[nfbcs] Notetaker Reviews

qubit lauraeaves at yahoo.com
Mon Sep 7 03:12:45 UTC 2009


Speaking of braille displays (well, not really), has anyone heard where Dave 
Pilisher of the now defunct company Sighted Electronics has gone?
I googled his name and got 1 hit -- his name was in an attendance list at 
some meeting in 2006, representing SightedElectronics. But now that company 
is gone and I can't find Dave anywhere. I wanted to see if he is still in 
the blindness business or if he gave it up (hopefully not in disgust).

For that matter, where is Nick, the technician at S.E. who always repaired 
my embosser?
I remember speaking to him a few years ago and he had joined another company 
doing the same thing he did for S.E., but since I don't have his last name 
and can't remember where he was living when I talked to him or whom he was 
working for, I'm out of ideas.

Just checking.  I would not mind using his services again if my embosser 
need a repair.

TIA
--le

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Wunder" <gwunder at earthlink.net>
To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:50 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Notetaker Reviews


Hello Joe. I don't have a lot of information to share with you, but at least
that means my note will be relatively brief.

I have used a BrailleNote from Humanware for quite a while now. I'm very
impressed with the way that it lets me edit documents, and I have used
KeySoft long enough that it now seems intuitive to me whereas it might not
have before. I like the fact that I do not get bogus messages from Windows
which come from trying to use software which was really designed for
something else.

The long and short of why I use a BrailleNote over a Pac mate is very
simple. What I noticed was a significant difference in the rate of time it
took to refresh the Braille display when I said I wanted the machine to
advance to the next display full of Braille text. I like to deliver my
remarks directly from the BrailleNote if I can. This gives me the
opportunity to revise them almost up to the point where I deliver them. It
may be that this allows me to slip in a piece of humor which occurred 30
minutes before the banquet, or to incorporate what, after a daylong
convention session appears to be a theme which was not apparent at the
beginning. In any event, if you are going to use the Braille display for
rapid reading, even a fraction of a second difference in how quickly the
unit responds when you tell it to give you the next Braille line to read is
of tremendous importance. I did not find that the Pac mate had nearly as
rapid a refresh rate as did the BrailleNote, and in some respects I'm very
sorry about that because I appreciated very much the quietness of the Pac
mate keyboard relative to the BrailleNote.

I have no hands-on experience with the Braille Sense but have heard very
good things about it from Curtis Chon and other people who work for the Iowa
Department for the Blind. Perhaps they will chime in with some thoughts of
their own.

Warmest regards,

Gary
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; "'National Association
of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 8:09 PM
Subject: [nfbcs] Notetaker Reviews


> Hello,
>
> Sorry for the cross-post.
>
> Is it correct that the Braille Sense Plus, BrailleNote mPower and Pac Mate
> are the only three Braille notetakers at the moment?  I have an mPower I
> want to get rid of, but at six thousand dollars for a new device the damn
> thing had better do what I need it to.  KeySoft is not all that amusing
> for
> me, but for anyone considering the mPower it has more to do with personal
> preference.
>
> I found a comparison chart on GW Micro's web site over these three
> products,
> but I would be interested in another round of personal reviews from anyone
> who can speak to their likes and dislikes on the units.
>
> Thanks in advance for any assistance.
>
> Joe Orozco
>
> "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the
> crowd."--Max Lucado
>
>
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