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Around 2004, 2005, I made what to me was an absolutely amazing discovery: the Book Port by APH. Quite frankly, I could hardly believe that such a remarkable device existed. Here, in a very tiny package, was something that could play MP3 files, read text, and do so many incredible things, all fully accessible. In its time,the original Book Port was one of the most exciting pieces of technology I had ever seen, and its battery life was astounding, something I've never seen equaled before or since.
Though I entered into the process toward the end of the Book Port's life cycle, I marveled at the innovations APH made with this little device, the creativity shown, the very efficient use of what was, physically, rather old technology.I witnessed the birth of the alarm, as well as a huge number of features and refinements which almost made it seem as though the unit was much more powerful than it really was.
After the Book Port ended its development cycle, APH was under a lot of pressure to develop a successor to the Book Port. There was a great deal of hesitation, some deciding and re-deciding, a long period when APH said there would be no Book Port the Next Generation, and finally APH announced that there would indeed be a Book Port Plus. By then, I was already a very loyal Victor Reader Stream user, but I was open-minded. I remembered what APH had done with the original Book Port, and I scooped up a Book Port Plus and had my order placed twenty minutes after the announcement that the new unit was available. My expectations, based on previous experience, were extremely high: I knew what APH had done and fully expected them to do it again.
The result, for me personally, has been much less than satisfactory. I was, frankly, befuddled by APH's choice to use the precise same hardware as its competitor, the Plextalk Pocket. It was not new technology, and it meant that, at least on a physical level, a product would be competing with itself. My feeling was that Plextar would not license APH to do what they were doing unless it was their intention to abandon the hardware themselves in favor of something better, faster, smarter. This indeed proved to be the case.
A lot has been made of the fact that the Victor Reader Stream 2's WiFi capabilities are extremely limited. This is indeed true, but it should be noted that the Book Port Plus (BPP) made zero use of WiFi when it was originally released. I never held this against APH, because I knew the infrastructure was in place and it was just a matter of time.
The big thing that the BPP has going for it is that, like the Plextalk Pocket, the recording facilities are as good as any unit of its type that I have ever seen. This is a huge strength to me, but it is one of only two. The other is the fact that APH has ported the same technique for brailling as it did for its other devices, which is brilliant.
I am not a fan of the UI, the layout APH has chosen for navigating with the BPP. To me it is confusing and counterintuitive, treating the keypad as a whole as an almost arbitrary series f buttons. This is, of course, subjective. I know of at least one person who prefers APH's choice of navigational layout, so really the thing to do, if you can, is to look at your options of players and decide which layout you prefer, if that's important to you.
When it comes to battery life, the BPP is also less than impressive, as far as I'm concerned. To see this in action, charge the battery, put your BPP in a drawer for a couple of weeks, then see where your battery is. The Stream, on the other hand, has a much longer battery life to start with, and I know of at heast one person who misplaced their Stream for over a year, and upon finding it, discovered that the battery level was still high.
Also a notable disappointment to me is the fact that the BPP can only handle Audible format 4, not Audible Enhanced files. Enhanced Audible files offer higher fidelity and stereo sound. It is true that, at present, through no fault of Humanware, the Stream 2 does not support Audible. However, we are told that an agreement with Audible has been reached and a firmware release is in the works, hopefully by the end of the month. I have asked APH on several occasions whether support for Enhanced Audible files, M4A files, and FLAC files is forthcoming in some future release, and each time my question has simply been unanswered.
The BPP is also, in my view, very slow and beeps way too much. Some of the beeps can be turned off, but not all, and many of the functions take an extremely long time to execute. This is an example of old hardware, I think, see below.
I also feel that APH has chosen to use old hardware for a new product, which limits what they can do. Plextar themselves have opted for newer hardware, abandoning the Pocket in favor of the Lineo.
In short I do not recommend the BPP, unless high-quality recording is of paramount importance to you. Even then, a better reader and a dedicated recorder may suit you better. The BPP is limited in the number of file types it supports, the layout is, to me, counterintuitive and clunky, it is slow, and APH doesn't seem to be overly interested in improving the firmware with any great speed. Battery life is, in my experience, dismal, and the hardware is very much out of date.
While there are some facts in the above article, much of it is, of course, my own personal opinion based on my experiences as an owner of the Stream, Stream 2, and Book Port Plus. Amid the reviews, criticisms, demonstrations, and so on, of the various devices that can be found all over the Net, it is up to the consumer to discern fact from opinion from bias. The consumer needs also to consider his or her needs and priorities: a high quality recorder isn't of paramount importance to me, but it might well be to you. Different people respond to different synthetic voices differently, and in the end, there are few "good, better, bests" when it comes to synthetic speech. A treasure of a feature for one person may be trash for the next. I remember one person saying they would not get a Book Port because it has optional Braille-writing support. We all have different needs, different preferences, different abilities, different priorities, and all of the reviews, demonstrations and critiques can do is to offer perspectives and food for thought, along with some indisputable facts.
