Have written you off list.
Carol P
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Lamanche" <ioani...@me.com>
To: "VIPhone" <viphone@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: Smart Beetle 14 cells refreshable Braille display
Hi Carol,
I've written to one of the tech people at HIMS to let them know about the
lag in writing and correcting text using Smart Beetle. I am not sure - nor
do I hold my breath - whether they will take note of the problem. But I
thought I'd let them know anyway because that's quite a point against buying
their product which otherwise is very attractive.
I will write to accessibility at Apple as I always do when I encounter the
problem. I haven't done so so far because I wasn't sure whose patch it is.
it's getting rather confusing who is responsible for what.
Please keep my e-mail in your contacts and let me know what you've found
out. And maybe if you wish, please send me your e-mail address for my
records privately. I will keep in touch with respect to Smart Beetle.
Best wishes
Andrew
On 15 Aug 2015, at 20:05, 'carol.pearso...@googlemail.com' via VIPhone
<viphone@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Hi Andrew,
Thanks so much for doing the test for me.
I wasn't surprised by your results because we have Braille Sense machines
here and had experienced this lag. There are two reasons why I wanted to
add the Smart Beetle, partily because it's that much smaller for taking
around and, secondly, because I was hoping the lag would have been solved
by the introduction of the Beetle.
However, all is not yet lost because I think there probably will soon be a
new driver and, well, I'm just holding on and hoping that this will solve
at least a good part of the lagging. I have mentioned this to the
Accessability Team at
accessibil...@apple.com
and I'd really advise you to do the same just as soon as you can.
I'm also going to double check with HIMS that Apple are supposed to do the
driver and not HIMS themselves.
If you're not a very fast Braillist then all may well not be lost for you,
especially if you're prepared to make that cuppa whilst you wait for the
translation. I feel fairly sure that the problem is the same whether
you're copying from the clipboard or writing in "real time", and it's a
lag in translation, I think. However, I'm not the expert, so we'll just
go on telling them all what we know and what's important to us. <Smiles>
I will write to the Accessability Team again myself to highlight this
issue, in view of the recent introduction of Smart Beetle and what I've
gleaned so far, so then they can't be saying they didn't know all about
it. . . ..
By the way, if we're rather pushing this on list and it's preferred we
take it off list then please, George or someone, tell us that this is the
case.
I know Jackie is interested, but would hate to bore everyone to death.
Anyway, folks, please feel free to use that delete key! <Smiles>
Please keep in touch with me with any developments, Andrew, and I'll do
the same.
Cheers and thanks for your input on this.
Carol P
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Lamanche" <ioani...@me.com>
To: "VIPhone" <viphone@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: Smart Beetle 14 cells refreshable Braille display
Dear Carol,
I’m afraid I’ve got bad news. I’ve done the test as you’ve asked me to
and there is quite a considerable lag in both instances: using the text
input straight into the edit field and using the clipboard method. This
is disappointing. I’m not the fastest Braille writer and yet the lag was
definitely there even though the text was quite short. also, I found
editing a document quite a laborious task again because of the lag. It
took sometimes a few seconds for the cursor to route to the right letter
and when inserting a letter or letters again it took a few seconds for the
text to appear on the display. Very disappointed.
One more thing I want to try is pairing the Smart Beetle with my iPhone as
a bluetooth keyboard and inputing the text from that mode to see whether
it is the Braille mode that slows it down. Apparently it is possible to
use combo mode with smart beetle, i.e. pairing it both as a Braille
display and as a bluetooth keyboard and then changing how you use it using
a shortcut key. I will have to read some more about it. In a way, I’m
anxious now that I made a wrong choice and yet I would have struggled to
raise more finances for a more expensive product. Maybe not all is lost
and maybe, just maybe, HIMS will improve their software, and maybe once
Apple incorporates Smart Beetle driver into its OS it will speed things
up.
Sorry I have no better news.
Andrew
On 14 Aug 2015, at 22:58, 'carol.pearso...@googlemail.com' via VIPhone
<viphone@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Hi Andrew,
Hmm! Wish S&S had their act together before my demo. I'd thought,
maybe, the use of the Braille Sense, in the manual was perhaps an
oversight in not correcting stuff ... as this happens ... but it wasn't,
I gather.
The other reason that would make me really want this unit is if you could
answer "Yes" definitely to one further point.
You may not have done this, but you can use the clipboard setting to
temporarily disable the keyboard so that you can write something in your
own clipboard, so to speak. In this case, you write quite a bit of text,
say, 300 words, then try sending to your iPhone.
You get into the clipboard with backspace+enter+C and then send by
pressing "Enter".
