I have used the planner and contacts before but generally tend to input new
information on another device such as my computer or my phone. I find the
syncing capability to be the most valuable. This is partially because I am a
professional and travel a lot and need to have access to my information on any
device. That option is not available on the Apex. If your Apex dies, you're
screwed and can't get the information off of it. This is why I upgraded from
the Apex to the Touch. The KeySoft apps could certainly be improved but if you
need access to your information in well-translated braille in a single device
then the Touch fulfills that need. As far as the Google Assistant goes, I've
found that the Touch doesn't do very well with voice input. If you try doing a
Google voice search or try doing any recording with the Touch you will
experience poor performance. This is mostly due to the old hardware. The first
thing HumanWare needs to do is upgrade the hardware, as the antiquated
components they use don't perform well for modern tasks. When they release the
next generation of the BrailleNote, I'm sure the biggest new feature will be
more modern hardware that is still several generations behind the mainstream
market. If you don't want a touchscreen, then you're probably better off
trading in your touch for a Braille Sense Polaris or any of the other braille
notetakers on the market that doesn't include a touchscreen. The BrailleNote
Touch is the only notetaker on the market that does.
Finally, I streamed the NFB convention last year and heard Greg Stilson before
he left Humanware state that HumanWare is putting a lot of money into R&D and
that artificial intelligence is the wave of the future. Hopefully we will see
some AI come out of their future products. They will need some powerful
hardware in order to process AI however while still needing to keep their costs
moderately affordable.
-----Original Message-----
From: braillenote-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:braillenote-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Devin Prater
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2018 10:28 AM
To: akp@sero.email
Cc: louvins1@xxxxxxxxx; braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [BNU] Re: how I use my touch.
Hi Ann,
I haven’t used the planner much. I usually just use the Google Apps, although I
haven’t tried the calendar app on the Touch. If Humanware would provide the
Google Assistant, we could use that to manage calendars, not not really to look
at them in detail of course. I’m pretty sad that the supposed Victor Reader app
doesn’t have even support for ePUB books, or the ability to download Bookshare
books. If an open source program like Emacspeak can do it, then a company with
thousands of dollars from Vocational rehabilitation and consumers should be
able to put forth the effort to make the Touch from a “good enough” Android 4.4
device to something that is actually a delight to use. I use it mostly as a
Braille Display for my phone, because even Apple with iBooks can keep my place
in books without showing “bottom” at the end of paragraphs so that I have to
press the Next thumb key to advance to the next paragraph. I really hope
Humanware is better than this, given a 5.0 release of their Flagship blindness
device just a few small features, no app updates, and no fixes for what the
Touch is good for, reading and writing in Braille.
On Mar 8, 2018, at 8:01 AM, Ann Parsons <akp@sero.email> wrote:įĨËlĒļ?–+-ýšÚŠY^ž‹^š&ķŽĨĻ Ę‹j{§ēæėrļ›yČZ˛
Hi all,
I changed the subject line. I find I don't use my Touch all that much
either. You can play BARD books if you download the BARD app for Android.
Maybe that's why the Victor App hasn't been updated to include BARD books.
I find I don't use my Touch because of a couple of reasons, and perhaps this
may help others. I find it heavy and clunky. I can't transport it well
because if I lock the screen, it often comes unlocked and I lose battery
life. In addition, I am still disappointed with the planner and the
contacts. I find that going through the options in the planner is really
clunky because it puts in what it thinks you want. Yes, you can erase these
by typing in the fields now, but really, why can't we just have the fields
blank so we can type in them ourselves without depending on the touch to add
in what it thinks we want?
Also, when making recurring appointments, the Touch screws up every time!
You tell it weekly, and it doesn't get the day right. You tell it monthly,
and it's always off by two or three days. Apparently, it can't follow a
calendar. It's not an acceptable planner. I live by my planner, and it has
to work. That's why I use the Apex for my calendar exclusively now.
Same for the contacts. It's clunky.
I use the Apex when I want to go out because it's lighter, it has my accurate
calendar in it, and it's far more forgiving when it comes to battery life and
traveling.
I find that there is absolutely *no* info that I know of about programs.
Nobody on here talks about FaceBook, or Messenger. I don't know where to get
information on these. I'm fairly stumped about some of this stuff. I'd like
some kind of tutorial or info sheet about Facebook and Messenger, most
importantly, how the Hell to read the messages and how to respond.
Sorry to grouse like this, but really, I turned off my Touch last week, and I
haven't used it since I turned it on this morning to get the update. Far as
I'm concerned, you can dispense with the touch screen. That would decrease
its size and weight markedly.
Ann P.
