[gps-talkusers] Re: New Sense Nav with Voice Sense user.
- From: "Dianne B. Phelps" <d.bphelps@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:34:45 -0700
Keith,
That helps me immensely. What you are doing is precisely what I want to just
free up some of my neighborhood walking. There are many things I already do
where I have my routes set, and the dog and I can just go, but because of
the way my travel orientation was injured from the accident I had, I am
reluctant to just walk because I want to walk, and both the dog and I need
to get a bit more exercise through the neighborhood even if we end up at the
coffee shop or the neighborhood watering hole afterward. I know it will
never be as it once was, and I have to be extremely careful that I am making
good decisions for my dog and me, but I think this may help the situation.
I don't know if any of the Trekker products are still being marketed at this
point. I tried it because it was small, but believe I may have had a
defective unit, a situation I was unable to acquire proper correction for.
The Voice Sense note taker is a bit larger than the Trekker, but I have used
one of these before for note taking and reading, and I find the equipment to
be reliable. It will hold and manage its software reliably which will be
good.
Anyway, this has gotten long, but I appreciate your input. When my Executive
Products case arrives later this week, I will or should be set to go out for
a spin.
Thanks so much for your input.
Dianne B. Phelps
From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Keith (mteye)
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2010 8:44 PM
To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: New Sense Nav with Voice Sense user.
When I finally was able to get a GPS I was excited. It meant I could
navigate with on demand, feedback of where I was travelling. I ran into a
little of the complications that you describe. I'm still far from being an
expert, or even proficient at it. It just takes practice.
Your right though, the number of keystrokes that are available on a product
like the VoiceNote, or BrailleNote are overwhelming. I think it's wonderful
when travelling as a passenger, because I have the luxury of holding the
unit on my lap, and exploring the keys, and my surroundings at much more
leisure.
One thing to realize though is that you really don't need to touch the keys
much, all the time. When you walk with a cane, or a dog, you are already
limited to one hand, and often that spare hand is busy as you walk.
Sure, at any moment, you can hit a button, and be reminded of a host of
tidbits of information. What city? What intersection, POI, heading,
altitude, and more. The Look Around menu has so many things to automatically
announce, the voice will never shut up, if that's what you want. It tends to
drive me nuts.
In my own neighborhood, I rarely even set a route. All I really want to know
is how far to the next intersection, and what is that street name. I plug in
an ear bud, just one, so I can get the GPS voice piped right to my ear, and
still monitor my surroundings.
Then I get the VoiceNote fired up, make sure I have satelites, strap it over
a shoulder, get all the wires and straps out of my way as I harness up the
trusty dog. And after making sure the automatic report of the next
intersection is on, away we go.
It's a residential neighborhood, so there's not much for the POI reports to
do. All I do is walk, and listen. I might be able to get by with a more
streamlined GPS product like the Trekker Breeze, but I use the note taker
for more than just the GPS. And there are several times when the extra
features have been very handy in navigating surrounding towns, or making
trips to the city.
When I do walk around in the small downtown area in my town, I sometimes do
set a route, or I'll switch from the auto announcing of intersections to
announce the POI's instead. There can be a lot of shops on a block that
might be of interest. More than street names. When I do have the need to
press a button, or switch a setting, I just stop walking. My dog takes five
as he watches me mash the buttons. It's not usually much of a problem.
Although in colder months it's a pain to have to take off a glove to feel
the unit, and get oriented on it. But I suppose that even with a Trekker, or
some other device, the gloves would still have to come off.
I guess the main thing is to not get overwhelmed by the range of commands or
buttons. Just keep it simple. Walk and listen. Then build up from there.
Sometimes the instructions that the GPS is reading, or the reasoning behind
why it made a route the way it just did, or the sounds it makes confuse me.
But the more I use it, the more those sounds are starting to make sense.
My wife sometimes gets annoyed when I take it on a trip. She doesn't like
the voice, she seems to have a host of complaints about the way it works.
Not the sendero product, but any GPS in general. I just put on the earphones
and monitor. One complaint she has was in the way it makes a route. She is
always pointing out a shortcut down a county road that might save her a few
ounces of gas. There are route settings that can help cut corners like this
sometimes.
Just this weekend I had the chance to use the feature to record a route and
track her driving to our little family party we were going to attend. Now I
can retrace that route in realtime if I want. I made it into a regular route
so I don't have to worry about having the software process the route on a
possibly longer, or different route. She gets to take all her shortcuts,
without me relaying to her about being off route when she goes her own way.
Not sure if any of that helped.
from
Keith H
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