Exploring a CHUNKY Windows XP Tablet

Thanks to Dan from @FlightSimMuseumOfficial and Ryan for sending this out to me!

Today we're exploring a big ol' chonker of a Windows XP tablet. This is the DynaVox Vmax - an accessibility device from 2007 used for speech generation.

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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:18 - Some backstory
02:38 - What's in the box? (that I don't have)
03:48 - Specs
04:33 - Chonk-sized expansion
05:15 - Disassembly
10:35 - On-screen-keyboard nonsense
12:12 - The DynaVox software
17:25 - Some more accessibility stuff
19:18 - Other programs
23:40 - Documents left behind
25:30 - The Rule & Outro

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● Music/Credits:
Background Music:

Outro Music: Silent Partner - Bet On It

Some materials in this video are used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and research.

#MichaelMJD #WindowsXP #Tablet

[stevencox]

@MichaelMJD

Hello Michael!!!

Glad it made it to you in one piece!!! I still have the USB dongle that came with the unit, as I could not find the keyboard or mouse :( But I'm glad you redacted Miss G's info as I thought about it but figured that you would. I was wondering if any of the files I went through would show up as being edited, as I just looked at them here in 2024 when I snagged this unit! The original voice was the first female British voice when I got the unit. I changed it to the male voice to mess with my wife on the phone, and a keyboard to type the words... BUT the original voice was the female one.

Glad you like Clippy as well!!! And I am glad he made it to you in one piece as, lol we were looking for stuff to stuff the box with a box in the box!

[charmanita]

I remember using this when I was younger, it was silver. I just remember my speech therapist having it for me to talk to my family and nurses. Luckily, I am able to talk so I do not need this anymore but it was such a cool piece of technology to use when I wasn't able to talk!

[lighttigerxiv]

That 3d printed clippy really fits the setup well

[Psytherea]

I have interacted with tons of these during my internship at a dept of education! These have now been relegated to windows only assistive tech software or eyetracking systems, with most students getting iPads now with software license inventory control and are quite loud for their size for voice generation, unlike those giant "bespoke" machine.

[TheSektorz]

man, imagine having to take this chonk boy on a plane just to watch Shrek 2

[ThePCPitStopInc]

For someone who used to donate computers to kids with autism for education and social/life skill prep the amount of times we wish we had a bunch of those donated to us would of helped a lot of people but the amount to get them fixed was way to much as to getting iPads repaired that were used for accessibilty just amazing how far we have gotten in the past 20 years or so with tech

[supercellexD]

This is 100% some insurance price gouging. WinXP tablets costed only 1000 bux at the time and TTS software for it wasn't over 200 either, this BS is because the medical industry will charge 20 dollars for single aspirin doses in hospitals because corporate insurance pays for it

[ElementalITcc]

Michael: horribly and haphazardly miscalibrates the screen
also Michael immediately after: "why can't I accurately click this tiny button in the corner of the screen?" lolol

[clairekholin]

I think that clippy needs a speech bubble for you to write jokes or puns on

[lapielazoolie]

Literally looks like the sort of iPad case provided for children of autism with speech apraxia, marvelous to see how integrated technology as a whole has become in the years since

[kriss]

In my old job, we had some of these but branded as Tobii Dynavox C-12 with a 12" screen (since they were acquired by Tobii AB and thus implemented eye tracking solutions on top of the speech generation) and they were MASSIVE, they spotted two big batteries on the side and had Windows Vista with both Dynavox software and Tobii solutions. Since they added new tech they costed even more and were ONLY made for people who could afford them or, on my country case, care centers who were interested in having these solutions since the cost was far too big for a regular person, because these things costed like €5000+

[pickledrainbowponies]

Thats exactly why they’re so expensive. They assume that people will be paying through insurance so they jack up the price. They absolutely not worth that much in materials, R&D, manufacturing, advertising etc.

[thephoenixking]

Why is it that products that are made to help people (that are also often not as great as standard products) cost far FAR too much?
- You see this with pretty much anything made to help people, nearly every single form of Computer I have seen that does something like this cost a fortune.

It is disgusting that disabled people and people in need (you know, the people that struggle with daily tasks and such) are the ones that get forced to pay massive bills for things like this, the same goes for medication expenses where life saving medication often costs far too much and the person ends up passing away too early due to it.
- I Understand to an extend why these small companies may charge a lot, simply because they do not have as much customers, but I still see it as a form of scam in a way.

It is great that these things exist and so on, but with that cost, they may aswell not exist is what I am trying to say here.

[keeganalford]

Super cool to see videos on old AAC/speech generating devices! I'm Nonverbal and currently don't have a Speech generating device because of how expensive the dedicated devices are and going through insurance isn't a option for me right now because my caregiver/mom works a lot. We plan to get a ipad and buy the program LAMP words for life or Proloquo2go but even that is still to expensive right now. Really sucks how expensive this stuff is. Hope you do more videos on AAC devices its super cool

[btarg]

That horrible art style for all the icons and UI is almost nostalgic in a weird way. The gross style of my childhood

[NOOB-dkui]

i want that clippy figurine in the background NOW.
cool vid btw thumbs up!

[ZachryMedearis]

I’m glad Clippy is here now to supervise these videos and ensure, like he did in Microsoft Office, that nothing goes wrong

[sklein]

My son has a Dynavox that's been in storage for a while. We got it used and with the help of the school. Now he just uses special software on an iPad.

[Bcklm]

You were offcenter in the calibration and messed it up lol. Great video though, love tech from this era!

[toastrave]

when i saw the tablet in the thumbnail it immediately brought me to back to when i was in middle school & made my first proper friend as we were both classified as RETARDED (Please Note: I am using Retard in a historical context) students by the school & we were forced to go to a special classroom on the window labelled in all caps FOR RETARDS ONLY!! & for months I was the only kid due to it taking me 10 minutes just to write a simple sentence (For Example: "I like potatoes") on a piece of paper so they would let me use a computer for typing out the answers as they saw i was quicker typing things when i was in the computer lab so they provided me digital copies to type on & then print out when finished. Then one day a kid named Jeremy who was born without the ability to speak comes inside & we mention about stuff we like where Jeremy & I bond over bowling, locomotives, & electronics with us becoming good friends with us each only having each other as friends throughout the entire rest of our school days as we officially graduated last year. We are still best buds & few days from now we are going to celebrate his engagement to his Girlfriend Sarah.

P.S. Jeremy if you're reading this thanks for being friends for nearly a decade of my life.