This is indeed unfortunate. Certainly its springer's right to
move on to another product. However the process here was not
quite fair. Springer has probably known about this for weeks if
not months. meanwhile, people have been trying to decide what to
do about there reading and listening needs. should I buy the bc,
bookport or milestone? maybe people still might like the bc, but
wouldn't it have been fair if they could have made their decision
knowing that nothing more would be done to the bc to improve it.
even microsoft, the company many love to hate announces when its
not supporting windows verssions anymore.
many people have asked the question on the list whether springer
was going to stop upgrading the bc. Every answer I saw was "no"
last december or january we were asked to participate in beta
testing for rfb books to be loded onto the bc. In fact a new
list was created for that purpose. I loaded the beta software
but never tried to participate in the process as I had some
difficulty getting rfb to acknowledge the consent form I sent
three times. But I left the beta software on my device as I
never received any notification that the beta period was at an
end.
a new upgrade came out and a message was sent which advised that
if you were wanting to participate in the beta for rfb you should
not upgrade to the latest software revision of the bc. since
that time, I have not done anything to my bc because I was
waiting to see if a new upgrade would be coming out after the
beta period with the rfb capability part of it. its rare that a
company would beta test and then just drop the ball and say
weeare off to another product. See you.
we have not heard anything from springer until yesterday when
katie made her announcement. until that time there was a long
silence from springer. so I did have a feeling this was going to
happen. consequently, I told someone the other day that perhaps
he should not buy a bc until we heard whether there were going to
be continuing improvements with the device because as many have
pointed out there is room for improvements.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Nutt" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: <bookcourier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:03:10 +0100 Subject: [bookcourier] Re: BOOKCOURIER UPDATE
Hi Katie,
That's disappointing in a way. It sounds like we are finishedwith BC
updates, and there is a lot of work that could be done on thetransfer tool.
I really hope that some further development will be done on it
one day.
All the best -- Computer Room Services: the long cane for blind computer users. Telephone Low-call: 08452 606 277 International: +44(0)1438 742286, Fax: +44(0)1438 759589 mobile: +44(0)7956 334938, Email: mailto:Steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Web site: http://www.comproom.co.uk
-----Original Message-----Walker
From: bookcourier-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bookcourier-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Katie
Sent: 23 June 2006 23:08 To: bookcourier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bookcourier] Re: BOOKCOURIER UPDATE
Hi everyone,
I am still monitoring the list, but haven't seen a reason to jumpin
recently. As far as I can tell, you are helping each other. Myapproach is
to wait a while to see if the group responds to a question beforedoing so
myself. Sometimes I contact people off line to find out if theyhave solved
their problem or to follow up on an issue that doesn't affect therest of
the group. If you submit a question or have a problem that thegroup hasn't
been able to handle, you are always welcome to write to usdirectly at
support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Regarding the future, we are working on new product development.As a
result, we do not expect to spend much time working onBookCourier updates.
While we did pursue an RFB&D filter a few months ago, the projecthas been
stalled by some issues with RFB&D. Admittedly, given our changein focus, we
have not put the effort into jumpstarting the RFB&D project. I'msorry to
disappoint the RFB&D members out there.
Katie
Katie Walker Springer Design, Inc. katie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
