FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Brad Davis
800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000
www.FreedomScientific.com
Sales: info@FreedomScientific.com

The World’s Most Powerful Notetaker Just Got More Affordable

Freedom Scientific Reduces PAC Mate™ Price and Releases FREE 6.5 Update

(St. Petersburg, Florida – September 30, 2010) – Freedom Scientific today announced a $900 price reduction on its PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PCs while releasing a FREE firmware update for existing users.

The new prices are:

PAC Mate Omni Speech Only — $1,495 reduced from $2,395
PAC Mate Omni with 20 cells of Braille — $2,895 reduced from $3,795
PAC Mate Omni with 40 cells of Braille — $4,695 reduced from $5,595

Already an industry leader in accessible mobile functionality for the blind, the PAC Mate Omni is now the clear leader in affordability, offering 40 cells of Braille for about 25 percent less than what competitors charge for a notetaker with just 32 cells.

“While other manufacturers are raising prices, Freedom Scientific is making assistive technology more widely available by passing savings in our manufacturing processes onto our customers,” says Jonathan Mosen, Freedom Scientific’s Vice President of Blindness Hardware Product Management.

“This is our third major price reduction this year. We reduced our Focus 40 Blue Braille Displays by 38 percent in March, and we lowered the price of our MAGic® Screen Magnification Software by $100 in June.”

This price reduction coincides with the posting of the 6.5 release for English language users that expands the PAC Mate Omni’s capabilities with an array of new features:

RealSpeak™ Voices

Since Freedom Scientific introduced the RealSpeak voices in JAWS®, MAGic®, and OpenBook®, many customers have enjoyed the more natural sound, particularly for reading lengthy texts. Many have asked for these voices with the PAC Mate Omni. With Release 6.5, you can easily switch between Eloquence and RealSpeak synthesized speech with a simple command from anywhere on the PAC Mate Omni.

RealSpeak is available in many languages, further heightening the PAC Mate Omni’s appeal among those who work with multiple languages.

Expanded settings dialogs in the PAC Mate Omni 6.5 provide thorough, independent control over primary and secondary voices and Braille languages.

Unified Instant Messaging with Mundu® IM

The PAC Mate Omni continues to offer free Windows Live™ Messenger support out of the box. With the 6.5 release, we’ve added support for Mundu IM, a unified instant messaging solution supporting a number of services including MSN®, Yahoo®, ICQ®, AIM™, Google®, and Jabber®. Chat with your buddies in real time, no matter what the service. The PAC Mate Omni with Mundu IM gives the deaf blind access to the many relay services that interface with AOL®, and instant messaging is available in contracted Braille, letting messages fly back and forth even faster. Mundu IM is available for purchase separately.

Built-in FSReader™ DAISY Player

Freedom Scientific's FSReader software opens a world of accessible reading material for the visually impaired. Used with Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY)-formatted talking books, FSReader delivers a host of powerful navigation tools for reading:

Go directly to a specific chapter, heading, or page
Set an unlimited number of annotated bookmarks
Speed up or slow down speech whether listening to a recorded narrator or synthesized speech

Download or purchase on CD DAISY 2.0 and DAISY 3.0 e-books (the ANSI/NISO standard) like those available from www.Bookshare.org, and browse, read, and study. Play AudioPlus® books from Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®).

There are numerous other enhancements and performance improvements in the PAC Mate 6.5. Coupled with the powerful Microsoft Office® support, e-mail options, and other applications already in the PAC Mate, the 6.5 release continues to broaden the range of tasks one can accomplish on the go with this multi-faceted device.

Release 6.5 is available as a free download from the Freedom Scientific Web site.

To learn more about accessing the many capabilities of the PAC Mate Omni, register for our free Webinar on October 5, 2010, or check out the DAISY books at the PAC Mate training downloads page.

About Freedom Scientific

Freedom Scientific is the leading worldwide provider of assistive technology products for those with vision impairments. The Company sells its products worldwide and has offices in Florida and Switzerland. The Company’s products have been translated into 24 languages and are available in 55 countries. Freedom also has a line of software products for those with learning disabilities.

Freedom Scientific®, PAC Mate Omni™, JAWS®, MAGic®, OpenBook®, and FSReader™ are either trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.