[gui-talk] Fwd: GW Micro: New Firmware for Sense Notetakers

[Steve Pattison]

New Firmware for Sense Notetakers
From:	jeremy at gwmicro.com	
To:	gw-info at gwmicro.com	
		
		


Version 5.5 has been officially released for the Sense notetakers, including the Braille Sense Plus, Braille Sense Plus QWERTY, and Voice Sense.  This FREE upgrade boasts a variety of new features and software enhancements including support for Word 2007 documents (.docx format), and the capability to sync with Outlook 2007.  Customers will also find the new ability to easily import and export contacts from the Address Manager to other applications using the standard csv format, making the Sense notetakers compatible with almost any contact management software.

Printing
Printing support has been greatly enhanced.  The Braille Sense notetakers now support printers compatible with PCL 3 and PCL 5.   What does this mean to you? It means the Sense notetakers can now print to a larger number of printers.  If you are a Voice Sense customer, you will also be happy as the ability to print via Bluetooth has been added for all Sense notetakers.  If you are working from your favorite comfortable chair, you can now print wirelessly with this new Bluetooth printing ability.

Email
Other software enhancements include better email support through the implementation of TLS.  Some Internet service providers (ISPs) require certain types of authentication in order to send email.  The new TLS implementation will greatly enhance your email experience by ensuring you will be able to send email through more ISPs than before.  A Sent box and Outbox have also been added to help standardize the interface with other mobile devices.

Media Player
Do you want better control of the way your Sense notetaker sounds?  You now have it with an overhaul of the Media Player’s options.  You can now adjust the treble, midrange, and bass of whatever audio files you are playing.  Configure each setting to meet your listening preference, sit back, and enjoy the high-quality sound you get from a Sense notetaker.

Web Browser
If you visit a lot of websites that require you to login, you will enjoy the new feature of the Web Browser allowing support for cookies.  For example, if you are a Bookshare user, and you want your Sense notetaker to remember your username and password, it can now easily be done.  And, speaking of Bookshare, another software enhancement of the firmware is that the unzip tool can now unzip Bookshare books.

If you find yourself in a hotel, and you try to connect to a Wi-Fi network, you are typically taken to a login page.  Don’t be stuck this July at your favorite summer show without version 5.5, as it now allows better handling of these dynamic refreshes, providing you with a better web experience.  Enjoy the new list of favorites that has been added to the Web Browser, including skweezer.com, a website making it easier for mobile devices to access the web. Note that you will need to rename your current Favorites folder to take advantage of the new list of favorites.

The DAISY Player
If you are a teacher or student, you can now enjoy more textbooks on the Sense notetakers with the implementation of NIMAS and NISO in the DAISY Player.  This widely-used standard will provide you with hours of learning by listening to all of your textbooks on your favorite Sense notetaker.
Do you want to read your DAISY book in just Braille?  Simply turn off the speech, and start reading at your own pace.  And, whether you are reading in just Braille or with speech, easily move between phrases, sentences, and words with the new enhanced navigation features.  Using a book that you need to search?  You can now search for any phrase, allowing even faster navigation.

Many DAISY books are recorded with speech, but perhaps you don’t want to hear the speech that was recorded.  You now have the ability to toggle back and forth between the recorded speech of the DAISY book and text only.  So, you have the option to either listen to the recorded speech or synthesized speech from your Sense notetaker.

MSN Messenger 
With the addition of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft has dropped support for the older protocols used by MSN Messenger.  This means that older versions of Messenger no longer work.  With the new firmware, the new protocols for Windows Live Messenger are now supported by the Sense notetakers, allowing you to quickly and easily chat with all of your favorite Messenger contacts.

Utilities
The calculator has been updated so that the display is not read every time you type in a number.  For example, if you typed in 1 and then 2, you would have heard twelve.  If you typed in 3, then you would have immediately heard one hundred twenty-three.  This was confusing to some customers, so now if you type in 1, 2, 3; you will only hear 1, 2, 3.

You can now synchronize your time when connected to the Internet to make it easier to set your clock.  Note that you must set your time zone and Daylight Saving Time options before you synchronize your time.

Format your flashdisk, SD card, or any other type of memory with the built-in format tool.

Two brand new utilities have been added.  The new sleep timer allows you to put your Sense notetaker to sleep whenever you need it, and you can now choose to show your passwords when you are typing them in.  If you prefer to have your passwords hidden, then you will hear “star” as you type in your password.  Or, if you unhide your passwords, then you will hear everything you type in to a password field.

SenseNav 2010
A new version of SenseNav is now available with updated maps and packed with new features too numerous to mention here.  Information on the new SenseNav will be announced separately.

Discover these exciting new features and software enhancements by upgrading your Sense notetaker today.  For instructions on how to upgrade your Sense notetaker, go to www.gwmicro.com/kb1028 to learn how to upgrade your unit if it is connected to the Internet.  Or, check out www.gwmicro.com/kb1091 to learn how to upgrade your unit if it is not connected to the Internet.  For a complete list of new features and enhancements, go to ftp://ftp.gwmicro.com/braille_sense/Sense_Firmware_Changes_in_V5.5_0630.txt. For other technical questions, please contact our Technical Support Department at (260) 489-3671 or via email at support at gwmicro.com.