[access-uk] Re: Note Takers

  • From: "Brian Hartgen" <brian@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:44:52 +0100

Hi Steve

I use a pac mate extensively on a daily basis, and I have almost all the utilities for use with it which you can purchase separately. I don't have Face to Face, but I do have FS Reader (for playing daisy books), StreetTalk Destinator (the GPS system for the product), the Audible player (freely available for playing Audible books) and various other utilities. I say this because if you want more information about any of these, feel free to let me know.

As has been said already, we don't know whether your needs are such that you want Braille input or qwerty. So I'll try to make some all round comments. I have a qwerty input version with 40 cell display.

1. First things first. You absolutely do not have to take the charger with you everywhere you go. I use the pac mate extensively when working for a significant part of each day for all kinds of tasks, and the battery does not drain significantly. You can get I would say between twenty and thirty hours out of it before it needs a recharge, and you do get significant warning prior to that happening. The one perhaps disadvantage is that the reason for the warning is because, if the battery were to drain of power completely, you lose your settings and data.

Before anyone shrieks in horror at this, remember that the pac mate is a PDA-like device. Ideally speaking, it is designed such that data is to be synchronised with a PC, and so I personally use the pac mate as a means of temporary rather than permanent storage.

On the subject of synchronisation, while you can do this very easily between the pac mate and the PC, I also have a compact flash card reader and a number of compact flash cards. I can easily write a report on the pac mate, save it on the card, connect the card reader to the computer and edit the report within Microsoft Word directly on the PC. Many computers now have flash card readers built in.

It is also a good idea to make a backup of your pac mate settings via active sync. In the event of a data loss should you experience this, you can restore back to your preferred settings in under three minutes.

2. As far as the qwerty version is concerned, I personally love the keyboard. I can type extremely fast when using it without error. I have heard however that the braille input keyboard suffers in terms of accuracy, and I think this is where we start to see a distinction between both the Braille and qwerty versions.

3. If you are a jaws user, who wants a portable product with a qwerty keyboard which has a very long battery life and wants the many many abilities the pac mate has to offer, then undoubtedly I would say the pac mate is for you. What I like about it is its flexibility and the ability to customise the product. The competitors as far as I know do not give you the ability to modify prompts which are spoken or Brailled. You can do that with the pac mate as well as customising it for use with any application you want.

Speaking of other applications, the pac mate can use applications like MSN Messenger, Skype, many of the pocket audio players which are downloadable, and as I say, Audible books can be played.

Now that I have given such a glowing review, there are some disadvantages.

1. In a number of cases, Braille output from the display seems to be an afterthought in my view. I very rarely have the speech switched on, and want to use Braille as the primary method of access. However, the Braille output is not as intuitive as I would like and, contrary to popular belief, it does not act in the same way as the excellent Braille support provided as part of its big brother, JAWS for Windows. I have had to do a lot of scripting to ensure that the Braille output I want from the pac mate is of the quality I expect. But, on the positive side, at least I have that ability to script the product. The competitors do not give you that.

2. When you purchase the pac mate, you don't get everything you need. It doesn't come with Bluetooth or wireless capability. Cards are available which slot into the back of the pac mate to give it these facilities, but you need to budget for these. The cheapest place to buy both cards manufactured by Socket Communications is
www.expansys.com
who I have found to be very reliable and efficient at order processing.


Most annoyingly however, the case provided at least with the qwerty version is not fit for the purpose of accommodating the product. You cannot physically use the pac mate in the provided case, and instead you have to remove it. However, there is a case available from Executive Products in the States which is brilliantly manufactured. and costs about 60 dollars I think. It's well worth getting.

There is a lot more I could say about the pac mate, more positive than negative. I needed to get a portable device like this from about July 2005, and I took time to consider which product would work best for me. Needless to say, the pac mate was what I went for and I did not make the wrong decision for me.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Brian Hartgen
MSN:  brian@xxxxxxxxxxx
SKYPE: brianhartgen


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