Actually, the Pac Mate behaves exactly like an Ipaq. Certainly there are differences, but for some, carrying around a lap top simply isn't the ideal situation. The scanned images issue has already cost someone I know a job. But is this the fault of assistive technology? Would having no technology make the problem go away? -----Original Message----- From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard Fiorello Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 4:35 PM To: bookport Subject: [bookport] has any heard of this divice Hi; I don't often post to the list but can't resist. My issue with note takers be they braille notes or packmates is that you end up learning an entire new system. Why bother when a lap top and screen reader will do the same thing. As for technology, it works great at home or if it is on its own. Take it to work and connect it to your employers network and software which wasn't written with a blind user in mind and you have a real eye opening. The next challenge may be to see what the screen reader folks do with the increasing amount of documents that end up as scanned immages. True you can supposedly run them through your open book or kurzwile but it is by no means straight forward. As fun as the technology can be I often think that for every step forward adaptive items take the real world takes at least two steps. Richard