Category: accessible Devices
Hi everyone. I'm considering getting a plan with TracFone or NET10, as I only need a prepay plan and those 2 are very straightforward as well as being very affordable for me. My thing is that they use certain phones because one of their key features is that they show your status on how many minutes you've used and how many you have left. Have any of y'all ever used one of these plans or do you know of any blind people who have? Also, have y'all or any blind person you know used any of the following phones with any degree of speech: Motorola C139, Motorola C343, Motorola C155, Motorola V170, Motorola 120, Motorola v60, Nokia 2126, Nokia 2600, Nokia 1100, Nokia 1221, Nokia 2285, Nokia 5100? Thanks for any help or advice.
Good evening Bell. I took a look to see if any of these phone support speech and to the best of my knowledge(Ahh! what a catch phrase that is dontcha think?) none of them support the correct operating system for the curren speech software available. To run Talks you need a phone running the simbian series 60/80 operating system.
Thanks for the help. Did you get to see what operating system those phones run or what do you think I can search for to get that information? I've written to TracFone and NET10, to ask if I could use any other phones with their services. NET10 said no and explained the special features of their phones as why. And TracFone said that someone would get back to me on that, (wich I will need to check on today by the way). I explained to both that I am blind and would need a phone that could speak and that there were programs to make that happen but that their phones weren't ones that the programs worked with. So hopefully someone has responded, but if not, I will call them.
OK. This is the response I received from TracFone about my need for speech capability in a phone. "We appreciate your patience and value you as a customer. Unfortunately this feature is currently not available with TracFone Wireless. We may offer this services in the future." And of course they went on to thank me for my interest and contact them if I had any more questions. So TracFone didn't answer my question of whether or not I could use a different phone with them. So I'll call them.
Good evening Bell. From some of the phones you mensioned it looks like they are using CDMA which means mostlikely they are using either Verizon or Sprint. I am not totally sure about this but I do know the V120 is a cdma phone. nice phone but won't do what you want. If this is the case I don't believe any of those phones will support speech. Perhaps you might consider getting one of the prepaid plans from cingular so you can pay as you go. I have never used one of these but it would be worth a call to see what they offer.
Thanks. I'll look into that. I know Verizon's pay-as-you-go plan is kind of weird, as they still want to charge per day, so that would still add up to like at least 30-something dollars, meaning you might as well just buy a regular plan. I think T-Mobile or Sprint do the same thing, but I will check out those ones and Cingular Wireless to see what their pay-as-you-go plans are like.
Well, this is a few weeks late, but I checked out Cingular Wireless's Pay As You Go plan, and it didn't seem that bad. But then I realized that I'd probably have to buy or wait for Talks on top of that. SO then I looked at Verizon's cheapest contract plan, calculated how much I'd have to pay for 6 months at a time (since the spending money I'm getting is from Financial Aid when I'm going to college), and decided that it wasn't that bad; $39.99 I think for each month. So yeah, I went ahead and got that one. Although it's only 450 daytime minutes, and the free night ones start at 9:00 PM, it's not bad because I really don't talk on the phone much anyway. So I can call businesses or for emergency/information to my family or friends and family can call me during the weekdays for the same reasons, and then my weekends are free. SO I've had this plan for a few weeks before now and it's working out good. Thanks for your help. Now we need to hope Trackfones'Net10's phone will be accessible sometime soon. *smile*
To be honist, I would go for the phones that are especially designed for blind and partially sighted users, but each to his or her own i suppose!
Good evening Tinkerbell. did you get the lg4600 or is it 4650? Glad you found a plan that works for you. That's really what it's all about. Excellent!!!
Hi Bell. Glad you found something you like, I had a firend who ended up buying a phone and plan, because it was just cheaper to do that. And four fifty minutes is a nice chunk of them. Also, try 1-800-FREE-411 Sorry can't remember how to spell out FREE. I would really never use Talx or Mobile speak, until you can show me that it's not one manufacturer speciffic phones. I just bought a SonyErixon phone, I like it wish i can find the manual in an accessible formatt though. If anyone knows one, let me know.
Hi WillieTheWoof. I got the LGVX 4650. It's working pretty good so far and works out pretty fine for what I need which is making calls, checking who called me, and checking my messages. I love that I've almost always known who calls me and have not had any encounters with telemarketers yet, although I never answer the phone anyway unless I recognize the number or know I have put that name in my phonebook but they haven't been leaving me messages either. *smile* Now all I'd like to figure out is how to check out the different ring tones and setting them, as I think you can set different ring tones for each contact? I think that'd be neat to have that. And also I need/want to learn how to switch between ring and vibrate. As for Internet and text messaging, I'd likely never (or at least would rarely) use that anyway, but I do hope that they can put more features to speak, or to at least make the ringers part to talk one thru it. Madam vel, yeah, I'm pretty happy with the plan I got, although it turns out it's actually more like $50 because I had included insurance and detailed billing, and about another $4.something was put in for tax and something else that I didn't know about, but it's still cool because I'm getting 7 and a half hours for daytime minutes and free weekend minutes to use the phone and am fine with that. *smile* (I really don't include nighttime minutes, as I don't talk much after 9 PM anyway, but yeah.) Oh, and thanks for the number for free directory assistance; that really helps. *smile*
no problem, there's another i can't think of just now. I'm pretty sure you can find the manual for that phone, try www.icanworkthisthing.com I'll search and send you a message if I findit.