Recommendations for a braille note taker

Jonathan Mosen did a podcast on it. Go to mosen at large or livingblindful to find it.

Find out. Never use the Braille display so do not know. I think it does. If you check the podcast you will know for sure unless someone here has the answer.

The Mantis Q?

Braille Note Touch +
https://store.humanware.com/hus/blindness-braillenote-touch-plus-32.html?CAGPSPN=pla&gclid=CjwKCAjwjaWoBhAmEiwAXz8DBaDlHMyDoPNvEBC6lBfHZAUPBoC0Jf-fYDB1cbJptoPvn2MPLh8q_BoCrY4QAvD_BwE

Maybe...?
https://store.humanware.com/hus/brailliant-bi-40x-braille-display.html

Dominic, read the specifications to see if it can be updated past 8.1 You do also know they will be pretty expensive. Glad I don't use those anymore. Just waiting on my free Braille reader to read NLS library books here in America.

I think so.

I'm not exactly sure when it's going to be released, but I believe Orbit Research has said sometime in the first quarter of 2024--so if you can wait a little while--perhaps the Orbit Speak would work for you? It doesn't have Braille output, though, so if that's important, I would look at something like the Brailliant BI 20X that has Braille and speech output. I believe the Chameleon has both Braille and speech output, as well.

Thanks,
Shersey

I have the BrailleNote Touch at work and have recently purchased the Brailliant bi-20. As you have said, the BrailleNote has full speech and uses Android. The Brailliant is smaller, more portible, and has limited speech.

The Orbit is a notetaker I considered but since I'm used to the Keysoft operating system, I chose the Brailliant. You can check out the Orbit on A.T. Guys' web site. And you can always give them a call with any questions.

The Mantis does not have audio of any kind. It does have a QWERTY keyboard.
The Brailliant line does have speech output. The OS is limited in what it can do: some basic notetaking, some limited internet connectivity to certain online resources e.g., BookShare. For everything else they're best to be used as a terminal to another machine that being iOS, Mac, Windows...
The new device Orbit Research is making, the Optima, may be the best of all worlds, but time will tell. If you need it soonest, the Optima isn't the one, it is projected for availability of next year and I would suggest giving it another year beyond that.

OK. As I stated never use them but heard that they are nice.

Hi Dominic,

As far as I understand it, unless you're running android on a very expensive device, none will have internet capability. I do wonder, if you can find a brail display to your liking that pairing it with an IOS device might not be the best of both worlds? you can use bluetooth headphones and something like the BI20X or Q40 with a very advanced OS on your phone which is mobile and updatable.

I think that the limitation of all in one solutions is that certain parts of it will be quickly outdated, IE, the brail will probably be fine for a decade, but the power under the hood won't keep up with newer operating systems. In this case, you can simply upgrade your phone, which is going to be far cheaper than upgrading a brail reader that runs android.

Just my thoughts and the reasoning that has led me to the Mantis Q40 myself. My hope is that I can use it as a note taker and reader, unplugged from the world, but have the option of pairing with my Mac or iPad for more powerful applications.

Hope you find something that fits the bill.

I'm serious, here me out. What can you do with a notetaker that you couldn't with a Braille display paired to a phone or laptop, especially a Braille display with some basic notetaking functions like most have now? I can see some things being more efficient witha notetaker and I do miss mine at times, but I find it's just because a few tasks would be faster with one or it would be really nice to have something to just jot a quick note down, which again I can do with my braille display it's just a tiny bit slower. All this being said I love the concept of a good BRaille computer, with solid translation built in for things like Math, so if I ever have the luxury of getting one again I'd go for the bs6 mini. Portability matters most for how I'd want to use a notetaker and that's the most portable one.

Most brail note takers, if not all, have internal storage for writing down thoughts. They are more like hybrid machines these days with simple word processors, calculators, pdf readers and file management systems on board. They don't have email, and only a few have speech, though all will have either an interface for a USB-A thumb drive or an SD card slot... Some with both.

I don't think an android device will have any more ports than this also, something to bear in mind, the battery, I'd imagine, running a full OS will take a greater hit than something simpler.

I do realise we're very much arguing that you should go for a good brail display and leave the smarts to a smart device you can connect. If you're anything like me, you carry your phone with you everywhere. The advantage of connecting it to a phone is that you have internet access everywhere with cell signal, with an android brail note taker, you only have it on wifi.

Anyway, I hope there is something useful in our suggestions.

My QBraille is lighter than a BN touch plus (with 8 more cells too) has on board notetaking and can save to an SD card in either braille or text. Remind me again what advantages you were talking about there?