Joe last spoke to Damian Pickering, Vice President of Sales for HIMS, in Las Vegas where updates were the major subject in that interview. We continue that trend in Orlando with a few insights on what's next for the Q Braille, a sneak peek at the next Polaris software release and a preview of what is in store for the U2's final firmware. GoVision and joe's old friend eBott also are mentioned near the end of the recording. To learn more about these upcoming releases, or to jump on board the possible promotions, visit the HIMS website
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Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
From beautiful, and sunny, cloudy Orlando, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ATIA 2020, brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology; book reviews; and mobile apps and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free monthly online technology magazine. www.AFB.org/AW.
Now, here’s Joe Steincamp.
JOE STEINCAMP: Hey, everyone. Joe sitting down with Damian of HIMS. We’ve come to a quieter part of the Exhibit Hall, if there is such a thing, to a little table here with chairs. So it’s not as crowded and as noisy, which has to be a good, kind of, break for you, Damian, because, man, this show seems like it’s really hopping.
DAMIAN PICKERING: Yeah. I’d say things are a little busier this year, but we’re loving it. It’s always nice to – well, coming from Austin, it’s not a big temperature difference, but, you know, some of us are coming from Minnesota and things like that, so we’re enjoying the nice weather here.
Opening night was surprisingly busy. We’ve had great traffic. But we have a little round table that we’ve set up in our booth so we can have little sit-down meetings like this, and it’s real nice when we get a little break in the action. We can just have a little conversation, a little Email catchup. It’s very nice.
JS: Exactly. And to talk about updates, which apparently, you guys have got one that’s rolling out right now.
DP: Yeah. Well, we’ve got, you know, kind of updates for all the major players.
For our QBraille product, which has been really hot for us over the last year, we’ve kind of quietly released an update. I mean, this is already shipping and we have this posted, so if you haven’t – we’ve been very liberal with our beta releases. Pretty much, you know, anybody who calls us and we have sent out those betas as we’ve gone through the year. But now, in this shipping build, if you haven’t checked it out lately, we’ve got mass storage mode, sticky keys support, the ability to switch in options between the Microsoft PC keyboard layout and Apple keyboard layout.
So for anybody who isn’t familiar with the QBraille, we call it Q for QWERTY, B for Braille, QBraille because of its unique hybrid keyboard. So we’ve got the Braille keys kind of centralized for text input surrounded in their natural locations by all the QWERTY function keys across the top, and then your modifier keys along the spacebar row, so your control, your alt, your function. You’ve got your arrow keys where they should be, your six-pack, all of those things. So you get that blend of being able to Braille, kind of in your chosen grade, and then instead of reaching for a separate keyboard to do your commands, you just – you’ve got everything right there, so it makes for a nice workflow.
So – but again, you know, if you’re working with multiple devices, I mean, if you’re an Apple person, we give you that kind of Apple key mapping. If you’re a Microsoft person, you have that. And then, of course, the QBraille can pair one USB and six Bluetooth connections, so maybe you’re an Apple and a Microsoft person, or if you’re an AT or IT professional – I mean, there could be a lot of scenarios where you may want to, you know, be working in both environments across platforms.
So those are some of the great things. There’s some other, you know, like, little niceties. Like, we’ve put more system sounds in there, because Hybrid mode gives you that ability to – you know, it activates all those QWERTY function keys, but if you want more of a traditional Braille Display kind of experience in behaviors, you can switch that Hybrid mode off with, you know, one key press. But just, you know, to help people know kind of where they are, you’ve got system sounds that let you know that Hybrid mode is going off or on or things like that, kind of similar to plugging your USB in, you get that ba-ding, ba-dong kind of sounds just to help orient you. So, I mean, it’s a – we’re just kind of rolling out these little enhancements and taking user feedback and – I mean, that’s one of the hallmarks of HIMS, why we love being here is that close connection between our engineering team, our developing team, you know, through the sales and support team to our end-user customers. It’s a nice short feedback loop. So the QBraille has benefited a lot over the last year, so check it out.
JS: And there’s been a couple of promotions; right? Going on. Some stuff, so if you hear this podcast around the time of ATIA but leading into CSUN, you’ve got some things that are going on?
DP: Yeah. Definitely kind of watch the space because we are – over the course of the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be rolling out the long-awaited – yay -- but unfortunately final firmware release for the U2, and then the Polaris is coming out with a major update where we’re doing some really neat things. We’re enhancing our seamless Google Drive integration, bringing back some other things that I’d love to sit down and talk more, maybe leading into CSUN. So instead of telling you, you know, what’s coming, I can tell you about what’s there. But we’ll be, you know, sending out some kind of a campaign, kind of highlighting these new features.
