Yup. In the old days I actually had a Garmin eTrex mounted on the handlebars of my BMW on-offroad bike and I used it for touring etc., but yes I've now passed that thing on to a friend of mine who has a business where he drives all over the country since it's of no use to me.
Apparently there is indeed some Garmin's which have a 'talking' menu system for blind people, but I'm not sure they're in the country this side.
FWIW, this Humanware thing is in fact also a Dell PDA with a touch screen, but it basically has a rubberised keypad thing laid over the normal touch screen, and has all the extra software on it including, I think, a version of the Pocket PC Mobile Speak.
Anyway, will let you guys know how it goes with both the expensive device, and the 'free' stuff on my cellphone.
Cheers Jacob Kruger Blind Biker----- Original Message ----- From: "Kallie Swanepoel" <kccs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 12:48 PM Subject: [blindza] Re: Humanware Trekker (Maestro) GPS unit
I would like to be able to use one of the Garman products, but unfortunately, most of them has touch screens, and no speech in the menus or else - so guess what, I can't use it. If there Is going to be an accessible version, I will definitely purchase it. I once borrowed one from a friend, and had my assistant to work the thing, and it worked quite nice - much better than the printed map book we use to get to the clients. Regards Kallie Swanepoel Piano Tuner/Klavierstemmer Phone: +27 (0) 12-379-3762 Mobile: +27 (0) 83-261-6942 Fax: +27 (0) 86-633-2999 SkypeName: KallieSwanepoel Website: http://www.kallieswanepoel.co.za/ -----Original Message----- From: blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jacob Kruger Sent: 09 July 2007 09:33 To: blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [blindza] Re: Humanware Trekker (Maestro) GPS unit LOL. I know it's a bit expensive, but for interests sake, I'm also going to test some 'free' software that's runs off of a cellphone with the Talks software on (which is what I already have), called Loadstone that basically also just needs an actual GPS device to link to via bluetooth, because just buying one of those is obviously a lot cheaper, but when I previously tested one of them, the software that it came with was basically a purely graphical thing so my cell didn't say anything to me while trying to use it, but, like I said, this Loadstone stuff is specifically designed to work with Talks, so I'll maar see how it goes. Oh ja, the reason this message starts with LOL (laugh out loud) is that last year sometime there was actually a blind bank robber in the USA who walked into a bank with his cane, passed a note on to the cashier, and then apparently still walked out again across the parking lot with his cane and whatever money they actually gave him. Still hasn't been caught that I know of, and I presume he just threatened that he had a bomb strapped to his chest or something. Cheers Jacob----- Original Message ----- From: "Kallie Swanepoel" <kccs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 2:01 PM Subject: [blindza] Re: Humanware Trekker (Maestro) GPS unitHi You'll have to rob a bank to be able to buy that thing. Kallie Swanepoel Piano Tuner/Klavierstemmer Phone: +27 (0) 12-379-3762 Mobile: +27 (0) 83-261-6942 Fax: +27 (0) 86-633-2999 SkypeName: KallieSwanepoel Website: http://www.kallieswanepoel.co.za/ -----Original Message----- From: blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jacob Kruger Sent: 07 July 2007 01:40 To: BlindZA Subject: [blindza] Humanware Trekker (Maestro) GPS unit Hi all Picked this up from NCTech (http://www.nctech.co.za/ ) today so that Ican test it and see how it works. FWIW, it's a fully functional GPS unit specifically designed for blind/VIP people, including a PDA unit that can also do some other things like read eBooks, play music files etc. etc., but which is mainly linked via Bluetooth to an actual GPS receiber so you can use the talking interface and all the rubberised buttons to 'navigate' everywhere in various modes including pedestrian mode, motorised mode, finding points of interest, building routes based on addresses etc. etc. Anyway, I've basically got it for something around 2 weeks to 'play' with and see how good the functionality is, and whether I'm gonna really think that it's 'useful' as such etc. Anyway, I'll keep you up to date in terms of how good it works etc., and for interests sake, you actually use a small braille built-in keyboard to input data, but it can also be linked to various other bluetooth/computer devices so that you can, for example, link it to a full bluetooth keyboard,copymusic and eBook files across etc. etc. Anyway, like I said, I'll let you know. Stay well Jacob Kruger Blind Biker ---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za ---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za ---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line--- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za
---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za
