Keyboard Shortcuts
Likes
- Daisyaudioplayersuk
- Messages
Search
|
Re: Talking USB player
开云体育For once I tend to agree with you Steve.
I was chided some time ago for criticising the first set of USB players that went out to TN listeners - and they were cheap, cheaper than the ones that Kings Audio no longer sell.
I am all too familiar with the problems of giving out players to our listners most of whom I am guessing would not be on our circulation list if we did not supply them free of charge.? Even to distribute them at a subsidised cost would be too much to many of them.? In fact we post out a dozen or more CD copies of our TN to listners who put them in a DVD player to listen.? Even taking into account free postage and donations we get toward running costs it is still a headache keeping it all going.
Very few listen on the internet - and some who do get help doing that.? I have often wished for an easy to use internet player with (dare I say) buttons! but no sign of a cheap one in the offing and come to that, an easy and really cheap internet connection to allow this to be done.
All that is just to flag up the issues we and so many talking newspapers have catering to what is, in the great majority, an elderly audience.
I could and often have been tempted to suggest making TNs more entertaining and maybe even getting a licence to use limited amounts of copyright music, but I fear that would go down like a led baloon!? Many of the groups producing TNs are a rather conservative lot who have been doing it for years, and want things to stay more or less as they are.? That's not to be overtly critical of them.? Many have given years to regularly putting out the news and for no financial gain.? I know that all too well.? I have been doing it for more than 20 years.? Given the regular comitment no wonder there are very few volunteers coming forward these days, though I will say that mobile phones and tablets have made the recruiting of readers much easier, and younger ones at that.
Enough of the nuts and bolts, but TN listener or not this Cobolt offering looks like a good alternative to the much higher priced alternatives, but I have doubts as to how durable it will turn out to be.
Ray.
On 15/02/2023 02:11 pm, Steve Nutt
wrote:
|
||||||||||
|
Re: Talking USB player
开云体育Hi Ray, ? I think the problem is that we are asking for cheap and bells and whistles. We are not going to get that. ? For example, cheap USB players don’t folder hop. ? So the question to all TNs really, is what would be the highest price one would pay for such a device. ? I could be manufactured with folder hopping, but you wouldn’t get it for 20 quid. ? All the best
? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Rea Lists
Sent: 15 February 2023 13:50 To: [email protected] Subject: [dap-uk] Talking USB player ? This rather small and inexpensive player has had a mention recently on the Talking News Federation email list.? As you will see from the description pasted below, it does quite a lot for the ?19.95 asking price.? A downside? is it has a micro USB socket ? Its smallness probably means those with dexerity problems might find it hard going to operate. ? Many will be aware the Sovereign players formerly sold by a UK retailer are no more so talking newspapers are scouting around for a cheap replacement.? Other have been found but often the lack of a facility to skip between folders on a pendrive is lacking.? Many TNs use folder structures to separate the main news part of their papers from any additional magazine material they may offer. ? Ray. ? Talking USB PlayerThis compact 2” cube USB player will allow you to listen to audiobooks and music. With its sleek design, lightweight and rechargeable battery, it is ideal for travel. The unit has a built in FM radio, bluetooth connectivity, a micro SD card reader and an AUX port. The device has a loudspeaker and a headphone port for private listening. You can change modes with the touch of a button. The device will announce its current position ie: “play via USB”. The unit requires a Micro USB lead (included), and it supports MP3, MP4 and WAV files. |
||||||||||
|
Talking USB player
开云体育This rather small and inexpensive player has had a mention recently on the Talking News Federation email list.? As you will see from the description pasted below, it does quite a lot for the ?19.95 asking price.? A downside? is it has a micro USB socket
Its smallness probably means those with dexerity problems might find it hard going to operate.
Many will be aware the Sovereign players formerly sold by a UK retailer are no more so talking newspapers are scouting around for a cheap replacement.? Other have been found but often the lack of a facility to skip between folders on a pendrive is lacking.? Many TNs use folder structures to separate the main news part of their papers from any additional magazine material they may offer.
