[Electronics-Talk] Orbit Reader review

[Tracy Carcione]

I just bought the Orbit Reader from APH.  It is a braille notetaker and
reader that costs $449.  I've only had it a few days, but I'm happy with it.

It's about the size of a fat paperback book.  It has 20 braille cells.  The
braille quality is excellent.  It has no speech, and no cursor routing keys.
It makes a noise when the braille refreshes, like shuffling a deck of cards
or pushing over a line of dominoes.  I can't use it to read sneakily when
there are people around and I'm supposed to be doing something else, but
neither my husband nor I find the noise annoying.  I was concerned because I
had heard the refresh rate is slow, and I am a fast reader, but it's fast
enough not to slow me down.

It also connects via Bluetooth or USB to other devices.  I connected it to
my iPhone very easily, and it works well.  The commands when connected are
different from those in stand-alone, and I'm still learning them, but so
far, so good. Don't know why they did that-just to confuse me, I guess.

 

When editing, it writes exactly what I put in.  There's no translation or
formatting.  This is exactly what I want, as I tend to write in shorthand
and also frequently switch between Grade 2 and computer code.  I also use
braille music.  I don't want any translation.

 

If I could add something, I'd add an auto-scroll.

And it would be nice if the notetaker makers would get together and agree on
a set of standard commands, so I wouldn't have to learn a whole new set for
each one.

 

I've bought notetakers with all the bells and whistles, but I found I didn't
really use most of them. I keep my own version of a calendar and an address
book, and, if I want to surf the Web or mess with email, it's easy to
connect to another device to do that. Really, I could have saved myself 2000
bucks, if this had been out last time I was notetaker shopping.  It's basic,
but basic is all I need.  And the price is right.

Tracy