Human wear, one of the leading industries for braille products, especially braille note takers, has just released any product, the braille note evolve, one of the first windows rail devices. Yes, the Optima does exist, but it is not available for use, trust yet. However, human wear are the 1st to step into this. It runs Windows 11 pro, which in my mind is really advanced already, has 32 GB of RAM, and if you are a PC nerve like me, you would know that RAM shortages have impacted the market. Plus, it contains an Intel core ultra five processor and up to 512 GB of storage. SSD storage by the way. It has key soft in built, plus, is built on the foundation of NVDA, non-visual desktop access. Human wear are also giving you the opportunity to install any other screen reader, safe for example jaws. Limited support though unfortunately. The braille note comes in 20 so and 32 S. variance, Perkins style keyboard, and later on in 2026, equity keyboard layout and 40 cell display variant. Already this is impressive. I reckon this will be a completely different human wear product entirely. What do people think about this?
Comments
$300?
Just to clarify, you are saying all of that above cost $300...?
Re: $300?
Yes, the MX Keys S costs $129.99, the Anker Laptop Power Bank is $119.99, the capture card I got cost me $22.89, and you can get an HDMI cable for around $5. So I guess its closer to $275 than to $300.
And the computer itself?
What is the cost of the GeekCom computer you mentioned above?
Price of Geekom A9 Max
I said the price of the Geekom mini PC is $1199, while the laptop with equivalent hardware but less storage is $2099.
Laptop vs mini pc
I think the mini pc takes a lot more work to set up each time, plus the issue of not being able to just close the lid and hybernate the mini pc like you can with a laptop, so a lot less convenient. A clever way to save money, sure, but I wouldn't find the savings worth the extra complications each and every time I went to use it.
A niche market
I have to agree with Justin, while the GeekCalm seems like an interesting setup, I don't see very many people doing this. That sounds quite literally like a niche market, for the true geeks out there. I think most people would rather just have a laptop, that they can fold in store away when not needed, take out and unfold to use, rinse and repeat. Granted, you are correct, that screens are expensive. The GeekCome, including taxes, is just shy of $1300, and the accessories plus taxes, bring the price up to just a touch over $1600 (USD). From your post above, just shy of $400 get you less storage, but a dedicated screen.
Hats off to you for coming up with an alternative portable computing method, I just don't think I would ever want to do this, but to each their own... ðŸ¤
Maybe this speaks to benefits of the Evolve...
When there is a long list of hardware to make the computer work, I start sweating. Each new element in the system introduces a failure point.
Screens may be expensive, but on a laptop you also get the battery built in and straight up convenience. Headless is useful, of course, especially if we're running something as a server and we're remoting in to it but, from much of my own experience, we still need screens to point Seeing AI at and, as Brian say, to get visual help when we may need it.
I'm not sure screen free computers do save much money anyway. The comparison between mini computers and laptops isn't a good equivelency to my mind. Size, convenience, system optimisation, battery, keyboard and, though I know you highlighted the cost of these, you've also got to buy them, set them up, make sure they're charged... So simplicity is a factor too.
I think that, though the idea is nice and seems logical, such early versions of screen free laptops will be overly expensive and, should we get them working headless out in the wild, could easily get into a bit of a pickle and have yet another point of friction to making things work.