The ElBraille Windows braille computer has been getting some updates, and both the 14 and 40-cell models are now available for their respective 4th generation Focus braille displays. J.J. speaks with Adi Kushnir from the Elita Group to learn about the latest developments with the 14 and 40-cell models, available from Freedom Scientific. You can find out more information about the device on ElBraille's home page.
Blind Bargains audio coverage of CSUN 2018 is generously sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind.
Transcript
We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.
Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
Almost live from beautiful San Diego, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2018, featuring team coverage from across the Exhibit Hall and beyond, brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.
On the American Foundation for the Blind web site, you’ll find everything you need to know about blindness and visual impairment. Search our national job bank, discover the history of Helen Keller, read our blog on current issues, find professional resources, and even more. Our site is completely accessible. Check it out at www.afb.org.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: We’re here at the Blind Bargains suite, and we’ve brought back Adi Kushnir, part of the ElBraille development team. Some of you might remember, before CSUN 2017 was when we introduced the ElBraille, which is now being sold here in the U.S. and beyond by VFO. But there’s updates to the ElBraille, new products, new sizes, much more.
Adi, welcome back to the podcast.
ADI KUSHNIR: Thanks for having me.
JM: So I’ll let you go ahead and refresh us with what the ElBraille is, and we can kind of segue over to the newer models that are being announced.
AK: All right. So the ElBraille is a portable braille computer which runs under Windows 10. It has a form factor of a traditional notetaker, but inside, it contains a full Windows PC. So it’s not a notetaker with a special shell on top or a mainstream platform covered with a special shell on top like Android and stuff. It’s a full Windows computer with JAWS, and it uses the Focus displays as its braille input and output. And it combines these components to one very nice-looking box and essentially, provides the portability that you expect from a notetaker but with a full computer inside.
JM: So a lot has changed since this thing was originally announced; right? Some of the specs have been upgraded. Now, you’re adding also – you said models, plural. We started with the 14 last year.
AK: Yes. Last year, we announced at CSUN 2017, the availability of the ElBraille 14, which began to sell in the U.S. from conventions last year. And this year, we’re announcing the availability of the ElBraille 40. A lot of people were expecting the ElBraille 40, because for lots of people, 14 cells of braille, when it comes to working with Windows, is small.
JM: Sure.
AK: So we have released the ElBraille 40 for the Focus Fourth Generation. It’s important to mention that, because Freedom Scientific has just come out with a new braille display line, 14 and 40 cells. It’s called the Fifth Generation Focus Blue series.
JM: Yup.
AK: ElBraille, for now, is available for the Fourth Generation Focus series only.
JM: Which is probably the one that many listeners would have if they had a Focus 40 anyway.
AK: Yes. Most people have it. Yes. Most people carry it.
JM: So that’s why that was done.
AK: A model for the Fifth Generation is coming. Availability dates and info on that will follow –
JM: Dot, dot, dot.
AK: Exactly.
JM: Sure. And then, as far as the 14, is it for the new 14 or the old one or both?
AK: No. The 14 did not change. It’s still for the Focus 4. Both of them are for the old one.
JM: Okay. At the moment. So I believe it remains to – also, for those people who have the displays, you want to turn them into an ElBraille, it’s not necessarily a PAC Mate situation; correct? Where you can actually take the display out and put it back? Once you do it, it’s done; is that correct?
AK: On the 14, you can dock and undock it.
JM: Right.
AK: On the 40 --
JM: Oh. That’s right.
AK: On the 40, you can’t.
JM: I should remember that too. We did see this last year --
AK: Yeah.
JM: -- at CSUN. You're right.
AK: Here it is, if you want to hold it.
JM: Oh. Which one do we have here?
AK: This is the 40.
JM: Oh. A 40. Thank you. All right. It’s been nice talking to you, and – no.
AK: Yeah. This is the ElBraille 40.
JM: Okay. So I – yeah. I noticed – and this is why I was recalling that, when this –
AK: It’s the Focus on top.
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: And it’s a little bit thicker.
JM: And it isn’t, like, a transformed device, like you said. That’s what I was referring to and thinking of, I think, in my mind.
AK: Yes.
JM: So what’s been added – so we have the regular Focus 40 with the 40 cells and the rockers on both sides and the keyboard. Then above this, we have a bunch of buttons. That’s – that’s --
AK: These are ElBraille function keys.
