HIMS still has to wait until Apple releases support for the Smart
Beetle, so except for just postponing the availability of the Smart
Beetle, I'm not sure what HIMS could have done to get their act
together. In fact, I think making the Smart Beetle use the Braille Sense
protocol is a pretty good idea.
On 08/14/2015 04:58 PM, 'carol.pearso...@googlemail.com' via VIPhone 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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