MessageMaestro Trekker was back in 2005 and went belly up in 2007 when the Apple iPhone changed the world. I think companies wanting to remain in business selling products and services to the Blind need to wake up and smell the coffee. The days of sticking it to the blind because they can are gone. Blind people today understand that they vote with their dollars. No way could they charge 2 grand for a Trekker app. They probably could get 20 dollars for it if it had all the features of the Trekker.
At this point in time, there aren't enough people asking Humanware for a Trekker app. They do listen though. A good example is the survey that was done about features people wanted on a book reader. As a result of what blind people wanted, the Victor Reader Stream is out with wireless connectivity and lets you directly download NLS books, Bookshare.org content and much more. But it happened because enough people contacted them and asked for it. Humanware is awhere of the fact that there is some interest by Trekker users in a Trekker app for iPhone but so far, not enough blind people have made enough requests for even a survey to be put together for usage and features. That's why I gave the contact info. ----- Original Message ----- From: Sieghard Weitzel To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 9:24 PM Subject: RE: Trekker GPS App Hi Alan, I am not sure if Humanware would be the right company to talk to. Their Trekker product utilizes Sendero's technology and as far as I know Sendero is and has been working on a more complete GPS app geared towards the blind for some time. I believe they are funded by Seeing Eye which of course is a good thing because Seeing Eye has the money to back such a project. I used to own a Trekker Maestro about 5 years ago and while I am sure there are people who had good experiences with Humanware, their products and customer service, I was never very impressed and I have a feeling if Humanware was to come up with a GPS app they would try and charge through the nose for it. Remember Orator or whatever it was called? It was the screenreader they developed for Blackberry and even though it only worked on a few devices they were charging $450 which is more than half of the most expensive 64 Gig iPhone without contract. I bet those very likely few people who did buy it probably regretted the decision. It's really too bad Blackberry didn't integrate accessibility into the Blackberry 10 platform because the Z10 and Q10 really do sound like very nice phones and the initial feedback I heard has been rather positive. Anyhow, I don't want to stray into another discussion of accessibility of other platforms and so on, but maybe somebody on the list has heard something new about Sendero's GPS project for the iPhone and will share it. It would really be nice if they came up with a really comprehensive GPS app this year; if it had similar features to a Trekker or MobilGeo combined with the stability of the iOS platform it would really be worth something. Regards, Sieghard -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
