Sense Notetaker changes - public beta 3 dated October 17, 2008. Please note: The new version for the Braille Sense original and Braille Sense Plus notetakers is V5.2 Beta 3. The new version for the Voice Sense notetaker is V1.3 Beta 3. The following is a list of fixes, enhancements, and changes since the last firmware released April 22, 2008. They apply to all 3 notetakers except when indicated otherwise. When upgrading the firmware, all files in active memory are erased and all settings are restored to factory defaults. If either the schedule manager or address manager are used, it is important to open and close these programs prior to upgrading so that any information stored in active memory can be written to the flash disk. Please refer to KB articles 1090 and 1091 for further instructions. The Knowledgebase section of GW Micro is located at http://www.gwmicro.com/kb/. The following sections list the changes between public beta 2 and public beta 3. ++ General 1. Added dot-5-6 to all shortcut letters of menus and options. This makes them use correct Grade 2 rules for letters such as b instead of but, c instead of can, d instead of do, ETC. 2. When reviewing numbers from the Voice Sense in a database, addressbook, or schedule manager, they are no longer split. Previously they would be shown as 2 6 0-4 8 9-3 6 7 1. Now they are together as in 260-489-3671. 3. Fixed a problem when performing file transfers, email checking, or similar processes and you moved the key lock switch, the operation would abort. 4. Fixed additional translation issues such as the dot-3-6 dash symbol not being worded correctly as dash in places like dates of Emails. 5. Fixed problems when translating files from one type to another from the file manager. 6. Fixed some problems reported with the help system not having correct hot keys listed. Add to favorites in the Web browser help is an example. ++ Web browser 1. Fixed problems where you could not use the back button reliably after downloading Web Braille books when choosing the best for PC users button. 2. Fixed problems where a combo box choice would not be accepted when using the letter of the item. For example, pressing the letter B for Braille books in the NLS catalog page would still use the all setting unless you arrowed to the Braille books choice. 3. Fixed problems where the first second or two was getting cut off from certain media streams. ++ Email 1. Enhanced the way addresses are looked up. Now you can type part of an address last name. for example, "gall" and press enter-l. The search will automatically search for "gall" and if you have a last name with "gall" in it such as Gallegos, then "Raul Gallegos" will come up. This saves an extra step in performing address searches from the email program. 2. Fixed problems where the Sense would crash if someone sent an email which was scanned by AVG and the AVG attachment was sent with the message. ++ Media player 1. Made it so if you change the speed of an audio file while the audio is playing, you don'thear the voice say what speed you move to. However if you change the speed while the audio is paused, the voice will speak the new speed setting. 2. Fixed audio file lock up problems which could happen if listening to an mp3 at speed 3 and the battery was less than 50 percent. ++ Misc 1. Fixed a problem where the Sense would lock up when pressing space-d in the Bluetooth manager and there was no Bluetooth device listed. 2. Fixed a problem where the username and password check boxes would not be enabled when choosing save account information from the MSN messenger program. 3. Fixed problems with some custom databases with large number of records getting corrupted after a revive or firmware update. 4. Fixed a problem where you would set a scheduled appointment's alarm to off and it would still sound when the Sense would wake up to alert you of the scheduled appointment. The following sections list the changes between public beta 1 and public beta 2. ++ General 1. Changed it so that Both the wireless and wired MAC addresses are displayed in the Braille Sense Plus info dialog box. 2. In the Bluetooth manager, renamed the enter-r command to "Rescan For Device" 3. Fixed a problem in the DAISY player where you would type a page number of a book and the Sense would always take you to the top of the book regardless of the page number. 4. Fixed problems where sometimes opening certain dialog boxes in the file manager such as rename with enter-r would make things not display properly. Especially if you have the input/view mode set to grade 2. 5. Fixed a problem in the schedule manager where entering dates while in grade 1 input mode would cause a translation error and the numbers would convert to letters causing a date input error. ++ Word processor 1. Fixed problems where blank lines would be dropped out of doc and rtf files. 2. Fixed some minor translation issues with the dot-3-6 and other various symbols while using grade 2. Please note this is still a work-in-progress. ++ Email 1. Fixed a problem when looking up addresses with enter-l and pressing enter on the confirm button would cause the Sense to crash needing a reset. 