Original message:
I really hope the members of this list can keep contacting humanware
and asking them if the touch can have an NLS user key to play bard
books. The lack of such a user key is one of the reasons why I don't
use my touch all that much. I forgot what Andrew's email is, but he
would be the one to email.
On 3/8/18, Devin Prater <d.prater@xxxxxx> wrote:
Well, I guess those features are pretty good, but I was hoping for
more app-specific fixes, like the Victor Reader app being able to
download and play BARD and Bookstore apps and keep playing in the
background and such. Ah well, better luck next time.
On Mar 7, 2018, at 11:03 PM, Sam Joehl <blink183@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You can view the release notes here:
https://humanware.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/braillenote/Touch/Rel
easeNotes/release/500/en.html
I upgraded to Version 5 and my hardware keyboard started working again.
Prior to this I was experiencing degredation where the hardware
keyboard gradually ceased functioning and I was getting constant
alerts about apps crashing. I was even having trouble with the
TouchBraille keyboard where finger recognition wouldn't work and
spurious characters were being entered without action on my part.
It was getting to the point where I was ready to do a factory
reset. Updating to version 5 appeared to fix this issue. I suspect
that parts of KeySoft or Android had become corrupted. I tried
running a file system repair and deleting my cache in the boot
diagnostic menu but these did not fix my issues. I'm glad I was
able to resolve them without having to wipe my Touch, but it was extremely
frustrating to have to wait for a KeySoft update in order to resolve them.
I would like to see a feature where an in-place re-install could be
performed without having to wipe the entire unit if you can still
operate it. Clearly this is possible since this is how the updates
are performed, but I would like to be able to re-install KeySoft
without having to wait for a KeySoft update to be released. With
individual app updates being released in the future, I suspect that
entire KeySoft updates that re-install core system files will not be
released very frequently.
-----Original Message-----
From: braillenote-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:braillenote-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Matthew Dyer
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2018 1:52 PM
To: jldail13@xxxxxxxxx; braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [BNU] Re: braillenote touch 5.0 now available for download
I wonder ware you can get the release notes. I no longer have my
unit any more do to a problem I had a few months ago which is off
topic so will leave it at that.
Matthew
On 03/07/2018 11:18 AM, Jessica Dail wrote:
Hi all,
I'm writing to informm you that version 5.0 of the braillenote
touch software is now available for download.
The 2 major features in this release are:
â€Ē supported for both Usb and bluetooth keyboinds, for both
navigation and input.
â€Ē One-handed mode, this feature is useful for indeviduals who
are limited to the use of only one hand.
Download and enjoy!
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Jessica h ,z ~ + ĮŦ h Ú)r k Ûœ aî™Đ j y " 0 ÚY^
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-------------------------------
BNU: BrailleNote Users - a forum for users of BrailleNote family of
products from Humanware.
Website: www.braillenoteusers.info
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BNU: BrailleNote Users - a forum for users of BrailleNote family of
products from Humanware.
Website: www.braillenoteusers.info
IMPORTANT: By default, replies will be sent to individuals. If you
feel that your reply would be useful for others, please use "reply to all"
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If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send an email with the
subject line of "unsubscribe" to braillenote-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
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From this page, you can unsubscribe, change email delivery settings
and view list archives.
If you have any comments or questions for list moderators, please
send an email to braillenote-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Thanks.
-------------------------------
BNU: BrailleNote Users - a forum for users of BrailleNote family of
products from Humanware.
Website: www.braillenoteusers.info
IMPORTANT: By default, replies will be sent to individuals. If you
feel that your reply would be useful for others, please use "reply
to all" feature in your email client.
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send an email with the
subject line of "unsubscribe" to braillenote-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
You can also visit our list page at:
www.freelists.org/list/braillenote
From this page, you can unsubscribe, change email delivery settings
and view list archives.
If you have any comments or questions for list moderators, please
send an email to braillenote-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Thanks.
-------------------------------
BNU: BrailleNote Users - a forum for users of BrailleNote family of products
from Humanware.
Website: www.braillenoteusers.info
IMPORTANT: By default, replies will be sent to individuals. If you feel that
your reply would be useful for others, please use "reply to all" feature in
your email client.
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send an email with the subject
line of "unsubscribe" to braillenote-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
You can also visit our list page at:
www.freelists.org/list/braillenote
From this page, you can unsubscribe, change email delivery settings and
view list archives.
If you have any comments or questions for list moderators, please send an
email to braillenote-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Thanks.
--
Ann K. Parsons
Portal Tutoring
EMAIL: akp@sero.email
Author of The Demmies: http://www.dldbooks.com/annparsons/
Portal Tutoring web site: http://www.portaltutoring.info
Skype: Putertutor
"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost."
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