[access-uk] Re: First impression of penfriend...
- From: Saqib <saqib500@xxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 11:49:44 +0100
Hi. What is a pen friend. Is this a new device?
----- Original Message -----
From: Barry G
To: Access Mailing List
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 11:46 AM
Subject: [access-uk] First impression of penfriend...
Well, mine came this morning and here's my first impressions...
The labelling and reading function works well, it's easy to use, smaller and
lighter than I expected. It picks up the tags and plays the note quickly, and
the sound quality is fine - it does exactly what it says on the box and I
reckon it's an excellent little device.
My concerns...
Mine came with a short fly lead to convert between the standard headphone
jack and the smaller jack socket on the penfriend - someone mentioned that
there had been a manufacturing glitch and the wrong jacks were fitted to the
early batches. It would seem that these mis-manufactured models have been
issued to customers.
I tried the mp3 player function and there are no instructions for using this
feature on the product guide at rnib.org other than telling you to paste the
music to the mp3 folder on the device. That's fine, but there are no
instructions for operating it. Can't remember which, but either the power or
the record button toggles play/stop. Sound quality is not sparkling, but it's
acceptable in a device that doesn't try to be a dedicated mp3 player. There
appears to be no way of moving from file to file however, so at first glance,
it's not really very useable.
My single serious gripe is the volume! The product guide and the tags on the
packaging correctly say that the device defaults to the same volume each time
the machine is switched off and on, and this is rather high. The real pain, on
mine at least, is that it jumps to this high volume each time a new label is
scanned, even though the volume has been turned down, so you have to reset it
on each scan! I'm hoping that there may be firmware updates that will include
a fix for this, but there is no mention of this in the product information.
Finally, the online product info sheet says the following:
RNIB are developing some associated products that are pre-recorded. If you
wish to listen to RNIB's pre-recorded information then you will need to use the
download feature. You must have access to the web and connect to
www.rnib.org.uk/penfriend. You will see a list of titles available for
download. These titles are free or are part of any subscription system that you
may have joined with RNIB. Click on any single title to download and save on to
your computer's hard drive. For example, c:\penfriend\downloads. After you have
downloaded all the titles you are entitled to, connect PenFriend to the
computer using the USB cable. Next, enter or double click on any title and an
audio installer programme will appear, and then just follow the simple
instructions on screen. This programme will automatically load the audio file
onto PenFriend. Repeat the process for the other titles that you have
downloaded. Remember, a copy of all titles is always kept on your hard drive so
there is no need to back up. The audio files will be kept on the AP4 folder in
PenFriend.
Well, the link doesn't exist or is broken.
All the best,
Barry G
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