And then also, we’re going to be doing some enhanced trade-in values. So over the course of February and March, we’re going to be giving people who’ve been kind of waiting to trade to a, you know, a Polaris from a U2 or from one of the competitor products or somebody who’s been kind of waiting to go to a QBraille, we’re going to sweeten the pot a little bit. So, again, you know, watch this space. Look for some, you know, Email marketing campaign stuff from HIMS directly or check out our website, and we’ll have some goodies for you.
JS: And there’s, you know, there’s been a long tale. You mentioned the U2. That’s had a really good lifestyle – life cycle for a long time, as well as some of the other products like BookSense and the others. So you guys have always given the opportunity to move on to the next platform, grow the users, and provide a really long tale as far as free updates are concerned.
DP: Yeah. You know, the U2, you know, we’re continuing to, you know, to sell it, to support it. You know, it’s not going to be your – you know, it’s not going to be the best performer, you know, when – you know on the web or, you know, certainly doesn’t play so much in the Google environment. But for just a traditional kind of notetaker, word processor, Email, you know, your classic notetaker stuff, I mean it still has a lot of value and at a, you know, significantly lower price point, you know, maybe for early Braille students or, you know, people that just, you know, aren’t so into the Google verse. It’s still a great option, and, you know, we’re going to continue to have it, I would say, you know, for the foreseeable future.
JS: Kind of a task-specific device going after certain skill sets. The same way that some people might gravitate to not wanting a touch – you know, a phone with touch.
DP: Right.
JS: They might want to go back to something with buttons, and that makes it a little easier. So, like you said, something early education would really benefit in that area.
DP: Yeah. And the transition from U2 to Polaris or, in my personal opinion, the transition from the BrailleNote Apex to the Polaris, the Polaris is, in my view, the best kind of modern iteration of the traditional notetaker. I mean, of course, it combines that mainstream kind of experience of the play store and that Google verse, but, you know, for somebody who just really wants that traditional look and feel, that kind of intuitive menu-driven classic notetaker approach to things, I feel that the Polaris is really strongly come into its own and has – you know, we’re very mindful of that, of why – you know, why are people going to spend $5,000, give or take, you know, for something? And, you know, a lot of people want that ease of use, that, you know, seamlessness.
And that’s why, like, our Google Drive integration -- I mean, being able to open files and, you know, directly on Google Drive from the Polaris to – you know, to – and I’m giving away a little bit of the update -- but, you know, now, we can open and save directly from our word processor and notepad to Google Drive.
But, I mean, that’s – some people’s philosophy is, you know, the blind user should be in the exact same environment as their sighted peers. And, you know, our approach is a little more, let’s take those tasks that our sighted peers are doing, but, you know, make them seamless, you know, more efficient, you know, because it’s really the – you know, we want to be on equal ground, you know, at the end of the day when the work assignment is being handed in, not sort of struggling, you know, to keep up in an environment where the advantage kind of goes to the sighted user. So, you know, it’s a different philosophy, and again, there isn’t one size fits all product, but we’re just thrilled that, you know, that there is choice.
And, you know, that’s something that -- when people are shopping for cars or computers or something, they’ve got a lot of choice. But when it comes to cool blind tech, if you will, I mean, there’s limited choices. And so it’s important that people can really experience and make the decision that best meets their needs.
JS: And after IOS 13, there’s something to be said about stability --
DP: That’s for sure. Yeah. Absolutely.
JS: -- and having a device act the way you expect it to act, so –
Well –
DP: Yeah. I would – I would want to throw this in here real quick. When you mentioned IOS 13. For E-bot users out there, IOS 13, you know, broke some things in the app. And so the E-bot users have been reaching out, having some issues. I want to let people know that our developers are on that. We’re working on it. We have some fixes, and we expect, you know, in the next month or so, we should have that addressed. So thanks for jogging my memory on that.
JS: Oh, no worries. Anything else in low vision we want to touch on while we got a moment?
DP: GoVision PRO’s still going strong. You know, new things in the pipeline, but, you know, nothing I can talk about --
JS: Right. No. Right.
DP: -- you know – in this time frame.
JS: Hey. My evil plan to keep you talking and get a little bit of a tease, I got, so that’s something I can -- not necessarily put to my interviewing skills, but definitely happy that you had an opportunity to let people know that there’s still stuff to come. And we’ll talk again at CSUN, it sounds like.
DP: Yeah. Looking forward to it. Thank you so much for coming by.
JS: Absolutely. Damian, thank you for your time from the floor of ATIA 2020. I’m off to go find something else.
DP: Great to talk to you, Joe.
JS: Thank you, Damian.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
