I have had the eReader from NLS made by Humanware for about three days. My impressions are below, in no particular order. 1. The neck strap is cheap and not at all comfortable. It is too skinny, and made out of a very rough material. 2. There are two space bars that for me, are not positioned well. I use my right thumb for pressing the space bar and I find its position slightly too far to the right. 3. There are the 20 cursor routing buttons over each cell, but no markers every 5 like on most displays with routing buttons. 4. The keyboard is ergonomically designed with the slight curve. The space bars are below the braille cells, which is fine for me but I know some people prefer the space bar closer to the keyboard. The keys have more play in them than I expected. They feel a little spongy. 5. The case makes it look like a hardback book. It opens just like a book cover, with the spine on the back of the unit leaving the front thumb keys exposed. The best word I can think of is, "cute." 6. The braille feels better to me than on the Humanware braille note touch plus, but not quite as good as on the Orbit Readers. 7. It does not have a note taker, but can be connected to a computer or a smart phone to be used as a braille keyboard. 8. The setup for Bluetooth devices is much like other Humanware displays. It follows Humanware's logic, which is not my logic, but following the instructions did work. 9. NLS BARD login and download is very straight forward. 10. Changing braille grades is slow. Press Space+g and you have to wait about 6 or 7 seconds before the grade shows up, Then, once the one you want is on the display, wait another 6 or 7 seconds for the display to go back to what you were doing. 11. when used as a braille input device with an iPhone SE 2020, it works pretty much as well as all displays work, which is very good. 12. The battery life seems to be maybe 6 or 8 hours, hard to be sure yet. 13. There is no internet browser, Wi-Fi is used for downloading BARD books and updating the firmware. 14. The wi-Fi set up was pretty straight forward, as Humanware devices go. 15. I have not tried using it with the computer. 16. It takes approximately 20 seconds to start up and about 17 seconds to shut down. Probably due to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions, I am not sure.
To get an eReader from NLS you have to contact your regional library for the blind and sign up for braille materials, and then request the eReader. If you already receive braille materials, simply contact them and ask how to get sign up for an eReader if your library is participating in the program that is.. At this point, it is still considered a pilot program and you have to agree to participate in several surveys at 2, 4, and 6 months after receiving the device and of course, to return it if you are not going to use it. If you want, you can keep it after the pilot project is finished. Oregon seems to be getting the Humanware device; some states are getting the one from Zoomax. There are YouTube videos walking through each device, settings, how to..., etc.. Here is the physical description link for the Humanware device: https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-9336/ Here is the physical description link for the Zoomax device: https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-9653/ Richard Software means never having to say you're finished Web site: www.turner42.com<http://www.turner42.com> -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/MW4PR17MB451322153BA9C6B9661329E0B7FC9%40MW4PR17MB4513.namprd17.prod.outlook.com.
