Category: accessible Devices
Ok, a free for all about your experiences with accessible PDA's. I included notetakers in the title to get your thoughts on what's your preference. There are so many options out there. Those of you that have experience with more than one device can really help out with a comparrison.
Just recently, I have come across unfimiliar products such as, the icon, braille plus, and pronto. ARe these better options than products such as, pacmate, voice sense, or Small-Talk Ultra?
I look forward to everyone's input. Maybe the information gathered here can help people decide on what best fits their needs.
Well, I don't know about the Pronto. I definitely think the Icon and Braille Plus really give you a lot of bang for the buck. For me personally, I really like the Braille Plus, although I understand from the listserve they've had problems with repair of those units. I know that APH is having a hard time getting parts. I really like the unit for its small size and price. It isn't the perfect answer, but I don't know what is. As I say, I really like the unit for my uses. Its way smaller than the Pacmate or Braillenote family of products. In terms of size, the PK is probably the closest thing to it, but again, it is considerably more expensive. Good topic. Thanks for posting.
Lou
Thanks for the reply.
I suppose an additional option is to buy a ordinary PDA, then buy something like mobile speak to go on it. Though this way seems like it could run you near $1000, and the accessible systems seem to offer more memory than an ordinary PDA.
Keep posting! *smile*
I just got a phone with a PDA built in, plus the Mobile Speak Pocket software. My total cost was $299, as I got the phone free from my provider. That's a whole lot less than all the accessible solutions ever dreamed of being.
Not to mention a memory card for a PDA these days is around $30 for a 16GB card. If you don't need braille access to a device, then by all means I think a PDA makes perfectly good since. Of course another option, if you currently own a screen reader, then why not by a Ultra mobile PC UMPC which can be had for under $400. I picked up one of the UMPC Asus models recently and I couldn't complain. I'm always on the go for business purposes, and having something the weighs around 2 LBS is awesome, and of course the fact that it runs windows XP is an added bonus rather than something that comes close to mainstream, but isn't quite there!.
right now, I'm using my phone as a pda, with mobilespeak. It cost me $350, and it has what I need, an address book, a note pad for taking notes, texting. I recently had the chance to see a braille plus, and I know it's not to bad in price, but it's out of my budget at the moment. I have a laptop also, but it's not exactly ortable lol.
Personally, I think the PacMate would be the best bet for an accessible PDA. The main reason for this is because it can now read PDF files. They are a lot better than BrailleNotes, which I currently use, and they have more features than BrailleNotes. Aside from that, the PacMates cost about $500 less than the BrailleNote.
i found the notes feature on my n82 only recently, and it's so cool.
Personally, it's really hard for me to justify specialized technology such as the Braille note and other "blindness PDA devices, when there are so many mainstream products out there, which with a little modification can do leeps and bounds above and beyond these "notetakers for the blind".
As I said in an earlier post, I purchased an UMPC for $388 with a 160GB hard drive 2GB of ram wireless and bluetooth, and trhough my already owned copy of jaws for which I originally bought 10 years ago, on the machine, and I have more than any braille note, braille sense or other note taker can offer me. Couple that with my Palm trio 750 used as a modem and I'm completely mobile for a cost of less than $1000. To me there is no better cost effective method!
BigDogDaddy, where did you buy your UMPC? How is the speed of the processor? No problems running a screen reader on it? I take it this is one of those 8.9 inch models? Thos are pretty frickin cool, and like you said, I already have a cd of my screen reader. That could be an excellent solution! Not to mention, that added bonus of xp on the machine!
Ok, hold up here. Lol, how do I get my screen reader on the system? They don't come with cd/dvd drives, correct?
Also, has anyone heard of the following website?
http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc
I purchased my UMPC from ZipZoom fly which BTW, i've been buying from them for 5 years or more. I don't USE WE so I'm not sure of the easiest way to do it, I just simpley put my jaws on with a USB thumb drive. I'm not sure if win eyes can be downloaded or if you could toss the contents of your cd on to a thumb drive.
The processor in my unit is the Intel Atom 1.6 and it runs pretty decent for what I need to be able to do on the go. I dropped office 07 on here and have no complaints thus far. Let me know if there is any other questions I can answer.
How much did your umpc cost?? My sister recently got the aspire 1, a small computer for $370. There is only one problem with it, it runs on linux. She says it's a very simple machine, but I was wondering, are there any screen readers for linux??
well as for pdas and notetakers, i got sick of "blindness" notetakers and bought an asus eeepc 1000h witch is one of the greatest investments i have ever made. plus i have my motorola q on atnt witch is excelent as well. i use external harddrives and sd cards and usb drives for the eeepc. in the process of buying an external dvd burner so i can reformat the computer if need be.
I have a braillenote and a labtop. I use my braillenote for school and for writing private stuff. I use my labtop when I can't acess my pc or when I want to give my pc a break.
Austin, how did you get your screen reader on your asus?
Personally I would rather use a laptop. They are cheaper even with speech than a special note taker. I don't mind the extra weight, I would rather have everything I need in one place. I remember getting a type N speak and the external disk drive, and it cost about 2 grand in 1998. that is just crazy in my opinion!
I too am curious about these small laptops. How are screen readers installed onto them? what do they come with can anyone furnish me with some links, UK if at all possible? Have there been any problems using them?
thanks
MJ
You can install your screen reader of choice over a network, with a flash drive, an external hard drive, or in some cases, an SD card. It's very simple to get what you want on there. My vote is still the MacBook for $999, which can run Mac, Windows, Linux, and whatever other X86 or X64 operating system you want to throw at it. It also comes with a built-in screen reader.
Wow! All this stuff is mor expensive then just a slate and 5 bye 7 cards. Record your voice notes on your mobile maybe. Lol. $12.00 for a slate. It's a great brail display. hahahaha. Okay great info here though.
to the last post, I'm going through withdrawal. I can't find my slate anywhere. Point is, that with all this technology, there is still a place for many of us for the basics.
Lou
I will agree with jessy, about the MacBook. These are a little expensive and the prices are droping on some of they're products so thats good but, they are worth it. The expenses come from the materials that are put in the MacBooks. All the chips, mettles, and all the welding that is put in them is nicely done and its great to give support to apple buy spending money like that if you can or if you like a mac. If you don't stop reading my pot lol...
I'm only in high-school and my vision teacher is so weird. She doesn't get what i like about the mac. lol. its funny in ways. But, i'll stop talking about that...
I love how fast these computers are. If you just have them in stand buy then you just open them and work. Nothing more to do unless, your secure like me and set it to have you type your password. I don't use apple works or anything like that to take notes. I use text edit and when i do research, i get it done with ease because of the browser included in mac. When its time for play and messaging and skype, it works and so does ventrilo. SJPhone also works and I do use it to access zbp and i use the internal microphone inside the apple MacBook.
Just a tip for anyone else wanting to do that though, noise reduction is good for you when you use that because some people have told me it sounds bad witch i do agree to some extent. If you wanna talk far from you mac, say, across the room, you just turn noise reduction off and that microphone will be as sensative as hell. O, sounding bad, thats just for sjphone. The clear call quality makes the microphoe sound good but the microphone in 8k is horrible...
I will shut up now...
oh yeah. did i mention that you can run lepard on an asus eeepc? i honestly think that the eeepcs have damn good build quality for the price. people have told me that this looks like a 1000 dollar computer.
I have a Levelstar Icon and like its size, ease of use, and performance, with the exception of battery life, perhaps. If I weren't borrowing this thing from
Rehab, I'd just get one of the netbooks and put Ubuntu onto it.