[access-uk] Re: THE BUG
- From: "Steve Nutt" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 11:10:12 +0100
THE BUGHi Ian,
An excellent post. One thing springs to mind though. Is it easy without
sight to step through recordings once you have made them? For example, can
you step through each recording like selecting a station, or selecting a
track on a CD player? I realise you wouldn't know what the recording was,
but could you play a bit of each recording, then step to the next one
without sight?
Thanks again for your thoughts.
All the best
--
Computer Room Services: the long cane for blind computer users.
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-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
Ian Macrae
Sent: 30 March 2005 09:34
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] THE BUG
Hi all,
As promised before Easter, here are some thoughts on The Bug DAB receiver.
Note this is not a full review, just some comments which may help people to
decide whether they want to get one. None of this deals with technical
specs or quality of output.
A number of the Bug's basic functions have dedicated keys and single
keystrokes. Spontaneous recording to the SD card, for example is started
and stopped by pressing the "Record" button, above/right of the main
on/off/nav switch. Similarly, pausing the audio is started and stopped by
the large pause button below the on/of/nav switch. Rewinding the audio for
up to five minutes requires a press of the pause button followed by the
bottom left button on the Bug's head which stands above the body of the
radio on a gooseneck stem.
Setting the ten presets follows Usual Pure protocols. The Bug's head
contains six buttons, three down either side. These are presets 1 to 5 with
the bottom right button being a shift. To set presets 1 to 5, choose the
channel and the button you want to pre-set it too. Press and hold the
button for a couple of seconds. If you can see the screen or are with
someone who can, a message is displayed indicating that the station is
stored. For presets 6 to 10, follow the same procedure holding the shift
key and one of the 5 presets down simultaneously. When the radio is
playing, the two sets of presets can be toggled between using the shift key.
Damon asked whether it is accessible. The answer is that it's as
accessible as most DAB radios. But because it has more functionality, it's
more difficult to use easily with no sight. I've found that I've used my
paltry amount of sight and my LVA more with the Bug than with any other DAB
radio.
As I've said, spontaneous recording to the SD card couldn't be simpler.
But using the timed recording facility is more complex and difficult.
Indeed, I'd say that it's either very difficult or impossible without one or
more of the following: sight of your own, sighted assistance, or a very
good memory. In brief, you have to access the radio's menus, then find the
alarm setting option, find the timed recording option in the submenu and
then follow onscreen prompts to set your timed recording. I'd be interested
to hear whether any totally blind people have managed to do this. Even
using my sight, I've messed up on a couple of occasions.
To conclude, there's no doubt that having the ability to record to SD card
is a great benefit. Personally I've not used the rewind or pause facilities
that much. It's also worth thinking that Pure is already developing a
personal with Bug functionality and there are plans for a sonus version of
that using the Ivox speech. The main reasons for going for the Bug now
would be that you like it's unusual and rather whacky design (which I do),
or you want to be able to record to SD card absolutely now. Otherwise, I'd
recommend waiting for a Sonus equivalent which can't be that long coming.
Cheers now.
Ian
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