Category: Geeks r Us
I tried contacting them several times today, it's a Monday, and was well within their business hours. Made my wife wonder if they're a scam, frankly, as this whole business of Internet ads going straight to voicemails when you call all their numbers is generally scam-related.
I talked to someone in my state has said he can never contact them. The problem is, the Owasys 22C sounds like a real winner of a phone for those of us that just want phone and text, aka we don't have the funds to just go blow it on the fancy devices some have. It dials, it texts, and has a long battery life because it has no screen. Unbelievably long, actually, when I looked at the specs. It's also GSM so can go with the major carriers. My wife saw the pictures and said it looks like a decent-looking phone visually, obviously not up to the standards of the teenies whose parents are buying them their gear, but it looks functional. Plus it's got a plan with T-Mobile for reduced price, if that deal is still on.
Additionally they had a finance plan, which would really be nice for those of us with families.
Anyway if any of you all know if that company is a. real and not a scam, and b. still in business / distributing this phone that would be helpful. If not, then perhaps I'll start looking on eBay for a used one.
They are for real, the guy heads up the Open Accessibility Foundation which is for Gnu / Linux, a *great* organization for another topic.
Through no fault of their own, the parent company / manufacturer is no longer making the Owasys phones and Capital Accessibility is out of stock.
I'm gonna rant so will save the rant for another board. Just to say I see Capital Accessibility and its parent the people who made the Owasys phone unfortunate casualties in what could have been a lucrative market for them in so very many ways, not just blind but many others who don't want the bells and whistles.
Anyway enough on the Geeks R Us board, I shan't clutter it with my musings.
Yes, they also sell The Festival TTS engine for Linux.
I can't believe I wasted money on that worthless piece of plastic, the oasys22C. That phone is shit.
What made it shit? That you wanted more from a phone, or that it was flimsy or something? Just curious.
Well I definitely wouldn't get it simply because it wasn't the phone for me. Quite apart from the fact that I didn't like the TTS voice, the phone itself physically just didn't seem like it was for me. I like a phone that I can slip into a pocket for easy access. Couldn't do that with the 22C. Too bulky. That and I heard a disturbing number of stories from people who had actually owned and used the phone and had it last less than two years despite their care. And the fact that Capital Accessibility can be so difficult to get hold of. My friend Marissa was one of those. Her 22C lasted about a year or so and then went on the fritz and she could never get hold of Janina or anyone else. So no, the Owasys 22C isn't worth it in my opinion, even if they were still available. And it costs about as much as or more than it would to buy a regular cell phone and fit it with a screen reader of your choice. It may be good for those who just want a phone that dials and texts, but then you just have to hope it won't die on you.
Well that's the sort of feedback that's helpful for people looking at making future purchases.
Fortunately for me at least, I was fortunate and found a deal from someone on here / said phone is coming. However as I've stated in another thread, I think there is still legitimate concern for folks on fixed incomes who a cell phone might be their best access for a number of reasons.
Wait, so the Owasys 22C has been discontinued? Is this just in the US or is this in the UK as well? I have this phone and it's okay for people like me who don't use their phones that much.
The company that actually developed the Owasys 22C is, as I imagine you know, actually based in Euripe somewhere. Apparently they went out of business recently, so yes, for all intents and purposes, the phone has been discontinued. But as for Robozork's comments about people with Fixed Income, they would be completely right except for the fact that you were still paying almost 300 bucks for the phone, even if you got a discount through T-Mobile. And maybe that's true of the IPhone as well (I don't know what the general price of the IPhone is when purchased as part of a contract or whatnot), but the Owasys 22C seems to have problems with longevity from everything I've heard about it from people who have actually owned and used it.
too bulky, the TTS voice sucks, the ringtones are horrible, can't customize people's profiles on there and assign a ringtone to each person in your contact list or make any of your own for that matter. Um ... I'll post back here if I can think of anything else.
I had one and then it stopped working. When I sent it to them, they said that I spilled something in it, which I honestly don't remember oing. The phone itself was nice, did everything I wanted and no more and it had good voice. It was more fat than long, so it was a bit too short for me, but it wasn't a bad phone. Still, for what it gave, it totally wasn't worth $500 or more. I recently got a Motorola Motofone F3 for about $30 and it's incredible. They weren't kidding about the urability, the huge battery life or the reception. I wrote a review of it here on the boards if anyone's interested.
Ah yes, all the more reasons why the Owasys 22C isn't worth it. But if assigning specific ringtones to specific contacts isn't something people want to do, and if they can tolerate the voice then more power to them. But while accessing the internet isn't a big thing with me I'd like to be able to create my own ringtones and assign specific ringers to my contacts, which the 22C can't do. My current hone can do this but to be quite frank I hate my current phone and can't wait till the time comes to upgrade. It's a Motorola Q model (a Q9H if I'm not mistaken), and quite apart from its tendency to lock up on me on a somewhat regular basis and then take an inordinant amount of time to power down in those situations so it can be rebooted, it also has a tendency to go through spurts where it not only doesn't ring when someone calls me but also doesn't make a record of that call, whether missed, incoming or whatnot. It did that three times today, and the calls were important ones. It goes to voicemail, so people can at least leave messages, but there's no way to tell when said messages were sent. And on top of that the battery life sucks, even with the extended battery which I used for several months just to see how well it worked.
Wow the Owasys sounds ... delicate?
All the twelve-year-olds about four years ago just *had* to get themselves a Razor, or squeak their parents into it ... save for me. The blasted things were so thin and fragile you could blow on it wrong and screw things up.
