Category: accessible Devices
Hey Everyone! Long time, no post!!! lol. I figured I'd add a topic of my own, pertaining to accessible phones. I saw them at CSUN back in March and thought it was awesome the things that us blind people could do with a phone!!!!!! It intreeged me more, and kept finding out what phones some of my friends had, so that I could pick out the right phone for me. (and I don't like the keyboards, the buttons are to small, and I don't like the slider phones, the buttons are to tiny!) I do however like the flip phones. So one of my friends (we both go to the same University) is also blind, and he has the N75, which you can only by online, cause it's discontinued. So I saw his phone (he showed it to me) and I was like hmmm, okay, it was everything I was looking for, the buttons, no keyboard, etc. (I'll be getting talks on it btw) since I don't really like moble speak that much, (got to try them both at CSUN) and I did like talks. (maybe that's cause I use jaws) and talks is more like jaws and moble speak is more like windoweyes. (currect me if I'm wrong on this) but that's what I got out of it, and that's the easiest way to explain it anyways. (and+ I can't understand the screenreader of moble speak). So I ordered the phone online, and am just waiting for it to be shipped. Does anyone currently have this phone (the N75) and if you do, what do you think? (even though it doesn't have a keyboard, is it a challenge to text?) cause my parents were telling me that they could send me what all the numbers are (like 2 is A.B.C. etc) is that difficult to figure out and learn? (I had talks a few years ago) with a different phone (back when talks was first introduced) it wasn't that I didn't like it, it was the phone that it was on. The phone was huge, and the buttons were tiny, and I couldn't figure out how to use it. (so I sent it back and ATT nearly killed me!) but at least with this N75 phone, hopefully it'll be different. Thanks everyone!! I hope to get some replies soon! And I look forward to joining the texting world!!! :)
Amber.
Yeah the N75 does have a nice number pad and i have one sitting here i haven't really started using yet ( waiting for areplacement battery to come in the mail) But the texting thing isn't too difficult if you don't already remember what letters are on what number it will take a little time to remmeber that but once you start texting you should pick that up really quickly.Also you may or may not want to use predictive mode (also known as T9) where you press each number once for the letter and the phone tries to guess the word. EG in non predictive mode to type the word "bus" you would have to press the number 2 twice for B, the number 8 twice for U and the nummber 7 four times for S. In predictive mode however you would press the number 2, 8, and 7 once each and the phone would most likely guess that you wanted to type bus.
Oh I see! So the only difference between the predictive and non-predictive mode is that you can have the phone guess what your trying to text instead of you typing numbers multiple times? And without the predictive mode, you'd have to press a number multiple times to get a letter. Hmmmm.... That would probably work better, since then I wouldn't have to like remember what numbers goes with what letters, etc, etc. Is that mode pretty easy to activate? Like how would you activate it? And what if the word that the phone is predicting isn't correct? Could you edit the word some how?? Thanks for the post and letting me know about this!!! (yeah that's the other thing I noticed about the N75, the keypad is nice) compared to the phone that I have now. I honestly don't know how I survived, cause like the phone I have now (it doesn't have any accessible softwhere on it) cause it's not compatible with it, but the buttons are like hella flat and things. But yeah I can't wait for my phone to ship!! Thanks for telling me about this. If anyone else has any comments to add about the N75, and other features that you can do with it, (it would be nice to see what they are and how to activate them if I do choose to do so) before I get the phone. So if there are any other N75 users out there, and y'all could let me know of any other features and things that you can obtain (such as the predictive and nonpredictive mode) I'd greatly appreciate it!! Thanks all!
Amber.
Well in predictive mode you still have to remember what letter goes with which number .. you just wont have to remember the number of button presses to get the right lettter. If I am not sure how to activate this as i don't have my N75 up and running yet, but i will assume when i do that it works like my nokia 6650 does and thats when you are in the area where you type the text message the # key cycles through your modes. Upper Case predictive, Lower Case Predictive, Upper Case, Lower Case, Numbers. Each press of the # key will speak one of those modes and it will just keep going through them press it till it says the one you want and then start typing your message. Now lets say you want to type the word "ME" in predictive mode you would pres the nummber 6 for m and the number 3 for e, hower doing this will most likely say "OF" since O and F use the same two numbers. so then you pres the * key to cycle through all the possible words taht it could be and when it says the word you want (in this case it should be after pressing the * key once) you press the space bar or the number 0 and continue with your message. Oh and if you need to enter a nummber you can just press and hold that number for a few seconds and it will be the number instead of having to switch to number mode and back. And generally it will start a text message or a sentence off with a upper case letter and then automatically switch back to lower case by default. Other stuff depends on waht sort of things you want to do like if you want to use gps or INstant messaging or surf the net you may need to have a data plan as well.
Hi! Oh I see. That makes sence. (Yeah that's what I meant) it would be a pain to remember how many presses you have to press the numbers. It would be easier I think to just press a number and have it figure out what letter you are looking for, then pressing a number 3 or 4 times to get a letter. Thanks for the help!
Amber.
What is the battery life like on this phone? Also, does it have a radio?
um i like the keyboard phones if your good at typing then its no problem it just seems like alot of buttons at first but its really easy texting with the number pad is like way hard cuz say for example your typing the word can you have to hit the number 2 3 times to get to the c and the wait a second and hit it once to get to the a its kind of annoying so yeah can't wait to get my e71x on tuesday haven't had a nokia in foreber
maybe i would just have to play with one of those phones with a qwerty keyboard for a while to get used to them but i think i would be a faster typer with my one finger in predictive mode on a number pad than on a phone with full querty keyboard unless the keyboard was big enough for me to touch type. And well if it was big enough for taht i it wouldn't fit in my pocket so well. That and i didn't like the way the numbers are overlayed over the middle of the keyboard on the e71. But if it works for you cool. ITs a really good phone as well.