Ray.
Talking USB Player This compact 2” cube USB player will allow you to
listen to audiobooks and music. With its sleek design, lightweight
and rechargeable battery, it is ideal for travel. The unit has a
built in FM radio, bluetooth connectivity, a micro SD card reader
and an AUX port. The device has a loudspeaker and a headphone port
for private listening. You can change modes with the touch of a
button. The device will announce its current position ie: “play
via USB”. The unit requires a Micro USB lead (included), and it
supports MP3, MP4 and WAV files.
|
||||||||||
|
Talking Tech 14th February 2023
Useful bit of info from David Woodbridge in the latest Vision Australia podcast - about half way through.? Amongst other things he draws attention to the glitches in the present release version of the new HIMS player? Not least the player not disabling sleep mode when using it as a keypad to operate your phone.? No doubt this will get corrected.
I have suggested more than once HumanWare would do well to incorporate this sort of feature in a futre VR player.? If that could be done then I would say an option to kill the phone while using it as a talkking bvook player would be a good feature too. Ray. Check out Talking Tech 14th February 2023 from the Talking Tech - Vision Australia Radio Podcast! You can listen to it at |
||||||||||
|
[tech-vi Announce List] The SensePlayer Now Has a Page on the Hims U.S. Site
开云体育As indicated in the subject line the New HIMS player has now made a public announcement on HIMS' US site.? Price for the basic model without OCR is $650.
Ray.
-- Forwarded Message --------
From the Tech-VI list owner: You’ll find the page via the below link. ? David Goldfield, Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
? Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and information regarding the blindness assistive technology field. Email: [email protected]
? ? |
||||||||||
|
Re: Interviews on Victor Stream 3
开云体育Hi, ? The way battery technology is now, a non-removable battery should last a long time. ? I have phones here that I have had for two or three years, without any battery issue. I don’t see what the fuss is about. ? All the best
? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Rea Lists
Sent: 10 February 2023 10:55 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [dap-uk] Interviews on Victor Stream 3 ? thanks for this claire.? Have listened to both of these. ? I have heard that podcast chapter support will be included on the new Stream in forthcoming updates.? that was on Vision Australia's podcast I think. ? Jonathan Mosen's forthcoming podcast wil include contributors who think not having a user-replaceable battery is a mistake.? I tend to agree, especially if it means we may end up paying more for replacement batteries. ? Ray. ? On 10/02/2023 10:41 am, claire amoroso wrote:
|
||||||||||
|
Re: Interviews on Victor Stream 3
开云体育thanks for this claire.? Have listened to both of these.
I have heard that podcast chapter support will be included on the new Stream in forthcoming updates.? that was on Vision Australia's podcast I think.
Jonathan Mosen's forthcoming podcast wil include contributors who think not having a user-replaceable battery is a mistake.? I tend to agree, especially if it means we may end up paying more for replacement batteries.
Ray.
On 10/02/2023 10:41 am, claire amoroso
wrote:
|
||||||||||
|
Interviews on Victor Stream 3
开云体育Hi everyone?
Here are a few links to interviews with Matthew Paquette on the VR Stream 3:
One on Talking Tech from Vision Australia Radio
And one from Mystic Access:
Happy listening!
Claire?
|
||||||||||
|
Re: Battery issues with Evo 10
开云体育Hi, ? It depends on several factors. ? Are you on Wi-Fi with it? Is the Wi-Fi signal good? ? I’d say two days is reasonable though. ? All the best
? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of claire amoroso
Sent: 06 February 2023 14:00 To: [email protected] Subject: [dap-uk] Battery issues with Evo 10 ? Hi I’m wondering if you have any tips for managing the battery on Evo 10, I’ve read it should be around 12 hours battery life but I’m having to recharge every 2 days listening a few hours at a time is that normal? Thanks? Claire? |
||||||||||
|
Battery issues with Evo 10
开云体育Hi I’m wondering if you have any tips for managing the battery on Evo 10, I’ve read it should be around 12 hours battery life but I’m having to recharge every 2 days listening a few hours at a time is that normal?
