Many of your questions can be answered on this page:
http://www.humanware.com/microsite/bntouch/faq.php
Personally I am excited about the Touch. The need to export proprietary file
formats to interface with other devices is exactly the reason to get out of
the proprietary closed environment and work in the same ecosystem as the
rest of the world with the benefit and efficiency offered by a device
designed to meet the needs of blind users. Android currently does not offer
TouchBraille, Grade II Braille input or first letter navigation. This is the
first time I have become excited about entering the Android world. I am also
looking forward to an end to the days of crashing and lost data. Let's face
it: Keymail and Keyweb are fairly useless in the modern landscape and have
to remain relevant if anyone is going to take them seriously. The Apex is
becoming more irrelevant. I'm looking forward to the days of sitting on my
couch accessing the Internet with the Touch completely in Braille and not
having to sit at my desk on my computer unless I need to.
Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: braillenote-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:braillenote-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ann Parsons
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 7:21 AM
To: sammied1@xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [BNU] Re: Introduction
Hi Sammie,
Yes, it's nice to be back. I appreciate your forwarding of the
information from Greg Stillson, but you didn't give his email address, so I
can't follow up on this.
I'm wondering if one can export the address book into one of those files
that is separated with commas? I don't know what the file extension is, but
if this capability were added to the mix, it might be easier to accept. I
would love to hear his response to this. I have hundreds of addresses and
phone numbers in my Apex and the thought of recreating them gives me the
gru. I don't mind having a GMail account, but not being able to utilize the
contacts which have been accumulated over the past several years is
daunting.
Joseph, what do you call a mail file that is exported and has separaters in
it between the records? That is a standard way to export addresses and so
on to files that are compatible with other mailers.
I don't care about my folders, those I can recreate, but it's the
contacts--.
Ann P.
Original message:
Hello Ann,
It's good to see your name again on a Braillenote list. Yes, the
Touch is discussed on this list. Also, there's a pod cast from Greg
Stilson on the Humanware web page, which can be downloaded to the
Victor Stream Second Generation. I read your other message with the
questions, and I've learned - much to my dismay - that the Touch will
not recognize any of your old files unless they are in either DOCX,
DOC, or ridgetext format.
Hello Sammie
I am glad to hear the VA will be purchasing the Touch for you and I
believe that after you understand a bit of the reasoning of why we
have changed some of the dynamics from the past BrailleNotes you will
love your Touch and be using it every day.
I am also happy to tell you that on every BrailleNote Touch you will
receive as the default book in the Victor reader app, the BrailleNote
Touch Audio Tutorial, done by a company called Mystic Access. This is
a fantastic, very comprehensive tutorial describing how to use your
Touch in almost any situation you can imagine. Now on to your
questions. I have answered them inline preceeded by GS:
1. Whenever I turn my Victor Stream, Second Generation on to use it
with wireless, it seems to be downloading some "pod-casts". So my
first questions (plural) are queries about the Stream and these
"pod-casts". They are: Will any of these "pod-casts" contain your
discussion group discussing the Touch and if so, how can I retrieve
them from the Stream? Are all the "pod-casts" that the Victor Stream
is downloading for me coming from Humanware, and if so, what are they
telling me about?
2. The second part of my questions concern being able to obtain a
copy of your discussion group, even if I can't participate in it
without a computer or get it on My Victor Stream. If none of this is
possible, can a copy be released on an SD card which can be purchased
for the price of the SD card of about 64 GB so that after listening to
your lecture I can use it in my Touch.
GS: Yes I believe tomorrow the Stream will have access to an
archived copy of the presentation tonight on Tech Talk. You will be
able to access this by pressing your WIFI bookshelf button above the
number 2 on your Stream. Once on the WIFI bookshelf you can press 1
repeatedly until you get to your podcast bookshelf. Use your 4 or 6
keys to find the HumanWare podcast and press the confirm, pound key.
