Senior Tech

GrandPad Review: Stay in Touch with Loved Ones No Matter Their Tech-Savvyness

Many years ago, my grandmother had a computer. She was super excited to keep in touch with me when I went to college, and she mostly used it to email me and play solitaire. Unfortunately, it eventually proved too complex for her, and she reluctantly gave it up. Technology has made a huge leap forward in the intervening 20 years, and now people have significantly more options for keeping in touch with elderly relatives. GrandPad thinks they have developed a smooth and easy way to keep grandparents and families connected. Does it work? Read on to find out!

Reviews

ZVOX AccuVoice AV203 TV Speaker Review: Compact and Clear

What’s the first thing you do when you can’t understand dialogue on your TV? You turn it up, right? But doing so only makes all the sounds around the dialogue louder — which means higher volumes and you still can’t understand a darn thing. There’s another solution — voice clarity with the ZVOX AccuVoice AV203 TV Speaker.

Reviews

V.ALRT Personal Emergency Alert Device Review

Those, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” commercials aren’t the least bit amusing if you or a loved one deals with old age or physical disabilities. My father, for example, is a stroke survivor, and anything that makes his life easier and/or safer is a good thing. That’s where the V.ALRT Personal Emergency Alert Device comes in.

News

The Telikin Brings Computers to the Masses

Before I tell you about the Telikin computer system, I need to tell you about my grandma. See, my grandma was always on the cutting edge. She was an early adopter, from microwaves to VCRs and DVD players. We used to joke that if she were still driving and needed a cell phone in 2007, she would have been first in line for an iPhone. So needless to say, my grandma had to have a computer. However, setting someone in their late 80s up with a computer was not that simple. The entire process of interacting with a computer was…

Events

Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” Event

Along with 12 other site owners, I was invited to attend the Intel “Upgrade Your Life” experience in Santa Clara, California on July 13th. I went into this event with no itinerary and no idea of what we were going to see, but I figured it had to be more than “just” processor chips. Sure enough, I was in for an eye-opening day … After a greeting by Intel’s Social Media guru Alison Wesley and an ice-breaking game of ‘guess the tweet’ game, we were on to the first speaker … Suzanne Fallender – Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and…

Reviews

Amplicom Alarm Clock Review

Every morning it’s the same routine. You’re sound asleep, and then your iPhone/Droid/alarm clock/dog starts going off and announcing WAKE UP TIME! Basically, something blares in or around your head and you start moving. What if you were hearing impaired, though? How do you make sure the alarm wakes you up? That’s where the Amplicom alarm clock comes in. Amplicom makes a number of accessibility devices, and they sent me the TCL200 to test. This is an alarm clock that offers a number of hearing and visually impaired aids, including a vibrating pad (for the hearing impaired), a speaker that…

News

Fone Sitter Makes Sure Grandma Hung up the Phone!

My dad gave me a ride home from work last night. During the drive, he went to call his mother (my grandmother) and her line was busy. So he tried her cell phone. No answer. This went on for a good ten minutes; we’d chat, he’d try both numbers, we’d chat again. Finally, he started to get really nervous, and he called my uncle to go check on her. As it turns out, she was just fine. Her phone was just off the hook. Again. She doesn’t keep her cell phone near her, and she can’t hear the faint, indignant…

eBooks, Editorials

Is Text to Speech Copyright Infringement or Accessibility?

Famously, the Kindle 2 debuted with Text to Speech enabled, only to see it yanked for many books after the publishing companies complained it violated audiobook copyrights. This debate is becoming an issue all over again because of devices like Intel’s Reader for the blind, which uses a scanner and text to speech to allow a visually impaired individual to “read” a written passage.