Personally I think the Victor Reader Stream is a better bet, but this could just be me. Completely accessible, uses an SD card which is quite convenient, and you can play daisy talking books from your favourite/local source. You can also put text or HTML files in it to read with the synthesiser, so in theory you could find text fiction on the internet and play it back on it.

the bictor stream you say?
how is that related to the victor book reader, or is it at all?

I would kill to have one of those. I mean, no complaints about my victor wave, but... Ok. Fine. A complaint about the wave. It takes ages to read a cd. Like, 2 minutes. From what I've heard about the Stream, it's 1,2,3, and it's up. Also, according to what I've read RFBD books work on the Stream, so, to heck with cd's! In fact, from what I've heard and read, you copy the CD to a folder, or something, on the sd card, and you can ship the cd back; there's no need to worry about losing those stupid packing envelopes that RFBD's got, plus it can record. CX2, from what it looks like, you have one, so can you tell me what the recording quality is like once you get to try it--assuming you get a chance and that you do, indeed, have a stream. Also, how is the speech synthesizer(s) on the device, and does anyone know if it can read Spanish texts?

379dollars, I think.

I do have a stream, but I don't really have a use for recording. I also insanely hate my voice. The synth seems to be only English for the version sold in the UK, only one voice. As I said it's probably more expensive than a pure MP3 device, but I plan to join the RNIB talking book library here in Britain thus I get the benefits of both in one device. It was either that or pay an extra fee to the RNIB for "rental" of a basic player, which would most likely be a CD based daisy player and frankly I don't want to be carrying the bulk and dislike rentals. The SD card also means you can fit several books, rather than just one per CD.

Regarding the transfer speed, this isn't unique to the stream. I've found the same thing with Pac Mate QX and with smartphone, it's quicker to use a USB card reader than to send it through to the device itself via USB. No idea why at all, but when I say faster I mean a lot faster. Minutes as opposed to nearly an hour in some cases in the past.

Ya know cw, that's a good point. Perhaps it does. I think, and if I'm wrong CX2 correct me, but I was told that the VRStream software does the syncing into the folders ny itself. for example if you select a text file it'll put it in the right folder, etc. I am probably wrong, but that's what I've heard.

CX2, I hate my voice too, don't worry. LOL!

CW if you're in the U.S. and are a part of the NLS thing the Stream does indeed support NLS Pilot, which I don't really need since my BraillePlus can do it. However, the BraillePlus frequently studders, or if anyones ever experienced buffering over the internet that's sort of the effect the BraillePlus has with those NLS books,---so, I might look into a Stream.

Hi, it is exactly $329. Just checked.

Hmmm. Then Again I could get FSReader for the PM for the dasy part. The truth is, I don't know when I would need to access dasy books, so I really have to think twice before throghing down the money. Weight a minit, my PM does ok with MP3s, but it is kind of bulky.

LOL. Wish the ITouch was accessible. Talking about lots of space in a cool looking device. Maybe someone could create the cool factor for the VI community. Wish I had alot of money to play with, because if I did, I would fill my office space at the house with all kinds of cool electronic toys to play with. So you like fiction ey? I usely like to get my books for the bookstore in audio book form if I can find it, but the major problem is that they are usely $50 a pop. Hey, I can play them on any CD player without DRM though.

I'll purchase the new Ipod Nano instead of the Victor stream for the following reasons:
1: The Ipod looks cooler
2: The new model comes with 16 gb internal memory
3: you have a lot of cool features like eq, the player switch to a random playback mode if you shake the device, and you can make your own playlists on the device.
4: It have a battery life of 24 hours of music playback, and up to 5 hours while watching movies.
5: It's much cheeper than the victor Stream.

what do you mean by saying accessible? For me, it's totally accessible. you have speech in playlists and all the menus. If you didn't had speech, I'll say it's pretty accessible too because the scroll wreal makes click sounds when scrolling through the menus and songs. the menus doesn't rap around which means when you've reached the bottom, it doesn't go to the top again if you continue to scroll down. This makes us able to count the menu items which I find pretty accessible. If you for example know the settings menu is 3 clicks from the top of the main menu, well, you just have to scroll 3 clicks down and then press in the middle to enter the menu.
I don't have an Ipod yet. I've tried one of the first Ipods for 3 or 4 years ago. I didn't find it accessible, because I didn't know the menus doesn't raps around. I haven't tried one of the newer Ipods, because I don't know someone who owns one. After the new Ipod has been released, I can't wait to try it.

Small note, the talking book libraries often have books that aren't available in conventional audio book formats such as CD in shops. They tend to record them themselves under legislation which gives copyright exemptions for this purpose. While I have enjoyed CD based audio books I really want to be able to get at as many other books as I can, this is the reason why I got a daisy player. For example it seems difficult in the extreme to get Dune on audio book except via the RNIB, at least in the UK.

I know there is audible.com, but the lists of books available in the UK is entirely different to the lists in the US for copyright reasons. The books available through bookshare also seem highly limited from outside the US for similar reasons.