Cell phones for HOH

saywhatkid

saywhatkid

Huked on fonix werx!
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Let me first say, I imagine there are a few threads on this very topic, but I want to ask it my way. I am considering a cell phone that I would use orally. I currently use a 40db amplified phone, and, for the most part, have no issues with that. However, I want to join the cell phone community, and drop the land line. I do not want to spend a lot, because all the bells and whistles are not needed. I just want something to use for communication. Is anyone here familiar with cell phones this way, not as texting, but as oral? I was told they can be turned up quite loud, which would be required for me. Also, any info on all the plans available for usage would be appreciated. My wife currently uses T-Mobile sidekick; total texting. I may prefer them as my provider, based ONLY because of this. However, I would entertain a different provider. Help me!
 
I was just talking to someone about cell phones Vs landline phones . The woman's brother is HOH and use a cell phone as he can hear better on it. It one of the cell phones you can add minutes to it. Has anyone use a Jitterbug
Phone? I been thinking of checking it out , I wonder if I would be able to hear ok on it.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I was just talking to someone about cell phones Vs landline phones . The woman's brother is HOH and use a cell phone as he can hear better on it.
Click to expand...
I was also told that cell phones are louder. That is why I am considering one. I need louder than regular phone, for sure. Thanks for your reply.
 
What's your ideal use of a cellphone (aside from communicating of course)?

Any of the fancy bells, whistles important to you?
Since texting seems to be out I'd give a guess to say you might not be, but ehh see what you say.

I don't know about all phones but I do know for the Motorola V / L series and ones that were similar to those, there's a factory inhibition which they set the volume at a certain level. I think by law they had to lower it down to prevent issues with people getting hearing loss.
Like for example, I own the V3i, V3, L7.. I had to modify it using third party tools to get it to the degree of amplification I desired.

But there are drawbacks to doing that as well. The smaller the speaker is, the less it is capable of amplifying audio. Overamplification will cause greater distortion if the speaker can't handle it.

So when you are browsing around.. ideally you're going to want something with higher specifications for the earpiece speaker or speakerphone if that's the case.
 
I use my cell phone for "speaking" It is quite loud. and has a T coil. The B.B. but the down side is I can not get the ring tone to be loud enough for me to hear it when the phone is laying down, I have to put it on Vibrate and/or my kids will alert me when my phone is going off.
 
naisho said:
What's your ideal use of a cellphone (aside from communicating of course)?

Any of the fancy bells, whistles important to you?
Since texting seems to be out I'd give a guess to say you might not be, but ehh see what you say.

I don't know about all phones but I do know for the Motorola V / L series and ones that were similar to those, there's a factory inhibition which they set the volume at a certain level. I think by law they had to lower it down to prevent issues with people getting hearing loss.
Like for example, I own the V3i, V3, L7.. I had to modify it using third party tools to get it to the degree of amplification I desired.

But there are drawbacks to doing that as well. The smaller the speaker is, the less it is capable of amplifying audio. Overamplification will cause greater distortion if the speaker can't handle it.

So when you are browsing around.. ideally you're going to want something with higher specifications for the earpiece speaker or speakerphone if that's the case.
Click to expand...

Basically, I want to be available to be called, but will need loud to understand. I just gotta hope that the caller is very well spoken, not somebody from Comcast Tech support...:eek3:

As for texting, I am not sure I will need it. My wife has a pager, and she is total deaf, so she would need to VP call me through an interp, unless there was a texting feature. Actually, my biggest fear is getting pestered all the time for petty (at least to me) reasons.

Now for all the extras....I want the basic stuff right now. I have never seen the need to play games or surf the 'net while I am not home. Maybe I will desire this later. Simple first. Thanks for your input here.
 
Babyblue said:
I use my cell phone for "speaking" It is quite loud. and has a T coil. The B.B. but the down side is I can not get the ring tone to be loud enough for me to hear it when the phone is laying down, I have to put it on Vibrate and/or my kids will alert me when my phone is going off.
Click to expand...

That would probably work for me. I do not need the ringtone to be loud, as I would just carry it around on vibrate. My hearing loss is moderate/severe on left, and profound/useless on the right. No need to cover my other ear when I take a call! Thanks for your input here.
 
saywhatkid said:
Basically, I want to be available to be called, but will need loud to understand. I just gotta hope that the caller is very well spoken, not somebody from Comcast Tech support...:eek3:

As for texting, I am not sure I will need it. My wife has a pager, and she is total deaf, so she would need to VP call me through an interp, unless there was a texting feature. Actually, my biggest fear is getting pestered all the time for petty (at least to me) reasons.

Now for all the extras....I want the basic stuff right now. I have never seen the need to play games or surf the 'net while I am not home. Maybe I will desire this later. Simple first. Thanks for your input here.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean about not being able to understand people from Comcast, AOL or any company! I have to get my daugther to made the phone calls for me! The head phones everyone use made it harder to understand what being said! I always have a wicked headache after talking to tech support!
 
In that case, I'd say you'd probably want a simple non-smartphone.

I can't really be too much help on your exact desires but I can offer a few suggestions that works for me:

- Earpieces generally yields better amplification results versus ear speakerphone. These can be easily tweaked to hearts desire in custom tools for the Motorola variants. (It also gives a warning when it notices you up-up the dB, saying it may cause hearing loss ;))

- Avoid smartphones if you want longer battery life. By smartphone, that's the terminology used to distinguish phones capable of performing all the jazz with 'net, games, mini laptop capabilities (ie iPhones/googlephone/Blackberries/etcs). Also, having a smartphone ups the bill, especially if you accidently run any of the features.

