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In an earlier article in this series,
Is a Notetaker Right for You?,
Steve Dresser focused on a broad overview of notetakers. In this essay, he narrows his comparison to talk about specific products.
Steve Dresser
In my last article, I discussed the differences between
notetakers and computers, concentrating on general
characteristics rather than specific features. In this article,
I’ll examine the similarities and differences between two
popular devices: the BrailleNote Apex from Humanware
and the U2 from Hims. Though both machines are nearing
the end of their life cycle, they are widely in use by
students and teachers, and therefore worth discussing.
Both Humanware and Hims have recently released more
sophisticated notetakers, but they employ a very different
design philosophy from those we’re considering here. The
new breed of notetakers will be discussed in a future
article.
The Basics
Both the Apex and the U2 use Windows CE as their
operating system, commonly known as the OS. Though
adequate in the early 2000s when notetakers were
evolving from stand-alone devices into machines that
communicated with the outside world through the internet,
this OS, which Microsoft no longer supports, struggles to
handle modern apps used by today’s laptops and tablets.
Both machines run version 6 of Internet Explorer, which
has difficulty rendering many of today’s web pages, and
although the U2’s “Quick Browser” provides a work-around
in some cases, the number of pages that are rendered
poorly, or not at all is increasing. Similarly, the email
programs on both machines struggle to compete with even
the simplest email applications in most modern computers
and tablets.
Menus and Dialog Boxes
While both machines rely on the use of menus, that’s
where the similarity ends. The Apex uses a “list structure”
in which the menu items are presented in a vertical
column and activated by pressing the Enter key. Selecting
an application brings up another list of specific functions.
For example, accessing Keyword, the Apex’s word
processor, brings up a sub-menu with “Create Document,”
“Open Document,” “Print Document,” “Emboss
Document,” and so on. So if you’re writing a document
and want to print it, you have to save it, back out to the
sub-menu, and arrow down to the print function. For
anyone new to the Windows environment, or comfortable
with DOS-based menu systems, this menu structure is
very easy to use and understand, but for anyone
accustomed to working in Windows, it can be frustrating
and cumbersome.
The U2 takes a more Windows-like approach. The
main menu is a list, and there are additional lists under
some of the items, but once inside an application, things
change. For instance, selecting the Word Processor from
the main menu immediately opens a new document, and if
you want to work on an existing document, you have to
open it with a “hot key” (O-chord) or with the Open option
in the word processor’s File Menu.
Getting Help
Although both the Apex and the U2 have extensive
help systems that claim to be “context sensitive,” they are
implemented very differently. In both machines, pressing
Chord-H invokes the help system, which presents a list of
useful hot keys which varies depending on where you are
when you ask for help. So, for example, in the main menu,
you see keys that allow access to items in the main menu.
but in the word processor, you see a list of useful word
processing commands. But here’s where the similarity
ends. On the Apex, depending on what you’re doing, you
can access a list of more topics, such as how to enter date
and time, or the commands for formatting a document. On
the U2, if you need that kind of information, you have to
select Help from the main menu, then look through a list of
files for the app you’re using, open the appropriate file,
and search for the information you want, just as if you
were reading a document in the word processor. This
approach is, in my opinion, far more frustrating and less
helpful for the user.
Features
The Apex and the U2 have several features in
common, most of which are built into the machines, and
some of which can be added later. Both machines come
with a file manager, a word processor, an address
manager, a web browser, an email program, a media
player, an appointment scheduler, a database manager, a
stopwatch, and a calculator. GPS software can be added
to both machines, and the U2 comes with a built-in GPS
receiver and a compass. In an attempt to compete with
modern-day computers, Hims added several applications
to the U2: a “quick browser,” Dropbox, Twitter, Facebook,
an RSS reader, Google Search, Google Talk, Google
Maps, and Sense Chat, an app that allows voice
communication between Hims notetakers via Bluetooth.
The Devil Is In the Details
Though the Braillenote Apex and the Hims U2 have
many applications in common, the way they are designed
may significantly influence your choice of a machine.
Although menu structure as discussed above is important,
it is equally important to consider the differences in the
ways individual applications work. Two examples will
serve to illustrate my point.
Let’s look at the word processor. Both machines
support document formatting, which includes the ability to
display the codes used for bold, italics, line centering, etc.
The Apex supports a display mode, in which you can
actually examine the effects of your formatting. With the
U2, the effects of formatting can only be checked when
you print or emboss the document. While this may not be
an issue for checking bolding or italicizing, trying to assess
the effects of centering a line may be much more
problematic.
The address manager is another example of how
similar apps can behave very differently. Although both
machines can save the information from individual records
to a text file, the U2 saves the entire record while the Apex
lets you pick and choose what you want to save through
the use of customized templates. So, using a template,
you could create a phone list with only the last name, first
name, and phone number of each of your contacts. Of
course, the down side is that before you generate your
phone list, you have to create the template, which some
may find daunting, or just not worth the time and effort. If
you want to generate a similar list with the U2’s text file,
you’ll have to remove the information you don’t need by
editing the file in the word processor. While either
approach is reasonable for a small list, building a template
becomes much more attractive as the list gets bigger, and
even more attractive if you need to recreate the list, as in
the case of a club roster that changes periodically.
Keeping Up with the Competition
In response to the increasing demand for notetakers
to keep pace with today’s laptops and tablets, Hims
equipped the U2 with several applications designed to
allow simplified access to social media, YouTube, and
cloud storage. The social media and YouTube apps
capture information and controls on a web page and
rebuild the page such that it is more easily navigated with
a braille display and keyboard. This scheme works well as
long as the web page remains unchanged, but even the
simplest of changes can cause an application to stop
working. Dropbox, which allows file sharing and storage in
the cloud, encountered the same problem, but for a
different reason: The Dropbox software from the vendor
couldn’t run on the U2’s operating system, and Hims had
to write their own Dropbox application. To its credit, Hims
has done a valiant job of keeping their applications
running, especially since they usually had no notice of site
or software changes from the vendors, but despite their
best efforts, users have had to deal with unpredictable
outages. By contrast, The Apex sports a more limited suite
of applications, none of which support social media or
cloud storage, which is fine for those who don’t want or
need this type of software, but a serious drawback for
those who do.
Summing Up
Though the Braillenote Apex and the U2 are similar in
many respects, they differ significantly in others, and the
decision of which notetaker to buy comes down to
personal preferences, and what you expect from a
notetaker. If you’re not comfortable in the Windows
environment, and primarily interested in word processing,
managing contacts, and limited email and web
functionality, the Apex is probably a good choice. On the
other hand, if you want to explore social media and you’re
comfortable with Windows, the U2 is probably your best
option. Bear in mind that both machines are nearing the
end of their useful life, and that both Humanware and
Hims have introduced more sophisticated and powerful
machines. We’ll be taking a look at the new breed of
notetakers in part two of this article, so stay tuned.
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