Good Saturday, everybody Many users will know most of this news already, but here goes for the benefit of those who do not.
For me, this is quite a momentas day. I have discovered, much to my delight, that Freedom Scientific is learning lessons, finally, from the increasingly fierce competitiveness of the accessibility industry. Some years ago, HumanWare introduced the first in their Brailliant displays. These displays are housed in a tough, rugged and durable aluminium housing, cut from a single block. Freedom has, until now, resisted the change to durable and physically less damage-prone devices, preferring to stick with a lighter design. Now, with the release of the 5th generation Focus 40 Blue, Freedom has also moved to a new tougher and more robust metallic device. The Braille cells are physically slightly smaller, but have been engineered for today’s devices, rather than just continuing to use the same old components which have been in use for over 25 years. The 5th generation display is also a USC C device, making the interface also more durable and less prone to damage. For those who haven’t seen these connectors, a good analogy is to compare them to the Apple Lightning connector. They are also high speed interfaces which will, I believe, replace the current USB3.0 interface over the next year or so. But the good news doesn’t end there. Freedom has also adopted another of the HumanWare philosophies. They are, for the first time, offering users of current 4th generation Focus 40 Blue the opportunity to upgrade or cross grade (when released) to the new ElBraille 40. They released some details about the new ElBraille 40 recently. There will be a couple of options. Either, the user can opt for a totally separate Focus 40 display, with the option to buy a dock station to turn it into an ElBraille. Otherwise, they can opt to buy the all-in-one device, which will work as either an ElBraile as stand-alone, or else you can turn off the ElBraille side of things, and just use the Focus as it works today. The primary advantage to this system is that, although the Focus side of things will have its own internal battery, it will also be able to draw on resources from the 14 AmpHour battery that will power the ElBraille. In Focus-only mode, that will give way in excess of 30 hours of battery life per charge cycle, according to my calculations, and around 17 hours with the ElBraille turned on and all wireless options enabled. Alternatively, if users decide to stick with their existing 4th generation Focus, there will be a dock station available for that model of Focus as well. There are two other important changes to the 5th generation Focus. One being that, it will have enhanced functionality. The device will have a calendar in-build that will be compatible with Outlook, and also a very basic text editor for taking and modifying notes. Another change will be the addition of a menu button which will have two very important functions. Obviously, the menu button does what the term describes, brings up a menu. But it will also replace the power button as a toggle between USB, Status and Bluetooth® modes. As current Focus users will know, pressing the power button in conjunction with dots 1, 2 and 3, causes the device to toggle between its status mode, single USB device and single BlueTooth device. On the 5th generation model, it will be possible to pair up to 4 Bluetooth devices at the same time, without the need to “Forget” the other devices. The scope of devices with which the Focus will pair has also been enhanced. Finally, the 5th generation model incorporates an SD card reader. Thus making it possible to transfer documents to and from the device. The 5th generation Focus is shipping right now, with the ElBraille 40 expected to be released early in 2018. So, what’s the catch? There is always a catch! The price of the 5th generation Focus stand-alone is $500.00 higher than that of a brand new 4th generation model. This is probably because of the new hardware and its additional costs. But wether this is indeed a problem is very much a personal choice. Now, one more thing which is not related, directly anyway, to the Focus. Freedom is unifying the version numbers of its products. The next version of JAWS, which enters into public beta next month, ahead of the October release, is going to be known as “JAWS 2018”. This will ring true for all of its new products. Freedom Scientific intends, probably in October 2019, to discontinue support for all previous versions of their software products. Therefore, the upgrade to its 2018 product lines will not be tied to an SMA. Every JAWS user holding a valid license will be able to upgrade, for free. It is my understanding that current SMA holders will see their upgrade assurance carried over to the 2019 version, scheduled for release in October of next year. So, there we are. Quite a lot happening. I understand that the Focus 14 Blue, along with the Focus 80 Blue, will be upgraded some time towards the middle of 2018. ================================================= My compliments and kindest regards Gordon Smith: <[email protected]> Accessibility & Information Technology Support Specialist.. This Message Was Created Using 100% Recycled Electrons. If you can avoid printing it, please do so. Think of the environment, save a tree! Contact: • UK Free Phone: 0800 8620538 • UK Mobile/SMS: +44 (0) 7907 823971 • Vic. Australia: +61 38 82059300 • US/Canada: +1 646 9151493 • UK Geographic / Global: +44(0) 1642 688095 ---------------------------------------- ——
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