Comments on: EMC concept cellphone tries to make elderly lives easier: Sorta unnecessary

By: mile high

mile high — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:51:19 +0000

This phone is exactly what my octogenarian dad needs to help keep his independence. We tried a basic cell phone, but he has never stepped into the electronic age so it was too confusing; the concepts were foreign (my address book is INSIDE the phone?!). This phone will allow him to go about his business, call us if he needs and even better, lets us call him to keep track of his whereabouts.

By: halvfet

halvfet — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:22:04 +0000

for the market this is aiming for, those people cannot or have a hard time reading things on a tiny screen, along with having a difficult time pushing tiny buttons. most of them don’t talk to many people anyway, so having 4 or so buttons corresponding to each number helps.

how you can program a number into a four button phone is beyond me.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:45:44 +0000

I have to disagree with the “effectiveness” comment. I was sitting next to an elderly gentleman last night at a baseball game and his cell phone rang. He simply stared at it, unsure of which button to push to answer. Granted, someone in his family should show set it up to be very easy to use but ofttimes that isnt the case.

An “elderly” phone with 4 buttons seems very logical to me. No tiny buttons they cant see, no need to remember what to push to find your address book, just remember number 1 is home, 2 is son/daughter…etc.

I believe there was a disney phone similiar to this a few years back for young kids.