Thanks?
Claire?
|
||||||||||
|
Re: An update on Audible and the open letter / petition that was going around recently
Thank you for your message. I also sign for the petition. As I thought it was important to support my blind peers. I don't listen to the audible books myself on the stream. I listen to them on my Echo. As I don't find the Audible app very easy-to-use. I am really pleased to know the audible cooperating with you and where. As I find some mainstream platforms don't want to bother with people who use technology that blind people use. It would be good if the stream could download Audible books. Especially as I don't have a working computer. Best Mrs Villa
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
----- Original Message -----
Hi everyone! I wanted to give a quick update on this. Audible reached out to me today and we just had a meeting. It seems like the open letter worked! The person I spoke to told me that it has circulated amongst the Audible employees, and their team was moved by the letter, and impressed by the passion shown by Stream users! So in terms of the Stream 2 / VRTrek support, they confirmed that the issue was fixed earlier this week, and they apologized for not communicating the fix sooner. I thanked him for resolving this! Now, as far as the Stream 3 goes, they have a test device we sent them back in November, and are still in the process of doing some testing. Now that we know that they're testing, once our launch is finished, we'll be able to do the work that's required to integrate into the Stream 3 (most of it is already done but there's still a bit of work to do). So barring any major technical issues, we should have Audible available on the Stream 3 some time in the spring (I'm hoping for April, May at the latest). The REALLY good news is that they've asked us to have a bi-weekly call with them moving forward, which I obviously immediately said yes to. So from now on, the channel of communication with them will remain open. I was really happy to see that they were very sincere in their wanting to work with us and to make the product available to the blind community. So all in all, not a bad way to end the week at all! :) Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this, and have a great weekend! Mathieu Paquette Product Manager Humanware |
||||||||||
|
An update on Audible and the open letter / petition that was going around recently
Hi everyone!
?
I wanted to give a quick update on this.
?
Audible reached out to me today and we just had a meeting. It seems like the open letter worked!
?
The person I spoke to told me that it has circulated amongst the Audible employees, and their team was moved by the letter, and impressed by the passion shown by Stream users!
?
So in terms of the Stream 2 / VRTrek support, they confirmed that the issue was fixed earlier this week, and they apologized for not communicating the fix sooner. I thanked him for resolving this!
?
Now, as far as the Stream 3 goes, they have a test device we sent them back in November, and are still in the process of doing some testing. Now that we know that they're testing, once our launch is finished, we'll be able to do the work that's required to integrate into the Stream 3 (most of it is already done but there's still a bit of work to do). So barring any major technical issues, we should have Audible available on the Stream 3 some time in the spring (I'm hoping for April, May at the latest).
?
The REALLY good news is that they've asked us to have a bi-weekly call with them moving forward, which I obviously immediately said yes to. So from now on, the channel of communication with them will remain open.
?
I was really happy to see that they were very sincere in their wanting to work with us and to make the product available to the blind community. So all in all, not a bad way to end the week at all! :)
?
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this, and have a great weekend!
?
Mathieu Paquette
Product Manager
Humanware |
||||||||||
|
Re: FW: Has AudibleSync been resolved for older Stream devices? What about Stream 3?
