---- Original Message ------
From: "@ Freedom Scientific News" 
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Subject: Freedom Scientific Reduces PAC Mate Price - and Releases 
FREE 6.5Update
Date sent: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:17:55 -0400 (EDT)

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Greetings!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Brad Davis
800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000
www.FreedomScientific.com
Sales: [log in to unmask]

The World’s Most Powerful Notetaker Just Got More Affordable

Freedom Scientific Reduces PAC Mate Price and Releases FREE 6.5 
Update

(St.  Petersburg, Florida – September 30, 2010) – Freedom 
Scientific today announced a $900 price reduction on its PAC Mate 
Omni accessible Pocket PCs while releasing a FREE firmware update 
for existing users.

The new prices are:

PAC Mate Omni Speech Only — $1,495 reduced from $2,395

PAC Mate Omni with 20 cells of Braille — $2,895 reduced from 
$3,795

PAC Mate Omni with 40 cells of Braille — $4,695 reduced from 
$5,595

Already an industry leader in accessible mobile functionality for 
the blind, the PAC Mate Omni is now the clear leader in 
affordability, offering 40 cells of Braille for about 25 percent 
less than what competitors charge for a notetaker with just 32 
cells.

“While other manufacturers are raising prices, Freedom Scientific 
is making assistive technology more widely available by passing 
savings in our manufacturing processes onto our customers,” says 
Jonathan Mosen, Freedom Scientific’s Vice President of Blindness 
Hardware Product Management.

“This is our third major price reduction this year.  We reduced 
our Focus 40 Blue Braille Displays by 38 percent in March, and we 
lowered the price of our MAGic Screen Magnification Software by 
$100 in June.”

This price reduction coincides with the posting of the 6.5 
release for English language users that expands the PAC Mate 
Omni’s capabilities with an array of new features:

RealSpeak Voices
Since Freedom Scientific introduced the RealSpeak voices in JAW, 
MAGic, and OpenBook, many customers have enjoyed the more natural 
sound, particularly for reading lengthy texts.  Many have asked 
for these voices with the PAC Mate Omni.  With Release 6.5, you 
can easily switch between Eloquence and RealSpeak synthesized 
speech with a simple command from anywhere on the PAC Mate Omni.

RealSpeak is available in many languages, further heightening the 
PAC Mate Omni’s appeal among those who work with multiple 
languages.

Expanded settings dialogs in the PAC Mate Omni 6.5 provide 
thorough, independent control over primary and secondary voices 
and Braille languages.

Unified Instant Messaging with Mundu® IM
The PAC Mate Omni continues to offer free Windows Live Messenger 
support out of the box.  With the 6.5 release, we’ve added 
support for Mundu IM, a unified instant messaging solution 
supporting a number of services including MSN, Yahoo, ICQ,  AIM, 
Google, and Jabber.  Chat with your buddies in real time, no 
matter what the service.  The PAC Mate Omni with Mundu IM gives 
the deaf blind access to the many relay services that interface 
with AOL, and instant messaging is available in contracted 
Braille, letting messages fly back and forth even faster.  Mundu 
IM is available for purchase separately.

Built-in FSReader DAISY Player
Freedom Scientific's FSReader software opens a world of 
accessible reading material for the visually impaired.  Used with 
Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY)-formatted talking 
books, FSReader delivers a host of powerful navigation tools for 
reading:

Go directly to a specific chapter, heading, or page
Set an unlimited number of annotated bookmarks
Speed up or slow down speech whether listening to a recorded 
narrator or synthesized speech
Download or purchase on CD DAISY 2.0 and DAISY 3.0 e-books (the 
ANSI/NISO standard) like those available from www.Bookshare.org, 
and browse, read, and study.  Play AudioPlus books from Recording 
for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D).

There are numerous other enhancements and performance 
improvements in the PAC Mate 6.5.  Coupled with the powerful 
Microsoft Office support, e-mail options, and other applications 
already in the PAC Mate, the 6.5 release continues to broaden the 
range of tasks one can accomplish on the go with this 
multi-faceted device.

Release 6.5 is available as a free download from the Freedom 
Scientific Web site at 
http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/pacmate/pacmate-omni65
-update-dl.asp.

To learn more about accessing the many capabilities of the PAC 
Mate Omni, register for our free Webinar on October 5, 2010 ast 
http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/e-LearningEntrance.asp.  
Or check out the DAISY books at the PAC Mate training downloads 
page at 
http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/PACMate-training-hq.asp


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