[BRLTTY] My experience with Humanware Monarch

[Devin Prater]

You are able to install APK's onto it. I was able to do so to get the 
device's specs.

On 5/30/2025 5:18 PM, Aura Kelloniemi wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 2025-05-30 at 17:43 -0400, <kperry at blinksoft.com> wrote:
>   > I should mention I sent your feedback on to our developers. I work at APH.
>
> Oh, thank you. In that case I should have commented something about the
> internal software:
>
> Monarch runs Android. I suppose the software is proprietary. That makes me
> inherently uninterested in it.
>
> Monarch contains a BRF editor, text, editor, web browser, image viewer, chess
> game and a e-book reader. The programs worked, but had minimal feature sets.
> There were very few configurable settings. At the moment it does not seem to
> be possible to run one's own software on the display even though it would be
> very useful for advanced users. In my opinion Linux kernel is best combined
> with GNU userland and Android should be left for those enthusiastic about JVM.
>
> Monarch was able to show Unicode braille. All other displays that I have used
> (which have an internal editor) only support BRF or other 8-bit codecs. But for
> some reason Monarch does not allow typing in Unicode braille. If one tries to
> input a character not present in the BRF text table, the software signals an
> error. I did not find a way to add my own braille table to the device.
>
> I would consider Monarch to be a good e-book reader. Reading tables and
> polyphonic music notation is a pleasure with it. Editing or scrolling past
> documents is not.
>
> I wish we can run PostmarketOS on Monarch one day. Then Monarch would be an
> excellent e-book reader for blind hackers.
>
> I also wonder, could APH/Humanware sell the display without the included
> software bundle. I guess the software makes the device a lot pricier than it
> would be otherwise. (Of course some firmware should be present for controlling
> the different interfaces, like audio, braille, keys, bluetooth, wifi,
> charging, USB, etc.).
>