2018-09-10 12:43:24

Hi guys,
So I just decided to throw this out there for anyone who has a BrailleSense Polaris but doesnt know what to put on it in fte~u terms of apps.

For those who dont know what a Polaris is:
The BrailleSense Polaris is a google certified tablet running Android Lolipop. On the outside, you can easily create documents, send e-mails, and set alarms like any other notetaker, while on the inside, you have access to the PlayStore and Google apps.
BrailleSense includes:
Two microphones, one on the left and on the right both on the front pannel, to make stereo recordings.
Two high quality stereo speakers.
11-key style perkins keyboard
32-cell braille display
And much more.

Before getting to the apps list lets quickly refresh.
All the apps im about to list must be downloaded from the PlayStore.
To do this openplay store from the program menu.
A google account is required, so sign in.
Agree to terms of use/policy by pressing I to quickly jump to I agree.
In the store f3 to search, and press enter.
Now, Ill give you the apps list.
One that I highly recommend:
Amazing MP3 Recorder
It allows for both mono and stereo recordingeaand the quality is fabulous. Plus the buttons are correctly labeled and hints are provided, so its designed for blind users in mind.
MP3 requires paying, but no need, simply change the .wav extension to mp3 once done recording, whenthe recording shows on your flashdisk. Workaround.
To download search amazing mp3 recorder and hit enter.
Find it, and select options next to its icon, hit install.
It will ask for access to some things, just hit accept by pressing A to quickly jump to it.

Other apps you can try searching:
Skype. not necly awesome, but its okay. NOTE: glitches around sometimes.
TapTapSee
BARD Mobile (NLS compatible only)
Go Read
High-Q MP3 Recorder. Another good one, but only allows up to 10 minutes of recording, where as Mazing MP3 recorderis unlimited.

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2018-09-10 14:11:51

A good list. Dice world is also available, but I've not tried it on a Polaris, because no matter how hard I think about it, it just never appears in my hand, and paper money doesn't grow on trees, even though paper is made from trees. Also, even though it's a bit hectic at times, I'd recommend subscribing to the eyes-free list, and the Hims-list, where there are more folks who know about Android and the Polaris.

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2018-09-10 20:39:31

dice world works with the polaris, though I find smashing the keyboard rather tedious.

2018-09-11 03:56:26

Yes, Dice World is compatible.

Oh, while Im here, I found an app called eSpeak TTS.
So if you are tired of Google Ts download this app and you can get the eSpeak tts  engine instead.

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2018-09-11 14:22:51

Yeah but you can’t change the voice on it because they set it up so that you can only use vocalizer. That is stupid

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-09-12 10:45:32

No, you cant. This is because the Polaris is vocalizer based, while the BrailleSense U2, its younger brother, uses Eloquence.

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2018-09-12 12:24:23

however, on a real android, and not what HIMS calls as android, you have whatever TTS, you wish, including the touch. this is no excuse after 18 months, you're still stuck with vocalizer.

2018-09-14 10:24:21

Wow, android lollypop? In 2018?

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.

2018-09-28 22:39:42

yep, and the fact that since there's no touch screen means you can't do any gestures aside from emulating left and right swipes. You also can't select text that isn't an edit box, and when I sent an email to HIMS about that, they said that the device is limited and that it's mobile.  I then said that even iOS 5.1 had text selection, Hell, MS dos devices had it. Then I had to explane how to do it on iOS. I've had issues with HIMS not thinking things through before they send back  responce to my messages that's frankly dumb or odd. Example, I ask them to give me a copy of the "PUBLIC" firmware release notes, because there was a new firmware update. They said that  that was only available to HIMS employees... WTF... Also, I mentioned that taking away such things as Dropbox and expecting us to use apps that cone from the play store isn't a good idea for these reasons. 1, File manager can't send stuff to those apps. 2, in the case of dropbox I can't upload a file to it from mobile. 3, because they expect us to use BARD mobile and book share mobile I can't read my books in the DAISY player, because there is no BARD authorisation key for the polaris, because they want you to use Bard mobile. Go Read suffers from the polaris's weird way of navigating, so reading a text book is a pain in the ass, because it always puts you at the top of the screen, and you can't rely on it not jumping around, because the polaris has no way of telling that what you're trying to read isn't GUI elements. Also, it can get very very laggy. It likes to put text that I copy and paste in other random places that weren't where I had the cursor, at least in the word processor. The web browser is still very slow, and as a matter of fact, sometimes when I try to searcj something on google, it takes me to the gmail sign in page when I press enter after typing into the search field, so I end up having to use yahoo, that is, when it workd. I just think that they went too far with the idea of completely relying on the play store, because the apps that they wanted people to use to replace what the BrailleSense U2 could do are nowhere as featured, because they were meant for phones and tablets, not devices that someone is going to use for productivity. I'm almost regretting getting the polaris because of this. I should've stayed with the u2, but it seems that HIMS has a patern of releasing stuff with terrible firmware, and fixing it over the years, but I don't have years. I'm a college student and this thing is slowing me down when it should be making things faster. Please, anyone on the forum that uses one of these, or is considdering it, write to their support email and keep pushing. We can't let this continue.

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-10-08 17:48:08

Hi.
I have just got a Polaris Mini, which is an awesome small device with 20 cells Braille display. I like it so far, accept for the extreme battery drain.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-10-08 21:04:14

There is a new update out. I will post when I find out what has changed

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-11-30 20:30:08

and as for that update, still stuck with vocaliser and no text selection outside edit boxes. They did improve the web browser, so now the forum is usable on the polaris. Previously, it wouldn't load. I know this update has been out for a while but I forgot to post. anyway, on with the changes. Now you can choose whether the power button locks the device or puts it in deep sleep which acts like how the U2 would when you pressed the power switch The RSS reader was removed from the web browser because it didn't work as expected. They also added a ne app called Notepad. Now your braille documents, text, and hims documents will be opened in this version of the word processor that's meant for braille documents. Now the word processor only opens docx, doc, rtf, and of course PPTX. The file manager now no longer crashes. I had an isue in the previous version where the file manager would crash every time I opened it, past the flashdisk. And because HIMS is slow at making updates this was very frustrating.

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-12-13 18:52:39 (edited by techmaster20 2018-12-13 18:53:07)

Well, now HIMS  has made it so you can use any text to speech you want, but unfortunately that's not the default. But at least  I can not have to hear the not expressive shitty vocalizer anymore...

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.