JM: Okay.
AK: These include volume keys, some menu keys for special software that we provide.
JM: Okay. And also two stereo speakers?
AK: Yes. Two speakers. And on the right –
JM: They’re facing up on the top side there.
AK: Yes. On the right side, you’ve got your headphone ports, SD card reader --
JM: Full sized.
AK: Yes. Full-sized. USB 3 --
JM: USB. Okay.
AK: Power.
JM: Power is a – looks like a proprietary round –
AK: Yes. It’s a proprietary round connector.
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: On the left side, you’ve got the power button. Then, you’ve got –
JM: It’s near the front.
AK: Yes. And then you’ve got a – there are two ports, one on top of the other. One is USB – micro USB port, and it’s intended to allow you to connect the ElBraille to a regular PC as a standard Focus display, because you cannot dock and undock it.
JM: Okay. Right.
AK: And you don’t want to lose your capability to use your Focus as a display for a PC.
JM: Right.
AK: So when you connect the cable into this micro-USB port and you plug it into a PC, the Focus disconnects from the ElBraille and becomes available to your PC as a regular braille terminal.
JM: Makes sense.
AK: And you can switch between this on the fly with a button if you want, when the ElBraille is on.
JM: Okay. That’s what that button is above it?
AK: No.
JM: Oh.
AK: No. No. This is –
JM: Okay.
AK: The button that’s above it is the power button of the Focus itself to allow you to switch between Bluetooth and USB connection.
JM: I was just going to ask how that happened.
AK: Yeah.
JM: All right. And then behind that?
AK: And then, on the bottom, after the USBC port –
JM: Oh. Yup.
AK: -- there’s another port – the micro USB port, not the USB.
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: -- there is a SIM card for the LTE modem.
JM: Oh. Okay.
AK: Yes. It’s a micro SIM slot.
JM: Makes sense. So you can use that with most of your major carriers there’s –
AK: Your U.S. carriers. Yes.
JM: GSM and –
AK: It’s GSM for now.
JM: Okay. So AT&T, T-Mobile and their derivative whatevers. And then, all these buttons in the front, these are the Focus –
AK: These are the Focus controls.
JM: All the regular focus controls.
AK: Yes. And then on the left side, you have an HDMI port, of course.
JM: Of course. Which is useful, it being a computer –
AK: Exactly.
JM: Let’s talk about some of the specs of – we’ve had some questions that have come in over time on the computing power, so where this falls -- and if it falls, say closer to the power of a desktop or closer to the power of a, say, like one of those Ultrabook type situations.
AK: Yes. For now, it is closer to tablets –
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: -- because to fit an entire desktop board in this small size is difficult. You know, a very powerful laptop board because you need to keep the Focus inside, you need to keep large batteries inside, and we’re looking for a small board to fit inside.
JM: Sure.
AK: So right now, it is still comparable to Windows tablets, although we are looking at ways of expanding it. But for now, it is what it is.
JM: So more suited to certain tasks, like, let’s say, like, web browsing, Email – you think it’s more suitable for that versus –
AK: It’s more suitable for office Email, web browsing than, let’s say, development. You’re not going to code on this.
JM: Right. And maybe, a little more of running one or two or three apps at a time as opposed to running 50 --
AK: Yes. Yes.
JM: -- apps at a time.
AK: Yes.
JM: You mentioned specialized apps. Tell us a little bit about that.
AK: Yes. We provide two apps. One was available since last year. It’s called ElNotes. It’s a note-taking app, which you can, with the press of a button, take a text note or voice note.
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: And this year, at CSUN 2018, we’re unveiling ElPhone, which is an app that allows you to use the ElBraille to make and receive phone calls, but more importantly, to send and receive SMS messages via the 4G modem.
JM: I was going to say, to hold this as a phone -- although, you could do speaker phone or with a headset.
AK: Exactly. The main purpose is not a phone.
JM: But with a Bluetooth headset, it could work.
AK: Yes. But the main purpose of this is SMS, because people who are deaf and blind at the same time, to make them easier to communicate. So SMS in one device could be handy.
JM: For sure. What’s the boot-up time on this?
AK: 30 to 40 seconds, I would say.
JM: I just hit power, actually.
AK: Yeah.
JM: You kind of hear –
AK: It vibrates to give you –
JM: Interesting. So it does have a – okay. Focus 40, 5.71. That’s the regular Focus. So it boots the Focus first.
