[Electronics-Talk] smartphone for the blind

Sun Dec 24 09:26:24 UTC 2017

Pam, as I said in the other message I didn't come across the signal strength 
information when I was looking over the acatel in the store, but I think I'm 
going to buy the acatel pretty soon, next month, and I'll see what I can 
find out. also since the sim mobile is so much like the acatel I'm going to 
see if I could find where the signal strength information is. It will be 
interesting if Steve finds the signal strength information on his wife's 
acatel. I want to follow up with a few things that I was telling you all 
earlier about these more recent basic phones such as the acatel, the sim 
mobile and the z t e phones. I haven't found the voice comands area, how for 
example that is on the samsung gusto 3, and on the t-199, the voice commands 
is under the organizer section, I don't think these new phones have that. 
The other thing is sometimes, as Steve says the phone will make some of 
these clicking noises and sometimes in some instances it won't and in 
certain areas it doesn't seem to speak everything. For one example, I was 
trying to find the ringtones area on the z t e phone, as I was telling you 
all earlier. We went to almart tonight and a friend found where the 
ringtones were which was under sounds and under general. I heard some of 
what he was doing, but I'm not sure if it actually spoke general, especially 
in being in a store. Anyway when I was looking for the ringtones under 
sounds before I never found the area called general which I'll have to try 
again. So I think there's some parts that don't speak as it should. Though 
I'm not complaining, it's a basic phone and I wouldn't expect that it were 
perfect. I will og over that again though. The other thing that is a bit 
disapointing but possibly I'm missing something, I these more recent phones, 
I can't seem to find hwere or how to do the symbals such as period, comma 
and so on. The sales guy was showing me, but it didn't seem to speak those 
symbals, as it does on the gusto 3, the t-199 and the kyrocera. I was on the 
right track when I told you all that the z t e phones are on track phone, 
verison and straight talk. I don't know about any other versions of the z t 
e phone on other carriers, but it's posible there are other versions of the 
phone on some other carriers. What we did find out from our friend tonight 
when we were at walmart was that the z t e phone on straight talk is a 
different  model of z t e phone  that is used for verizon.

Arlene
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pamela Dominguez via Electronics-Talk" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Pamela Dominguez" <geodom at optonline.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2017 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] smartphone for the blind

> When you were messing with the Alcatel, did you notice anything about how 
> to find out the signal strength?  Pam.
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Arlene via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2017 6:52 PM
> To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
> Cc: Arlene
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] smartphone for the blind
>
> Hi, Ashley, I have 6  button phones, the nokia 6600 that was with t-mobile
> not connected now that I had with mobile speaks screen reader, the t-199 
> for
> t-mobile from 3 years ago, samsung gusto 3 with verizon prepaid that came
> out 3 years ago, the kyozera dura xv with verizon prepaid of which this
> phone may have came out some time in 2016 that I got this past summer, the
> sim mobile from at&t which I purchased about this past summer, and the z t 
> e
> with verizon on prepaid which I got about 3 weeks ago. The same day that I
> purchased the zte about 3 weeks ago, I purchased my first iphone, the se
> phone. I have a whole lot to learn with the touch screen but in time I 
> think
> I'll learn it. I feel very possitive about that, it's just a different way
> of navigating with the screen. When a friend could assist us in pairing up
> our new bluetooth key board and get the wifi set up with the phone that 
> will
> be good as well. I have a friend that's beginning to show us about
> navigating on the screen which is helping, and through other friends on a
> list I'm on they've sent iphone tutorials and the iphone books which will 
> be
> helpful as we're learning. While I'm truly possitive about learning the
> iphone, to me anyway, nothing in many respects will never replace buttons 
> on
> a phone. Honestly, I say that because that's what I've been use to with
> phones for the last 41 years, when I first used a button phone, of course
> back then it wasn't a cell phone.  In the last 15 years of having cell
> phones, the only other touch  screen phone I got 2 years ago is the 
> android
> modo g that I don't know that I'll ever learn which I did my best to learn
> with instructions from the android site that has the instructions of the
> gestures and swipes and so on. With a few brief experiences with getting 
> to
> see iphones in stores, I always felt more so that I could learn it, so 
> maybe
> after I learn the iphone, maybe I could go back to trying to learn my modo 
> g
> which is not connected. Back to the basic button phones, while all these
> phones will never be smart phones, 2 of the phones I meantioned that I 
> have,
> the sim mobile from at&t and the zte which I have on verizon and the zte 
> is
> on some other companies such as track phone and possibly straight talk, 
> both
> these phones are a little more advanced than the samsung t-199, the 
> samsung
> gusto 3, and even more advanced than the kyozera phone. I may not do as 
> well
> as other individuals in explaining how these phones are more ad vanced
> technically, and some thing that I'll mention wouldn't be important to
> everyone as far as what the phone is capable and why it seems more 
> advanced,
> after all you want a phone to use as a phone so you can make phone calls
> when you need and want too. There's one other phone that I don't have that
> is on the same level as the sim mobile and the zte phone and that is the
> acatel phone with t-mobile which I took a good look at, at the t-mobile
> store when the sales guy put the speech on for me. All 3 of these phones
> when making a call, while you're on the call, you could press one of the
> buttons, I think it might be the right soft key or the okay button which
> will tell you the phone number of the person you're talking too. I just
> discovered this when I experimented with making a 3 way call with the 2
> phones I have. This would be more important, let's say you were on a 3-way
> call, and one person hung up, it will let you know when you press the 
> button
> which phone number left the line. Now I'm telling anyone reading this, 
> that
> you could hear it give you information such as the phone number you're
> talking too, and also when you go to make a 3-way call, when you press the
> left soft key the phones voice will say add a call and your press the okay
> button and it said to dial the phone number to add, all of this while 
> being
> in a call with the first caller. This one advancement or what is new about
> these phones, the phone's voice from the text to speech can be heard
> speeking these options and instruction as i described can be heard while 
> in
> a call, which the other phones I mentioned don't have. While in a call as 
> I
> described you might be wondering if it speaks anything else from pressing
> the buttons, as far as I've noticed, it only speaks the option to add a 
> call
> and I think it was to end a call, and the instruction to dial the number 
> to
> be added, again this is while being in a call. The other advancement or 
> what
> is new about these basic phones, you can go on the internet very well.
> Between the sim mobile and the zte phone that I have, the sim mobile is
> better with going on the internet, you can go to just about any web site, 
> or
> go to google and do a search. While I don't have the acatel I'm very sure
> that the experience with going on the internet with the acatel would be 
> just
> as a possitive experience. Actually the sim mobile for at&t and the 
> t-mobile
> acatel feel like, set   up of the phone   and the way the both phone work
> seem exactly the same, with the exception that the acatel has more items 
> and
> icons than the sim mobile has. With the brief time with the acatel under 
> the
> clock icon it had 3 items, which I'm not sure I'm remembering correctly
> since it was during the summer I was exploring this phone. I think my sim
> mobile it just as the alarm clock, and also unfortunately and this sounds
> crazy we were told by the at&t sales guy that the sim mobile didn't come
> with ringtones. From phone to phone sometimes it's hard to remember some 
> of
> these details, that even for myself I have to go back and check on, so i
> apologize for any details I've forgotten or weren't sure of. There some 
> more
> details that I still yet have to check out with these phones. If anyone 
> has
> questions about any of these phones, I'll answer any questions that I know
> the answer too, and as far as the acatel phone, Pam has this phone and she
> could tell us what's under the clock icon. Ashley, I also agree with you
> that I wouldn't want to depend on the voice activations because it doesn't
> always hear accurately which is true on my tv and on some of the voice
> activation on some of the phones such as the basic phones such as the 
> t-199
> and the gusto 3.. Th voice activation for paying bills is very good
> especially with t-mobile.
>
> Arlene
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ashley Bramlett via Electronics-Talk" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> To: "Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances"
> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
> Sent: Friday, December 22, 2017 12:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] smartphone for the blind
>
>
>> Arlene,
>> I agree with you and Sandra.
>> I prefer buttons and voice commands have their downfalls especially since 
>> its not an exact science and the machine can misunderstand you.
>> It’s a nice option but I would only feel comfortable using voice commands 
>> in certain environments.
>>
>> What type of phone do you have? From your message, I assume you also have 
>> a phone with buttons.
>> Ashley
>>
>> -----Original Message----- 
>> From: Arlene via Electronics-Talk
>> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 3:03 PM
>> To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
>> Cc: Arlene
>> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] smartphone for the blind
>>
>> Sandra, I'm with you, I don't want to talk to anything. If all the menues
>> and buttons talk that's what I'm looking for especially in a button 
>> phone.
>> Also I don't like to buy anything right way either. Give it time for bugs 
>> to
>> be worked out of it, and as in this new phone possibly in time the price
>> will go down to some extent.
>>
>> Arlene
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Sandra Streeter via Electronics-Talk" 
>> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> To: <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: "Sandra Streeter" <sandrastreeter381 at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 9:32 AM
>> Subject: [Electronics-Talk] smartphone for the blind
>>
>>
>>>I am not scared of it being Android. I am scared, however, of it becoming 
>>>a paper-weight, as some have pointed out. Now, for those who know more 
>>>than I: I would be interested in this aspect of deaf history: How did the 
>>>deaf get closed-captioning, TTY’s, etc., so mainstream? It seems that we 
>>>struggle a lot more to get blind-friendly things to happen, to be 
>>>affordable, and to stick around. It’s even worse if, like me, you have 
>>>other issues than blindness that make using a touch-screen untenable, and 
>>>you need something like the Envision 2 to even be able to get on the 
>>>learning curve for mastering a ‘'new smartphone. Before anyone brings up 
>>>the idea of voice commanding, I also would prefer not to talk; I know I’m 
>>>a whiner and complainer, and you have all see my wish list for the 
>>>perfect smartphone, but sometimes, it bears repeating. If I had the money 
>>>to get the Envision, I probably would, except for that one problem of how 
>>>long it would be supported; I’d be inclined to wait a couple years to 
>>>make sure any bugs were worked out and that it still had some longevity, 
>>>and maybe even to wait for the price to drop a bit—as tempting as it is 
>>>to be hasty. So, in the interim, I may end up with a feature phone, which 
>>>I could at least use for texting and phone calls on the road, and at 
>>>work, where you really need something you can function with.
>>>
>>>
>>> Sandra
>>>
>>> “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because 
>>> he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, 
>>> however measured or far away.”
>>> (Henry David Thoreau)
>>>
>>> ---
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>>
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>
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