You can then use the 4 and 6 keys to cycle through all the podcasts
that are listed there to find the tech talk podcast I am doing this
evening. Press Play to start playing it.
Another question, which was partially answered by Brian was:
"Will I be able to back-up the folders and files on the SD card in my
Apex and then restore it for use in the Touch." Brian said that unlike
upgrades in the past, the Touch would recognize the names of my
folders but would only see files if they were DOCX, DOC, or Ridge-text
files and that I would have to convert each file in each folder that
was not in one of those formats to one of those formats. What I
neglected to ask him was: "If I converted each file on my SD card in
my Apex to my choice of one of those formats, would I have to back-up
and restore for use on the Touch or can I just slide the SD card into
the Touch and everything that's been converted will be recognized."
GS: Just slide your card into the touch and everything will be
recognized. You can then even copy your folders from your SD card to
your internal storage on the Touch.
The most important question, to me, which I entirely forgot even to
mention while with Pat and Brian concerns my e-mail folders and files;
and the e-mail settings and configurations both for DSL and wireless.
The question is: If I back-up these folders and files to my SD card
(which I do monthly with my Apex) and then restore them to the Touch,
will the Touch recognize, and let me use them without having to
recreate them again? To me, these folders and files include all the
addresses in my e-mail address folder; the settings I have, including
passwords; and the e-mail folder, including the "in-box, out-box,
send, receive, all, draft, trash, my e-mail, plus folders I have
created and their files?" Also, using the Touch, will I be able to
create, and use separately if I wish, two or more address folders? If
not, is there a way to convert all of that to one of the formats which
will be recognized by the Touch? Currently in my e-mail address
folder, I have, all commingled, the addresses of friends, businesses,
and other people I share visual resources with and I'd like to know if
it will be possible using the Touch to have them separated for use or
mix them if I want someone in another address list to get a copy of
what I'm sending? I guess what I'm trying to ask is: "Will I be able
to create separate address lists for friends, business, and resources
and send only to one of those list if I wish; or mix and mingle the
addresses in each list if needed. Also, with the Touch, will I be
able to send messages with my "from line" to people on my list without
a "to line" showing and all the recipients be listed in the blind?
GS: This is a difficult one to answer. Because we have completely
moved away from proprietary formats that only work on the BrailleNote
and are moving into the 21st century with cloud storage and commonly
used file types, these past address list files, which only worked on
the older BrailleNotes either will need to be re-created on your
Touch, or uploaded to a cloud email address such as a gMail account As
the Touch is a certified Google device it is highly recommended to use
it with a gMail account. These are extremely easy to create and
allows all your calendars, contacts, emails and google apps to be
stored in one place. You will be able to connect your Touch to WIFI
and your email accounts but you will not be able to import those into
the Touch. But the Touch makes this process exponentially easier than
it was on past BrailleNotes. I know that ITG or our support teams
will be able to assist you with this process if you need help.
Now, for what I hope is my last question in this message. I think I
asked someone about this before, but I'd really like an answer from
"the horse's mouth" so to speak. I know that there are many
dictionaries and thesauruses which can be found on the internet, but
will the Touch also have the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus that I've
loved since they were introduced in my M-Power about ten years ago. I
like the idea of them being in my notetaker where they are accessible
without me having to stop what I'm doing and going to the internet in
the middle of a document. If that's not possible, can something be
done to let those of us who already have the Oxford
Dictionary/Thesaurus in their Apex get permission to put them into the
Touch? Currently, in my opinion, the only thing missing in our Oxford
Dictionary is the history of words and where they should be hyphenated
so I know where to separate them if necessary.
GS: At version 1 of the software there is no oxford dictionary, but
as you mentioned you do have many dictionaries available to you from
the GooglePlay store. We will be assessing if we need to do an app
ourselves or if the ones on the PlayStore meet our customers needs.
Once again this goes to using available file types and apps that
everyone can use, not things specific to the BrailleNote.
Best regards
Greg
