself, the specs look far better than those of the EZ so that’s why I’m looking at this particular model. I know little about the current generation of Victor reader stream but I was interested to read about a case where the someone’s stream had broken down and the repair bill would have been nearly as much as a new unit? Naturally the person concerned didn’t bother with getting the stream fixed. I’m quite surprised though to hear that the Stream’s radio functionality - on the whole - is useless now, didn’t Humanware go over to Tunein Radio or something similar for the Internet radio content, wasn’t the whole idea to use a professional database so the radio data would be kept up to date? Anyway as I say I know little about the Stream so I’m asking questions too. So back to the Blaze ET, it does indeed have OCR built in though I do ask if this is really necessary? 10 years ago or perhaps not quite as long I would have said it was but now? Well, most everything we get is available online to download in an accessible format we can read so what’s the point of OCR? Even then, don’t most people have an iPhone or Android device? That the case then wonderful OCR Apps are at their fingertips including the KNFB Reader. So be that as it m, back to the Blaze ET again and I’ve spoken to quite a few people about these machines given that - as I said earlier - its the machine I’ve been thinking about to use myself. Those I I’ve spoken to have been extremely disappointed with the performance of the Blaze ET compared to other devices available, they say the machine is very sluggish. I’m still not deterred as the ET offers some incredible functionality that - as you said - is probably not specifically designed for a Talking Book Player but having the ability to use Skype for example is certainly a huge plus in many ways, if a library has things set up appropriately clients using a Blaze ET could contact the library easily to order more books, with technical issues etc. But again I question the need for all this stuff when iPhone and Android devices are there for the taking and - with the right Apps - they’ll do more than a Blaze ET or Stream could ever hop to do. Voice Dream Reader is my favourite reader for the iPhone, its no longer developed for Android which is unfortunate and I must find out why the developer gave up. I’ve mentioned KNFB Reader for OCR work with IOS and Android and that App is absolutely brilliant.
> On 11 Oct. 2016, at 3:20 am, Gordon Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello everybody > > I just took the plunge and decided to replace my now pretty much useless > HumanWare Victor Reader Stream. I looked at the Victor Reader Stratus, but I > dismissed that option as it suffers from most of the drawbacks which have > effectively killed off the Victor Reader Stream. > > For example, the playlists for Internet Radio accessibility are static, and > most of them no longer work. The BBC iPlayer killed off the old style > playlists for UK radio and even the US and Australian radio services are > largely no longer functional. > > There is quite a lot actually that I don’t like about the way HumanWare’s > devices work. And what I’ve read about the Blaze ET is, to my way of > thinking at least, a far better option. > > It also offers OCR built-in, which is the primary reason that I opted to go > with any solution. The rest of it is nice, but not really essential. But I > am a talking book producer now as well as a reader, so I need to be sure that > what I’m producing for my client is something that will work on most devices. > > Actually, my client still insists on distributing their audio material on CD > which, to be honest, baffles me. Most of today’s talking book players don’t > even handle CD’s at all. So I was astonished when they rejected out of hand > my suggestion of moving over to USB thumb drives and maybe even online > download as a better method of distribution. > > They say that they use audio CD’s and the only suggestion of updating that > they have taken onboard is to allow me to produce the books in DAISY format > rather than plain old audio tracks. > > But be that as it may, my interest here is the Blaze ET which I’ve just > ordered. Has anybody on list tried that unit? I’m told that it is a superior > option to the Blaze EZ, because it’s keyboard layout is superior and it has > more functions. > > As a point of discussion, comment welcome. > ======================================== > > My compliments and kindest regards > Gordon Smith: > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> > > Accessibility & Information Technology Support Specialist. > Mobile/SMS: > +44 (0)7907 823971 > > ———————————————————— > > > ********** Those of a positive and enquiring frame of mind will leave the rest of the halfwits in this world behind.