Trick of the trade: If you're texting "normally", where c = the number 2 pressed three times quickly, a quicker way to type multiple letters that have the same number is to hit the right arrow (just above the number pad) after each letter. Here's an example:
To type the word cab, c a b, you would type 2 three times, right arrow, then 2 once, right arrow, and then 2 twice. That way you switch the focus of the cursor to the next character, freeing yourself up to keep typing.
I have an N82, and for me the easiest thing was just sitting down and fucking with my phone--I learned a lot more that way. Check out the Talks manual (pretty easy to find online) for all of the commands you can use, they're all pretty neat and useful.
Hey!! Oh okay. Thanks. Where do you get the manual? (I did get my phone today btw!!) it feels all new and shiny, and I was sooo excited, when I plugged it in and it's now charging!!! I'll be going with my Dad to activate it at the ATT store either tomorrow or Tuesday. (I'm really excited!) I'm keep trying to compare it to my old ( that one that I have now the charger is broken and it's really annoying!) I'm glad I'm getting rid of it!!!!! lol!!! Hopefully this new phone will be a lot better!!
Amber.
well both talks or mobile speak should come with the manual in an eletronic format (text, word, or pdf file) or in audio format.
Oh I see. That explains why when looking for it online I couldn't find said manual. lol. I'll be going to activate this phone sometime this afternoon, and hopefully getting the softwhere installed on it like tomorrow or something, hopefully! Thank god it comes with a USB cable though, makes my life like 4000000 times easier so that I don't have to get one!! The thing that I heard about this phone though, is it does have a poor battery life. But honestly, if I can text, and call people, and add them to my contacts list, then who cares about the battery life? lol. Thanks for all the posts and help it's appreciated!!
Amber.
Okay so I set up my phone with talks on it today. The N75 is doing this thing where it shuts off like every 25-30 minutes? Does anyone else have this problem???? What can I do to resolve this??? (it shuts off when I'm in the middle of a text) or anything I'm in the middle of, and I even had my Dad adjust the settings, and still. I'm quite confused as I've kept the phone on the charger for practicly the entire day accept when I went to take it into the ATNT store to get it activated. And then it like turned off randomly??? If anyone has a solution to this problem, can someone please reply here?
Thanks,
Amber.
Sounds like you have a faulty phone
Oh great!! lol. Isn't there a replacement battery that I could get for this phone? (cause I didn't get it at the store) I got it online. Maybe I should look just in case? lol. My Dad's not going to be happy with me! lol!
Amber.
Yes EBAY is your friend .. replacement batteries are around $5 on ebay don't get them through the att store they will charge you $ 40 to 60 for the same thing.
After speeking to both nokia and ATNT, the phone is definitely defective. So my Dad already spoke to the person who sold us the phone and is getting a replacement phone. (hopefully it won't cause the same issues!) I did however speak to nokia and the phone is available for purchise on their website, but the e-bay phone is much cheeper. (now I have to call the people back at talks and explain this!) but since I have a licence for the current N75 that I have now could I still transfer the licence onto the new one when I get the replacement?
Hopefully I still can. lol.
Amber.
yes just call the ppl you got talks from and let them know what happen .. they should tranfer it free of charge especially since its the same phone .
Hi! They are going to transfer it, but I have to fax them the information from the celler (like why the phone isn't working) and then they'll replace the licence free of charge. OY! A lot of hoops that I'm jumping through. But hopefully, it'll be worth it in the end!! :)
Amber.
Cool I am hoping mine doesn't have the same defect and its just a bad battery, as i just purchased a replacement battery and i should find out soon enough.
Hey! Hopefully not. The new one works just fine now thank god!! lol. Uh but my Dad tried to install talks on there (with the old licence) even though I told him to wait. Uh, it doesn't sound like talks, though? It's more like moblespeak, and I can't understand moblespeak at all! So like were going to call back the people where we pirchiced the phone at, and they are going to "properly" install talks with elliquence instead of this decktalk thingy? lol. Hope this works!
Amber.
Well i don't think there is a dectalk synth for Talks .. so its probably using the nokia TTs right now .. all you should have to do to remedy that is install elequence and then go into the talks speech settings and change it to the elequence tts.
Hi!! Thanks. We figured it out. Its cause we didn't have the licence installed, so it wouldn't let my Dad install elliquence. But it's installed, and it works just fine! (and, yes I finally figured out the texting thing!) had predictive text on, but then turned it off, when I realized that I can just text without it. It's actually not bad texting with the numberpad. (although when sometimes I want to get a D, I hit the 3 twice so it makes an E) and then when I'm trying to do a double S, I also get confused when I try to do double letters, (like if I'm typing the name Jessica) I have an issue with that, but otherwise, I'm pretty sure I've got it, and the double letter thing will work itself out I'm sure!! :) So hopefully when I go off to University in about a month, I'll be able to text! (I got my address book filled up) so I guess that's a start! :) But I do like using the keypad, it's not as bad as I thought. Thanks for all the help everyone!! :)
Amber.
Yeah i do prefer predictive mode for typing double letters like the two "S" in jessica. If you are gonna use non predictive mode though you can try that trick that someone mentioned above where you press the right arrow after you input the first S so you don't have to wait for it to time out and move to the next space on it s own.
Oh. I can still do that with the N75, though? Hmmm, interesting, I'll have to figure that out lol. Amber.