AK: Now, it’s loading up the Intel board it uses. It uses a product called the Intel Compute Stick.
JM: Yes.
AK: This is – for now, this is the smallest one we can get fitted in here.
JM: Shows the battery of percentage as well.
AK: No. That’s the percent of the –
JM: Of the –
AK: There we go.
JM: Of the Focus; right.
AK: Yes. Now JAWS will load.
(Computerized voice announces: JAWS for Windows. Windows sign-in.)
AK: And now it wants a password.
JM: Okay. Well, we won’t – I mean, you don’t have to put your password out in the air, but that was –
AK: This is its boot-up time.
JM: But that was pretty fast.
AK: Yes.
JM: And can you do regular Windows sleep mode and things like that?
AK: Sleep mode, unfortunately, Intel, in the Compute Stick, they block it.
JM: Oh. Interesting.
AK: Yes. We don’t know what’s the reason, but –
JM: There you go.
AK: It’s out of our control.
JM: Okay.
AK: But all the other Windows tasks, yes. You can do.
JM: I see. And how do you go – how are some of the specific programs? They’re just integrated as apps? Desktop apps or something like that?
AK: Yes. They’re desktop apps.
JM: Now, this is designed to work with JAWS, and there’s a JAWS – you can either bring your own JAWS license; right? Or there’s a JAWS license on here?
AK: Exactly. You don’t have – if you have JAWS or any of the Focus displays, you have to purchase nothing --
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: -- extra, just the ElBraille part.
JM: Uh-huh. And of course, you do need – it’s not designed to work with other – narrator or –
AK: It’s not. I can’t tell you not to use them if you want to use them, but it’s at your own –
JM: And are there certain functions that wouldn’t work well in those situations?
AK: Yes. Keep in mind that JAWS is designed to allow you to control the system from the Focus displays, so if you use another screen reader and you cannot perform certain functions using the braille display’s keyboard, we’re not going to support you.
JM: Sure. So it’s an unsupported kind of situation. If somebody wants –
AK: Yes. We can’t prevent someone from doing that because it’s Windows. It’s an open environment.
JM: Right.
AK: But the official support is JAWS.
JM: Sure. Makes sense. What is -- the ElBraille on this 40 here, what does it do to the weight compared to the Focus 40?
AK: It adds a bit to it, although not much, as you can see, it’s not –
JM: It feels heavier, but not, you know –
AK: It’s heavier –
JM: You can put it in a backpack.
AK: -- but it’s not impossibly heavy to carry, you know.
JM: I don’t think it’s much heavier than my laptop –
AK: Exactly.
JM: That’s two or three pounds.
AK: Exactly.
JM: You know, you’re carrying around a computer.
AK: It’s like, two pounds of it.
JM: Yeah. Which, I mean, your Ultrabooks are about that.
AK: Exactly. You have a unit with a braille display combined. Battery life on this is over 20 hours.
JM: Which is – you’re not –
AK: With Wi-Fi.
JM: -- you’re not getting that with a laptop. No.
AK: You’re not.
JM: At least not at this size, for sure. And, of course, it’s much narrower than your average laptop as well.
AK: Yes. And it has all the latest Wi-Fi, like 802.11ac and –
JM: And Bluetooth –
AK: Bluetooth 4.2 --
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: -- is up on the board. And it also has a GPS module. Stay tuned for info about that later.
JM: Really interesting. I mean, there’s some –
AK: Yeah.
JM: -- Mac software out there, but there’s certainly an opportunity for you guys as well perhaps.
AK: And for now, basically, that’s the package. Again, the ElBraille 14 has the same specs as this one, but it’s a dockable unit, and the updated 40 that we’re selling this year is --
JM: It will be a dockable too?
AK: No.
JM: Oh. Is there any reason for that? Is it just, like, the way it fit into this, you couldn’t make it work?
AK: The Focus displays -- the Focus Fourth Generation displays were not originally designed –
JM: Sure.
AK: -- for that purpose.
JM: Will that new one be?
AK: The Focus – I can say that in the Fifth Generation Focus, more things have been considered --
JM: I see. Of course.
AK: -- due to the fact that ElBrailles are available. But whenever the time will come, we’ll share info on these models. But expect them, because people buy these displays, of course. And we need to get them served.
