[bookport] Re: Book port, boadt anchor.

  • From: "Linda Davis" <lindamay.davis@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:48:36 -0400

Everything stated in this message is true, however, what will happen when parts 
are no longer available for repairs? Also, what happens when the CF cards 
aren't as easily gotten? Riight now, I have a book port and have to send it to 
get fixed. In the meantime, I'm considering purchasing a Stream, so, when my 
book port returns to me, I'll have the best of both worlds.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Monica Willyard 
  To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 5:24 PM
  Subject: [bookport] Re: Book port, boadt anchor.


  Hi, Phil. The problem isn't that APH won't update our Book Ports. They would 
if they were able. The problem is that NLS doesn't see it as a viable option 
and is committed to using a different type of memory card. If NLS were 
passionately interested in finding a good solution to our existing technology 
issue, there might be a good compromise that could be found. The reality is 
that they are not looking for a way to make Book Port  work because they are 
offering free players beginning next year, and they want strict controls over 
the types of media used and the types of players used. They see this strategy 
as the best way to prevent piracy, and that is their foremost concern. It's a 
matter of focus and where an organizations priorities lie. We want our existing 
technology to work because we have invested in it, it's very portable, and we 
like being able to use one device for everything. None of those issues is of 
particular interest to NLS. They see their new player as being perfect for 
blind readers, and some of the NLS employees I have spoken with don't yet 
understand why we use devices such as the Book Port and still haven't totally 
grasped what Web Braille is about. 

  So where does this leave us? In exactly the place we were in last week. Our 
BP will still read Web Braille, daisy books, magazines, text files, Word 
documents, and will play Audible and mp3 books. We haven't lost anything 
because we didn't have it to begin with. So I can't see calling a BP a boat 
anchor. It still does everything we've used it for for the past few years and 
does those things reliably. We have to use a separate machine for talking books 
right now, and that won't change. We'll just get the new digital players at 
some point, and they will be free. Those of us who want our talking books on 
the BP will continue to record them to mp3 as they have always done, and no one 
will think a thing of it. Those who believe it's immoral won't do what they're 
already not doing. In a couple of years, either the BP 2 will be released, or 
we'll have saved up enough to by a Stream. Either way, we'll continue to get 
good results from our technology as we are now. And that stability is our 
anchor, not the Book Port.

  Monica Willyard

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