2. Fixed some question marks appearing when replying to messages. These would appear when encountering several dashes in a row. 3. Fixed a problem with the way time was getting spoken when tabbing to the time received field. This would happen if numbers were set to on. 4. Fixed a problem where the user could not press F2-F3 into another open program while checking for email and the progress was showing. ++ Media player 1. Fixed audio streaming. Many audio streams were not working with beta 1. This should be all fixed now. 2. Made it so that if you press enter-e from the file manager and choose Media player on a folder, the file manager scanns for all subfolders under it and the media player will open and load all the audio files it finds. Previously if there were no audio files in the folder itself, the media player would not be an option to open with. 3. Added feature when playing Audible files. Pressing pause then closing the player or just closing the player will automatically save the position of the file so you will be returned to the same position the next time. If you press space first before closing, the next time you load the Audible file, the position will not be stored. 4. Fixed a problem where moving quickly through an Audible file such as with space-dots-2-3 or space-dots-5-6 twice quickly would lock up the media player. 5. Fixed it so that if you press dot-1 or dot-4 to move along an audio file and the move causes the file to get to the beginning or the end, you are allowd to reach the end of the file. Previously if you pressed dot-1 to move back 5 minutes but you were 3 minutes into the file, the Sense would beep and not let you move to the beginning. 6. Renamed the speed numbers. Now normal speed is 0, faster speeds are 1, 2, 3, ETc. Slower speeds are -1 and -2. 7. Added a beep tone which plays when you reach normal speed (0) while pressing the speed up or slow down commands. 8. Fixed a problem where the Braille display cursor routing keys would not work in the open url enter-u dialog of the media player. 9. Fixed the error message which displays if you try to jump to a non-existant mark in an audio file. 10. Fixed a problem with Braille Sense Plus where it would lock up after making a recording, then pressing play immediately after. 11. Fixed a problem where you would be prompted to save or reset a book mark if you pressed enter on the exit menu item of the media player file menu. 12. The Advanced menu in the media player has been renamed to Position. The menu items have also been slightly altered to make better sense. 13. Slightly changed the wording of several commands such as pressing s, r, dot-1, and dot-4 so they make better Sense. 14. Changed it so when an audio file is playing and you press dot-1 or dot-4 to move within the file, the voice does not say forward or backward x. Now the audio just moves to the new position instantly and resumes playing. 15. Fixed a problem where pressing enter-j to jump to a non-existant bookmark would cause the media player to be confused as to whether the file was playing or paused. 16. Fixed problems where certain mp3 files would not pplay at all or would lock up the media player. ++ Web browser 1. Fixed a problem where performaing an advanced search in www.bookshare.org would cause the Sense to lock up. 2. Fixed problems with certain web pages such as www.tabonline.com.au and www.asx.com.au would not open in the web browser. ++ Help system 1. Changed it so that if you open context help space-h and you arrow to the end of the list, it will wrap around instead of automatically closing. Now you have to close it yourself with F4, space-e, or space-z. 2. Fixed some problems where you could open context help space-h while a program menu (space-m) was open. This caused confusion and is now consistent so that you cannot open the context help while a program menu is open. 3. Your position in a help topic file is now remembered when you close the file. ++ Known issues with beta 2 During this beta cycle we are constantly working on improving and fixing any outstanding problems. The following are a few things which we are aware of and will be fixing before the final release. 1. Translation. We are still working on some minor translation issues when it comes to certain symbols such as dots-3-6. 2. Schedule manager. If you create a new appointment and set the alarm to off, the alarm still sounds when the Sense notetaker wakes up to tell you about the schedule notification. 3. Bluetooth. Sliding the keylock switch on the Braille Sense Plus or Voice Sense during a file transfer will abort the file transfer is the switch is moved quickly. If you slide the keylock switch slowly and wait about 5 seconds at a time, the file transfer continues without interruption. 