I have the same letter to Ray. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully audible will make it easier for us to get the books. It's not in their interest to do nothing. As I bet most of their customers are blind people. Best Mrs Villa
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
----- Original Message -----
Again I think this came via David Goldfield's list, but feeling a bit overwhelmed buy amount of stuff coming in from that source. Sounds like good news, and we can but hope Amazon.Audible relents over other players presently locked out of being able to play audible books. Ray. Re: Has AudibleSync been resolved for older Stream devices? What about Stream 3? From: Mathieu Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2023 07:38:47 PST Hello! So yes, here's an update on AudibleSync. Monday, I started getting some reports from customers that they were actually able to activate Stream 2 and VRTreks. I wasn't sure if this was the case or if it was just that they had an old SD card with a prior activation file, so I had some of our people internally test it out. It turns out, it seems like Audible did fix the issue for the Stream 2 and the Stream 3! I sent my contacts at Audible an email to thank them and enquire about the status for the Stream 3, but I have not heard back. I was also sent a page (to the France's support site) that mentions a "VR Stream MSC 3" being supported. That is news to me. So we're finishing up the launch right now, polishing the last few features and whatnot, but right after, we'll be able to finish up the work (as I said before, we did the bulk of the work, but there are some things to finalize that we had put on ice because we didn't know if we'd get ever support) and test it. As it stands, IF (and that's a big IF) indeed, they did what they had to and AudibleSync IS compatible with the Stream 3 MTP, we should be able to launch Audible support sometime in the spring (probably in April). Had we had more communication from them before, it could've been ready for launch probably... but hey, a month or two after isn't the end of the world. :) Final note: a person working at Amazon in a different department did reach out to me Monday night and offered to send my contact information to some other folks at Audible that may be able to help. I gave her my work email but I have not heard anything since, but at least, there are some people who seem willing to make this move forward! Mathieu Sent from Mail for Windows |
||||||||||
|
An Update on the open letter to Amazon requesting reinstatement of Victor Reader Stream support
开云体育Not clear to me who this letter is from, but imagine its Jonathan Mosen. Ray.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Thanks to everyone, 678 people at the time of publication of this update, who signed the open letter requesting that Amazon reinstate support for HumanWare’s Victor Reader Stream. The letter came about as the result of comments made by HumanWare representatives in episode 212 of the Mosen at large podcast that not only was the forthcoming third generation Stream not yet supported by Audible, but changes to Audible Sync prevented new authorisations of current models. During the week, I received a comprehensive audio demonstration from a listener, which will air in Mosen at Large 213, showing that with the latest version of Audible Sync, authorisation of the current generation Stream has now been reinstated. I should emphasise that this is not a result of the open letter, the Audible Sync update had been published previously but it seems Audible had not communicated this fix to product management at HumanWare. I have contacted HumanWare and they confirm that they have heard similar and verified the fix with internal testing. This is good news for all current Stream owners. While matters are less clear with the third generation Stream and it appears HumanWare may need still to do some work on their side, things are also looking positive there as well. It is a pity that communication between Audible and HumanWare hasn’t been better, but it is great that those who choose to read Audible books on the Stream can do so now with the current device, and should be able to do so soon if they purchase the new model. Full credit to Amazon for responding, but I encourage larger companies to take the time to communicate with those serving the blind community. We are a small market, but the consequences of these things are significant for us. While better communications would have saved us the bother of this open letter altogether, it has been a positive demonstration that we care about this issue. --- Update to |
||||||||||
|
FW: Has AudibleSync been resolved for older Stream devices? What about Stream 3?
Again I think this came via David Goldfield's list, but feeling a bit overwhelmed buy amount of stuff coming in from that source. Sounds like good news, and we can but hope Amazon.Audible relents over other players presently locked out of being able to play audible books.
