More Gadgetry

First off, a thanks to my friend Sam, who runs the From Canes to Canines blog, analogous to this one. He recently started a new job at a store selling technical merchandise for the visually impaired and blind community, and in respose to a query of mine wrote an entry detailing the type of gadgetry he got to work with. I've linked his entry to this one, if any of you are interested.
Same mentioned a gadget in his blog post that I also use and I thought I'd take a little bit more time to describe it and its functions for the more technically-minded readers who would like to see just what assistive technology can offer today. The particular gismo I refer to is the Victor Stream, something I've been using now for almost three years. It's essentially a glorified mp3 player for the blind and visually impaired, but it does quite a bit more than play mp3's. Below I've listed the different functions it performs.

mp3 player
DAISY format books (a highly compressed audio format)
books in Audible.com's format
text files (yes, like Word and txt. files)
recorded voice notes
snooze function (no alarm, though)

Sam explained that all the data for this bugger fits onto an SD card so your memory capacity is only limited by the number of SD cards you buy and can find at the moment. Right now I have three: two for various types of music hat I use when studying or working out, and one full of audiobooks (including one a friend and I are recording together). It's a bit bigger than a deck of cards, has a speaker/microphone, and a headset jack. You can vary the bass, trebel, and speed of the voices, and there is no screen. All functions and options can be reached by a ten-key pad on the front, and a few other specialized keys. It's got a nifty little case with a belt clip so it's very portable. It connects to your pc via a USB cable, providing an easy-to-use and familiar method for file transfer.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the blind man's mp3-player. It generally sells for about $400 off the Human-Ware main website, so it's not cheap, but well worth it because most of the content you will use it for is free.