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
