[Electronics-talk] Re Braille Sense Plus

[Elizabeth Rene]

Mike,

You have asked me why I would want any adaptation made to the Braille Sense 
Plus for it to read NLS or RFB&D digital books.

You wondered why I couldn't just download these into the notetaker just as I 
would do any other file, treating the notetaker drive as an ordinary drive.

Here is my response to your question, based on my exploration of that 
product earlier this year.

GW Micro's Braille Sense Plus, which comes with either a Perkins-type or a 
QWERTY keyboard, each  with a 30-cell Braille display and an 8 gigabyte data 
storage memory, may be able to receive downloads from NLS, or even RFB&D, 
for ultimate transfer and unzipping into a digital playback machine, such as 
the one provided by NLS, or the Victor Reader Stream.

In that regard, it wouldn't differ from a laptop or a netbook computer.

But neither NLS nor RFB&D have licensed GW Micro to play back digital books 
on the Braille Sense Plus itself.

When I checked with these two libraries earlier this year, I learned that I 
could not get User Authorization Keys for this notetaker.

I, for one, don't want to carry an arsenal of gadgets around with me when I 
travel.  If I pay a premium price for a notetaker designed for the blind, 
rather than buying a netbook and loading it with speech software, I want the 
biggest bang for my buck.

And at $6,000 a pop, I think the Braille Sense Plus should provide access to 
the mainstream libraries used by blind consumers.

This notetaker does have UAK's for other libraries, it appears, and also 
offers AM/FM radio among its many tempting features.

Braille can be written on either the Perkins or the QWERTY keyboard, the 
Perkins version has a little screen that allows sighted co-workers or 
deaf-blind friends to read what's been written, translation from Braille to 
print is advertised to be seamless, e-mail can be sent and received by 
either device without an additional modem, both can be connected to a 
monitor via USB port, and the notetakers are streamlined, light weight, and 
elegant.

For many reasons, I would prefer the Braille Sense Plus over the Braille 
Lite or the Pacmate Omni, but I think the inability to read digital books on 
the Braille Sense Plus is a major deficit, for the money.

Elizabeth