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开云体育

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开云体育

Hello Matieu,,

Good you are on this list now, which as you might know isn't devoted entirely to the Humanware players but all audio players and other devices that play DAISY and other formats.

Somewhat overwhelmed by the number of forwarded posts from across the pond, but I now have a good idea of what is in store for us if we upgrade to the mark III VR Stream, or whatever it may end up being called.

I have thought for a long time the VR Stream is long overdue an upgrade.? Good to see the support for large SD cards, upgrading of the network connectivitry to include 5Ghz connections and increased number of formats.? Little disappointed that Bluetooth 5 has not been incorporated.? USB C port very welcome.? The micro USB of the present player has always been fragile.

My major concern though now is whether the VR III player will be able to give us access to all the BBC radio streams here in the UK.? All using the Stream for the last few months to listen to BBC Shoutcast streams are aware the BBC is closing these in the next six months or so.? All BBC streams in the UK will have to be access via BBC Sounds which has to be logged into to access radio streams and more up to date podcasts.? So, my question to you is, will the new Stream be able to access these feeds in as easy a fashion as we've become accustomed to doing up until now?? I, along with many find the BBC Sounds app not much to our liking, prefering the few button presses to access not just a few but many feeds for BBC? national and local radio stations? As far as I can tell the Sounds app appears to give access to the local radio station where you live, not all the local stations the BBC has - 39 in total.

I would almost bet money on the surprise new feature as yet to be announced.??? If as I suspect Smart assistant is to be incorporated into the new Stream then it might just be that using that sort of interface might yet give us access to all th the radio we are accustomed to listening to via the internet.? (I don't expect you to reveal all on this though Matieu.

I have put this issue to Jonathan Mosen who will be featuring an interview with an HW spokesperson in his next Mosen at Large Podcast.? That person may even be yourself, Matieu! ?? Another interview I know is scheduled for the ACB Main Menu programme, and maybe the RNIB TechTalk in due course.

Ray.

开云体育

开云体育

开云体育

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开云体育

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Aidan: at this point, not much else to reveal, I've talked about a lot on here. :)?

- Better speaker
- MTP support
- 1TB SD card support
- 16 gig memory, 13 usable by the user
- SD card protector (little flap to protect the slot)
- USB-C
- Rubberized keys
- Better wifi (faster and more stable)
- Bluetooth
- More audio formats supported
- Revamped settings menu (easier to use)
- Downloadable voices

Those are probably the biggest things that have changed.

If you're still happy with your Stream 2, by all means, it's still a fantastic device. But if you were looking for an upgrade and/or just wanted to treat yourself, the Stream 3 will be a fantastic buy.

Mathieu

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Hi!

Well, I gotta say, this really, really warms my heart to read. I appreciate the kind words beyond what you can imagine. :)

This being said, I can't take full credits for all that's coming on the Stream 3. My predecessor is the one who made lots of design decisions and all, and I agree, she did a great job at it. There are a few things in the product that are from my input, yes.

But more importantly, there's an entire team behind me working in the shadows of developers, marketing people, support people, etc. I may be the public face for the Stream, but it really is one big team effort!

But yes, know that even if we're not always present, the feedback from our loyal customers is always front and center and considered. Plus, a non-negligible part of our employees are users of the product themselves!

Again, thank you for the kind words. I'll keep informing you all as we grow closer and closer to the release date. And keep the feedback and questions coming! :)

Mathieu

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Lois: you can always email info@...?:)

As for the Internet Radio surprise, it's not a fix. The service we use currently is ooTunes, and unfortunately, they're a small operation, so links aren't as well maintained as we'd like, and there's nothing we can do for that, on our end.

No, the "surprise" is something bigger. Can't talk about it now, but you'll be happy when it comes in. That should be at the latest in the spring. We just ran into a few technical issues, but it shouldn't be too long after launch :)

Mathieu

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Hello all,

I know, I know. People want to know, how much. All I've said so far is that it's not that far off the current Stream 2 price.

I've finally had my announcement meeting with the dealers today for North America, so I can announce the pricing for the US and Canada. EU/UK/AU pricing will be revealed at later dates, but I think this list being mostly US-Canada centric, it shouldn't be a problem.

So, here are a few details.

RETAIL PRICING

For retail pricing, for the US, it will be priced at $550 USD. For Canada, the retail price will be $595. This is about 10% more than the Stream 2, but with all the new features we're adding, I think it's more than worth it!

PREORDERS

As we haven't announced an official launch date yet (besides "February"), I can't talk to exactly when we'll take preorders. We want to make sure we're good and ready to launch (see next point), but preorders will be available 7 to 10 days before launch. We'll announce it when we're ready.

LAUNCH DATE

So, complete transparency here: we are still very much working hard on polishing stuff, fixing bug, and completing features. It's possible that at launch, a few bugs slipped between our fingers, but we're trying to get you a product that works as well as possible, and we'll patch things as they come up post-launch. As we stand, the build that I and many of our testers (our beta is done with our employees) have in our hands right now is already fairly good, definitely usable, but it's missing a few puzzle pieces that will soon be done.

One of the key things that's not finished yet is Daisy Online and localizations other than English. So, we are looking at a launch in two tiers.

What we're aiming for is a launch February (towards the middle of the month) for the US, late February if we have to. Then, 4 to 6 weeks later, a global launch (Canada/UK/EU/AU etc), since at that point, we should be able to deliver Daisy Online and more languages (French, Spanish, etc).

(Daisy Online is what pretty much the whole world uses for libraries, like CELA in Canada. The US mostly uses Bookshare, BARD and NFB, which are NOT Daisy Online services, and are ready to go now).

So as not to delay the launch in what's our biggest market, we're doing it in two stages.

One of the things that changed for example in the last week is that the surprise I talked about previously for Internet Radio will be postponed a bit, unfortunately, we hit a bit of a technical snag, but it's close and should come after the release (perhaps at the same time as the global launch, or shortly after). I'm not saying more but I know people will love it. But now I'm glad I kept it as a secret since it'll be delayed a bit ;)

So here we go. Bill, to answer in terms of hardware, whether you get a unit day 1 or day 100, it will be the same hardware. The only reason we'd change hardware is if a component became unavailable. So there's no risk on ordering day 1 or even preordering once it's available.

Thanks all for reading this wall of text, hopefully, I was able to answer a few things!

Mathieu Paquette
Product Manager
Humanware

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More answers:

Launch date: We'll be shipping out in February. Full transparency, we're still putting up the finishing touches so I don't have a set release date, but it will be sometime in February: it's looking like mid-Feb.

Multiple speakers on BT: No, only one connection.

WIFI chip: Yes, it's a more recent chip, with 5ghz support.

Mathieu

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Few people asked about memory, it is indeed 16 gigs, about 13 usable by the end user.

And you will also be able to use it to store books/music/etc from a computer like you would on an SD card.

For Bluetooth, 4.2 is correct.

Mathieu

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Keypad has the exact same placement and the exact same keys in terms of functionality. The keys are more rubberized though now, and we added tactile cues to the 2-4-6-8 keys.

Besides the audio jack placements (the headphone is next to the USB-C, the microphone is on the left side below the volume key), the layout is the same!

Mathieu