I don’t know what demonstration you heard, but I can tell you, there
will b no direct download except through online DAISY services, in the
first version. Online DAISY protocol is not used for US libraries. NLS
and BookShare, and probably other things will be coming in future versions.
I’m sorry,
Jenny

For me, the biggest drawback to the Blaze, it has no telephone style keypad.
Here’s what Jenny posted about this on the HIMS list:

As for entering text, there won’t be as much text entry available in
this model. To enter Wi-Fi keys, etc, you will use the arrows to choose
your letters/numbers from lists, and you will use the select key to
enter it.
As you might guess, this isn’t a quick method of entry, thus, the lack
of entry intensive functionality.
This model is focusing on providing access to a variety of content while
remaining very simple to operate.
Thus, the simplified keyboard and different interface.
jenny

With the following apps, I can do everything the Blaze does and more minus
the ocr.

Bard mobile: I can read nls books on it. Books can be directly
downloaded to the ipad mini.

Audible: I can read books from audible. Books can be directly
downloaded to the ipad mini.

Kindle: I can read Kindle books from Amazon.

Learning Ally: I can read books from Learning Ally. I can directly download
books to my Ipad mini.

Boice dream reader: I can read books from bookshare, unprotected epub. Supported File Formats
PDF, EPUB (DRM free), DAISY 3.0 text-based eBooks, DAISY 2.02 audiobooks,
Zipped MP3 files, such as LibriVox, Plain Text, Rich Text Format (RTF),
Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Pages, Apple Keynote, HTML,
What’s nice about voice dream reader, you can download books from both bookshare
and Project Gutenberg directly to the ipad mini. Voice dream reader is
supplied with Acapela Heather. You have the optionof using Neospeech or Ivona.
Personally, I like Neospeech better than Acapela. I haven’t tried Ivona as
of yet.

LibriVox audio books pro: I can stream or download books from
LibriVox or a large selection of old time radio shows. The thing I like
about this app, it will resume playback when streaming content.

Downcast: I can download podcasts directly to the ipad mini. I
can subscribe and unsubscribe to podcasts on the Ipad mini.

Tune in radio pro: TuneIn lets you listen to and record the world’s radio with
sports, news, talk and music streaming from every continent. Enjoy 100,000
live radio stations and 2 million podcasts, concerts or shows on your iPhone, iPad and
iPod. Record your favorite stream.

ooTunes: Radio – Recording and Alarm Clock! INFINITE Tunes, Talk, Sports, and
Entertainment Radio. over 36,000 web radio stations.

The ipad mini has dual-channel 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi.
The blaze has 2.4 GHZ 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi.
The Ipad mini has Bluetooth 4.0.
The Blaze has bluetooth 3.0
Both the Ipad mini and Blaze have two speakers.
The Blaze has no telephone style keybad.
The Blaze uses Acapela as it’s tts. I personally like ios neospeech over Acapela.

My Ipad mini is my most used device!