[BNU] Fwd: Are You Killing the Braillenote, and Hoping No One Notices?
- From: Alex Hall <mehgcap@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "<braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> note" <braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 May 2013 08:49:04 -0400
Sorry for the delay. This arrived from Humanware's CEO the day I sent my
letter. I already sent you Greg's reply, which came in before this one.
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Gilles Pepin" <Gilles.Pepin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: RE: Are You Killing the Braillenote, and Hoping No One Notices?
> Date: April 30, 2013 5:40:51 PM EDT
> To: "Alex Hall" <mehgcap@xxxxxxxxx>, "Ramona Mandy"
> <ramona.mandy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Sam Taylor" <Sam.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "Greg Stilson" <greg.stilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Dear Alex,
>
> My name is Gilles Pepin and I am the CEO of HumanWare. I would first like to
> thank you for taking the time to write a detailed message on how you feel
> about the BrailleNote. I would also like to thank you for being a loyal
> customer all those years and I understand what you are telling us.
>
> Let me reassure you that HumanWare is still committed to Braille and to the
> BrailleNote. It is true that we have not been able to deliver as many
> features as we would have liked in the last few years. One reason being that
> KeySoft is a suite of applications which have been designed many years ago
> and it has proven to be more and more difficult to maintain and add new
> features. But our team is still working hard and with dedication to add as
> much value as we can in this product.
>
> I am copying Greg Stilson, our product manager for Braille products who can
> give you more information on our roadmap for BrailleNote. The BrailleNote is
> a very popular product and has been a flagship product for HumanWare since
> 2000 and still is. And we will continue to support our customers for many
> years to come.
>
> Greg, can you contact Alex and answer some of his questions.
>
> Thanks again Alex for sharing your thoughts.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Gilles
>
> Gilles Pepin
> Chef de la direction
> CEO
> 1800, Michaud, Drummondville (QC)
> Canada J2C 7G7
> T. +1 819 471 4818 ext. 301
> F. +1 888 871 4828
> www.humanware.com
> .........................................................................................................................................................................
> HumanWare
>
>
> voir les choses. différemment
> see things. differently
>
>
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : Alex Hall [mailto:mehgcap@xxxxxxxxx]
> Envoyé : 30 avril 2013 08:13
> À : US info; Gilles Pepin; Ramona Mandy; Sam Taylor
> Objet : Are You Killing the Braillenote, and Hoping No One Notices?
>
> Hello,
> I have been a Humanware/Pulsedata customer for a long time, since 2002 when
> my school got me a Classic BT 32. It revolutionized my schooling, and I
> talked it up to everyone who would listen. As the years passed, though, and
> competition arrived in the form of the Braille Sense, I saw my Classic fall
> behind. Then you came out with the mPower/PK lines, and were on top again,
> especially as Keysoft 7 and 7.2 were released and added tons of features. The
> competition continued to innovate, though, with the Braille Sense Onhand and
> U2, so you answered with the Apex. You told us, your users, that the Apex's
> more powerful hardware, plus code changes to Keysoft itself in 9 and 9.1,
> would allow you to offer some truly great features - multi-tasking (by which
> I do NOT mean playing media in the background - you can get a Classic to do
> that), .docx support, and a lot more. We watched the Sense line get more and
> more features, not to mention their better hardware and helpful additions
> like the vibration motor and built-in GPS, but were content to wait for you
> to deliver the breath of fresh air that would, we thought, be 9.1. Well, you
> gave us some new features, but the long-awaited .docx support, multi-tasking,
> and updates to other applications which badly need them, were all absent
> (more on new features in a moment). Okay, 9.1 was free, not paid, so maybe
> they're saving the big stuff for the next SMA release, we thought.
>
> Well, that paid release arrived in the form of 9.2, and we thought this would
> be it, the revolutionary advancement to the Apex that would answer at least
> some of our hopes. It turned out that the PAID (PAID) upgrade offered two new
> features: interface tweaks and a PDF viewer, which itself is just an
> adaptation of what appears to be an open-source library. The free 9.1 offered
> more features than that, yet we paid for it, some users even purchasing an
> SMA just to get it.
