Now that the cell system has been botched for small devices because of the 3G shut-off, a question arises:
Are there still cordless flip phones that tie into the regular landline or DECT? Many older and disabled people need that. Regular cordless phones are bulky and have exposed knobs. Not practical to carry in a pocket. It can be bone simple, even sans display or maybe single-line. Heck, even half a dozen programmed phone numbers and no keypad suffices. In the past they existed:
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Excellent idea, but then all that went away. There are some single-button lanyard systems but usually way overpriced. Most come with mandatory and expensive subscription.
Hi Joerg, Another approach, is many DECT cordless phone/answers also have Bluetooth feature, so the use can pair wireless headset with the base. A carefully chosen location for base might give you enough range with the BT headset / connection. All users no matter the age, appreciate a well designed product. Ease of use that attains excellent level represents a well thought design, it takes work, and is not an accident.
I'm curious why you think a Flip phone is better for your client. I admit my elder family members like them too, but honestly I don't think that design is so easy to use. Its only benefit I see is a obvious "answer" and "end call" actions re opening/closing via the hinge switch.
IME, people "of a certain age" &/or with dexterity issues, etc., just need some parameters "increased" . I.e. large(er) buttons with high contrast labeling, and no confusing symbols, no misplaced switches/buttons, Also nice, "snappy" force-deflection behavior of the push-buttons. (mechanical feedback). Other feedback (beeps, lights) too. The hand-grip area should be free of any buttons, (anything that could be mistakenly pressed by the user). Bigger fonts, louder audio, Etc, well, you get the idea. regards, RS
I had a flip phone until 4 years ago when my wife (spontaneously) bought me an iPhone. I really like its camera. Otherwise not so much - it's WAY harder to use. I'm constantly getting screens that I never wanted and accidentally invoked. Or can't figure out what I do want to do. Never had those problems with the flip phone.
There's very little that I want a phone to do and the iPhone's feature glut obscures the essentials.
I have exactly that problem. I have nearly no cell service here. I have to use the cell phone over the Internet. When the Internet is down I can't place a phone call to the provider to report it. I can send a text message by typing it and finding a spot with enough cellular signal to get a "burst" transmission. Voice is hard to get to connect though.
If the electricity is out, I have to get in the car, then drive up the hill to get a signal on the phone. The electric company isn't SMS capable. Maybe I need to bring that up at the next shareholders meeting. It's a coop, so all the customers are shareholders.
Every cell provider offers flip phones. ATT sent me one to replace my old, incompatible phone that has huge number buttons and a big screen for a flip phone. They did a poor job for the blind though. The pip on the '5' button is very slight and they have no pips on the red (power) and green (call) buttons. My friend who is legally blind has a similar model and has some trouble feeling his way around the keypad on that one too. His microwave and house phone have velcro bits on the important buttons, then he has to hunt for the rest. I couldn't find a way to add speed dial numbers on the dam thing. They expect you to use the friggin' menu based directory! Fortunately his phone company offers speed dial. So he can call anyone in the list, up to 8 people if I recall.
It would be so easy to add the pips in a way that he could feel them easily, but things are not really designed for the users. They are designed for the bosses of the designers. A true Dilbert experience.
I seem to recall my friend's house phone has a means of connecting to his cell phone to make calls. Not sure what good that is other than being able to use a larger, more facile device.
Amen! There are so many products I see, telephones included, that are redesigned every six months, but don't change lots of mistakes. In fact, there are often software glitches that remain in generation after generation because they don't want to touch anything they don't have to.
He said, so the phone can be carried around the house in his pocket. A house phone requires a bleeding holster or something.
The flip phones are made for the older generation and often have haptic buttons with larger keycaps that are easier to see. They just don't provide proper pips to find the buttons if you can't see them.
I suspect the issue is portability. It blows my mind that folks carry their (cell) phones around the house with them -- or, have to leave it someplace they can rush to when it rings lest they miss an incoming call.
