Owasys 22C Screenless Cellphone

[Michael Whapples]

Hello,
I will try and stay away from some of my thoughts on most specifically made 
for the blind devices when making some comments on this, but it may be hard 
for me.

Some times these things have bugs that simply shouldn't be there, one that 
my Aunt has mentioned about hers is that if you are on the phone and some 
try to call you and the network sends a signal to alert you, it cuts you 
off. With a main stream phone such as my Nokia 6670, things like that simply 
wouldn't happen, and if on the occasions that a bug that impacts on 
usability, then upgrades are normally made available and can be done locally 
(in the UK with in the town the owner lives in), what is the situation for 
firmware updates for the owasys? Does it have to be sent away? If so, how 
long will you be without a phone? Also is hardware such as the battery and 
charger a standard type charger (i.e. one of the common types used in other 
mobile phones)? If not, how much will replacement batteries cost when you 
need one?

May be the people who have these are happy with what they have, but I 
question in my mind whether it really was the best choice for all of them. 
Did they just choose it because they believe it will be superior for them to 
use because the entire device was designed for the blind? Although main 
stream products may be equally usable (I have absolutely no problems with 
the keyboard on my nokia 6670 and I can think of other devices I have which 
I have which are main stream and are perfectly usable).

From
Michael Whapples
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Farhan" <i.am.farhan at gmail.com>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 11:31 AM
Subject: Re[2]: Owasys 22C Screenless Cellphone


> Personally, I like my Nokia 3650, it doesn't work with cingular's 850 mhz 
> band, and I get random calls asking if jillian is around but I am free to 
> put whatever I want on my phone.
> Not saying that you can't put stuf on the oasis but Nokia's way of doing 
> things is much more practical, because if the oasis's operating system 
> screws up, you have to send it in for repairs and with Nokia phones, there 
> is probably a local service center.
> Stupid question, does the oasis work on the 850 mhz band?
>
> On 7/17/2006 at 5:26 Lorenzo Taylor said
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> I saw one of these at the ACB convention last week.  Except for the
> voice, the screenless phone has the functionality of the free phones
> provided when you get a contract with most companies, but at a price of
> $199 with 2-year contract with t-mobile.  It's big, it's fat, and it is
> an extremely basic phone providing only a very few features that I have
> come to expect in a cell phone at less than half its price.
>
> Just my personal experience,
> Lorenzo
> - -- 
> Everything will be just tickety-boo today.
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