Earlier in the feed we featured a chat with Randy Ahn on innovation at HIMS. But for those who are eager to learn more JJ spoke with Thomas Simpson, VP of Marketing and Sales for HIMS Inc, about the announcement of pre-orders for the BrailleSense 6 Mini. The pair discuss what s in store for those who are seeking the new Android based notetaker, upgrade paths and initial feature sets for the new device. To learn more about pricing, listen or read the transcript below, and visit the HIMS Inc website to pre-order the unit
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Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
Directly, and actually in person, from Anaheim, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2022. Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology book reviews and mobile apps; and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld. The American Foundation for the Blind’s free online technology magazine. Www.afb.org/aw.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: Back at CSUN 2022 with Thomas Simpson, VP of Marketing and Sales for HIMS. A new BrailleSense 6 mini.
Welcome back to the podcast.
THOMAS SIMPSON: Thank you for having me.
JM: So I just kind of stole your thunder there a little bit. Sorry about that. But – but yes. There is indeed a new BrailleSense 6 mini. And I’ll let you take it from there. Tell us a little bit about it.
TS: Yeah. Well, it is a BrailleSense 6, and it is mini. But the small –
JM: All right. That’s great. That’s the end of the podcast.
TS: There we go. We’re done; right? But the cool thing about the BrailleSense 6 mini – the way that HIMS does mini notetakers that’s really great is it really is meant to be portable. And that’s the big thing with the BrailleSense mini. It’s sleek, slim design, and it’s built to go with you; right?
JM: Right.
TS: So we’ve got 20 cells on the display, but it has all of the power of the big 32-cell BrailleSense 6. So you’ve got your 8-core CPU, you’ve got your 6 gigabytes of memory, and 128 gigabytes of storage. So it’s – don’t let the small size fool you. It is a full-featured, full-powered device.
JM: It seems like the button layout is also similar to your other devices as well; correct?
TS: Yeah. That’s right. If you were to pick up the Polaris mini and the BrailleSense 6 mini, you’d have a hard time distinguishing them. They’re very, very similar. The biggest difference are the ports.
JM: All right.
TS: So on the BrailleSense 6 mini, you’ve got 2 USBC type ports, and that’s it for connection. We also have a microphone and headphone ports as well. And then inside of the battery case is a micro-SD card slot.
JM: Okay.
TS: But besides that, you know, you got your standard media buttons, your standard lock switches that the BrailleSense typically has. But yeah. Two ports. USBC.
JM: Are they both charging ports, or do you – was one charging and one more data?
TS: Yeah. So one is – one, towards the back, is labeled with the letter P on top of the case, and that’s for power or PC. So if you want to connect this device to your computer and use it in terminal mode with your favorite screen reader, you could do it with that. The other one, the one below it, that’s for video output. So, like, if you wanted to share your screen with a sighted colleague, you just get a USBC cable, plug it into a monitor, and it provides power and video to the monitor with one cable. But that’s also where you’re going to plug in your headphones, your microphone, and all sorts of different – you know, off-the-shelf USB devices.
JM: Sure. I suppose one could plug in even a hub if they wanted to.
TS: Absolutely. Yeah. Hubs work excellent with it, and one of the things that we hear a lot from people is about doing audio recordings; right?
JM: Yeah.
TS: And so Earl Harrison, what he does is he uses a mixer. So he – you know, he does all sorts of music and recordings and stuff, so he plugs in a mixer to it, and then – yeah. Just rocks everything from that.
JM: So it’s still running Android – is it still Android ten or –
TS: Yeah. It’s an Android ten device. Yeah. And we have planned for upgrading the operating system. When that’s going to happen and to which version, you know, we haven’t disclosed yet. But – yeah. That is a guarantee.
JM: That always becomes a challenge, I guess; right? With Android? And that’s the first thing that people seem to jump to, although the version numbers probably don’t matter as much.
TS: Yeah. And especially with a HIMS device, it’s a little bit different because one of the things we focus on are building our own applications with a Braille-first design; right? So, you know, we have our own word processors, Email app, and web browser and these different things. And, you know, we’re adding to that list as time goes on. And so, what we want to do is create an environment where people have a Braille-first approach to do everything and not rely as much on Android applications to do things, as much as possible.