OTOH, if you *need* to carry <something>, you'd want it to be as small as possible.
We have BT earpieces so the phone system can find us from anywhere on the property (beacons located in the front and back yards). But, I think a button -- for emergencies -- would be easier for someone to deal with (esp if in cognitive decline).
[We have audio monitors in the bathrooms that "listen" for cries of distress so the occupant doesn't need to wear an earpiece in the shower]
I'm not sure that's true. I see lots of poorly designed products in use -- simply because folks don't have a real choice.
Close your eyes and try to use your microwave oven. Or, your household thermostat.
Plug your ears and try to do laundry -- how often will you "forget" there are clothes in the wash?
Too often, engineers make these decisions and not folks who are actually skilled in their markets.
We designed a piece of kit for commercial fisher/lobster-men decades ago. As it would be in a wet environment, we opted for a membrane keypad (relatively new at the time). I complained to my boss that the buttons were too hard to press; it was like pressing on a piece of metal (no "give"). He laughed and described the *working* hands of a fisherman, covered with fish guts poking at the buttons on a rough sea...
I'd guess size and the fact that the buttons are protected when closed. No "butt-dialing". No "screens" to sort through.
As a screen shouldn't respond to "touches" by your cheek, etc.
Lol, I've had my smart phone sense a touch when I didn't even touch the screen. In the car the screen is not so sensitive, but it is terrible about thinking a touch was a swipe because the car moved as I touched the screen. A touch screen is a terrible idea in a moving car. You would think some of the effort in the millions of lines of code would be for voice control for most of the features in the car, but it only responds to "dial" and "navigate" and "play" sorts of commands. Even my bleeding phone will tell me what 10,000 divided by 365 is. The answer is 42. Seems like the answer is always 42, no matter the question. Hmmm... maybe I have the wrong phone.
touchscreens can get flaky if the surface is gunked up so routine cleaning might help ;-)
re face triggering, the IR reflective sensor (near the speaker / ear piece transducer) is supposed to detect when the phone is against any surface (like your face, a table,...) and so shut off the screen & touch interface. If that sensor is gunked up, well, see above. cheers, RS
One of the many reasons why I have a ham radio license and emergency-capable radios. Since California has a third-world power grid that is essential. Cell towers have back-up times between zero and a few hours, after which ... nada. BT, several times. Within less than 1/2h I had zero bars on the cell phone. During a larger wildfire even that little backup won't help because the tower itself can't get a connection to the network.
Yet, things such as strokes and heart attacks don't stop happening just because there is an outage and then I hope neighbors will remember the property with those weird antennas and come here for help.
That, and you never know whether it will work on your provider's network until you have bought and unboxed the phone.
Connecting to the landline via DECT or something like that would be much better. Then the fire department would also immediately have the address which is important if someone has had an accident and is barely conscious or has dementia and thinks he still in Upper Sandusky where he was raised.
Yes, and many cell providers now only offer smart phones. So you have to buy one externally ... if you can even find one ... and hope it will be compatible with heir network because they can't really tell until they are told the IMEI number of the phone. Which you won't get before opening the package, and then it's usually non-returnable.
OTOH, cars have an ever increasing number of controls. I suspect we're at the point of cognitive overload to be able to "blindly" recall where a specific control is located.
Touchscreens, touchpads, big knobs, etc. -- all pull attention off the roadway.
*And*, have prompt feedback as to "which control we ACTUALLY just activated"!
Even speech interfaces are flakey enough to be a distraction ("now, what did it THINK I said??")
I've seen consumer HUDs and they show some promise for feedback. But, you're still faced with the issue of telling the car what you want. And, the (lengthy) lag before it can provide feedback on what it has decided your intentions to be (you being distracted awaiting that feedback for that interval)
As I've mentioned before, the Tesla salesman couldn't use the touchscreen to turn on window demisting. He tried voice activation, and managed to turn on under-seat heating.
Now try doing that when in rush hour traffic by a school, or when some idiot cuts you up, or there is a big tarmac patch interpreted as a hole in road.
In the UK that was delightfully advertised as, with one exception, not having anything, e.g. water-cooled engine: no The exception was central locking: yes (you can reach all doors from the driver's seat)
There's nothing wrong with adding control *of* additional systems/features. The problem is how you expose that control to the user.
It seldom rains, here. But, when it does, it comes down in buckets!
Because it is such an infrequent event, we have to relearn *how* to engage the wipers each season. The wiper control is on a column mounted "stick" (like the turn signals). But, there are settings for low, high and intermittent (which requires use of another control to determine the delay between wipes) -- as well as "mist".
And, of course, engaging the "washer".
Plus similar settings for the *rear* wiper.
So, the first rain of the season finds the driver "experimenting" to get the wipers to behave as he'd like. Thankfully, there is immediate feedback for these controls. And, there fixed location on the column stick means the driver can keep MOST of his attention on the road.
Of course, automatic wipers eliminates *some* of this. But, every "automatic" feature makes manual control harder -- because you have less familiarity with those "overrides".
The HVAC controls are usually in the "auto" and "synchronized" states. So, all you have to do is tweek the temperature (using a knob in a fixed location) and glance at the current setpoint. But, if you want to disengage the auto/sync features, your attention is diverted as you poke around waiting to see when the indicators extinguish.
Want to route airflow differently? Button in a fixed location BUT you have to observe icons on the center screen to determine the "current" configuration.
You can turn *off* the seat heaters (when they get accidentally engaged -- due to their piss poor location). But, can't tell if they are on/off without looking off to the side at the center console to examine the indicators, there. (too much lag for you to notice the *effect* of disabling them)
And, it's nice that the infotainment presets track the current driver's preferences. But, the actual *settings* don't! So, you're stuck listening to whatever the previous driver had selected. And, at whatever volume, tonal content, etc. (how does this make sense?)
(side) Mirror and DRIVER seat positions are restored. But, not the rear view mirror or preferences for which side mirrors tilt downward automatically, etc.
I.e., principle of least surprise: restore the car to the settings in effect when THIS driver last occupied the driver's seat! (I would go so far as to include the *passenger* seat position!)
You'd think folks with the resources of auto manufacturers would put more thought into these decisions...
[Who could possibly think NOT recognizing UI "events" for 15+ seconds would be tolerable? Turn on ignition (don't start car because you'd be wasting fuel!). Wait 15 seconds for the smarts to come on line. Diddle with controls. *Then* start the car -- and your trip... And lets not get started on how brain-damaged the GPSs are!]
<rolls eyes>
The way mobile phone dialling works, that means that the phone actually connects the number after a short wait when it thinks the user has finished pressing buttons. Hopefully it's right :)
Ah, is it a real loud speaker or is it the hands-free speaker misused?
The problem with the latter, is although the phone user can place the outrageously loud speaker to their ear to hear, it's the poor recipient at the other end that has to cope with the clipped distortion from a microphone amplifier previously adjusted for hands-free use.
Tech needs to go to this level, look what's on the top of the radio and hidden in the back.
Exactly! Even my Android smart phone can do that, so why not the "modern" flip phones?
It isn't really rocket science to emulate a POTS phone. Or maybe to some telephone design engineers it is ...
It's a matter of how good the design engineers are. On my Samsung smart phone this works. I can use it in hands-free mode and hold it to my ear. Of course I will not do that for long because it's so loud that eventually inner ear damage can result. I've done it a few times, very briefly, in situations where there was extreme noise around me and I had to answer a call to tell them I'll call right back when away from the noise source.
Main thing is you have to try stuff out in the field extensively and with real customers. In med-tech we did this all the time but unfortunately that doesn't happen in other fields.
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