4. Media player. if you change the speed of an audio file while the audio is paused, you are supposed to hear the speed number you just moved up or down to. The new speed is displayed in Braille fine so it's just a speech issue. Note that if the audio is playing, you will not hear the new speed. The rest of this readme lists the changes between the April 22, 2008 firmware and public beta 1. ++ General 1. Changed the default location of documents from the "Work" folder to a new folder called "My Documents." If you already have a work folder, you can rename it to "My Documents" or if you already have this new folder, you can move all files from the work folder to it to use this new default. If you want to change the folder used as the default document folder, you can choose the new folder by pressing enter-e then F3 from the word processor. Press enter on the button then navigate to the new folder you want to use. When you find it, press space, then enter to choose it and save the information. 2. Added new web browser favorites in addition to what is already added. In order to get the updated list of default favorites, you will need to rename the current favorites folder to something else. You then need to launch the web browser and a new favorites folder will be created which has these new default favorites. You can then copy in your old favorites from the renamed folder if you like. 3. The file extensions supported have been changed with this release. You will need to find the file called fileext.ini located in the flash disk\database folder and delete it. When you do this, close and re-open the file manager and a new fileext.ini file will be created. This step is necessary so that pressing enter on files will allow them to open using the correct program. 4. The position of the help file is stored so when you open the help file again, you are returned to where you left off. ++ Options 1. Renamed Warning messages to Audio alerts. When set to on, there is a tone which plays when connecting/disconnecting to the Internet, and when inserting/removing devices in the slots. Even if this option is set to Off the Braille display will still show an appropriate message. 2. Changed the default control information to, "After." This means that controls such as button, edit box, list box, ETC will be announced after the data. For example, "Cancel button." 3. Changed the default capitalization alert to Pitch. 4. Added a new option called Flip LCD. When set to off, the LCD display is right-side-up so that the user can read it correctly as the Braille Sense Plus is in front of the user. When set to on, the LCD will be up-side-down while the Braille Sense Plus is in front of the user. This would allow someone across from the user to be able to read the LCD display as in a face-to-face conversation between the Braille Sense Plus user and someone else. 5. You can now choose what the left pair and what the right pair of scroll keys of the Braille Sense Plus will do. In the prior version only scroll display was available. Now you can make it so the left pair performs one function and the right pair performs some other function. 6. Added the ability to turn on or off the wired LAN port of the Braille Sense Plus. ++ File Manager 1. Updated the way files are searched for with space-f. Now you are forced to use computer Braille when inputting a file name to search for. Also, when saving or renaming any files, computer Braille should be used to avoid gibberish file names. 2. Changed it so when the send-to feature is used enter-s. Only memory devices which are actually inserted are displayed. ++ Word Processor 1. Fixed some gibberish problems when putting in dashes, or plus signs in files due to some translation issues. 2. Fixed problems found with lockups during spell-checking some Braille files. 3. Fixed problems when spell-checking Braille files. Some words were treated as two words. For example the word spelling would be treated as spelling then as ing. 4. Improved compressed Braille reading mode. Many things were enhanced with it. 5. Fixed problems with words getting skipped if they appeared by themselves on a line and auto-scroll was being used. ++ GW Sense Navigation GW Sense Navigation is the GPS package offered by GW Micro for additional purchase. Many enhancements and fixes were made to SenseNav which are available separately in the Sense Navigation release notes. ++ Schedule Manager 1. Made it so that when you power on the Sense notetaker and check today's schedule is enabled, only appointments which have not occurred yet for that day will display. For example if you have 2 appointments; one is at 8:00 AM and the other is at 3:00 PM and you power on the Sense notetaker at 1:00 PM, only the 3:00 PM will be displayed. 2. Fixed problems where you could not move through a recurring appointment with space-dot-2 or space-dot-5 if the appointment was searched by subject instead of by date. ++ Email 1. Fixed a problem where an Email address containing an equal sign would not be valid. Equal signs are common in Email addresses such as subscription confirmation messages to some mailing lists. 2. Updated the message counting when receiving Email. Now it is treated the same as a progress message. If you have progress messages set to beep, the Sense notetaker will beep as it's receiving new Email. The Braille display will still show the count of messages as they are downloading. 3. Renamed the "Cancel" button to "Close" button inside the service manager. 