Jerry,
The BraillePlus and the Icon are identical except that the BraillePlus has a
braille keyboard. Icon does not. Unlike what Andy Baracco said, you can
enter Braille in Grade II on the Icon, although it is a bit more convoluted;
you need to use thumb-Braille. Thumb Braille uses the numeric keypad; dots 1
2 and 3 are represented by the numbers 1 4 and 7, dots 4-6 are represented by
the numbers 3, 6 and 9 respectively. Since it is difficult to press all three
dots in a column down at once, or to press the upper and lower dot in a column
down, the numbers 2, 5, 8 and 0 serve special functioons in ThumbBraille. I
think the 2 is dots 13, and the 5 is dots 123; the 8 is dots 46 and the 0 is
dots 456. In that way, you can type Grade II Braille.
Now, you're in luck with the Icon/BraillePlus. It does work through Bluetooth
with your Braille Connect. Here is some info on how to hook it up:
Icon and Braille + now support a number of Braille displays through Bluetooth,
USB, and serial over USB. Among the supported displays are the Braille connect
and Brailliant displays from HumanWare, the Pacmate and Focus displays from
Freedom Scientific, displays from Handy Tech, Alva displays, the EuroBraille,
Papenmeir displays, Voyager 44 and 70, the Seika Trans Braille 40, and APH's
brand new Refreshabraille. To set up Icon or Braille + for use with a Braille
display, you can either use the Add a Braille Display option in the Braille
Display Settings dialog of the Settings Menu, or you can hold down Program 1
to turn on Braille output.
If you turn Braille on, and no display has been configured, you are taken to
the Braille Display setup form. You are first asked what connection type you
intend to use: 1, Bluetooth; 2, USB; or 3, Serial over USB. If you choose
Bluetooth, Bluetooth is turned on and you are prompted to be sure your display
is turned on and discoverable, and to press OK to continue. You are then asked
to choose the type of display you are using. If you are not sure what type of
display you have, you can choose to have the unit attempt to automatically
determine the display type.
Once you have chosen the type of display you are using, press Select or OK to
connect to your display. If the connection is successful, Braille output is
started, and you are returned to the program you were previously using. If the
connection fails, you are returned to the Braille display setup form.
The Braille display Settings Dialog also contains settings for determining the
output Braille grade, whether speech is on or off when Braille is active, and
whether system sounds are on or off
when Braille is active. In addition, you can toggle whether speech is on or
off when Braille is active at any time using Control + Alt + S.
On Braille displays with 8 dot Braille keyboards for inputting text, dot 7 is
equivalent to shift, and dot 8 works as control. Tap dot 7 quickly to toggle
caps lock on and off.
On displays with a joystick such as the Braille Connect series, pressing in on
the joystick is equivalent to pressing Select on the Icon/Braille +.
Text with attributes such as bolding or underlining or the text of a link is
noted by the presence of a dot 8 in the first and last cell of the attributed
text. You can discover what attributes the text under the cursor contains by
pressing the status key.
Status messages, such as appear when you raise or lower the volume or speech
rate, are denoted by "msg:" and can be dismissed using a cursor routing key.
Steve, K8SP
Disclaimer: I work for a dealer and one of our products is the Icon.
However, I own one along with a couple other notetakers, and the BraillePlus
is definitely my favorite.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gery Gaubert" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:52 PM
Subject: braille plus and icon
Ok, I am in the market to purchase a Braille notetaker. From what I gather=
this is possible with the Braille plus. How about the icon? I looked at =
the pacmates and the brailino. All are expensive. I goofed when I got rid=
of my pacmate to get the braille connect 12. My thinking was that I could=
use the bc12 to take notes and store them in my Motorola q cell phone. It=
takes to long to get to the point where you can start taking notes. The p=
acmate was great for this because you could flip the switch and start typin=
g right away. Now I am stuck with a bc12. I really need something that wi=
ll allow me to take notes, and work with my cell phone to inter contacts an=
d read email. These devices seem to go for about 4000 and up.
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