Though I entered into the process toward the end of the Book Port's life cycle, I marveled at the innovations APH made with this little device, the creativity shown, the very efficient use of what was, physically, rather old technology.I witnessed the birth of the alarm, as well as a huge number of features and refinements which almost made it seem as though the unit was much more powerful than it really was.
After the Book Port ended its development cycle, APH was under a lot of pressure to develop a successor to the Book Port. There was a great deal of hesitation, some deciding and re-deciding, a long period when APH said there would be no Book Port the Next Generation, and finally APH announced that there would indeed be a Book Port Plus. By then, I was already a very loyal Victor Reader Stream user, but I was open-minded. I remembered what APH had done with the original Book Port, and I scooped up a Book Port Plus and had my order placed twenty minutes after the announcement that the new unit was available. My expectations, based on previous experience, were extremely high: I knew what APH had done and fully expected them to do it again.
The result, for me personally, has been much less than satisfactory. I was, frankly, befuddled by APH's choice to use the precise same hardware as its competitor, the Plextalk Pocket. It was not new technology, and it meant that, at least on a physical level, a product would be competing with itself. My feeling was that Plextar would not license APH to do what they were doing unless it was their intention to abandon the hardware themselves in favor of something better, faster, smarter. This indeed proved to be the case.
A lot has been made of the fact that the Victor Reader Stream 2's WiFi capabilities are extremely limited. This is indeed true, but it should be noted that the Book Port Plus (BPP) made zero use of WiFi when it was originally released. I never held this against APH, because I knew the infrastructure was in place and it was just a matter of time.
The big thing that the BPP has going for it is that, like the Plextalk Pocket, the recording facilities are as good as any unit of its type that I have ever seen. This is a huge strength to me, but it is one of only two. The other is the fact that APH has ported the same technique for brailling as it did for its other devices, which is brilliant.
I am not a fan of the UI, the layout APH has chosen for navigating with the BPP. To me it is confusing and counterintuitive, treating the keypad as a whole as an almost arbitrary series f buttons. This is, of course, subjective. I know of at least one person who prefers APH's choice of navigational layout, so really the thing to do, if you can, is to look at your options of players and decide which layout you prefer, if that's important to you.
When it comes to battery life, the BPP is also less than impressive, as far as I'm concerned. To see this in action, charge the battery, put your BPP in a drawer for a couple of weeks, then see where your battery is. The Stream, on the other hand, has a much longer battery life to start with, and I know of at heast one person who misplaced their Stream for over a year, and upon finding it, discovered that the battery level was still high.
Also a notable disappointment to me is the fact that the BPP can only handle Audible format 4, not Audible Enhanced files. Enhanced Audible files offer higher fidelity and stereo sound. It is true that, at present, through no fault of Humanware, the Stream 2 does not support Audible. However, we are told that an agreement with Audible has been reached and a firmware release is in the works, hopefully by the end of the month. I have asked APH on several occasions whether support for Enhanced Audible files, M4A files, and FLAC files is forthcoming in some future release, and each time my question has simply been unanswered.
The BPP is also, in my view, very slow and beeps way too much. Some of the beeps can be turned off, but not all, and many of the functions take an extremely long time to execute. This is an example of old hardware, I think, see below.
I also feel that APH has chosen to use old hardware for a new product, which limits what they can do. Plextar themselves have opted for newer hardware, abandoning the Pocket in favor of the Lineo.
In short I do not recommend the BPP, unless high-quality recording is of paramount importance to you. Even then, a better reader and a dedicated recorder may suit you better. The BPP is limited in the number of file types it supports, the layout is, to me, counterintuitive and clunky, it is slow, and APH doesn't seem to be overly interested in improving the firmware with any great speed. Battery life is, in my experience, dismal, and the hardware is very much out of date.
While there are some facts in the above article, much of it is, of course, my own personal opinion based on my experiences as an owner of the Stream, Stream 2, and Book Port Plus. Amid the reviews, criticisms, demonstrations, and so on, of the various devices that can be found all over the Net, it is up to the consumer to discern fact from opinion from bias. The consumer needs also to consider his or her needs and priorities: a high quality recorder isn't of paramount importance to me, but it might well be to you. Different people respond to different synthetic voices differently, and in the end, there are few "good, better, bests" when it comes to synthetic speech. A treasure of a feature for one person may be trash for the next. I remember one person saying they would not get a Book Port because it has optional Braille-writing support. We all have different needs, different preferences, different abilities, different priorities, and all of the reviews, demonstrations and critiques can do is to offer perspectives and food for thought, along with some indisputable facts.
