[nabs-l] BrailleSense On-Hand and Bluetooth Question

[Kaiti Shelton]

-- 
Kaiti
Hi, NABSters,

Typically I'm a pretty tech-savvy person, but for the longest time I
haven't really tried to connect my BrailleSense On-Hand to my Iphone.
I tried it a while back, but didn't really understand how the terminal
for screenreader worked.  Now, I'm trying again and have some other
questions.  I'm having trouble finding the answers to my questions
online, so I'm hoping that someone on here might be able to be of
assistance.

In my last attempt a few days ago I made sure the Bluetooth was on and
both the IPhone and the BrailleSense could see each other.  I was able
to get them to successfully connect, but entering the code was a
little trying.  I entered 0000 on the IPhone, but no dialog for code
entry appeared on the BrailleSense.  So, the pairing was not
successful.  I kept trying and did manage to get the code entry to
show up on both devices, but when I entered the code on the
BrailleSense after entering it on the IPhone, it said "BrailleSense
On-Hand is not supported."  (For clarification, the IPhone said that.
Meanwhile, the BrailleSense completely froze and I had to reset it in
order to get it back to normal functioning.

A third time I tried, I thought that I had actually connected the
devices since no dialog saying that the BrailleSense was unsupported
or pairing was unsuccessful showed up on my phone.  I went into the
terminal for screenreader and selected Bluetooth as my connection
type.  "Terminal mode" appeared on the braille display, but I couldn't
do anything from there.  It was like the machine froze again, although
I couldn have also just not known what I was doing.  I tried going
into the help menu to figure it out, but could not access the help
menu because the machine was froze.  I figured that it was a
mechanical problem with the software more than a problem with me at
that point, and abandoned it.

I would like to use my BrailleSense with my IPhone if I could.  Since
I'm milking my 3 year old IPhone 4 for what it's worth (college
student budget probs), I realize that a combination of an older IPhone
model and newer IOS software installed on the phone might be a huge
part of the problem.  However, I also don't have Siri or dictation,
and the more I'm out and about without my computer the more I would
like to use my phone to send emails, check something on safari, or
access facebook and text messages even in situations when wifi is not
available.  Case in point, I was just on vacation and had very poor
wifi, but wanted to send a few emails to my state student division.
These emails were supposed to be very lengthy, so it would have been
really helpful if I could have typed them using my BrailleSense and a
Bluetooth connection so I could have still feasibly sent them out.
I'm not the most accurate typist using the on-screen keyboard, and
time was an issue I was trying to work around.  That aside, I would
love to be able to sync my devices between my IPhone, my BrailleSense,
and my computer for school purposes.  I am also involved in a
fraternity, and can't say how many times I've wanted to send an email
to specific members of the group about business on the go but did not
do so because all I had was my IPhone.

Any help would be appreciated.  I'd love to get with the times!  :)