A Simple New Phone for Seniors

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To: Shirley of CA

Shirley,

Life Alert, the company that you have chosen for the in-home system, also has a 911 Cell Phone with a single button that you push to talk to a 911 operator. The pendant sized phone can be worn or carried in your hand. It works wherever GSM wireless service is available. Life Alert handles everything for you in regards to set up and service so that you deal with them, not a wireless carrier for service.

Here's the link: http://www.lifealert.com/911phone.html

Best regards,

Koop

Koop of WA @ Sep 17, 2009 06:43:27 AM

To: Gail

Hi, Gail.

You've evidenced an ability to read, which means you can see well enough to read and interpret meaning well enough from what you see. So, you have one of the essential skills that you will need to solve the problem that you've presented.

If you used a computer rather than a smartphone to reach this website and to type and submit your comment, you have an important tool that you need to begin the process of solving the problem that you've defined.

Your comments reveal an ability to imagine something beyond the patch of earth on which you're standing; this characteristic should be leveraged fully to serve you well.

If you can read and comprehend, you can communicate and learn.

If you can imagine, you can create and become more and better than who, what and where you started.

If you have a computer and know how to use it, you have an essential tool with which you can learn, communicate and create.

So, why are you wasting your time whining and complaining that others have not solved your problem for you whilst you sit idly like a spoiled, selfish child on your lazy behind?

If you want to customize your phone for personal use, what exactly are you choosing to believe about yourself or the phone that is getting in your way of doing what you need to get the result that you want?

As anyone who has truly lived and learned for most or all of their 68 years should know, one size doesn't actually fit "all"...and if you want something done right for you, ahem, do it yourself.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

Best regards,

M. Gandhi

M. Gandhi of WA @ Sep 17, 2009 06:18:20 AM

To: Julie

Julie,

The bottom of the phone slides down to reveal a big-button keypad, which is easy to read and simple to use.

The article clearly states that the ClarityLife phone has a keypad that slides out when you need it.

In your rush to judgment, you seem to have missed most, if not all, of the key points in the article that actually address and make moot your negative critique.

Although a link to Clarity's website is made available in the first paragraph for anyone who might be curious enough to click, read and learn, you do not appear to have used it to learn anything more about the phone that you were so very quick to judge and condemn.

Was your reply only meant to address what you saw in the picture? Did you actually read the article before you began typing your comment?

If up and down arrows confuse you and the colors red and green hold no meaning for you and the symbols of a phone off the hook (in use) and on the hook (not in use) simply don't translate for you and the "OK" bewilders your mind, I have to wonder how in the world you ever managed to use a computer or smartphone to navigate to this website and type your nasty, little review.

Emporio's Life phone, which is sold by Clarity in North America, is actually a good, little phone with a remarkably simple and easy to use design.

No, it's not an iPhone or a Blackberry, but it is certainly worth a second look, especially for seniors and for folks with visual and hearing impairments.

Best regards,

H. Thoreau

H. Thoreau of WA @ Sep 17, 2009 05:30:59 AM

clarity life cell phones

If this is the simplest they can come up with, I am not impressed. Where are the numbers on the phone so I can call someone. None of the symbols on the phone are familiar to me.

Also one of the biggest problems I have with cell phones is accidently pusshing a button that makes the phone do something strange, like going into airplane mode so I can't use it. Sorry but I'll have to kep looking. This phone is poorly designed and confusing.

Julie Wagner of CA @ Aug 13, 2009 01:02:10 AM

Cell phones for Seniors

I am ready to throw my cheap Nokia cell out (Tracfone)! I bought it for emergencies, and in three years I've used it 5 times. Today our son tried to call us while we were on vacation in Canada. I tried to answer it, but there was no place that said "answer call". I pushed several buttons, but lost the call. He tried once more, and I pushed something else, but still lost the call. We left for home, worried sick that something had gone wrong at home, unable to enjoy this last part of our trip. When we got home, he had left a message on our home phone about a bad storm and wondering if we'd gotten hit with it (which we hadn't). It was not an emergency, but it spoiled the ride home for us. Why can't cell phones be explicit? Why can't our oh-so-damn-smart designers make them with buttons that say "dial now", "place call", "answer phone" and "hang up", instead of making us scroll through a lot of garbage? I'm 68 years old, and I'm not impressed with our younger generations, if this is an example of their abilities. Sorry, but I'm feeling pretty grouchy right now.

Gail Rendle of PA @ Jul 13, 2009 16:22:04 PM

911 one touch auto dial button

An excellent article Dave. The seniors certainly can use this simplistic cellphone to easily call 911.

SACC (stop accidental cell calls) brought this idea with its protective "peel and stick" rubber 0 ring to surround the "9" button to prevent accidental 9-1-1 calls from the users...especially the disabled and challenged seniors. It is pointed out in the illustration of the ClarityLife unit that the 911 button is very much recessed which protects it in the same fashion as the rubber button guard. SACC made this simple add-on ring available in its presentation to FCC/WTB (wireless board members) in 2003 and has exhibited it to the nations 911 facilities and their associations...also to the NOKIA as well as cell phone carriers. It has been rejected to date...why? the 9-1-1 facilities are budgeted by the number of 911 calls and the button guard has proven to reduce those accidental and time delaying calls by 25-40%. Also the cell phone carriers get paid for the other button "redial last call" not being protected to accidental calling the last phone number called and runs up the air time. Please review www.stopaccidentalcalls.com and go to "in the news" ..this RICO activity to silence the U.S. and Canada patented solution is nothing short of a crime.

Respectfully Dale Lissner pres SACC a non profit corp.

Dale Lissner of OR @ Mar 25, 2009 22:42:23 PM

Emergency heart phone

We are writing you in desperation because our father has a severe heart condition which can cause a sudden heart attack at any time. He is otherwise in fair health, and can walk, go places, etc. On the cardiologist's advice we have purchased a portable defibrillator to use which we carry around when we go out with him. Inside the house we have set up a Life Alert system which includes a wrist pendant which he can press, which then notifies the Life Alert system to call 911. However, outside, he needs a cell phone in which if he were having a heart attack, and were sufficiently conscious, he could quickly press a 911 button, and a phone which would have GPS enabled so that his location could be determined if he were able to say heart attack into the phone as he was falling to the ground, for example. We have gone to Best Buy and other cell phone centers, and upon their advice purchased a Verizon flip phone with a dedicated 911 button. Unfortunately, we now realize this is not a good choice because in order for our father to use it, he would have to take the phone off of his belt, which is not easy because the clasp is tight, probably necessarily; turn it right side up; flip it open, and then dial 911. The nature of the heart attack might be such that he would not be able to do this. Do you have any suggestions for a phone in which the 911 button is available without having to flip it open; with GPS; and in which he could simply push a 911 button if he were falling to the ground? We asked also about whether there are any voice command type phones, but were told that all of the cell phones, including those with voice command, require that one press one button, then wait several seconds, and then press or do something else. We are hoping that there is something more immediate in which he could have the phone set up ahead of time; have it easily accessible on his belt or around his neck; and then simply press a 911 button, or yell into the phone 911, heart attack. Thank you very much for your assistance. Thank you.

Shirley of CA @ Jul 14, 2008 15:36:08 PM

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