💙I'm this person that needs always to know what she invests into. So with that said, who of my followers, or non-followers, has a 14cell braille display? What is the good about it? Also, has anyone used the focus 14 cell and do they use it still, etc. I'll be glad for any answers. I just can't always carry a 40 cell display, and find it difficult to carry sometimes. I also don't use speech all the time, so maybe having something more portable will be good. Anyway, awaiting your wise words, or just responces. Thanks! #Braille #accessibility #BrailleDisplays
D.Hamlin.Music@tardis The price and size difference between the Focus 14 and the APH Chameleon are not so significant that I can see a reason to get the Focus. I would rather have a 20 cell over a 14 any day, maybe someone has a counter to this but I just cannot see a reason the Focus 14 even is still produced.
@dhamlinmusic They don't ship or sell to us, sadly.
@dhamlinmusic Their site says only the US and I don't need tts only braille display as it is.
Steve@tardis I do, and it works, but 14 cells is really not enough. I would suggest going for a 20 cell unit if you can. Also, the focus displays have a tendency to fail fairly regularly. I would avoid that if possible.
@sclower I have a focus and it's behaving pretty well. Also, focus is the only thing you can buy in Bulgaria, do to our store partnering with them, almost noiseless, so I like them for what it's worth. They don't have a 20 cell though. And I kind of hoped portable would be cute. The cells really aren't a problem for me because of auto scrolling and I'm okay with that.
@sclower Also, the first time I'm open to suggestions and I'm truly limited in terms of buying officially from trusted or first sources, and I see the limitations. I tried humanware, they didn't answer the UK provided number, and their communication was truely crap. So I'm not sure what 20 cell would be compatible with Mac or Apple fully. There are displays only for the American humans, and orders outside the US aren't going to be processed so wow, I hope I'm not rude LOL.
@tardis I suppose it's possible Freedom Scientific has improved the manufacturing process for the latest Focus 14, but I can tell you from my own experience, and from others I've talked to over the years, that these units are rife with hardware defects; loose keys and sticking pins are the most common. I also have a 40 which has held up better, but it also started exhibiting sticking pins only after about a week of use. (1/2)
But if Freedom's your only supplier, then frankly I don't see recommendations being of any use. Sounds like your mind's already made up. (2/2)
@sclower Wow! I have not had such issues. This is interesting. This one is 5th gen, so I have no idea for those before. I kind of wish battery was better but hey, for a stationary 40 cell display, it's fine for now. For my use, which is mostly reading and proofreading things when they need to be proofread. Because I kind of can't repeat after computers. LOL.
@tardis Yep, mine are also 5th gen machines. You got lucky, then.
@dhamlinmusic @sclower Wow, I must ask what do people do to the displays. I am usually super gentle with tech, so things fail because of battery issues mostly.
@tardis @dhamlinmusic Nothing unusual. They're just not built well most of the time.
@dhamlinmusic @tardis Wow. That one's news to me.
@tardis It depends, a 14 is light weight and compact but can tedious. A 20 cell is not all that much bigger. I love the Focus displays but there have been some quality control issues and they need to be repaired frequently.
@dhamlinmusic @kgs49 Orbit is super noisy, none of these ship here, sadly.
Michael Feir@tardis @sarahmatthews I have a Brailliant BI14 cell display. It's around the size of a paperback book. I find myself wishing I had gotten a 20 cell display. 14 is a bit too short and 32 cell displays are too long for the kind of portability I want. I'm not a very fast Braille reader.
@mfeir @sarahmatthews That's cute size. But there are no options for that here sadly.
@mfeir @tardis @sarahmatthews The brailliant BI 20 X is perfect for that if you can get a hold of one. I've had it since 2021, its still working great and its one of the best devices I've owned in the last 20 years.
@jpellis2008 @mfeir @sarahmatthews and now like the multilingual person I am, I need to find an app that would convert other things in to braille, and braille into other things, formats. Because the US sucks, sorry guys, but why would the stupid house of printing limit their app only to English? Why not add all libluouis translations? I can't read your UEB standard. I am sad. Because stupid limitations like what we could buy, and how nobody gives a damn about other blind people is. Well, discouraging sometimes. Anyway, rant over. Haha. For now, FS dominates sadly, I wish that weren't the case, but if other companies allowed stuff to be sold outside the states, it'd be even greater. But, nope. And I still need something that'll convert braille and backwards, that could work on Mac.
Audrey Farnum@tardis @sarahmatthews I used a focus 14 for a while. Found myself wishing for more cells all the time. I got a Brailliant 20 instead and love it. The extra cells make a huge difference and don't add to the bulk over a focus 14 because of the way the various buttons are laid out on the focus. The Brailliant is ever so slightly bigger than the focus but just barely. It's hardly noticeable. The Brailliant is overall just a much more pleasant experience. Also, the space bar on my focus became very spongy feeling after about a year. It still works but I suspect it would fail completely with much more use. This is a very co'mmon defect I have heard other focus users encountering so you may want to take that into consideration. The focus comes with a better case than the Brailliant. The Brailliant case seemed flimsy to me so I upgraded to a Turtleback case.
@atfarnum @sarahmatthews Too bad, humaware isn't willing to make EU customers, they went completely dark on me when I considered one of their displays. Which sucks. They didn't provide an EU number, they provided a UK one. Which, totally sucks, then I tried via fb, they replied next year, let's just say that.