JM: I understand there are some new features in this, and some of your other models, as well.
TS: Yeah. That’s right. So they’re not out yet, but depending on when this is released and when we release our firmware, it might be out. So what we’re going to include with this next firmware release is improvements to Google Drive. So we have a custom Google Drive application or feature that’s built into our file manager, and it allows you to do sharing of your Google Drive files to other people. So we’ve got shared drives in there, shared folders and files, so you’re going to be able to share everything directly from our Google Drive application, which you couldn’t do before. And if you’ve never used the Google Drive app on the BrailleSense 6 or the Polaris, it’s just like how you would use in the file manager. So you could use first-letter navigation, you’ve got all those keyboard commands in there so you could create new files, you can create new folders with Braille-first approach; right?
JM: So when you create features like this, are they only working on the 6, or are they also back – ported to Polaris?
TS: Yeah. So the – a lot of them go back to the Polaris. So with these new features that are coming out on this firmware – I’d have to double-check. I don’t want to say for certain and misspeak.
JM: Right.
TS: But a lot of features do go back to the Polaris. That’s right.
JM: But if people do want to upgrade from the Polaris to the mini, there’s a path for them as well?
TS: Yeah. So if you have a BrailleSense Polaris mini, and you want to upgrade to the BrailleSense 6 mini, we have an upgrade where you’ll send in your device, we’ll remove the braille cells from your Polaris mini, and put it into a brand new BrailleSense 6 mini. And so effectively, you’re getting a brand new device at a much lower price, and – yeah. It’s just – probably one of the cheapest ways to get a brand new notetaker. So it’s – yeah. Fantastic.
JM: How long is that upgrade plan going to be available?
TS: So we have a promotional price of $1,600 for customers in the U.S. and Canada. And that promotional price, I think, is going to go until about, probably, the end of April.
JM: Okay.
TS: And then after that, there’s going to be a price increase. And how long we have the upgrade available is going to depend on a lot of factors; right? So there is a chip shortage, and so we do have to be careful about how we –
JM: Sure.
TS: -- do chips and stuff like that, so.
JM: Absolutely. Anything else for new features that we should be talking about?
TS: Yeah. So with the new firmware in our Google Drive application, you got the shared folders and files. We’re also adding OneDrive inside of our file manager.
JM: Okay.
TS: So you got Braille-first for OneDrive sharing. And also Dropbox is going to be in there as well. So, yeah. If you’re using Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive for sharing documents, storing documents, that’s all going to be in there, and it works great. There’s also a lot of bug fixes in there.
JM: Always.
TS: Yeah. Well, with the new – with a new product, there’s always some issues; right?
JM: Yes. Absolutely.
TS: So – yeah. There’s a lot of bug fixes and stability fixes in there as well, so –
JM: Very cool. And the updates are always free.
TS: Updates are always free.
JM: How much is the price for the new 6 mini?
TS: So the new price is forty-five ninety-five for the MSRP, for the mini 6.
JM: Very cool.
TS: And right now, what we’re doing is a preorder. If you preorder -- I think it’s before the end of April -- it’s free shipping, and I believe you get an extra case with it as well.
JM: Okay. If people want to preorder or get more information, what’s the best way to do that?
TS: Yeah. So if you want more information about the BrailleSense 6 mini or any of our other products, you can visit us online at hims-inc.com. That’s H-i-m-s, dash, I-n-c, dot com. You could also call us at 512-837-2000. Or you could send an Email to sales@hims-inc.com.
JM: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on.
Before we go, do you have any comments on the product announcement that randy made on the feed earlier today?
TS: Oh, yeah. It was wonderful, what he said. I can fully back everything that he said, and it’s just great that he’s able to provide such awesome feedback for this community.
JM: Definitely go check it out if you haven’t yet on the feed. Thank you so much, Tom.
TS: Thank you very much.
JM: Have a great day.
TS: I appreciate it.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
