Hi, Kirston. Thanks so much for a well thought out and eloquently stated post. I decided to subscribe to the Pacmate list to check it out and see what folks were thinking regarding this product. For one thing, the ability to transfer files between Pacmates using infrared is mighty neat. Couple that with the ability to use the Pacmate with wireless cards, as well as various bluetooth and other USB devices certainly has caused me to seriously consider checking out the Pacmate. The detachable Braille display is another plus as well as the upcoming release of the Trecker GPS version for Pacmate later this year will be exciting to check out. Rather than constantly harping on the negative aspects of the gui, let's wholeheartedly embrace the gui and move forward. Please don't get me wrong, I've been very happy with my Braillenote, but there's going to have to be lots of catching up done and we, the Braillenote user community have a vital and constructive role to play in this process. This certainly has been thought provoking and is in no way meant as a slam to a good product. It's apparent that users have expressed concern about where the Braillenote is going and it's time to hear from Pulsedata about where we're going from here! My moto has always been that I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Thanks again, Kirston, have a great weekend, and keep up these thought provoking posts. Brian Zolo ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kirstyn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Braillenote List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 4:43 PM Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Another idea for future upgrades:
> Hi List, > > I am doing this just once because I have seen how some members of this list can react irrationally whenever the BrailleNote is being compared to the PACMate. Since these people do not like product comparisons on a support list, then let me post these observations and corrections in support of a better understanding of what the BrailleNote lacks, what users are too blind to see, and to correct the computer ignorance and PM misinformation that has been going around, at least on this list. > First of all, as a couple of listers have posted, the HumanWare person's idea of multi-tasking is incorrect. What we have now on the BrailleNote is task-switching which is different from multi-tasking that the PACMate supports and any computer-literate person will understandably request. Can we write email or a document while checking new mail? No, because the BN does not multi-task. Can we listen to an MP3 tutorial and take down notes in a document at the same time? No, because the BN does not multi-task. This should also answer the comment that being able to listen to an MP3--music--while doing something else is not important. Remember that people use the MP3 player not just for music but also for listening to books or tutorials. Can we have more than one file open in KeyWord? No, because the BN does not multi-task and must exit and save the file you have left to open another. As mentioned, the PM can multi-task and so if these questions were asked about the PACM > ate, the answers will all be yes. > Someone said, in a moment of confusion, I hope, and not of ignorance, that you do not have more than one window open at the same time on a computer. This is incorrect. When you have a file open in Windows, and you press CONTROL with o to open another, the window for the first file is not closed but minimized. The focus will be on the window of the second file. When you exit the second file with ALT with F4, the focus is returned to the window of the first file unless you have other windows open but minimized. If we do this in KeyWord, exiting the second file will return you to the KeyWord Menu, not the last file you have been to, which proves that you cannot have more than one file open. > Next thing I would like to correct is that people seem to be defending the BrailleNote against the PACMate by saying that it is not a laptop. I am not arguing that the BrailleNote is a laptop because it is not marketed as a laptop but as a notetaker/PDA. But neither has the PACMate been marketed as a laptop, and I don't know where some listers here got the idea that it was. I hope this is not one of PDI's vague attempt to create wrong impressions about the competition just to keep their customers. > If you subscribe to the PM list--by sending a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] will read some posts that remind new users to keep their expectations reasonable because the PACMate is a PDA, not a laptop. So only these few BrailleNote users seem to be misinformed about the PM, and not the PM users themselves, and I doubt if FS will purposefully tell BrailleNote users that the PM is a laptop and then once they buy it, will inform them it's a PDA. Please, do your research before making claims and forming a flimsy defense of the BrailleNote. > Now those on the PM list who are reminded that the PACMate is not a laptop are those who expect something that requires a laptop's memory size or speed. I want to comment on this now. If some of these folks complain about the memory on the PM, which has about 96 MB or more compared to the BrailleNote's 48 or 16 MB, and its speed where the PM uses a 400 MHZ X-scale processor compared to the three times slower 133 MHZ processor used by the BrailleNote, then what will they say about the BN? But that's not the important point I want to make. The more important question is why has PDI not done anything about this, despite the posts here about sluggishness and limited memory and their related problems? What is PDI waiting for? The chance to steal Freedom Scientific's customers who want more speed and memory and don't really care about the graphical user interface? > Speaking of GUI, I find it ridiculous that PDI continues to use this philosophy as the selling point--or more appropriately, the remaining saving grace--of the BrailleNote. I have been subscribed to the PACMate list for some months now and I have not seen any significant number of posts complaining about the graphical user interface like radio buttons and such. The longest debate on the PM list, I think, has been with the carrying case. Believe me, if my problems and concerns about the BrailleNote are as puny as the wish for a better carrying case--and some PACMate users bought a messenger bag that suits them well--then I'm sure this list will be quieter and will not find repeats of the same questions and problems over and over again. > Anyway, I think that GUI is something that should not be shunned but dealt with, and the BrailleNote has done a bit of that with KeyWeb. Web pages will inevitably have radio buttons and check boxes, but was KeyWeb designed to ignore them? No, we have display indicators for them and the only difference with speech is that when the cursor is moved to a radio button or check box, the name of the page element is not announced but just its state--check/unchecked, pressed/unpressed. Frankly, even if speech calls them properly as radio buttons and check boxes, I doubt if users here will find them any more confusing than the display indicators. > I have seen about 7 former BrailleNote users who are actively posting now to the PM list because they