PocketDot 8-cell Braille display that MagSafe onto back of iPhone

Hi there, this is very cool! question: do you get to keep it once they send it to you?

I love this idea so much! Thank you for sharing!

Well...Dunno if I signed up for the beta or not. The form seems to just clear, giving no indication of whether the signup was successful or not. No confirmation email either.

To me, this just seems to be too few cells. I remember having a Brailliant BI14 and foudn that too few cells. 20 is about right for a portable display, I think. But I laud the concept and I am willing to be told otherwise. So if you end up reading your newspapers on this thing I would be interested to know how that goes.

I've always wanted a physical keyboard on the back of my iPhone. I'd buy it for that alone. (Side note, I was tempted to get the Click keyboard but decided it'd make the iPhone too long to carry.) Eight cells isn't a lot but it'd be fine for texting or checking directions. Different devices for different jobs. Want to read a book? Get out a bigger display.

I love most things braille, so I signed up.

Their website is kinda short on information.

Hi ,I love the idea.
A Braille Display sounds good.
I love the 8 cell for use an iPhone.
I'll check it out.
Just it's pitty teat it does 6 dots Braille.
I'll be happy to see a Display with 8 dots Braille.
Maybe I didn't undrstand correctly?
I'll be happy to understand more and to read more about that.
Thank’s

In English at least, eight dot is for computer braille. I also prefered it for math when I was in high school.

Also, dot 7 is used for capital letters rather than a separate cell.

If I am not mistaken, aren’t dots 3, 6, 7, & 8 use also for numbers? I seem to remember, back in the day, that JAWS used to ship out their CDs with the serial number brailled out this way. Where letters would use the traditional 6 dots, but numbers would be exclusively dots 3, 6, 7, & 8.

Bonjour,
À quoi consiste le beta testeur d'un produit, de quelle destination vient le produit prêtée ?

Si on a une pochette peut-on la garder ?
Sinon, je trouve le concept plutôt bien, je pense qu'il y a trop peu de cellules exemple pour écrire un sms mais pas pour un mail.
J'ai une plage braille de 14 caractères et ce n'est pas mal.
Par curiosité j'aimerai bien le voir c'est juste comme cela qu'on peut s'en faire une idée.

I believe it is a hardware braille keyboard that fits magnetically to the back of your iPhone.

For those of you who signed up to be a tester, have you received any kind of response yet? This sounds like a neat device for short texts or notes.

What do you find unsatisfactory about the BI20X? I'm on record describing it as the best Humanware product I've ever owned. I also note that on another thread I might have had some influence in your opting for that display. Wehre does it fall short for you?

I've just done an (albeit very unscientific experiment) 20 cells would fit comfortably along the length of the back of the 16 Pro Max. Now, what a device that would be!

Apple would make a killing, if they designed a 20 cell braille display roughly the size and dimensions of an iPhone 16 Pro Max.
True story.

Oliver, press dots 7 and 8 with T and you'll be able to switch directly to terminal mode. It even switches straight back to your iPhone if the connection is already active.

On the other points, I hear you. I suppose it really comes down to the features you want to prioritise. For me, I don't want to control the BI20X with a qwerty keyboard so that doesn't matter. I'm also not at all bothered about not being able to play audio files on it - the headphone jack for when I want to switch to speech in order to read quicker is fine by me. By contrast, I've been on at them for ages now to implement a stopwatch and timer in the clock app as this would be an enormous help with my professional activities; and yet, I doubt those features really figure at the top of many people's wish list. The ~RNIB library thing is very annoying indeed. you'll get no argument from me on that one. But it is, as you say, the RNIB's fault. I take your point about the slowness of updates and so on but that, again, seems to be a pervasive thing in this space. Not being able to open Powerpoint or excel documents is something I find a little annoying.

Never got my hands on a Vario Ultra but I hope they release and update for you. I'm sorry you're disappointed with the BI20X. I've personally found Humanware is best in terms of Braille translation - though I wish you could get the thing to represent a new paragraph with a two-cell indent, like you could get the dear old Apex to. How I miss some of those older machines which focused more on loyalty to paper Braille.

Hi Bingo, I really like that braille display. I most appreciate its portability and it is very quiet when using.

I have used a number of Braille displays. So far, none of them have been perfect. Anyone got a billion dollars to give me to make a Braille display foundation? I have lots of ideas for the perfect display. Actually in truth, I'd end up with several as I find different sizes, different button configurations, different firmware, are differently suited to different tasks. So kind of back to the same problem we have.
I'd love a Braille display on the iPhone. At one point there were rumors that the iPad screen were going to get haptics, kind of by electric stimulation, that would potentially be able to make virtual Braille. We're still waiting though.
I think in terms of form factor, I really liked the BrailleConnect 12 from Humanware except I'd like it with 20 cells. It had an aluminum body and very low profile and the keys were indented down, so it didn't catch when sliding into a pocket. (Ironically, after all this clver design they put a cheap very flimsy plastic power button on it that tended to break off.) I suppose its mostly cost, but it seems aluminum is mostly out for displays now. But man I hate that cheap plastic feel.

Is my memory correct the Vario was based on Windows CE 6.0? I never had the opportunity to try one out, so I could be misremembering.

Oliver, sounds like you want something like an android notetaker i.e. a much better version of something like the brailleNote Touch. I've gone into why the fact the Brailliant can't do things like that is not only good, but essential in some professional environments. I love therelatively low-tech online offerings. An app store and that sort of thing would obviate the pad and paper ideal which is what I'm after in a product like this. I've got mi' iPhone for email and that sort of thing.

Well, Orbit doesn't have internet access. So any file reading or writing you do on it has to be manually transferred in and out. So as far as getting rid of notifications, it'd solve that problem.
The Orbit Slate is an interesting device and the one I have. Sadly what I was hoping for, screen reader support to make multiline truly useful on the PC, is still not here. But if you have the patience to load a book onto its sd card, it's not a bad book reader.
The Orbit Braile is a bit different, especially refresh rate. It takes a bit of getting used to coming from piezo-electric cells. I think the feel is ok, the frefresh rate isn't my favorite though.
I agree that for longevity the more dumb terminal style displays are better. The software side changes so much so quickly, and we dont' really want to be upgrading our displays every two years at least financially. The downside is portability when you got so many pieces to haul around and set up. Also ergonomics. If I could have a desktop display that is thin to sit in front of my desktop keyboard for my desk that'd be so nice. I really dont' need the perkins keyboard when my keyboard is right there. Please let me stop having to stretch out so far to type. Actually one used to exist, the Optelec Alva BC-680.

I think this sort of device could be great for learning. I used an app called Talking Typer to help me improve my touch typing, where you had to type the words it speaks to you and you get a score depending on how quick you were and how many mistakes you made. Something like that but where you feel braille words and speak them back to your phone would be pretty neat.

@Oliver, yeah, pretty much a rebrand. Exact same hardware, slightly different firmware. It got TTs first. Our National library service here in the states has their own artificially limited rebrand, pretty much a BI20X sans notetaking and TTS.