No matter what anyone says about preferences, there is one thing all do with a cell phone: drop it. That's why ZDNet, CNet and others (used to be Ziff Davis Labs) will brutally test devices, aka drop them, cook them, run them through the washer and print reports of the results. Naturally no device can take unlimited punishments but the findings are worth it. That's why I was so put off when someone showed me AccessWorld, the supposed CNet for the blind. She couldn't understand why I thought all it looked like was a crock. Someone with a real lab should have drop-kick tested that phone and wrote about it before yu all got one.
It's one of my beefs with what they call accessibility ... don't just talk about the blind reader part, drop kick it! See if it'll last through the dryer!
Scary thought, but many Nokia phones have been through, and functionally so, many such instances. Just sayin'.
The reason why I went with the Owasys was because I wouldn't be using the phone that much; a lot of the people I talk too can be reached via WLM or Skype. But when i'm older and the need for a mobile/cell phone increases, i'll either get a phone and shove Mobile Speak or Talks on it, or i'll consider an IPhone, though not sure at the moment.
The IPhone would probably be cheaper since the screen reader's already built-in. I've more or less decided that's what I'm going to do.
My phone's actually famous for it's durability, which is one of the reasons why I got it. It's actually made for third-world countries and is built to withstand dust, rain, huge drops on pavement and more. The display on the screen is actually sealed in and is plastic and not glass so it makes it less fragile and saves on battery life in the process. I heard that someone ran over it with a car and another person dropped it from a ten storey building or so and it still worked. I didn't try any of that, of course, but it did fall down quite a few stairs and I got it very wet with my hands (hyperhydrosis) and it's still working beautifully. Not bad for $30!
The only thing to watch with the iPhone is input. Not picking on the fanboys here, but from a purely enterprise perspective if you ever need to use that thing for inputting anything very quickly (taking notes perhaps?) you'll be at a loss. That alone is why companies are not deploying it *large-scale*. I'm sure a fanboy on here or somewhere can find us a small outfit who has, but touch-based keyboards just don't input that quickly, which is why Research In Motion (RIM) who makes the Blackberry devices has stayed away from it.
There are devices on the market that use touch / gesture with actual keyboards for input. That's just something to consider if you ever want to learn to enter data at a pace. If you want to know what is reliable and fast for getting a lot done, watch the enterprise markets. If that doesn't matter and you're never gonna use it for more than phone / fandom go for the gold, get you an iPad to boot.
The only reason why i am not sure about the IPhone is that I do not use a phone enough to justify a pay monthly contract, which I believe you have to do to stand any chance of using 3G. If you don't get a contract, you have to pay over 500 pounds for it and you have no data access. Apart from that, the IPhone sounds great!
Well I think AT&T has some forms you can fill out, at least in the US, that will allow you to at least wave the data plan fee. Granted I don't know if they've got something similar in the UK but it might be worth looking into. I myself plan on looking into that. I mean I don't know if I'd actually use the internet but it still beats paying a lot extra for a separate screen reader again which I'm no longer willing to do.
This is just guessing on my part, but I'd imagine AT&t will make the data plan stick for the iPhone since it's not specifically marketed to the disabled market. Also, the new plans are $15 for 200 MB and 25 for 2gb respectively for the iPhones, which is kind of chumpy. I'm on the boarder between buying an iPhone and just saying forget it. I think it's a slick device, but I can't stand at&t and since for now, they are the only game in town, I don't know. I will say the ability to use a bluetooth keyboard in this release is nice, I've also thought of some practical use for the face time applications. I was joking with my wife the other day about all the times I've needed to know if my suit matches while I'm away for business, or maybe you know what's this bills particular denomination that would be a nice I guess we'll say bonus feature.
Just thinking out loud.
I think you're right and not only us blinks will use it like that. Why didn't they put a better camera in it? A camera like what's in the Nokia N86 is actually better, including for us blind bats because the resolution is so superior and we can give a sighted person a sharper clearer image to ogle upon.
My wife says the video quality was pretty nice. Remember the Device with the retna technology they are using is 960 by 640 resolution so that compensates some for the camera. She also commented that the project done with the iMovie was nice. For someone like us who has 4 kids and carry around a flip video camera plus a phone plus a netbook, it's something to think about being able to capture video at full 720P. I'm sure it'll make it's way over to the touch's in september so if I can't pull the trigger on at&t at least I could still have some of the features.
I'm thinking about getting AT&T later on in the future, only because Verizon is really making me mad. I might be on a plan with my two best friends and add my parents as numbers whom I can call for free.
Can i ask this here, leave food for thought, why are you! going with a company who does not offer a unlimited plan? If you look at Team moble, Sprint and not sure aoubt vz those companys do not limit your date use. yes the Iphone is a sexy device but I personal will stick with my touch pro2. Say what ya want about MSP but there touch screen jesters do more than get the job done.
I'm not going to be getting the iPhone. I don't like Sprint, I hear they have horrible service, and I don't know very many people who have T-Mobile.
Actually those "unlimited" data plans all cap you at 5GB and anything over that they will start charging you overages like a $1 a MB.. The reason At&T switched there was because a lot of ppl complainded that they didn't really use the phone for data and taht they should have to pay $30 a month hence the $15 for 250 mb plan but they also claim most people don't go over 2GB and thats why its 2GB for $25. Also if you seen some of the new features/apps for the iPhone 4 you'd know the other unspoken reason why they really wanted to limit the amount of data used.