switched to the PACMate and say they do not regret their decision. These are the skilled BN users I used to see on this list. There are more who have been asking questions because they have been thinking of switching to the PACMate. On the other hand, I have not seen anyone who used a PACMate--not only tried it and found it too sophisticated for his IQ, but really experienced using it like an average user--who had posted to this list saying he wants to switch to the BrailleNote. If ever there had been a couple of people who said they've played with a PACMate for a short while when they were deciding on which product to buy, they said they settled for the BrailleNote because it's less complicated. But I notice that the same people had questions about the basic functions of the BrailleNote that they could have understood from the manual. > This leads me to think, maybe the BrailleNote was the right choice for them not because of what the BN offers but because of how much--or little--they can grasp. That does not improve the image of the BrailleNote. It implies that this technology will soon be for people with simple computer needs, with very little or no computer skills prior to owning the BrailleNote, or for those who are intimidated by graphical user interface because someone who is good with computers said they will find it difficult to learn. > Notice also that the suggestions made recently for future upgrades--MSN messenger, audio-streaming, file operations executed while on a file list like the directory option in the BrailleNote's File Manager--are already available on the PACMate. All that on a PDA for the blind, not a laptop, so what's wrong with expecting to have these on the BrailleNote? One more thing I cannot help noticing is that FS comes out with upgrades--both software and hardware--more frequently than PDI does during the same period of time. Is it because FS has a bigger team working on the PM? Or is it because scripting JAWS to work with PPC applications--which some PM users do and share the scripts for free--aside from the Microsoft SDK that is also available to them--makes it a lot easier to upgrade the product than fiddling with KeySoft which, contrary to what someone posted, does not work as well as PPC with Windows CE? In order to work well with something, the important word to consider is > "with". KeySoft works on Windows CE, but because the user is limited to KeySoft, then it is not so accurate to claim that it works well with Windows CE. > Why did I write at the start of this message that I'm posting it "in support" of a better understanding about the BrailleNote, and not merely to compare the BrailleNote with the PACMate? In my opinion, PDI should not allow BrailleNote users like those I have seen posting to think that the BrailleNote does not have a lot of catching up to do, and at the same time, the users should not let PDI think that we agree with what they're saying and give them an excuse for not upgrading the BN fast enough to catch up with the PACMate. Imagine that, version 5.1 gave us a new planner, but not an improved email system and web browser which have more problems with greater urgency. I can use a Perkins Brailler and an alarm clock for my appointments, and endure the inconvenience of using primitive technology, but what happens to the BrailleNote user who does not have his own computer but needs to do banking transactions online which he cannot do now because the website requires IE vers > ion 5 or higher? Borrow a computer and risk revealing to the computer's owner your banking information? > PM users asked for internal flash memory and they recently got it without having to wait for years. BN users are having connectivity issues because schools, for instance, are turning to wireless and fewer devices have serial and parallel ports but make use of USB or Bluetooth technology, and every time we request solutions from PDI, we get only an assurance that these will soon come, but how soon may take more than two years. People who have expressed their preference for PM units with integrated Braille displays got that late last year with the newer models--not to mention that the display is detachable so you can carry just that with you and use it with a computer running JAWS or buy a PM without it first and just pay later for the display--and yet the PACMate was released late 2002. BN users ask for more processor speed, and so what if we had to pay for a hardware upgrade, that's our choice, but the best we can hope is to have upgrades and fixes to already existing > software applications that run poorly or sluggishly like the new planner taking the place of the old and less efficient one. We are moving too slow like the download of messages in KeyMail or the loading of a web page, and the competition is progressing in leaps and bounds like the use of ActiveSync with the PACMate that takes 2 to 3 minutes to synchronize hundreds of appointments, tasks, emails and files, and PM users complain when it takes them 6 to 12 minutes sometimes--unlike the BrailleNote which takes longer and can sync less, even choking on large files because they are stored in the limited space of the KeySoft Systems Disk. > I congratulate the listers who have demanded and continue to request for improved features, and have not bought the sales talk about the BN being better because it does not use GUI, nor expressed satisfaction with what the BN offers because they think asking for more is turning it into a laptop. I urge PDI to stop telling us what makes the BrailleNote still superior over the PACMate because that does not take away the sinking feeling that the BrailleNote, our BrailleNote, is being flushed down the toilet of technological advancement. Just pick up your pace in improving your product and accept that there is a lot of catching up to do. You do not need to sit around and wait for more posts on future upgrades, we have seen and written so much already that you have not proven to us that you can deliver at a satisfactory rate. Users have done enough talking and rehashing of suggestions, now it's PDI's turn to respond, not just mere assurances from the product manager, but r > eal good news like, "Users can expect a working relationship between KeyMail and KeyWeb that will both work faster, more functions on a directory list in the File Manager, and more useful calculator functions in the next upgrade to be released this year", or "We will have a hardware upgrade available during the first quarter of 2005 which will address issues about connectivity via USB, wireless support, a faster processor and a newer version of Windows CE". These are just examples, the real thing will depend on PDI's resources. Of course, I trust that PDI knows it is good business practice to be able to deliver within the projected time frame, or at least a little after that but not in six months like version 5.0. > I expect people to react, telling me that I should shut up and get a PACMate. Don't push me, I'm near the edge already. But not everyone will have the option or funds to switch to the PACMate when they had to go through so much to get a BrailleNote. That's why PDI has to respond more impressively and efficiently--and very soon. > > Sincerely, > Kirstyn > > > > ___ > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote > >
