New Blaze EZ firmware release

[Michael Jones]

HIMS is pleased to announce an upgrade for the Blaze EZ, version 1.1. We've made improvements to OCR, our Internet Radio, and we now have enabled NLS books to be played back on the Blaze EZ.
With OCR, the Blaze EZ can now analyze and read 10 point and 12 point font style documents, improving your experience even further with more document reading choices.
The Internet Radio program now includes a searchable and updatable database of thousands of radio stations from different countries and of different genres.
You can now play NLS books on your Blaze EZ. Through the NLS website you should be able to add this player as one of your purchased players to obtain your NLS key file.

More improvements are mentioned in the release note attached with this announcement.

Attached also is the user's guide so you can get up and running quickly with the new features.

You can choose to upgrade your Blaze EZ using the online or offline method.



To upgrade using the offline method, follow these steps:
Download the new firmware from:
http://www.hims-inc.com/download/Blaze_EZ_EN_150227.zip 
Extract the zip file and find two .bin files.
Please copy these files to the root of an SD card, or create a folder called "osupdate" on your Blaze flashdisk and copy them there using the PC.
Place the SD card in Blaze EZ, and plug in to AC.
From the Home menu, press the Left Arrow to get to Utilities" and press Select.
Press the Down arrow to get to "Upgrade", and press Select.
Press the Right arrow to get to "Offline" and press select.
The rest should take care of itself.
The files will extract and copy, then the unit will reboot and upgrade.
You'll know everything has finished when the unit reboots, scans the disk and announces the time and date.




To upgrade online, follow these steps:
Plug your Blaze EZ into the AC adapter. Make sure your wireless is turned on and connected.
From the Home menu, press the Left Arrow to get to Utilities" and press Select.
Press the Down arrow to get to "Upgrade", and press Select.
Press select on the Online option.
The rest should take care of itself.
The files will download, extract and copy, then the unit will reboot and upgrade.
You'll know everything has finished when the unit reboots, scans the disk and announces the time and date.



Please note: Australian and indian English voices are also now available.
To install the TTS data:
Please download it from the following links:
http://www.himsintl.com/Upgrade/Blaze/TTS/AustralianEnglish.zip
http://www.himsintl.com/Upgrade/Blaze/TTS/IndianEnglish.zip
Extract the files, and copy the content in to a single "TTS Data" folder to the root of the flashdisk on your Blaze EZ. If you do this before the upgrade, everything will go the smoothest.
After the upgrade, you'll find that Indian and Australian voices are available in the Options menu.

To download the web Radio database to your unit, open the web radio application, and press and hold the "explorer" key.
You can then search the database with a quick press of the "Explorer" key.



Michael Jones
Technical Support/HIMS, INC.
4616 W. Howard Lane, Ste. 960  
Austin, TX 78728 
Tel: 512-837-2000 
Fax: 512-837-2011 
E-mail: support@hims-inc.com 
Web: http://www.hims-inc.com