4. HTML-only Emails are read much better from the Email program. Many messages from GW Micro Events could not be read from the Email program. Now they can be. 5. Added a new hot key backspace-o to open an Email in the web browser. If you have an html Email with many links, you can now open it in the web browser so you can interact with the links. If the Email does not have html coding, this hot key will not function. 6. Fixed some problems where the Email program would get stuck at 0% processed while trying to download Emails. 7. Fixed some problems where multiple Email accounts are used and sometimes pressing the reply hot key enter-r would not use the correct account to reply to the message. 8. Fixed a problem where sometimes outgoing messages would get saved twice and cause extra files to be created. 9. Fixed a problem where pressing enter-f to forward a message would also open the send attachments dialog box since it also uses enter-f when you are composing a message. ++ Media Player 1. Added support for Audible. If you have transferred an Audible audio file with extension .aa you can play it in the Sense notetaker. Please see the release notes specific to Audible for more information. 2. The method of moving backward and forward within an audio file has been enhanced. Dot-2 and dot-5 are now used to choose the time index. The choices are; 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and 1 hour. Once a time index has been chosen, press dot-1 or dot-4 to move backward or forward within the audio file. 3. Changing the speed of an audio file has been enhanced. Now when you press ar-sign to increase or gh-sign to decrease, the speed of the file changes, but the pitch does not. 4. Added a new feature which stores the position of an audio file if longer than a certain amount. The options to choose from are; off, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and 1 hour. If the length of an audio file is longer than the time set, closing the media player will automatically store the position of the audio file so it will automatically resume from the same position the next time the media player is launched. Please note: No matter what this option is set to, the position of Audible files is always stored. 5. Added a shuffle mode which is toggled with the S command. When shuffle mode is on, multiple audio files in a list are played in random order. When set to off, the files are played in the order loaded. 6. Added a repeat mode which is toggled with the R command. When set to on, the current audio file will play again after it reaches the end. 7. Added the ability to toggle the time display by pressing the T command. This will toggle the time display from elapsed to remaining. 8. Added the ability to open an audio file from a URL with enter-u. From this edit box you can enter a URL which contains an audio file or playlist and it will open directly in the media player. You can also do this from the open URL dialog box of the Web browser as well as the open URL space-w from the main program menu. ++ Web Browser 1. Fixed problems where some web pages would not load unless you added something after the first slash. For example, www.mysticplace.org would not load, but www.mysticplace.org/index.html would. 2. Fixed problems where some pages when loaded would only display the page title, but not the content of the page. 3. Fixed problems when using the previous page key where it would cause a lock up. This would happen on sites such as the Web Braille site when downloading magazines or books. 4. Fixed problems found with listening to various audio streams on certain web pages. 5. Fixed various problems where certain web pages would crash the notetaker. 6. Fixed problems when trying to put in a username and password to log in to various web pages. ++ Daisy Player 1. Changed the way to choose a level for movement. You can choose the depth of level you wish to move by. The hot keys are dots-23 or dots-56. 2. Enhanced the speed control. Using ar-sign or gh-sign will speed up or slow down the audio used in a DAISY book. Previously when the speed was changed, the pitch was also moved. Now the pitch is preserved. 3. Fixed Daisy documents which were generated with MS Word. ++ Bluetooth Manager 1. There was a hidden hot key enter-s which was used to delete a paired Bluetooth device. This has been renamed to "Delete Pair Information" and now has the hot key space-d to be consistent. 2. Renamed and added a hot key to rescan for Bluetooth devices. The hot key is enter-r. ++ MSN Messenger 1. Fixed it so if a new contact prompts the user to begin a conversation, the message is read correctly. ++ Internet setup 1. In the wireless list of networks, the "Add new" item has been removed. Only available wireless networks are displayed now. If a new wireless network needs to be added manually, you must press enter on the advanced button and do it from the add new button there. 2. Changed the way you connect to a wireless network encrypted with a WEP key. Now when you press enter on this type of wireless network, you are immediately prompted for the WEP key. This is the same as when you press enter on a wireless network with a WPA encryption. 