[Electronics-talk] Victor Stream versus iPod Touch

Sat May 31 18:40:01 UTC 2014

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Fred Wurtzel via Electronics-talk
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 8:29 PM
To: 'Ashley Bramlett'; 'Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances'
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] Victor Stream versus iPod Touch

Hello,

This is an excellent list of comparison points that Ashley has done.  You may wish to also consider the Booksense from HIMS and The Bookport Plus from the American Printing House.  The Bookport plus is, hands down, the best recorder of all the devices, if this is important.

The dedicated blindness products do their jobs quite well.  However, the Apple line of products is so amazingly versatile that it makes the others look like Model T's.  

The BARD App does all the things described.  Downloading books is so simple and fast.  There is no transfering of books at all, no unzipping.  You can download and read with ease recorded or Braille books to the iDevice using the BARD app. 

Using the Voice Dream app, the voices available on the iDevices is superior to almost any other device, including all the blindness products.  Reading text based documents, such as Bookshare books,  is barely distinguishable from human readers with Voice Dream on an iDevice.  Voice Dream works with Bookshare and dropbox to  receive files.  

You can read Kindle books from Amazon on an iDevice.

Newsline works astoundingly well on the iDevices.

In addition there are all the other things like email, money identifiers, product identification, lots of music choices, including purchasing and downloading. 

Photography is something that most blind people have written off.  With an iDevice a totally blind person can take and share credible photos.

Text messaging is better on the iDevices than any device I have used.

Word processing with the Access Note App is pretty good, though may not be up to a regular computer.  None of the blindness products can do more than primitive word processing.  .  With an external keyboard you can write and share documents with nearly equal ease  as from a computer.  This is especially true if you use Dropbox to share files among your devices.

I agree that file management is not as easy as it ought to be on the iDevices.  However in the BARD talking book app, it could not be easier.  As mentioned above, Dropbox makes things much easier where it is applicable.  iTunes is pretty bad for file management.

Then there are the communications and social media features of the iDevices.  Facebook is easier on the iDevices than on a computer.

Then there all the blind-friendly navigation apps.  

I must agree with Ashley about the battery.  Along with iTunes this is a very weak point of iDevices, especially the iPhone.  Basically, the Apple batteries suck.  I recommend an external backup battery if you plan to be on the road away from an outlet for more than a few hours.

So, if you want to consolidate, the iDevice is the best route.  I have an iPod Touch and an iPhone.  I have owned and used all the other devices I have mentioned.  I definitely prefer the Bookport above the Victor and Booksense.  My preferences are mainly personal and each person will have their own preferences.  As I said, all the blindness specific devices work well and do what they advertise, but for me, there is no contest, the iPhone is the very best choice, with the iPod a close second.

Good luck finding your own best fit.  Hopefully you can get some hands-on before making up your mind.  If you haven't used an Apple device you may be a little intimidated to begin with, but after a couple weeks it should become quite intuitive.  There is definitely a learning curve which varies from person to person.  The teaching books about the iDevices from National Braille Press are excellent.  There are a couple of apps including 1 built in app, that help you learn the various gestures.  Practicing with these really helps.

Warmest Regards,

Fred

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ashley Bramlett via Electronics-talk
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:09 PM
To: Linda; Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] Victor Stream versus iPod Touch

Linda,
There is good to both products as everyone has so well pointed out.

Others have excellent points. I'm one who struggles with those touch screens.  For instance, I try to use my ipod nano and I thought I touched the volume button on the screen and it never works so I use the real button on the side of the device and thank goodness for the circle button which takes you to your home screen. I've seen the device you have, the ipod touch, and its neat because you have a small computer; with email any aps you want, and an endless supply of music. Can the device record though?

I am biased toward the blind products because of the ease of use and convenience. Yes, if you can get one, I highly recommend a new vr stream.  I have the old one and the new ones are even better.
True your current device can do most everything the victor does, but it will not manage your files so easily. the victor products use a bookshelf structure; press the bookshelf key to toggle between types of data; a shelf for talking books, podcasts, music, text files, etc.
its laid out like a phone keypad making it easy to be oriented and press buttons you want.

Once in the bookshelf simply press the next and previous buttons which is keys 4 and 6 to move through your books, podcasts, or whatever you have in the bookshelf.

Here are some reasons to consider one.

*Instantly get your newsline papers every morning via the wifi connection; my understanding is they come up every morning when you select which ones you want. as Tracy said, you can view articles and navigate easier on it versus the aps. not that I use newsline via the victor, but I've heard this from many people.

*Easily bookmark your talking book files and other daisy files and even put two bookmarks on a chunk of text; its called a highlight bookmark. I've done this and its very useful to go back and find useful data in my texts such as key words with definitions.

*use the clear male or female text to speech voice  to read your text files; it supports many files such as .docx, .rtf, .txt and html. I think the new one may even do pdf. I think its clearer than voice over.

*Easily record your meetings or notes in stereo quality with the simple press of a button; saves instantly with the press of a button when you stop recording.
*better battery life I believe; like 15 hours.
*carry a ton of media on a large sd card; with only one sd card, your access to your nls books, bookshare books, podcasts, music, and files is very accessible; on the I touch, my understanding is you have to tap around a bunch of screens and use different aps to accomplish the same thing.
You can transfer a lot of data from your pc to the vrs easily. it’s a bit time consuming but in the end you have so much on your card like a 16 gb card might hold 45 books.
*easily download bookshare books wirelessly without having to use a pc now.

Andy said it well when he said

"It is much easier to transfer content from a PC to a VRS. The VRS has a folder and file structure, which the I-devices do not. The one big fault with the I-devices is that you can't simply plug them into a PC and transfer files the way you can do with a mass storage device. "

Well said Andy! I agree and like this point of the vrs too. I've transferred several school files, my talking books, and podcast files all in one sitting and its convenient.

So, something to ponder; check out a vrs if possible such as your state convention or national convention to assist you in your decision.

Ashley 

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