- Buy an unlocked phone if you plan to switch carriers, or if the phone is tied to another network. Phones that are unlocked means they are able to go from any carrier, even out of country. All you just need is the plan and sim card.

The simplest bang for the buck I'd suggest is the Motorola Razr V series for a normal plain jane phone. Can't ever go wrong with those. It's got a solid OS, tons of custom support and modifications out there, and dirt cheap, standardized at just about every carrier if not phased out already for some.

Try digging around over at howardforums.com. I usually head there for phone-related issues ranging from modification to purchases and trades.

Oh heck, just did a search for you, maybe this may be worthy of some info for you:
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - What phone has the loudest earpiece volume in at&t's CURRENT line-up?
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Shortly near the end of my phase with the Razr's, I got a miniusb to 3.5mm audio jack converter for it, allowing me to plug it into any common audio output speaker source.

It looks similar to this:
razr3.jpg
2812.jpg


You can then hook that up to another set of speakers around the house or some real headphones if you wish, for even further amplification at dirt cheap cost. You don't even need a great high quality phone when answering calls at home.
I only know of this manufactured for the Motorola phones though, no idea of the other brands.

For this particular accessory, I only got to mess with it for a few months before I jumped boat into the smartphone world. It was pretty neat to have while I used it.
 
naisho said:
In that case, I'd say you'd probably want a simple non-smartphone.

I can't really be too much help on your exact desires but I can offer a few suggestions that works for me:

- Earpieces generally yields better amplification results versus ear speakerphone. These can be easily tweaked to hearts desire in custom tools for the Motorola variants. (It also gives a warning when it notices you up-up the dB, saying it may cause hearing loss ;))

- Avoid smartphones if you want longer battery life. By smartphone, that's the terminology used to distinguish phones capable of performing all the jazz with 'net, games, mini laptop capabilities (ie iPhones/googlephone/Blackberries/etcs). Also, having a smartphone ups the bill, especially if you accidently run any of the features.

- Buy an unlocked phone if you plan to switch carriers, or if the phone is tied to another network. Phones that are unlocked means they are able to go from any carrier, even out of country. All you just need is the plan and sim card.

The simplest bang for the buck I'd suggest is the Motorola Razr V series for a normal plain jane phone. Can't ever go wrong with those. It's got a solid OS, tons of custom support and modifications out there, and dirt cheap, standardized at just about every carrier if not phased out already for some.

Try digging around over at howardforums.com. I usually head there for phone-related issues ranging from modification to purchases and trades.

Oh heck, just did a search for you, maybe this may be worthy of some info for you:
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - What phone has the loudest earpiece volume in at&t's CURRENT line-up?
Click to expand...

WOW , I did not there was so much to know about cell phones! Thanks for the tips!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I know what you mean about not being able to understand people from Comcast, AOL or any company! I have to get my daugther to made the phone calls for me! The head phones everyone use made it harder to understand what being said! I always have a wicked headache after talking to tech support!
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I speak from experience there. We lost our internet here. I called. Got someone from another continent, awful English that was whispered to me. I had all 40db kicking out, and could not make out hardly any words. Asked to be transferred to a different person. It was all downhill after that. Four frustrating hours. Finally had my sister call. Brought modem in for exchange. Hooked up and had her call for me again. She had the full 40db kicking out and had problems, and she has normal hearing. Thus the Comcast reference...:mad2:
 
naisho said:
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Shortly near the end of my phase with the Razr's, I got a miniusb to 3.5mm audio jack converter for it, allowing me to plug it into any common audio output speaker source.

It looks similar to this:
razr3.jpg
2812.jpg


You can then hook that up to another set of speakers around the house or some real headphones if you wish, for even further amplification at dirt cheap cost. You don't even need a great high quality phone when answering calls at home.
I only know of this manufactured for the Motorola phones though, no idea of the other brands.

For this particular accessory, I only got to mess with it for a few months before I jumped boat into the smartphone world. It was pretty neat to have while I used it.
Click to expand...
:bowdown:
 
I have Virgin Moblie and it's a good phone. Mainly, I use it for texting... My friends and I text alot to each other... my Dad also texts me sometimes.

But I use Voice minutes as well.... I use it to talk on the phone with my grandparents and my Dad. I can hear just fine and I can understand them clearly. But if I have hard time hearing them, I just press Speaker and then place it over my ear, then I can hear them in a noisy place.
 
~*Kaelei*~ said:
I have Virgin Moblie and it's a good phone. Mainly, I use it for texting... My friends and I text alot to each other... my Dad also texts me sometimes.

But I use Voice minutes as well.... I use it to talk on the phone with my grandparents and my Dad. I can hear just fine and I can understand them clearly. But if I have hard time hearing them, I just press Speaker and then place it over my ear, then I can hear them in a noisy place.
Click to expand...
OK I will remember this when I go shopping. Thanks!
 
I noticed for me its really not too different what phone I use, but I do like what Naisho spoke of with the audio jack, I have been using one for a while. As for hearing on the go, I suggest you get a bluetooth they actually help a lot and it can be made rather loud when needed. It helps a lot. If you look on certain phone sites, they do now also make phones that are more adapted for people with hearing loss. Something I got very excited about when I first heard of it.

----
DSH

[Mod's Note: link removed.]
 
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