Older people are among those who can most benefit from using a smartphone. Yet they are often intimidated by this technology.
Some phones, though, are not that intimidating to use. One that may be familiar (thanks to late-night ads) is the Jitterbug Plus. Another is the Clarity Pal.
The Jitterbug is a flip-phone that opens to a two-and-a-quarter-inch screen. It also has a one-inch screen in the lid, so you can see who is calling without opening it.
Messages are in large type, and the phone has a numerical keypad, up-and-down scroll button, and buttons labeled Yes, No, Speaker and On/Off. Features are menu-driven, so getting to the phone book, photos or voice mail means scrolling down the screen and clicking Yes. The No button also serves the back button.
The phone has a basic camera, contacts list and calendar. It is Bluetooth compliant, and the earpiece is compatible with most modern hearing aids.
Am ong the nicer features of the Jitterbug are the services that come with the phone. Dial “O†and you get a Jitterbug operator, who can help place a call, or help with other phone-related tasks, like managing the contacts list or calendar. For an additional fee, services include access to a registered nurse for medical advice.
The Jitterbug also receives and sends texts, although tapping them out on the numeric keypad is cumbersome; it's easier to use the phone's stored messages, like “I'm busy,†or you can store your own.
A lot of older people will need help setting the phone up, which in my test required a visit to the Jitterbug Web site. The phone can post photos to Facebook, but only if you go online and configure the phone's account to do so.
What I didn't like was that the dial tone starts as soon as you open the phone, so I had to listen to it as I scrolled through the setting to pick a task. I also found the daily text reminders and affirmatio ns an annoyance; nobody likes a nag.
The Jitterbug retails for $120 with a basic voice plan of $15 a month, but many services cost extra, such as a $3-a-month fee if you want voice mail, and who doesn't? The 5Star Urgent Response service, which includes access to a nurse, is $15 a month. There are other add-on services as well.
The Clarity Pal, from a division of the venerable phone and accessories company Plantronics, is a “candy bar†style phone - a rectangular block with large backlit buttons on the front. It also has a scroll button and three “soft keys†that carry out the commands that appear on the two-inch color screen poised above them.
When calls come in, the numbers appear in large type on the screen and a robo-voice speaks the number out loud (a feature that can't be turned off). It also has a button that amplifies the phone by 25 decibels, enough to hear without an aid, although the phone is hearing-aid compatible.
It also has Blue tooth, a speaker phone and a zoom feature to make text easier to read.
The phone, like the Jitterbug, is menu-driven. The phone does offer texting, but I'm not sure how I got to the screen, and you have to write with the alphanumeric pad, so let's hope Gramps is a patient man.
There are a lot of other features if you dig through the menus to find them. Some are a little too advanced, like the customized alerts and ring tones for different “user profiles†- indoor, outdoor and meetings. Not that they aren't useful, but if you need and can manage all of those settings, wouldn't you be comfortable with a regular smartphone?
While there aren't a lot of services connected to the Clarity Pal, it does have an emergency button on the back that sequentially calls each of up to five phone numbers until someone responds. The person who answers presses a key at his or her end to let the phone know it's not an answering machine.
The phone is certainly loud, an d while I didn't like that it shouted out my incoming calls and its noisy alerts, it may be fine for someone more concerned with missing a call than preserving privacy.
The phone is sold “unlocked,†which means that with the addition of a SIM card the Clarity Pal, which is a GSM phone, can work on the AT&T or T-Mobile systems, and with any plan that either provider offers.
