is there any such thing as a retro mobile?

August 19, 2011 4:51 AM

Australian mobile phone/cellphone for vision impaired person?

I need a phone for calls and text messages only. Vision Australia suggests the oricom or the Iphone. The big advantage of the Iphone is the QWERTY keyboard, but the disadvantage is the flat screen without any tactile cues. Anyone with strong feelings either way? Is the speaking feature on the Iphone too good to miss?

posted by superfish to Technology (2 answers total)

I think your interest in the iPhone will depend heavily on your willingness to deal with constant voice output. This guy considers his iPhone awesome for the blind; I have no idea how well input works on it.

It's probably also worth noting that there are strong rumors - though, of course, nothing solid at all - that the next iPhone OS will have some pretty impressive voice-recognition capability baked in. Apple bought one bright up-and-coming voice-entry company (Siri) and signed a big deal with another (Nuance), though they haven't announced a damn thing, so it certainly might not hit for a while. If it does, I'm sure the ability to compose text messages by voice input will be a Really Big Deal to a lot of people.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:05 AM on August 19, 2011

I feel like I say this in every Should I Buy An iPhone? thread, and I apologise if you already know this, but the new iPhone is rumoured to be releasing in October. So I would consider waiting another couple of months, if you can, either to buy the new iPhone or to get the current iPhone 4 at a cheaper price.
posted by Georgina at 6:24 AM on August 19, 2011