Ray. Re: Has AudibleSync been resolved for older Stream devices? What about Stream 3? From: Mathieu Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2023 07:38:47 PST Hello! So yes, here's an update on AudibleSync. Monday, I started getting some reports from customers that they were actually able to activate Stream 2 and VRTreks. I wasn't sure if this was the case or if it was just that they had an old SD card with a prior activation file, so I had some of our people internally test it out. It turns out, it seems like Audible did fix the issue for the Stream 2 and the Stream 3! I sent my contacts at Audible an email to thank them and enquire about the status for the Stream 3, but I have not heard back. I was also sent a page (to the France's support site) that mentions a "VR Stream MSC 3" being supported. That is news to me. So we're finishing up the launch right now, polishing the last few features and whatnot, but right after, we'll be able to finish up the work (as I said before, we did the bulk of the work, but there are some things to finalize that we had put on ice because we didn't know if we'd get ever support) and test it. As it stands, IF (and that's a big IF) indeed, they did what they had to and AudibleSync IS compatible with the Stream 3 MTP, we should be able to launch Audible support sometime in the spring (probably in April). Had we had more communication from them before, it could've been ready for launch probably... but hey, a month or two after isn't the end of the world. :) Final note: a person working at Amazon in a different department did reach out to me Monday night and offered to send my contact information to some other folks at Audible that may be able to help. I gave her my work email but I have not heard anything since, but at least, there are some people who seem willing to make this move forward! Mathieu Sent from Mail for Windows |
||||||||||
|
Discussion and Demo of the SensePlayer OCR with Sam Taylor from Pacific Vision
I might have mentioned this player before here, but David Woodbridge of Vision Australia has a podcast about it.
An obvious competitor to the Stream, and the OCR of course is one thing that distinguishes it from the Stream. Two other things that struck me are the likely possibility that USB microphones might work with this player for recording.? The other is using the keypad as an interface with a smart phone. Only time will tell how all this works out in practice.? Besides, its not available here in the UK as yet, or in the US. Link to download or play podcast: Discussion and Demo of the SensePlayer OCR with Sam Taylor from Pacific Vision Ray. Ray. |
||||||||||
|
Re: Request or suggestion for VR mark III player
开云体育Thanks Mathieu.
Streaming and previewing of podcasts would be very useful, especially when deciding to subscribe to a new one as presently you have to subscribe to listen and find out if you think its worth subbing to.
I realise the Wi-Fi will be much faster, and that's good.
Should also mean that stations using higher bit rates should now play on the new Stream.? I am guessing that if the BBC streams are going to play on the new Stream then higher bit rates would have to be handled most probably.? I am pretty sure the recording facility on the Stream takes the stream as it comes in before A D conversion so the radio programme gets recorded at the bit rate the station is using.? that might well gobble up more memory so saving recordings direct to a prememantly permantly inserted SD card would be a good option to have too.
Ray.
On 30/01/2023 02:20 pm, Mathieu wrote:
Hello Ray, |
||||||||||
|
Re: Request or suggestion for VR mark III player
Hello Ray,
For the launch, podcasts will be downloaded still, not streamed. But the wifi on the device being much better, if you have a good Internet connection, the process should be much smoother. But I'm taking note of this feedback and I'll see what can be done in a future version. Mathieu |
||||||||||
|
Request or suggestion for VR mark III player
Addressing this to Mathieu and the list.
Good to hear you Mathieuon the Mosen podcast which confirmed what we have learned on this list.? One question or suggestion I did send to Jonathan Mosen was not mentioned - no criticism implied. Will the new VR Stream be able to play podcasts without downloading them first?? Quite common now to go to the internet to listen to a podcast rather than downloading it first.? You can do this of course with Mosen at Large. The Blind Shell Classic phone can do this and its podcast player though quite simple does allow immediate access to podcasts along with the option to download them. I would like to see this on the Stream. I intend signing the letter/petition to Audible as I doubt I will be signing up to Audible unless I can activate it on the new Stream. Ray. |
||||||||||
|
Re: You can now sign an open letter calling on Audible to reinstate support for the Victor Reader Stream
开云体育Hi Matthew ? I think everyone has posted it to all the various groups, I also mentioned it on rnib southwest on Facebook, we should get several thousand signatures. ? Regards ? Adrien ? From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mathieu
Sent: 29 January 2023 18:55 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [dap-uk] You can now sign an open letter calling on Audible to reinstate support for the Victor Reader Stream ? I asked some friends to sign it too. Let's keep it up! |