Category: accessible Devices
Hi all,
Just want to hear from you guys about any experiences you have with the Pronto! line of Braille Notetakers by Baum. They are not as popular as the BrailleSense or BrailleNote so I thought it would be interesting to hear from you guys. The current lineup of devices consists of the Pronto! 18 with a 18-cell Braille display and the Pronto! 40 with a (you guessed it) 40-cell Braille display.
Have you ever use one or own one of this devices? Do share your experiences!
used one before. It offers similar functions to notetakers like the Braille Sense Plus and
Braille Note Apex etc. All these units are based on CE 6. They are all relatively good for
things like address book, contacts, word processing etc. The main problem with all these
notetakers is that they use an ancient version of Internet Explorer for web browsing. The
Pronto has the best build quality of all these units. It is made of magnesium. If you have
seen a Braille Note PK you have seen the body of a Pronto 18 since Humanware
contracted Baum to produce the Braille Note PK hardware. If you look on the Baum
website you can find a zip file with the firmware. Poke around in the file structure of that
and you will find a manual that explains all the functions well. Any more specific questions
you have I can try to answer.
Here are instructions if you want to read the manual. The English version of the Baum software can be downloaded from http://pms.baum.de/Pronto/Version/V4/Release/Pronto_Update_V04.21_en-US_Prod.zip and that file is about 100 mb.
Once you open the zip file, the file path to the manual is Update/APPS_UPGRADE/Pronto/Localize/1033/Help/.
I used the pronto 18 before and loving it. Can't find faults with it. battery life per charge last long, and it is definitely the smallest 18 cell braille note taker that is in town. However, maybe because it is harder to get in parts of the world, it is fairly expensive though, compare to the rest. but, it is definitely worth the price. Also, one thing to consider is the after sale service. If you can get someone that can repare it in your country, that dealing with Pronto, then, yes, a good choice
Hi all,
Thanks for the comments so far. I actually have the Pronto! for a few months now and just wanted to hear from others about any experiences. I also wanted to create a thread where information about the Pronto! can be found, I had a really hard time finding any reviews or users' experiences of it online when I was deciding whether I should get it.
I do have a couple of questions actually. Firstly, anybody ever try using the Pronto! as a Braille display with an Android device? It works well with my iPad but BrailleBack on Android doesn't seem to recognise the Pronto as a Braille display. One work around is to use it with BRLTTY on Android but BRLTTY just doesn't feel as intuitive as compared to BrailleBack, let alone Braille with VoiceOver. Do you guys have any experience with this?
My second question, any tips for making the Pronto! web browser run smoother? The web browser is efficient but I have notice that there is a slight lag. Have you guys face similar issues when using the Pronto!? There is the issues of the Pronto! not being able to access some sites but I guess that's due to the rather old Internet Explorer that it is based on, similar to the situation on the older BrailleSenses and BrailleNotes.
Thanks!