Category: the Rant Board
Hi All,
I've heard that freedom scientific was no longer supporting and selling braille and speak and braille lites. That really ticked me off because Not everyone needs something as complicated as the pacmate. For example, a middle school student can't learn the pacmate all at once, and may need something easier. Thanks to FS, a middle school student, for example, can't use the easier note takers such as the braille lite! Pacmates aren't for everyone, and FS should still make the braille lite for those reasons! Rant over.
Katie, I agree. The Braille 'n Speak is a simple product. It isn't as full-featured as newer notetakers, howeer I know some people who can use them just fine for what they need. The American Printing House was selling the Schollar, which was the very basic Braille 'n Speak. I don't know if they're still selling or supporting it, however. I also think those notetakers are a grweat way to introduce people to the concepts of how to use notetakers in general.
Lou
Yeh, and these note takers need to keep selling!
The braille and speak is an ok product. But personally I prefer a braille note because it has a lot more features, has a lot more memory and doesn't sound like a robot.
The braille lite and braille and speak are hopelessly obselessent products. I wish I could have learned a packmate when I was younger, since the learning curve for learning a packmate and jaws on the desktop is much less then learning the braille and speak and a windows screen reader.
The braille lites are good if you don't want a notetaker with all those features. I still have one and i just use it for class notes.
I know of a 10 year old who is learning the braille and speak. I think that's a good place to start, and is great for those in 5th or 6th grade.
That's when I first started to learn how to use one. I kept playing around with it and crashed it so many times. lol.
aww, don't tell me this.... I stilll have a braille lite; and now what? where am I going to go next if this dies on me? hmmm... oh well, things happen for one reason or another.
No i did it on purpose. I was trying to see how many of the same letter I can write in one file and when there was too many it crashed on me. Nothing bad is going to happen to it unless you were a crazy seventh grader like i was.
I'm not sure how to explain this, but what finally caused me to give up on the BNS was the way it would arbrarilly mix up all my files. Every few months, it was almost as if someone grabed all your paper files, threw them up in the air, and the way the landed was the way they were organized. I'd have parts of files in other folders where they had no business being. It was hapening more and more frequently. Didn't take long for me to learn to back up the machine.
To the roman Battle Mask, I agree. The technology is obselete, and one does need to learn two entirely differnet operating systems. However, for many people, the BNS is as computer literate as they may need to get, depending on their goals and usage.
Lou
I myself have crashed my braille lite before, and regret it now!
yeh, Jared is right. the braille lites and braille and speaks are obselete. one has to convert them if the documents need to be read by a windows program now.
with the pacmate, yep, once that is learnt, learning a desktop windows computer would be a sinch. They have everything in there that a student could ever have to have. out with the old, in with the new!
I agree. Plus a 10 year old will learn what ever is given them easy and quickly. I mean if they have a computer at that age, then no sweat, so change is a coming. Yea!
i actually gave my braille lite m-20 to a friend for her birthday. she needs it more than i do.
Yeh, true. The only problem is that the pac mate is quite unstable, and I don't recommend it for beginners. I think the braille note would be better.
Well, in all fairness, I haven't seen the Omni yet, and it sounds like FS has worked to correct many of those problems. Also, as the Roman Battle Mask Said, the user only needs to learn one interface if they use the QWERTY Keyboard. I found the braille keyboard rather cumbersome in some ways. I do like the Braillenote family of products, and that is my personal preference of the two, however I've recommended the Pacmates as well.
Lou
I happen to own a Pac Mate omni. still haven't learned how to use it yet.
that brings back alot of mimerys from the past. when I was like 10 or so, I had a brail and speak, and it wint wherever I did! I loved that thing. well I didn't like the speech, because it sounded like a freaken robot, but I liked the note taker itself. now I have graduated to a laptop computer. but yeah, that brought back mimerys. thanks.
Yeh, Reminds me of the time I had my braille lite. Dang I mis that thing!
What's the difference between the regular PacMates and the PacMate Omni? Have they upgraded the voice?
No, but they added some extra features and upgraded the operating system. You can find more about it by going to www.pacmategear.com. hope this helps.
I try to do as little business with fs as possible. Even looking at the other screen readers.
I won't get into it here but yeah little business as possible.
Troy
wow, that was informative. If you stated a reason that'd make your post more readable, really. I really don't get into much business with those people, although... lol others get into it for me (vision teacher, ETC). I still like the braille display. I have the braille lite m 40 still non my backpack at this very moment and it has worked without a hitch. Something I wonder though is why ... fs sells things for 100000 dollars and up, and the jaws kernel is the freaking same. You can use a n xp home version in an xp proffessional version and the opposite. Its just false advertisement and bait and switch. Buncha hungry moneymakers . That's why I never bought jaws .