----- Original Message -----
From: "Isaac Obie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 4:16 AM
Subject: The Bookworm


I've just finished evaluating the Bookworm. I think it is a neat little
device! It's about the size of a video cassette. It fits in the hand
easily. you could carry it in your briefcase, purse, or jacket
pocket(although I wouldn't recommend it.)
It operates on four rechargeable, user-changeable batteries with
following
technical specifications:

Type:               NiMH (nickel-metal hybrid)
Size:               Mignon (AA)
Nominal voltage:    1.2 V
Nominal capacity:   1200 mAh. they will last up to I believe twenty
hours.
I believe they can be recharged up to a thousand times or for two years.
the bookworm has four controls total! there're eight cells of braille.
It
has autoscroll, it has a clock, an alarm and it can be used as a braille
display if desired.
 The Bookworm comes with two programs. One is BWcomm, which is the
program
that loads the books in to your Bookworm through the DOS Prompt.
(there's
a windows version of this program underdevelopment and will be available
to any owners of Bookworm free of charge!)
the second program is called BWPro. this program makes the Booworm act
like a braille display. I had a problem getting this to work with
{COMMO}
initially. so I e-mailed the distributors and they solved the problem
within hours after I mailed them a copy of the {COMMO} program. Now if
that isn't impressive..... <smile>
I used the following programs with the Bookworm successfully,
1. {COMMO}
2. Readit.exe
3. WordPerfect 5.1
those are  my most frequently used programs. there's one more called
Ted,
but I didn't have occassion to use it, but I have no doubt it, too, will
work flawlessly!
this is what I call the "working man's" device! It's priced very
reasonably at $1695 and it has much flexibility.
 I am especially grateful to the people at Handy Tech who graciously
loaned me this device for a week to test and evaluate. they were
extremely
helpfuo and very open to suggestions.
I only saw one problem with the Bookworm and that's minor. I had a
German
copy of the software and those german characters drove me bananas!
<smile>
that's my only complaint and very small indeed. I was assured that upon
purchase of a unit, that I would receive english software! <Big Smile>
 So, I've heard about the Bookworm for years and I've been waiting for
it
to arrive! I am not disappointed at all! Loading books is a breeze! It
really is. all you need to do is download the book to your computer,
fire
up the Bookworm's communications program and hit a few keystrokes and
viola! You got it! I put six volumes of braille into the Brookworm and I
still had more than half of the memory space left, in addition to at
least
five or six files that the distributors had put in as well. One of these
included the Bookworm's 98KB manual.
this device weighs about fourteen ounces and is about eight inches long
and about four wide and about an inch in height.
Thanks again to the people at Handy tech--especially Jill clark for the
loan of this exciting, cool device!

All the best!
Go with God!
Isaac Obie, B.A., M.A.