[access-uk] Re: Sight Village

  • From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:50:25 +0100

Hi guys.

 

I am probably in the minority here but I wasn't that impressed with the ITell.  
I think that Cobalt have done a sterling job with the user interface, etc, but 
I just think that the choice of device was not the best.

 

When you use this device, it turns the Ipod into an external hard drive, and 
the ITell itself appears to become the MP3 player.  It reads the information 
from the Ipod's internal disk, and presents it to you with speech.  When you 
plug the ITell into the Ipod, the Ipod functions are disabled, and the IPod is 
just ready to become the external drive, ready for connections etc.

 

I wish that instead of this, the manufacturer had designed a system that would 
work with any USB flash drive, to create a much smaller and cheaper package.  I 
have seen USB stick players on the market that do this, that have small screens 
on them, and just play any MP3 file found on the drive.

 

The issues I have with using the IPod are as follows:

 

 ITunes accessibility - ITunes is very much for me not accessible out of the 
box on Windows.  It is much better on the Mac platform.  There are scripts and 
third-party solutions available, however, these are at extra cost.

 

Battery life - Not sure how much battery life is used by the ITel, as it uses 
the IPod battery to power itself.

 

System updates - The IPod and associated software may get updated at some time, 
which may cause format changes in the internal IPod's database structure.  I 
would be interested to know whether the ITel is updatable if an when this may 
arise.

 

Quality of audio components in the ITel verses the IPod - I wonder how good the 
audio quality is through the ITel verses the IPod?

 

One advantage though to using the IPod rather than any USB stick is that Apple 
have their database containing artist, album groupings and other such related 
groups such as genre etc.  It is quite nice to be able to browse those groups 
on the ITell.

 

This is just my personal opinion - I haven't played around with the ITell other 
than on the stand.

 

Andrew.

 

From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Jackie Cairns
Sent: 18 July 2008 07:44
To: Access UK Mailing List
Subject: [access-uk] Sight Village

 

Hi All

 

Can I just thank all those who came to say hello at Sight Village this week.  
It was lovely to put voices to some very familiar names on the list.

 

I didn't get much of a chance to wander around because of strutting my stuff on 
the Sight and Sound stand, but I did have enough time to pop over to the Cobolt 
stand, and look at their new ITell gadget.  For anyone who doesn't know about 
this, it is a small device that plugs into the bottom of an Ipod that enables 
us mortals with little or no sight to use the Ipod with speech.  I thought this 
was a really interesting gadget.  It doesn't work on either the Shuffle or 
Itouch, but all the other models seem to support it.  The only thing that 
concerns me, however, is how one would transfer material from their PC to the 
Ipod if Itunes software isn't accessible.  Perhaps some who do this already 
would like to elaborate as it might potentially be a stumbling block.

 

The ITell retails at £59.95 I believe, but I thought it was the most 
interesting gadget other than the K-Reader phone, of course! (smile).

 

Anyone else see anything interesting and "different" this year?

 

Jackie


Email: cairnsplace@xxxxxxx
Skype Name: Cairnsplace

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