>
> Now, of course, Keysoft updates are free (unless you want 8.1 for your mPower
> - those folks still have to pay up, for some unknowable reason). A free
> update delivers more features than paid updates, and now Keysoft is free... I
> can't help but see this as a sign that updates will only get worse from here,
> as though you expect so little improvement you cannot ask users to pay for
> updates anymore. Your competition continues to offer new features that
> everyone will find useful, as well as features students will use (students
> and professionals being your target audience), but Keysoft not only fails to
> deliver answers, it fails to fix long-standing, sometimes serious, bugs.
>
> So, the question I pose is this: are you killing off the Braillenote line,
> hoping no one will notice you do it? If you are, at least tell us so, but if
> not, please, please start delivering what users want and need. Stop Keymail
> from eating its own database and causing the loss of every message; stop
> Keyword from erasing data when you switch to a different task; stop users
> having to pass around modified webpages just to log into Gmail or Amazon;
> stop Keychat from looking like a project someone hacked together in a
> weekend. Add features the modern student or professional needs: IMAP for
> Keymail, support for .docx files (which your Victors have had for YEARS), an
> updated web browser able to understand modern HTML and Javascript/AJAX, the
> ability to actually run multiple tasks at once, Powerpoint support, support
> for popular IM protocols (Skype, Yahoo, Facebook) in Keychat, and so on. Add
> features users would like to see, such as Twitter, Youtube, a much-improved
> Keychat, ID3 support in media files, better web streaming, an RSS client,
> more Keyplus functionality, more games, maybe even an SDK so users can make
> the programs they want for themselves. What about Bookshare? That website has
> been giving Braillenote users trouble for years now, and there is no end in
> sight, making what is likely one of the most popular book websites for the
> blind in America unusable on your devices. Why has this not been addressed,
> or even acknowledged?
>
> The Sense line includes everything I just mentioned and more, and seems,
> overall (based on what I read on the Braillenote and Braille Sense lists), to
> be more stable and have less data loss or other major bugs. When are you
> going to answer this vast improvement with an update, or are you? Yes, you
> have increased Keyword's support for complex files, which was welcomed, but
> why still no .docx support? Yes, Keybook supports more formats, but the Daisy
> engine that plays many of them is still broken and full of bugs, just like it
> was way back in the Keysoft 7.x days of the mPower; when is that going to
> actually work properly? Do you even plan on updating Keysoft anymore? Is
> support for the Braillenote going away? As I said, I used to be a huge fan of
> your products, but I am no longer, and have not been for a few years now, due
> to the reasons I have outlined above. I am no longer able, in good
> conscience, to recommend your products or suggest you as a resource, because
> of the consistent lack of support I see in the Braillenote line. I work as an
> assistive technology instructor, and your consistent and disturbing lack of
> response to competition and to your own users has forced me to cease
> referring people to the Braillenote and other Humanware products.
>
> At least give me this one last answer: are thousands of Apex users about to
> find out that development on their nearly six-thousand-dollar (or more)
> machines is stopping? Are you killing the Braillenote, and hoping no one
> notices? For the sake of all your Braillenote users, I hope the answer is
> "no", but I am forced to conclude otherwise based on the evidence. Even if
> you were to release Keysoft 10 tomorrow and catch up to everything the "other
> guy" offers, how many years will you let pass before you do it again,
> assuming development of the Braillenote does continue? How far will you let
> yourselves fall behind (I.E. how far will you make your users fall behind)
> before you finally decide to try to catch up once again?
>
> I realize that I am just one customer of at least tens of thousands, and that
> you do not owe me any answers or explanations. My intent in writing this was
> as a last-ditch effort to give you an idea of where at least some of your
> customers are coming from (several people on the Braillenote list urged me to
> start a petition concerning what is in this email and said they would gladly
> sign it), and, admittedly, a small hope that I might receive something in the
> way of the afore mentioned explanation, though I realize how unlikely that is
> and why that is so. I just urge you to consider how you are coming across to
> your customers, and how far behind you are forcing them to remain, and to do
> something about it. Thank you for your time and attention.
>
>
> Have a great day,
> Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini)
> mehgcap@xxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
Have a great day,
Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini)
mehgcap@xxxxxxxxx
Other related posts:
- » [BNU] Fwd: Are You Killing the Braillenote, and Hoping No One Notices? - Alex Hall
