Category: accessible Devices
I'd like to hear from owners of both these products who have tried both products. I haven't tried a Book Sense in person but I regretted getting the Stream so early on when i heard how much more the Book Sense had to offer! I like the fact that the Book Sense has a clock, a radio, and presets for equalizing the music audio, plus it's smaller than the stream and looks a bit more like a standard mp3 player. I wonder if there was a way I could trade one product for another or put the Stream as collateral for the Book Sense somehow. Thanks for your input! Katelyn
Correction. Only the booksense xt has a radio, the booksense standard doesn't. I liked my book sense (am using a book port plus now). It can play more filetypes in audio, and is much smaller. I also find volume settings to be more precise (enabling both louder and quieter audio). I would make the trade if possible, although you will have to try to find someone else with a booksense, as there is no way to do it directly from the company.
If you can find someone willing to do that trade, go for it, though I doubt you would find such a thing. The Book Sense that is a similar price doesn't have the FM radio and has no internal memory. However, the speaker is louder, the TTS much clearer, and it does have a clock. I like the Book Sense much better than the Stream and wouldn't buy a stream at this point. Also, you can record files in to mp3 format with the book sense, and it won't cost you anything extra. The only complaint I've heard about the Book Sense is that the buttons are a bit awkward for some people, but I have no problems. I think Humanware should lower the price of the Stream, given that it's about 2 years older than the Book Sense, since there is no way they can still be selling too many of them at that price.
i still think the victure reader. is awesome.
I think the victor reader is good for my needs. for fm radio and stuff i use my iPhone
I'd like to get booksense but I like the simplicity of the stream wien you record. you just press the button on the side and wahla, you record.
So, is a hold for two seconds any harder than a single press? That is the only difference.
Not sure VR is much better, but I bought a Booksense that broke down in 3 weeks of light usage and very careful handling.
I sent it in for repairs, and they would quote me $200 for repairs, and said the device had gotten wet, so warranty would not apply.
I would be happy to admit it if this was the case, but the device was never close to water or steam, and had not even been taken outside.
I argued them into $60 for repairs, but then decided to leave the device with them, cut my losses and switch over to the Milestone 312.
I haven't switched back, big fan of the Milestone, because it is a lot smaller than the other devices, similar qualities (they are adding capabilities to bookmark recordings, which is one thing that was missing, and they are adding playback filetypes, and correcting their English language prompts).
Bones has been very responsive to feedback and they repaired my Milestones once for free, even if I dropped it.
I've taken it to work out every day for a over a year, and nothing's happened to it (apart from the aforementioned SD card slot breaking that happened as a result of dropping the device from around 4 feet onto a tiled floor).
One should never fully judge a device's general performance from just one sample, but to me it is clear the Booksense customer service was terrible a year ago (and I doubt it has improved, though I hope so).
VR Streams are fine, but I am anti Humanware, since they keep lying to their customers (just see Accesswworld, December issue, they claim the Brailliant displays are ideal for iOS devices, the truth is that their driver has not yet been approved by Apple and the Brailliant devices don't work with iOS devices yet).
This is misleading advertizing at best, downright lying really, and that is not to be tolerated.
I hope they get their act together and improve their ways.
VR Stream seems to work fine, but why do we have to pay $50 for software capabilities that are part of the competitors devices, such as the ability to record in mp3 format? They are also unnecessarily large and don't fit well in pockets.
I hope all of these capabilities will be transferred to accessible mainstream players like the iPod, or some Android based devices really.
For now, I wouldn't make this particular switch if I were you. From a purely personal perspective I'd suggest looking into the Milestone 212 or 312, because I've had very good experience with the company.
I've also heard good things about the Bookport and Plextalk Pocket, but have not had the pleasure of more than a few minutes with either of these devices.
I am currently using the book port plus, which is very much smaller than the stream, has built-in wifi, and is very stable. Also, my book sense lasterd for a year or even more.
Hi! for me I suggest that you guy's goes for the book sense St classic. This is very excellent hundred times better than the VS Screen. Look we need to say the true. Notthing but the fucking true!!
I'm a fan of the book sence. i saw my partner's book sence. and i felt it was awesome. go hims. they rock as a company.
What do you guys think about the plextalk pocket?
I saw that F S is having a sale on them, and from what I can see from looking at the specs, it sounds like a superior player to both the booksense and the stream.
As the device is only 275 dollars until the end of May, I'm seriously thinking about getting one.
Thoughts?
I've had both the stream and the booksense. I didn't like the stream, and loved my booksense. I personally think it's very durable; The person who posted that their's broke after three weeks of usage must have had a fluke. Mine had been roughed up a bit here and there and it still works perfectly. don't know much about the plextalk pocket, but I can definitely vouch for the booksense xt; Trade the vr for it if you can.
I haven't seen the Plextalk Pocket, but I've seen its identical cousin, the Bookport Plus from APH. I think if I didn't have my Victor Reader Stream, I would have kept mine. It does do a lot of wonderful things just like the Plextalk Pocket, but you only get eight to ten hours of battery life on it. This is why I like my Stream as it has fifteen hours of battery life since there is no clock to maintain which contributes to battery drain. The Booksense, and I've had the XT model, also has its advantages but mine is broken due to firmware issues, so it now has amnesia and will not read SD cards, nor will it accept its NLS key, so it's now just a brick.
I've had my stream for three years and it still works just fine. I actually got water in it by mistake a couple years ago and so I thought it was going to need to be sent in for repair because it stopped working. So I called Humanware and they arranged to have someone come pick it up. Well the next morning, more out of desperation than anything else, I tried turning it on and it worked just fine. And while i don't use it as much as I used to I still do use it for Bard books and I haven't had a lick of trouble with it.