braille pen or focus 14?

By Sheri w-j, 9 August, 2013

Forum
Braille on Apple Products
Hi, folks, I'm trying to decide what kind of small refreshable braille device with braille input would be handiest. I would like to connect to my (new!) mac, my iPhone and the iPad I am supposed to use for work purposes. I have seen the braille pen 12 and found keyboard a little clunky and loud: not ideal for quiet notes in meetings or (let's be honest) covert texting in same! Is the Focus 14 better in terms of quiet entry? Which will give me more flexibility in switching it from the Mac to the iPhone and back? the braille pen 12 is cute as heck, but it sort of feels like it might fall apart at any moment. I know the price is roughly similar... is there anything else you guys love or hate about either of these? Thanks: I'm eager to make this happen! Sheri

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Comments

By Travis Roth on Monday, August 5, 2013 - 21:26

Hi, The two immediate advantages of the Focus 14 Blue over a Braille Pen would be 1) the Focus 14 Blue has two moe braille cells and 2) it has cursor routing keys. Cursor routing keys are quite helpful for editing, clicking on things in iOS, and so forth. I have not used a Braille Pen so I don't want to say anything against it, these are just the differences I have heard about. I find the Focus 14 Blue's keyboard to be quiet, with the keys having quite a bit of travel. I wrote a few other things in comment #3 on the original Focus 14 Blue's posting on this site: http://www.applevis.com/reviews/accessories/braille-devices/new-focus-14-and-40-blue#comment-6726 If you have some flexability in the budget and size of the display you may want to consider something even bigger especially for desktop work. You can never have to many braille cells, except for the portability issue.