Orbit have announced some new braille displays. I believe these are based off the same braille tech used by most other companies.
There is the Strata which is a normal note taker - a regular 40 version, then there's a Pro version, and a Pro version with 20 cells. I think the Pro versions have audio. I believe these all have Perkins keys.
Then there is Flow which is just a pure 40 cell braille display and is designed to sit beneath your regular keyboard. I don't think it has any qwerty or perkins keys and it has no notetaking or other software. It doesn't even have bluetooth - just a usb connection.
https://www.orbitresearch.com/news/?srsltid=AfmBOooaqY90o0EJnpX_Cwt7x58N9mdJWY2x__MYu7U5R_5dQK4IdCFs
I have an Orbit Reader 20. As someone who is probably forever going to be in learning rather than using it for anything productive, I like it as a low cost device. I wish it had audio so I could make better use of its notetaking functions. I'm a little too scared to go through all the menus.
About the prices, this is from the Double Tap show last Sunday:(an interview with Orbit at CSUN)
Yeah, so pricing has not yet been set, so I can't give you a firm price. I can give you an approximate range. So Strata 40 will be somewhere around between $2,000 and $2,500.
The Strata 40 Pro, between $2,500 and $3,000. That's the target. And the Strata 20 Pro will be around $2,000.
I thought they had given a price for the Flow but I can't find it in the transcript so perhaps not. I was thinking for that one as they are ditching absolutely everything except the essentials that it might be cheaper, but I guess we'll see.
I'm a bit disappointed by the Strata 20 Pro as if it had been sub $1000 I might have been interested.
Anyone on here interested in these?
Comments
Thoughts
It is amazing that you will be able to get the Strata 40 for under $2500, since I think this is by far the cheapest you can get a 40 cell Piezo display. The Brailliant BI X 40 is $3715, and while the Orbit Reader 40 is cheaper, this is because it uses cheaper cells. Also, about the Strata 40 Pro, most 32 or 40 cell notetakers like the BrailleNote Evolve, BrailleSense 7, BT Braille, etc are over $6000, so it is amazing to have an Android notetaker with 40 cells under $3000. It is unfortunate that Orbit's Android devices cannot run third-party Android apps and do not have an Android screen reader, since I think this makes the Strata 40 Pro and 20 Pro a lot less competitive with these other notetakers, the Orbit Speak much less competitive with the BT Speak, and the Orbit Player much less competitive with the Sense Player. Even though these devices are cheaper this makes them much less desirable for me. The Flow is a very cool device though and will be the cheapest of any 40-cell Piezo display by a wide margin if it is around $1500 to $2000.