[gps-talkusers] Re: a road trip

Hi there Mike,
thanks for your info on both GPS units. Also thanks to Charles and the rest 
for their opinions. It is good to get some feedback from people actually 
using the systems. I only came across this news group from doing a Google 
search for GPS systems with speech. I had never even heard of the Trekker 
etc. I wonder sometimes if the Blind agencies get too focused on one 
product. They only talk about the Packmate. I should let you all know, that 
I am in Adelaide South Australia. The Trekker is looking good. I have read 
Mike's articles he suggested to read comparing Trekker and Braille note. 
They obviously have their strengths and weaknesses and if you keep waiting 
for perfection, I suppose you would never buy one-computers etc are evolving 
so quickly. The articles look at Trekker 2.00. However, they also speak of 
trekker 2.50 and even trekker 3.00. Is trekker 3.00 ready? Does it fix all 
of the problems with 2.00 as mentioned in articles. The makers of Trekker 
also talk about a PDA for the blind called Maestro. Has anybody tried this? 
I know Trekker is not a fully accessible PDA for the blind. It would be 
great if they combine GPS with Maestro. I am aware that the Maestro does 
connect with the Trekker, but it might be good if the Maestro became the 
next generation of Trekker, as it is so small and fully accessible. What do 
you think? One last question(sorry for being so long). Being in Australia, 
it is difficult to see these products in action. Like I said, I have only 
been able to have one viewing of the Packmate. Are you able to try before 
you buy, or return if not satisfied? I look forward to hearing from you
all the best
Jason
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael May" <MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 5:22 AM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: a road trip


> Jason,
>
> You may have missed a recent post where I mentioned an article in Access
> World comparing BrailleNote GPS and Trekker. It is like comparing apples
> and oranges. Just because the two products are both GPS, doesn't make them
> similar. As Charles said, if you want a stand alone, Trekker is the only
> option and it is a good one. There are huge benefits to having a PDA for
> portable information access. If one has or obtains a PDA, then the
> BrailleNote GPS actually costs less than Trekker. The Pac Mate's Street
> Talker you sawis still not on the market. If you have a Pac Mate, it will
> be your only solution at the moment. The price will be quite reasonable 
> and
> the functionality pretty basic but it will do the job.
>
> As I told a California O&M conference last week, it is no longer a matter
> of "If" you should have GPS, it is now a matter of which one to get. There
> are only the 2 products currently available, Trekker and BrailleNote GPS.
> The Pac Mate unit is coming soon and probably a cell phone option in the
> next year. I am quite confident, based upon almost 5 years on the market,
> that Sendero's GPS software will remain the most mature GPS product on
> whatever platform we run it.
>
> Mike
> To read the November product review in Access World, go to
> http://www.afb.org/accessworld
> The Article is called Getting from Point A to Point B.
>
> It is a pretty good evaluation of both units I think. There are some
> inaccuracies. Make sure you read the Manufacturer's comments at the bottom
> of the review. For some reason, they did the review using the Magellan 310
> receiver, which we haven't shipped for a year even though I sent them an
> Earthmate. They were also using Beta software before all features and
> documentation were complete.
>
>
> PM 11/8/2004, you wrote:
>>Hi there Angie,
>>I have recently gone to my first workshop to see how the GPS systems work
>>for the blind. I had been waiting for about a year for the system to 
>>finally
>>becomee available. The system I saw is put together by the company Freedom
>>Scientific who produce the speech system "JAWS"-which I use on my desk and
>>lap tops. The system I saw uses the freedom scientific's "Packmate" for 
>>the
>>user to enter destination etc. Apparently, the actual GPS system is an off
>>the shelf staand alone system. The Packmate itself to buy is about $2,000
>>U.S The GPS system is about $400. I do not need the Laptop features of the
>>Packmate i.e email, wordd processor etc as I have a laptop. I mainly would
>>just like a small, light and cheep system which has speech. I obviously 
>>need
>>to be able to enter my destination etc. I have only seen the one system.
>>However, I have come across a number of others on the net. Which one are
>>using? Can you suggest a more affortable system.
>>I look forward to hearing from you
>>JasonttI
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Angie Hiser" <angiehgp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 10:18 PM
>>Subject: [gps-talkusers] a road trip
>>
>>
>> > Good Morning all,
>> > Woo Hoo,
>> > I went on a little road trip over the week-end. I had such a great time
>> > with my gps!
>> > I can remember before I had my gps, I hated even short trips! But now I
>> > wish I could go on a longer one. I knew right where we were ,  how much
>> > longer it was going to be ,  what was around us ,  and how much longer 
>> > we
>> > had to go. It was a great time for me to sit and mess around with it 
>> > until
>> > I got it right!
>> > I have to tell you, I have  6 and 7 year old daughters. They were in 
>> > the
>> > back seat, first they were a little upset because I had my headphones 
>> > on
>> > so
>> > they could not hear the system. But I did not want to bug my mom who 
>> > was
>> > driving.  The whole way there they were so full of questions. How much
>> > longer mom, how long have we been driving. I was able to tell them how 
>> > far
>> > we had already went and how much farther we had to go. It was real 
>> > cute!
>> > They really like mom's new gps! And mom loves to be able to   tell them
>> > these things!
>> > Thank you so much for all those of you that worked  endlessly on this !
>> > What a wonderful thing you have all done!
>> >
>> > Sincerely, a very happy person,
>> > Angie
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>
>
>
>

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