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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss Apple’s rumored iOS 16 update, a podcasting outage, Tesla ending work from home, Apple raising wages at their retail stores to a minimum of $22/hour, Twitter’s Circle, a box office record, Samsung rolling back production goals, the Be Real app, and more.
Nathan in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania listens on WDEL – clicked on that AskDave button at IntoTomorrow.com and asked: “I have a question regarding cell phone service options. My dad is 86 years old and has trouble using his cell phone. Previously, he did well with the flip phone and the manual buttons. He now has tried an iPhone and has trouble using the touch based keyboard on the phone. I was wondering if there’s any suggestions for access to a cell phone and data for a senior who may have difficulty with finger pad touching due to his age and other age related things such as vision and techno savvy. Thank you very much and appreciate any recommendations you might have of technology that could be helpful for my dad in a world that’s requiring him to use his cell phone on a regular basis.”
Nathan, all of the big cellphone service providers still offer feature phones, just the same regular flip phones with physical keyboards that he may already be used to.
For example, Verizon is currently selling 9 feature phones (which they refer to as basic phones), some are able to serve as LTE hotspots, so they can provide a connection for a computer, tablet, or other device.
T-Mobile offers another 3, and AT&T another 4. In terms of prices, youre looking at roughly a minimum of around $100 (a few are less expensive), but most are in the $200-$300 range.
There is a company called Jitterbug that specializes in phones for seniors, they have touchscreen and traditional keypad models, theyre not very expensive since theyre also not very powerful and Jitterbug offers their own phone plans which can include a Life Alert type of service to connect senior citizens to emergency services.
Hal in Batesville, Mississippi listens on SuperTalk Mississippi and called in with comment
Hal said: “I recently had backup failure on my iPhone. I was having trouble with Siri not responding properly, and was told that I needed to reinstall the software on my phone and that would solve the problem. First, I backed up my phone, initiated a complete install for my phone, and then attempted to reload the backup file – and the backup file was corrupt. I worked for a week trying to find ways to help. Couldn’t find anything. No help anywhere. And then I found deciphertools.com Decipher Tools has a restore backup file. They were most energetic and helpful in emailing me and telling me what to do and it worked… Completely restored. What a wonderful tool to have at your disposal. Just wanted to let people know how they could fix a corrupt file and restore their phone.”
Karl in the Dakotas is participating with the AskDave button on our site and left us a comment:
Karl said: “I just want to let your listeners know there is a gadget out there that might be useful for them that I recently stumbled upon. And that’s a Bluetooth FM converter. If you have an older car or a pickup that has a cassette deck and you’re plugging it in and using a little adapter to go to your headphone jack, much easier nowadays just to use this Bluetooth FM adapter, you’ll connect to your Bluetooth enabled phone and put out the signal on the FM channel of your choice. Works out pretty good as you come into this hot summer giveaway.”
When you participate on the show – anytime 24/7 – and we HEAR you with any consumer tech question, comment, help for another listener, tech rage or just share your favorite App these days … you could win prizes.
The 2022 COOL “Into Tomorrow” HOT Summer Giveaway:
The 2022 COOL “Into Tomorrow” HOT Summer Giveaway: Call anytime, 24/7 – 800-899-INTO (4686), click the Ask Dave button on the website, or use the “Message to Studio” option on the FREE Into Tomorrow App!
All CALLERS — using the AUDIO option on our Free App or 1-800-899-INTO(4686) – automatically qualify to win prizes.
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