JM: And part of the reason I ask, I guess -- especially looking at a computer. The life cycle of a braille display is often more than the life cycle of a laptop and –
AK: This is another beautiful thing.
JM: -- that’s an expensive -- right. This is an expensive thing, so two or three years from now, when there’s more computing power out there and I want to upgrade my Focus, you know –
AK: You don’t even have to upgrade your Focus. We’ll be keeping – this is the beauty of this, whenever we have options to throw in better boards in there, we’ll just let you operate the ElBraille part. If you’re display’s in perfect condition –
JM: And you’ll do some sort of a trade-in program?
AK: Yes.
JM: Obviously, you don’t have anything yet, so you don’t have anything to speak to, but.
AK: It’s basically, you can keep your current display. So we don’t have, like, with other notetakers, you have to pay a cost for upgrading a whole unit. Here, you don’t, because if the display’s in perfect condition, why replace it?
JM: Do you think there are still advantages to the traditional notetaker that has all the apps built in, or do you think there are Windows apps that, you know, will maybe work better there? Or do you guys plan to address those shortcomings somehow?
AK: Maybe. We are now currently looking at addressing contracted braille files' readability, BRF and stuff like that.
JM: Sure. Some of those – math comes to mind as one of the –
AK: Yes. And math. We’re also looking at how to do math support, because these are things that are missing on Windows currently. But our goal is to produce a device which is, in total, less expensive than the proprietary notetakers. Looks in the same way but runs on completely mainstream components. Like, this is a mainstream Intel board. Nothing special.
JM: Yup.
AK: So –
JM: You’re paying for the board and the housing.
AK: Yes.
JM: And then the software that connects –
AK: Yes.
JM: -- kind of connects it all together.
AK: Yes. Yes. And Windows 10 is up to date.
JM: And of course, would remain up to date.
AK: Exactly.
JM: As you’re going, the updates are going to come in at the same time as –
AK: Exactly. Whenever we release new hardware, again, you just update the PC part. The braille display is intact. You don’t have to pay for that.
JM: What about the book services, that type -- feature that’s often on the notetakers – Daisy reading, BARD, things like that?
AK: This is another area that we’re looking to address. Right now, we have the FS reader app –
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: -- for Windows that offers some –
JM: Sure.
AK: -- easy reading, including Bookshare, I believe, or some others. But we’re looking forward for a comprehensive app that will allow you to do all that like on others. It takes some time to –
JM: Sure.
AK: -- get these things in place, because for the other platforms, these things happen before, and they are made from the ground to be specialized and adapted. Here, it’s a mainstream –
JM: Yes.
AK: -- environment. But we’ll get them solved.
JM: Cool. So the 40’s shipping now.
AK: Yes. The 40 is shipping. It’s presented here at CSUN.
JM: And what’s the pricing look like for either one, for the 40 or 14?
AK: The price, if I remember correctly, the ElBraille dock is around seventeen hundred.
JM: Okay. For either model?
AK: Yes. If I remember correctly. Don’t quote me. It could be seventeen ninety-five, but –
JM: Well –
AK: But –
JM: Somewhere in that vicinity.
AK: Yes.
JM: -- of there. And of course, if you need the JAWS license or you need the –
AK: Yes. It’s Focus, it’s –
JM: -- the Focus, I’m sure there’s packages and things you could get over on the web site.
AK: Yes.
JM: Great. So is it over – do you go to freedomscientific.com to look up more here? Are there any other –
AK: Freedomscientific.com. You can go to elbraille.com. There is a – and go to the booth. Booth 205, 305, and 405.
JM: Is VFO just the distributor to the U.S., or are they worldwide handling products?
AK: They distributed in the U.S. mainly.
JM: Uh-huh.
AK: Worldwide, it’s sold by us, Elita Group. We’re the developers of the ElBraille in partnership with VFO, but we’re distributing it worldwide. In parts, like the UK, for example, we have all the Freedom Scientific dealers, like Sight and Sound and others take care of it. So just look for your traditional VFO dealer to pick up your hardware.
JM: Awesome. If people want to get in contact, send over feature ideas, ask questions, et cetera, what’s the best way to do that?
AK: You can E mail support@elbraille.com.
JM: Thank you so much, Adi, for coming back on. I really appreciate it.
AK: I really appreciated you having me. Thanks.
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