In previous Sense products, I've found this to be too slow for me and
even unreliable, possibly running out of memory ...
I'd love to be able to use this feature, but quickly and not feel I
wanted to drink a cuppa whilst waiting. I found it translated the text
only as quickly as it did ifyou were brailling directly and were having
to wait for it to be translated into the phone, and that wasn't what I
wanted!
Can you try this out, please, and let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Thanks also for the instructions you gave below, which I'll keep for
further reference.
Carol P
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Lamanche" <ioani...@me.com>
To: "VIPhone" <viphone@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: Smart Beetle 14 cells refreshable Braille display
Hi Carol,
Yes, at present you have to pair Smart Beetle as BrailleSense because
Apple has not as yet incorporated the Smart Beetle driver into its
operating systems. However, HIMS provide instructions on how to make
Smart Beetle appear as BrailleSense. Once i took the initial steps to
accomplish this on Smart Beetle itself, the pairing went smoothly.
Below I'm pasting the instructions as I received them from HIMS. They
are also included with the product on a separate Braille sheet.
"Smart Beetle with Apple products.
Note, the below refers to using Smart Beetle with products running
Apple's iOS, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod as well as mac computers.
At the time of this writing, Apple has not implemented a Smart Beetle
specific driver into iOS or the Mac OS. Thus, it has become necessary for
us to do a work around in order that you may use your Smart Beetle with
i-devices and Mac computers.
In short, this work-around allows the Smart Beetle to emulate a Braille
Sense notetaker, which is supported in Apple's operating systems. You can
turn this emulation on and off simply by changing the Bluetooth name for
the Bluetooth Serial port on the Smart Beetle.
note: this work-around requires you to use the Smart Beetle via Bluetooth
when using a Mac computer.
To change the Bluetooth name, please do the following:
1) Press Power-F1, choose BRL and press "Enter". The unit displays
"pairing BRL".
2) Press the Power button to open the menu, and Press the shortcut "I" to
open "Information".
3) From the "Information" list, press (F2-F3-Dot1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8).
4) Return to "Information", and confirm the BRL Bluetooth name.
Each time you follow these steps, the Bluetooth name is toggled between
"SmartBeetle" and "BrailleSense", thus, you can use Smart Beetle in it's
normal configuration for other screen readers. In addition, when Apple
introduces Smart gheetle support, you will be able to change the
Bluetooth name back to Smart Beetle and use it properly from that time."
I was nervous at first but I had downloaded the user guide for Smart
Beetle from HIMS website and since the description of the unit was very
good, I was able to learn a lot about it before I actually put my hands
on it.
Good luck and ask anything if you wish and I will do my best to answer.
Andrew
On 14 Aug 2015, at 15:40, 'carol.pearso...@googlemail.com' via VIPhone
<viphone@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Andrew,
How did you manage to pair it and which of the keyboard settings are you
using?
I saw one, as demo, but we couldn't pair it at the time and it seemed to
be because you had to pair it as Braille Sense, or something.
Please tell me what you did etc? I did like the look and feel of it
very much and wanted one but ...
Carol P
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Lamanche" <ioani...@me.com>
To: "VIPhone" <viphone@googlegroups.com>
Cc: <macvisionar...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 6:47 PM
Subject: Smart Beetle 14 cells refreshable Braille display
Listers,
It's arrived: my new tiny, 14 cell refreshable Braille display produced
by HIMS. Nervous as I was ordering it from Sight and Sound in the UK, I
feel I'm gonna love it! it's small and the cells are nice. I've
already paired it with my iphone. And by the way, this Braille display
can remember 5 different bluetooth devices to which one connects. It
also has a USB connection.
I know it's going to be a steep learning curve and that I'm going to be
asking lots of questions but I've already managed to read using Smart
Beetle from Voice Dream Reader and ibooks. The pleasure of reading
quietly is intense! I'm delighted.
At present it seems that I have to keep my iphone or ipad unlocked in
order to use my Smart Beetle. Is this the case in your experience too?
Also, Smart Beetle can connect via bluetooth either as a Braille display
or as a bluetooth keyboard emulator and it can also work in combo mode,
i.e. you can have it connected as a Braille display and as a bluetooth
keyboard for more functionality. I can navigate home screens using it,
open and close applications, read text, I've written a text message
using it, I can use the rotor. However, when in Mail, I couldn't find a
way of deleting an email I didn't want to read and I was wondering
whether there may be an equivalent of a swiping gesture that Braille
display could imitate. I just wonder if you could share what else you
can do with your refreshable Braille displays and iPhone?
Many thanks for any suggestions
Andrew
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