What do you think of these thoughts about HW from a member of the
Blind Talk list on NFB-NET?
Chris
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)
The I C.A.N. Foundation helps visually impaired youth in
Maryland have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click
on this link to learn more and to contribute:
www.icanfoundation.info or like us on Facebook at I C.A.N.
Foundation.
Sent from my BrailleNote
---- Original Message ------
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <[email protected]
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] [nabs-l] notetakers: are they worth
buying anymore?
Date sent: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:05:05 -0700
I don�셳 think they do, or at least I think their lifespan is
limited.
First, there�셲 very little that can justify the cost of an Apex
these
days. It just costs too much. Second, I don�셳 know how many
times I
have heard the excuse from our chapter secretary that his BN
crashed
and he needs someone else to get him a recording or produce
minutes
or something. Both it and the PAC mate have a solid reputation
for
being about as stable as a house of cards in a tornado. During
an
earthquake. While a volcano is erupting.
And while the PAC mate is supposed to be so great because it can
run
"standard" software for the platform, most of the software
doesn�셳
actually work with it properly and the platform has pretty much
taken
a back seat to iOS and Android at this point.
At the beginning of the PDA revolution, there was Palm.
(Actually,
there was Apple with the Newton, but I�셫 talking successful PDA
revolution here��) Then Handspring came along and produced a
Palm
that was better than the Palm. There were accessories the people
who
made it never intended, including a folding laptop-style keyboard
called the Stowaray, and suddenly there was no need to lug a
laptop
in to a meeting to take notes. Plus the thing was SO COOL, and
it
cost a small fraction of what a laptop did that wasn�셳 as fast
or as
convenient to the task!
Of course, none of this is accessible.
Fast forward about 15 years or so and today sighted people likely
use
an iPad or Android-based wannabe tablet for the same purpose.
They
may or may not use an external Bluetooth keyboard. They could
use an
iPhone (or wannabe) for the same purpose, but the sighted like
having
big screens that are easy to see, so the preference is the iPad.
But the blind can tell you that the iPhone is just as useful, and
perhaps more so because you can�셳 stuff an iPad into a pocket
(unless
you�셱e wearing a Scott-E-Vest which is just comical and not
really
the point.) There are flip-out keyboard cases for the iPhone 4
(which are a great idea for any blind user) and small Braille I/O
devices that are much more comfortable to ear than the brick-like
note taker of yesteryear.
And accessibility is improving, in general, on the iPhone. Even
the
Android platform is starting to see some movement in that
direction.
At some point either platform will be viable to the blind, at
least
as effective as a PAC mate, probably as easy to use as a
BrailleNote,
and cheaper than any of the above.
If anybody has a future with the form factor of the traditional
note
taker, it�셲 LevelStar, which figured out that having their own
custom
software just doesn�셳 make sense anymore. They�셱e building
on the
proven interface of the Icon (their own software) and putting it
into
Android itself giving you the ease of a BrailleNote and the
function
of an Android device. And if the guys at LevelStar stay true to
form, they�셱e going to bring it to you for a lot less than
HumanWare
does.
Neither iOS nor Android is ready to replace KeySoft IMO, but
KeySoft
is still the same program HumanWare has been schlepping for
decades
now with big ticket upgrade fees for small, incremental feature
additions. In fact, I remember the "major" upgrade (with SMA
usage
or paid outright) for KeySoft 7.5 to add RFB&D book support to my
little PK less than six months after I bought the thing! More
than a
year ago, I read a blog article from the CEO of Serotek about the
"blind ghetto" technology.
He was talking about Freedom Scientific and HumanWare
specifically,
and how neither company seems to truly innovate. Why should
they?
So far they�셶e been able to foist minor evolutions of products
that
are becoming less and less stable for exorbitant upgrade fees, or
make minor revisions to a product while maintaining an existing
price
point. The exceptions for HumanWare were the Apex and the Victor
Reader Stream, the former of which saw a massive cost increase
that
isn�셳 going down anytime soon, and the latter was made some
five
years ago.
Meanwhile new players are filling the market with devices that
are
better than anything any of the big players has to offer at a
fraction of the cost. Companies like LevelStar, HIMS, SeroTek,
and
even GW Micro has dipped its toes in the water here and there.
They
are still making blindness-specific products, but they�셱e
taking a
fresh look and realizing that if they can�셳 deliver products
that are
better or cheaper or both than the legacy dinosaurs (and each
other),
they will die out.
The BrailleNote will die off because people will move on. There
are
still people out there using Braille 'n' Speaks, but not many
these
days. The BrailleNote will follow suit. The PAC mate is halfway
there already, if you ask me.
Joseph - KF7QZC
On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 10:01:57PM -0400, Chris Nusbaum wrote:
Hi all,
I don't have a set opinion on this matter as of yet, but I'd like
to
initiate the discussion. I'm noticing a trend in the blindness
technology field: PC's can do most everything a notetaker
(BrailleNote, BrailleSense, PacMate, etc.) can do, with some
obvious
changes and differences, and in some cases can do and support
more
than the notetaker. This is also true with the ever-improving
accessible smartphones and tablets: the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch,
(the semiaccessible) Android phones, the KNFB Reader, etc. Yes,
the
notetakers have built-in Braille displays, but you can also
install a
stand-alone Braille display on a computer to display what's on
the
screen, or you could just buy a screen reader (text-to-speech,
not
text-to-Braille) as a replacement for the Braille display...
that
is, if you think it is in fact a replacement for refreshable
Braille.
That's another question for all of you in this discussion. So,
here's the question: with all the advancements and capabilities
of a
computer and screen readers or stand-alone refreshable Braille
displays, is it worth it, in your opinion, to buy a notetaker
anymore? What, given all the things a PC can do, is the real
purpose
of the notetakers now? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Chris
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)
The I C.A.N. Foundation helps visually impaired youth in
Maryland
have the ability to confidently say "I can!" How? Click on this
link
to learn more and to contribute: www.icanfoundation.info or like
us
on Facebook at I C.A.N. Foundation.
Sent from my BrailleNote
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