We looked into the Jitterbug for my in-laws (who are in their 80’s), but the contract on it is very expensive - especially for someone who likely will rarely use it.
My MIL has a simple flip phone for emergencies. Based on my limited experience of trying to use it with her during my wedding, I doubt she’d even know how to use it in an emergency.
My thought immediately was that the olds were the perfect market for this simple phone, but I think the lack of physical interface would be a big issue for them.
I really like the Jitterbug and wish they’d bring the price down.
I would absolutely love this, no lie. It would mean I could actually be sending texts while looking at the thing I’m describing even while the driver is using my navigation card to get where we’re going. It would mean phone calls wouldn’t immediately disconnect me from my chat rooms. It would be really cool.
But I would want them all linked together if only for copy-paste functionality. That’s the important bit. If my camera was actually hooked up to my text-card, then I could send images without actually have to use the text-card as a camera, for example.
Feel free to shop at one of our local electronics stores. http://www.datart.sk/mobilne-telefony.html?orderBy=price&orderDir=ASC
they have 11 models under 25Eur. That price includes 20% VAT and two years European-style warranty. All come with charger, including the cheapest model that sells for 14.19Eur.
Please notice that this is over-the-counter price, so you do not have to pay postage and packing if you are willing to pick it up at the nearest store.
I can imagine a device with cards you would slide off to do what your suggesting. You assign a task and slide it off. Video on one so you could watch it while writing emails on another (as you say.) Slide it back on when done. Un-convergence. Gang them up for a temporary bigger screen.
It’s rather bigger, but my go-to (mostly) text only device would be a Nokia 9000 series phone. The smart features are basically unusable these days, so you won’t be tempted to use them:
As a bonus,this was one of the spy gadgets in “The Saint”.
2 years ago, I got my 85 year old hearing-impaired father the Just5 phone, which he loves. It’s GSM, unlocked, very loud and dead-simple, and pretty much only does does phone calls and SMS (but he doesn’t understand texts anyway). He uses it with the $100 T-Mobile 1-year/1000 minute plan.
He expressed concern that it might break and insisted that I get another “just in case…”, which I did, and he keeps the extra in a drawer. At the time, they were about $30-40. Unfortunately, they are now much more expensive, but you may be able to find one for a reasonable price by looking around.
They appear to be pretty cheap on the Just5 website, although they’re “out of stock” at the moment, and I don’t know if that means they’ll be back in stock eventually or they’re not making them anymore.
If something has only one seller on Amazon, it will almost always be some dickrag trying to flog it for 10x retail. This doesn’t usually reflect prices from other online stores.
