Portable DAISY player reviews
This article is from RNIB’s readers magazine, Read On (Issue 8 Autumn 2009)
Our reporter Kim Normanton visited the reading room at the Sight Village exhibition in Birmingham in July and talked to visitors and exhibitors about two new portable DAISY players on offer.
Milestone
The Milestone is a credit card sized all-purpose voice recorder MP3 and DAISY player in one. It is simple to use with a black face and five large contrasting ivory coloured tactile control buttons. With excellent sound quality, it has audio and voice announcements to aid navigation.
James Rice from the West Midlands, visited Sight Village to find out about new technology and was particularly interested in portable DAISY players. He said, “I like reading and I miss the physical side of all the reading that I used to do when I was sighted. I now get talking books from RNIB and play them on a PTX1 DAISY player which is convenient when I’m at home but not so good to take on holiday as it’s a bit heavy and bulky.”
Mark Prouse, Technology Products Officer from RNIB told him, “There are a number of devices around that you could use in conjunction with your PTX1 player that are nice and portable. For example, I have in my pocket the Milestone. Rather than disks, it uses an SD card, like the ones you might use to store photos or music on and is really nice and small so great to take on holiday. It has easy-to-use tactile buttons and does all the navigation that we know and love with DAISY books. In fact it does everything that the PTX1 player does.”
In order to copy books from your DAISY disks to the SD card you can use your PTX1 player - you simply plug in your SD card and ‘move’ the files over. Prices start at around £250.
James said, “I’m very impressed with this. It’s exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for to take with me when I travel about or go on holiday. I give it 8 out of 10 - if it wasn’t for the price I’d give it 10 out of 10.”
Plextalk Pocket
A lightweight, pocket sized DAISY and MP3 player with built-in microphone for DAISY book recording and voice note taking. It weighs 110 grams and is the size of a mobile phone.
Anne Anderson, a visitor to Sight Village and Haddy, an exhibitor from Plextalk discussed the Plextalk Pocket player. Like James, Anne was also interested in portable DAISY players.
Haddy told her, “The Plextalk Pocket player comes with a standard 2GB SD card but will support cards up to 32GB so you can store an awful lot of books or music on there.”
Anne, who loves reading, asked how she could get the DAISY talking books she currently gets from RNIB onto this player.
Haddy explained, “What happens is the unit can be hooked up to your PC with a USB connection so you can simply transfer your books from your PC or memory stick to this portable device. If you have a PTX1 player you can also transfer books directly. There is a rechargeable battery so you can recharge it just as you would a mobile phone. The price is around £250.”
Anne said, “I’m in a state of shock, it’s so exciting. I can simply take my DAISY books and put them in my laptop and transfer them to this really portable device. I’m used to lugging around my heavy DAISY player and charger so this is fantastic!”
For more information on the Milestone or Plextalk Pocket visit rnib.org.uk/shop or email shop@rnib.org.uk or call 0303 123 9999.
- Date: August 2009