Well, I've heard all 68 minutes or so of the presentation on the KNFB embedded cell phone reader, and the listening is interesting for more than the obvious reasons. Before I say more, some quick jump to points might be good for those who cannot waite to get to the meat. 23 minutes in givbes you Ray Kurtzveil's intro and future gazing - and he's known as a futureologist. Things like image and object recognition improvements, including, he claims, faces. thirty minutes in or so, main presentation of what the present software does, and demos of it working on text, to tremendous rapture by the audience. 50 minutes: Question time, including cost of software and phone etc. and where Americans can buy. Speaking mostly from emory interesting points are the reader will work in a phone without a screen reader, and one that's not activated. Very good Screen enlargement is also there too for those with some sight,. Good help and keyboard guidance built-in, and presenter believes the reader software should be usable with very minimal training for many if not most people. The phone itself (Nokia n82) measures 4" x 2" x1" thick, and weighs in at 4 oz.in Its said to be very tacktile and the keys more identifiable than many. Sells for $500 or less in the US. Has built in GPS MP3 player, and high quality camera of course. I say all this to give some idea of what those fortunate enough to have the dosh will get in the phone itself. The software, to be much improved on, turns out to cost $1595.00 in the US. Now, here's where we come to that pricing issue again. that would equate to a straight UK conversionof less than ?800.00. So, why cannot we have it for less than ?100.00? Say ?950.00 for reading anywhere! What a sales point that could be for those who can push the poat out? AS opposed to rather more than that, seemingly. Not sure a UK audience or consumers are going to be quite so raptured and take the message to the country as they're encouaged to do in the US! The demo or presentation indeed had more the flavour of a revivalist meeting, with sounding horn, and loads of shrieking and applause. Maybe a sort of primary? Not without good reason! I only wish potential UK buyers had as much to shout about. AS it is the software, as I say, is going for $1595.00, so God knows what the 37 dealers there actually pay for it. Or what our sole distributer pays for it, come to that. I'll bet is less than $1595.00. Okay, so business is about profit; yes, I've got that message. When does profit turn to greed and extortion? Sorry folks, but yes, you can have a marvel of a device here, which can only get better. You'll pay much more dearly for it than folks across the Atlantic. Unlike them too, you won't be accessing a 3 per cent loan to help buy it. That in itself would be a good idea, but not sure why anyone should help bolster an already ludicrus profit margin. Those remarks aside, I do urge anyone who's not heard the launch of the KNFB cell phone reader to go on over to: http://www.blindbargains.com/redirect.php?redirect=2614 And download or simply listen to the file. Cheers, From Ray I can be contacted off-list at: mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- Steve Nutt Subject: [access-uk] Re: More on KNFB reader for phones Hi Ray, Well James Everson of Sight And Sound is on this list, so I would be very interested in his comments on this. As a reseller of adaptive tech, I too feel this is overpricing, even allowing for overheads. All the best Steve -----Original Message----- Ray's Home Subject: [access-uk] Re: More on KNFB reader for phones Paul, the 'over-inflated' UK price is more worthy of a post from me! (smile). Think the difference is three or four hundred quid! Presume there's no training being offered if you buy the software alone, as surely some will want to do. So, where exactly is the support and whatever in that? Sure many would like to pay rather less than a thousand quid for the software, if only they could! Wouldn't be so concerned if this was more obviously another leaning on Access to work provision, but we're talking enhancing of dailly living here. This makes it look very like extortion to me. I'd dearly like to see a defence of this, but as we often say here, I'm not holding my breath! Cheers, From Ray I can be contacted off-list at: mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- Paul Leake Subject: [access-uk] Re: More on KNFB reader for phones an interesting presentation and an intention to continue to develop the product for the future. Pity that the u k price seems over inflated though! Cheers Paul paul.leake@xxxxxxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Nutt" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 5:51 PM Subject: [access-uk] More on KNFB reader for phones > Hi folks, > > Take a look, or should I say a listen, to this file. You can download it > from:- > > http://www.blindbargains.com/redirect.php?redirect=2614 > > All the best ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq