Category: Cell Phone Talk
Hi. I'm wanting to get an accessible cell phone, but am not interested in using it to access the Internet or paying for a data plan. I figure I can use my laptop or Braille Sense for the Internet, and would get an iPod Touch to use apps such as for OCR and other useful things.
I'd also prefer the phone to have a regular keypad, as I think these would be easier for me to use compared to a QWERTY one. I know there are some LG phones that are like this; I used to have one but forgot which one it was. Aside from knowing things like battery status and signal strength, I'm mainly interested in being able to know who calls and accessing/editing my contacts list. Also, if I could access and use some of the features within the submenus and do texting, that would be a big plus but may not be a deal-breaker for me if I can't access these features.
So, which phones do y'all know of with reasonable TTS accessibility, and what kinds of information/tasks can be accessed with the TTS?
to help me answer your question, which carrier are you interested in?
are you looking for a new phone only, or would you be willing to look at used phones from places such as eBay and reselular?
I'm thinking of going with a company that uses Verizon phones, since it looks like the type of phone I'd want would be one that is only available with them. For now, I'm looking into going with Page Wireless as my service,(or something similar to that) because they're plans would be more affordable to me. I've e-mailed Page Wireless, and In their response to my question about their use of Verizon phones, they said:
"You cannot use a Verizon PREPAID phone on our network, however, if you can find a used 3G CDMA Verizon POST PAID phone ... that should work fine."
If you or anyone else know of other carriers that use Verizon phones, or of accessible phones from other carriers, I am also open to looking into that as well.
Overall, I'm wanting to either go with a reasonable pay-as-you-go plan or one that would be less than $40 a month. Unlimited minutes is ideal, but I could also work with a given set of minutes. I would use it mainly for important/formal calls and occasional casual conversations.
I'm open to getting either new or used; it just depends on the carrier and what phones they can work with. For Page Wireless, I'd need a used one, but I will consider looking into any carriers that use the type of phone I'm interested in.
Nokia C5 is the presently available phone as per GSM. I dono about CDMA. Which is known as numeric keypad. And you can make use of talks with that. there is another software called Mobilespeak, but I don't like it's synthesizer. Talks can be used with eloquence tts as well.
HTH.
Raaj.
Metro PCS uses the CDMA network as well.
You can go into a store and look, but odds are you'll only have 4 new choices to choose from.
check out the folowing sites, they may help you.
http://www.phonescoop.com/
Here, you can do a search for a type of phone that you are after, and choose all kinds of options to look at new phones, choosing by carrier if you wish.
http://accessiblephones.com/
an older list of phones for the blind, but if you are after used phones, this is a good place to start.
http://www.mobilekarma.com/
another great place for used phones. they have lots of phones, including some pretty old ones. perhaps to make it easier on yourself, you could get some idea as to which model phone you are after, then look at this site to see if they have it.
Aditionally, you can try eBay as they may be cheaper yet.
If you go with Verizon, i believe you can get a used flip phone such as the sansung haven, and there unlimited plann is $35 per person pre-paid.
b
Thank you for your help and for those links. They are very informative and helpful. I happened upon someone selling a phone earlier today, and may actually be getting the one that that person is selling. But those sites were still very interesting and informative to look thru, and I will definitely keep them on record for future reference.
cool. let me know what you do get and who its with. i'd like to know cause i'm curious. also, you can find used phones on Amazon, and craigslist, though i haven't checked craigslist.
I have an LG Revere that I use with Page Plus Celular. Some of the menus talk, and it reads out the caller ID. You can also set it to announce who has texted you and to read the text out loud. Also, you can set it to automatically open a reply message for you to key in your reply when you open the phone to listen to the text. I am also able to add, modify, read out, or delete contacts using the voice command feature. It will read some of the menus but not all of them. It will also say each key that you press while you are dialing a number.
I got my LG Revere specifically for use with Page Plus through Amazon for about $60. You would have to make sure that it says it is for use for Page Plus so you don't accidentally get a prepaid Verizon phone instead. I like the unlimited plan from Page Plus for $39.95, and it is nice because that is all you pay, so they don't add any extra fees or taxes to that amount. I have been with Page Plus for about a year, and I have always paid the flat amount of $39.95, and it actually used to be $44.95 until Page Plus lowered the price down to $39.95. It also includes a small amount of data for internet, but I don't use it, but I like the unlimited talk and text that this plan gives me. They have another plan for $55, but it is not worth getting unless you will be using more data through the internet. Otherwise, that is the only difference between the $39.95 plan and the $55 plan is that the $55 plan just has a larger data allowance.
