ClarityLife Phone for the Elderly
Crunchgear has initial details on the "ClarityLife," another phone designed for older cell phone users. I love the giant buttons and the big text, but I wonder if the contrast on the monochrome screen might be a little low. Of course, that could just be the picture.
There is also a large-button slider keypad inside, as well as the big, recessed red emergency call button on the back with a heart inscribed on the top. Is a heart the proper iconography for an emergency? It might be if you're ungoing cardiac arrest, but that seems unintentionally morbid.
The dual-band GSM phone will be available this summer, but no price has yet been announced.
Product Page [ClarityProducts.com via Crunchgear]
the latest
latest episodes
I've long contemplated purchasing my parents an LG Verizon Migo (it has four programmable call buttons and an emergency button, and it seems totally droppable), but going that route seems a little bit, well, cruel, you know, to not give my parents a keypad.
My parents are the kind of people who, knowing the other has gone to Wal-Mart, will phone Wal-Mart and have the other paged. I've had it, I'm totally exhausted. If they think they're going to keep driving, they need cell phones with which to remain in touch with others (I resisted owning a mobile, too, and they pulled a "if you're going to drive..." on me when I went away to college, so fair's fair).
Anyway, yes. Thanks for the heads-up.
I'm intrigued. What would be a proper symbol to communicate that you are dying?
Skull and bones?
Corpse on coroner's table?
Open grave?
Gravestone with letters R.I.P.?
Personally I like the idea of gravestone with "RIP?" on it. At least senior gamers would easily recognize it. On second thought, maybe heart is not so bad.
I think the Swiss cross / Red cross would have been a better choice than the heart. A caduceus would be good in North America, too - but a bit too much detail to make out easily in relief.
I'd get this for my grandmother, but does it come in rotary?
Stratosfyr (#3) Yes it does!*
* Actual working parts not included
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=287
...Getting there...
My 77 y/o Mom has a Virgin Mobile prepay phone that costs $6.66 a month to operate ($20 every 3 mnths). I think Virgin has changed the rules to require you to spend $20 every 2 months but it's still a great deal.
You can get charge up cards at the local 7-11, at brick and mortar stores, or set it up to be billed automatically online.
Unless the person using this phone has severe vision or arthritis problems I think a basic prepay phone is a much better, much more affordable option.
My grandpa will abuse the emergency call system if he gets this. He won't even knew if his keys called 911 for 100000 times.
That is a problem.
Seniors want stuff like this, but then often fail to use it properly.
It's a tough problem.
It's amazing that it's taken this long for the phone market to make phones that the elderly and visually impaired can use without the assistance of super vision.
@joejoejoe -
My uncle got my grandmother a prepaid VirginMobile phone, too. I went to lunch with her when she got it and gave her detailed instructions on how to work it, which she dutifully wrote down in her little notebook. She forgets that she wrote everything down, though, and has trouble using the phone. Especially when it says she has voice mail. That's too far removed from her everyday phone use to remember what it is and how it works. She also hates how tiny the phone is. I very much like this idea, with the large text and the large buttons. The emergency button is a good idea too (though I agree with those above that a Swiss cross or caduceus would have been better than a heart), since my grandfather has been falling down a lot lately.
I've seen a number of these types of phones announced over the last few years, but I've never seen any of them actually for sale anywhere.
I can understand bigger words for those who are visually impaired, but I would be a bit insulted by this if I was elderly
This reminds me of those really crappy LifeAlert commercials on TV where an old lady pretends to be having a heart attack and can't call anyone for help.
Don't know why. Just thought I'd throw that out there...
@ Ashely927.
I'm sure some elderly people would be insulted by this but I think vastly more would find it useful.
Think how many elderly already carry around some kind of emergency buzzer in case they fall over or something.
If you're arthritic small buttons are very hard to use. If you've got poor eyesight small screens have the same problem. Chances are if you're arthritic and partly blind you are going to fall over. So it all just makes perfect sense to me.
My grandfather (90 years old) is constantly asking me to "come over and fix the goddamn email": he would love to be able to use email, but for some reason the entire interface completely confounds him. He's never been able to send or check an email without me over one shoulder giving instructions. He can read his bookmarked websites (god bless you, History Channel) but can't "do the email" or "the google" to save his life.
Now it's "come fix the goddamn cell phone". The buttons are too tiny for him to push, he can't see the screen or hear the ring tones, the scrolling menus and things are all too much. This looks perfect. And to the commenter above who worries that the elderly person would be insulted: at least in this case I know he wouldn't be. His reaction will likely be "finally! a phone that a NORMAL person can figure out, without all the goddamn crap!"
next someone needs to design a browser and email client that also has a stripped-down, big-button interface.
I've seen commercials for a similar product on television.
http://www.jitterbug.com/
Geared toward elderly folk who don't like "newfangled" phones, but still need some sort of mobile communication device. This has been around for a while now, maybe a year or so?
I hope that if/when I get old, I 'm still willing and able to learn how to use new technologies.
Well if u paid enough attention for the European market, you'd prolly realize that we already have that phone on sale here since some time now...
Price is around 200,- EUR. It's sells under the brandname "emporia life" in Europe...