3. Added support for wpa2 encryption for wireless networks. ++ Backup/Restore 1. When you backup the option settings, the time zone and daylight savings information is also backed up. When the main option settings are restored after a revive or firmware upgrade, the time zone will also be restored. 2. Bluetooth pair information is now one of the options to choose for backup or restore. This way you do not have to re-pair devices after a revive or firmware upgrade. ++ Upgrade 1. Beep tones are now played during the upgrade of the Braille Sense original and Braille Sense Plus. In addition to the beeps, the percentage is also displayed. ++ Misc 1. The leading 0 was removed from the time display. So if it is 3 PM, it will display 3:00 instead of 03:00. 2. Changed the wording so now when the Sense notetaker comes across a blank line, the word "blank" is spoken instead of "empty line." 3. Enhanced the ability to silently power on the Sense notetaker. If you power on while holding down dots-1-2, the power on/off sound, the audio alerts, and the voice are all set to off. This results in a complete quiet power on. In order for this to work in the Voice Sense, a SyncBraille must be attached. If you want to enable one or all of the changed options, you will have to do it from the space-o dialog box. 4. Made it so that if shortcut keys are on, the main program menu such as File manager, Word processor, ETC will also voice the shortcut letters. If shortcuts are off, then they are not voiced. 5. Added Braille messages when devices such as memory cards are removed or inserted. Also added Braille messages when the Sense connects or disconnects to the Internet. This will help a deaf user know what is happening since the tones normally played might not be heard. 6. Fixed inconsistencies with not all words of a menu item not being capitalized correctly. 7. Made it so that power saving mode will not allow the Sense notetaker to power off while it's connected to the PC as a removable device. 8. Fixed crashes which would happen while the Sense notetaker was connected to a PC and a program which uses the flash disk would be opened while the flash disk was not available. The Database manager and Email program are two examples. 9. Updated the Duxbury Braille translator. ++ Audible In order to listen to Audible content with the Sense media player, you must copy the .aa file to the flash disk, SD card, CF card, or connected USB memory stick. In short, as long as you can browse to the .aa file from the file manager, it can be listened to from the Sense. Please note that only type 4 Audible files are supported. In order to download Audible content from Audible.com you must have the Audible Download Manager or the Audible Manager installed in your PC. There are two ways to activate your Sense notetaker so that you can listen to audible content. The first is the easiest, but requires that the Sense notetaker has Internet access for the first time. Copy the Audible .aa file over to the Sense notetaker and then disconnect it from the PC. From the Sense file manager press enter on the .aa file and it will open in the media player. If this is the first time you are doing this, an edit box will display, prompting you for your Audible username. You must be connected to the Internet to proceed. If your user name is not already entered, enter it into this edit box then press the tab key to display the password edit box. Type in your Audible password, then press enter. Please note: your user name and password must be entered using computer Braille. If you are connected to the Internet and you have entered in your correct user name and password, an activation file will be created in the Audible folder of the flash disk. As long as this folder containing the activation file is present in your notetaker, any .ay Audible files will successfully play without the need to be connected to the Internet in the future. The second method to activate the Sense notetaker is by using the Audible Manager. Since the Sense firmware is still in public beta and there are some changes still happening, details of this method will be provided in the near future. Once the Audible .aa file has been loaded in the media player, all standard media player hot keys are available as if it was another audio file. If you want to move between Audible sections, you can use the space-dot-2-3 or space-dot-5-6 hot keys to move backward and forward respectively. Typically sections inside an Audible book are chapters of a book. There are additional ways of moving through an Audible book and they are discussed in the media player section of the release notes. In short, simply choose how far in time to move with either dot-2 or dot-5. Once you have chosen a time index, move backward with dot-1 or forward with dot-4. If you close the media player while listening to an Audible book, the position of the book is stored so the next time you load the same book, you are placed where you left off. You can increase or decrease the speed of the book by using the ar-sign or gh-sign symbols respectively. AR-sign is dots-3-4-5 and GH-sign is dots-1-2-6. When the speed of the audio file is changed, the pitch is preserved. If you close the media player and open it again, the speed is set back to the default.