hi list, i kind of agree with mary on the watches thing, although i know that some people need them. but even if someone has a speaker on their unit, turned down to a low enough volume that they can hear what they're doing in the public place barely, they're going to end up disturbing others. it's quite easy to find headphones that let you hear what's going on around you, i have some, and you could have the unit louder with these. i've never really been in a group where i've ever heard anyone else's watches/calculators/whatever, but i can appreciate that if one is in a meeting, beside someone who instead of getting a braille watch checks the time with a talking watch, which are made loud, can get annoying after a while, and distract the people around them. things like calculators generally have headphone jacks, so i think people should use those. also, i don't know how the speaker will do turning fully off, i think it would have to be a drain anyways, not sure on this one though just my two cents... yet again brandon