I had a friend that was also with Page Plus for a long time that used the Samsung Haven with it, although she had to buy it through Ebay I believe, and they may even have it on Amazon, but the Samsung Haven phones I believe are not made any longer, so you have to get it used, but it can work once you get it and give your ESN or MEID number to Page Plus if that is the service you choose.
You can get the Samsung Haven on Ebay or other places used or refurbished.
another option to check out is ting.com
Leo Laporte the tech guy advertises ting, and as i understand how it works, if the phone you get will work on the sprint network, you can also use it on Ting.
Ting let's you choose how many minutes, how much texting and how much data you will use. what isn't used is roled over. if you go over what you prepaid they'll just bring you up to the next tear for that month only.
since sprint works off CDMA, i wonder if you could take another CDMA phone and have ting unlock it ? not sure how that works.
Cool; thanks both of y'all for this detailed info. *smile*
@poster 8-10:
The phone that I was interested in was a Nokia N82, then I thought of getting an iPhone, but after doing more research, looking at my financial situation, and just thinking about things, I've gone back to my original idea of getting a basic phone and an iPod Touch. I checked out the Ting website, and their plan setup is pretty interesting. I like the idea of getting to choose the amounts of talk, text, and data individually. They have a page somewhere on there that lists all the phones that work with it, but the only one I found a match for so far when comparing their list to http://accessiblephones.com, was the LG Fusic. They may have more, but I didn't go thru the whole list.
@poster 9:
I'm considering going with Page Plus after all if anything, especially now that you mentioned it will work with the Samsung Haven. I did find one on Amazon, but am not sure whether or not it's tied to Verizon. I've found that Amazon does mention when a device is tied to a specific carrier, but I don't know if the non-mentioning of one always means that the device is not. The one I found did not mention a carrier though, but it didn't mention anything about Page Plus prepaid/postpaid or anything either. I did also find an LG Revere listed too though, and it did mention that it works with pre- and postpaid plans, so I think that means I'll need to go with that one. It was listed for $104, and although it mentioned that you could get it used for much less than that, there was only one seller selling it at the $104 price. I'll likely end up going for that since I usually buy from Amazon and have always have good luck with it so far. Thanks for the info as well as to how accessible the LG Revere is and what you can do with your phone. I will only be using my phone for talking/texting as well so it's good that both can be done independently with it.
Ah rats. I wanted to post the link to the list of phones that work with Ting in case anyone reading this was interested, but I deleted it earlier and forgot how I got to it so can't find it. *disappointed*
I know Ting does mention that it mainly works with Sprint phones though, although not with all Sprint phones. It doesn't work with iOS devices at all. Also, it mentions that there are specific carriers that it doesn't work with such as Virgin Mobile and several others, so I'm also curious if phones from other CDMA carriers they didn't otherwise mention would work. It is still a fairly new carrier though, so it will be interesting to see what additional phones will be added to their list of useable phones with this carrier.
you could always call ting and ask if the Fusic, Samsung Haven or LG Revere will work on there network.
If it doesn't list a carrier, i believe that would mean that it'd be unlocked. I dont know if the Revere is only compatible with CDMA or if they have a version for GSM, though you seem to be more interested in CDMA phones anyway.
well i had to call the ting.com people. Rob pointed me to ware to go to get the list of devices that can work on the Ting network. It wasn't easy to find. i did find it with his help though, and asked him to make a note to the web development team to make this list easier to find.
Anyway, here's the list of phones you can potentially bring over to ting from the sprint network.
https://help.ting.com/entries/22567167-BYOD-Whitelist-
i asked rob about bringing over other CDMA devices such as those that worked with Verizon and he said that you can't do that. Its a limitation that sprint puts on Ting. so if you decide to go with ting.com, be sure that your phone works with the sprint network.
that list should help you out and if its not on the list, just call and ask.
Hope this helps somebody.
Cool; glad to know you found that info, and thanks for posting the link for the Ting-compatible phones. *smile* That's too bad it doesn't work with Verizon phones, but at least there are some somewhat-accessible Sprint ones that can be used with Ting.
Yes. they update the list too. there's comments on the bottem of that list and the ting.com people actually respond to these comments.
i dont know of a lot of people on here still using flip phones, or phones with just a numeric keypad, but maybe this board topic will help somebody who does.