Can i get an old person version of this with big type and no distractions? My gran still has issues just making calls on a mobile phone and as much as i'd like her to be able to send and receive text messages, all attempts have failed.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.kunes.and...
Last year I did a marketing project, and got some fairly nice insights. For example, most people between 60 and 75 in developed countries don't consider themselves "old" and are mostly self-reliant
“Seniors do not think about their age in general. Unless extremely tired or depressed, older people do not think of themselves as old. Advertising that talks to the silver citizen’s active lifestyle rather than to or about his age are preferred” (www.brandchannel.com).
People in that age range now desire several of the same products as younger people, like iPads or iPhones and Kindles.
Our specific product failed in the customer validation stage, but there's a huge untapped market out there. Heck, I've almost talked myself into trying again :)
https://twitter.com/#!/ThreedomPhone
I know there aren't many details on there, but Ribot are a very interesting company who have made a lot of very good apps for a variety of mobile platforms, and it's well worth keeping an eye on this project.
The best option I could possibly think of for an old person that can't grasp the concept is something like Siri for sending/receiving text messages (though I haven't used it so I have no idea what the learning curve is). Otherwise just give them a phone that acts like a phone.
I've never seen her try a smartphone, but I imagine having a touchscreen with big buttons that say "dial now" and "end call" would be easier than dialing in a number and thinking "I know there was something else I had to do now..."
libphonenumber validates numbers based on your locality: http://code.google.com/p/libphonenumber/
Prefixes/area codes are different length:
+49 30 ... -> Berlin +49 221 .... -> Cologne +49 2389 ... -> Small town where I grew up
If you solve that, you'll notice that the number afterwards has the same problems on a bigger scale.
Some (especially small towns) have 3 or 4 digit local phone numbers. Big cities go up to 7 (Or more? No idea, but I know numbers from 3 to 7 digits in length). And length varies within the same area code. So (area) 1234 might be valid, as is (area) 12356.
I fail to see how that could work reliably. Thanks for the link - now I'm trying to figure out what they know that I don't. :)
Edit: Skimmed the project. They have a binary (protobuf?) file for phone number metadata which seems to be a huuuge number of regular expressions.
For the reasons listed above I claim that that way you cannot find out if a number is 'done' typing using this library. Looking plausible? Yes. But you cannot replace the dial button in DE for all I can tell.
Timezone data is a (smaller) mess, but that has been encoded in a library.
My landline is constantly connected to the operator. My totally clueless understanding of this voodoo box called telephone is that each digit is passed on to 'the system', initiating a call when I hit a valid number (or resulting in an error tone).
I do not believe that it is possible (outside of the telephone network) to encode this information. You could create a huuuuge snapshot (a digital phone book..?) and by the time that data is on any device you care about it's already out of date.
Sorry, I don't believe you and don't think that it is obvious.
Edit: Stole the idea of checking the wikipedia link for DE from the UK sibling thread. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/+49
Note things like
" (0xxxx) xxxxxxx
In area codes that use four digits, newly assigned numbers (for all locations from May 2010, some cities earlier: e,g, Heidelberg already in May 2003) have a length of seven digits, also yielding a total length of eleven digits. Grandfathered numbers may be as short as three digits (seven total) in very rural areas."
Reread the last sentence. Not feasible. End of story. You know if a number is valid if you try to call it.
You could say 'aaah, but new numbers follow scheme X so lets just have a database (phonebook) of all current numbers first and fallback to the rule later'. No idea if that would work and how it reacts to someone canceling his contract for one of these gazillion 3 or 4 digit numbers.
(016977) xxxx Brampton
http://www.leggettdisplaygroup.com/barcode/2011/03/01/is-the...
"The iPad is the top product for all people 50-plus," she said. "The user interface is so easy. And for anyone with vision issues, the text size can be changed quite easily."
"Older consumers are finding the iPad much easier to use than a personal computer. The iPad's touch-screen display and big icons beat using a computer mouse and having to find and click or double-click PC programs. Plus, a tablet can sit on your lap."
http://20plus30.com/presentations/Connecting_with_older_cons...
"Marketers need to be aware that older consumers, especially those in the highest socio-economic groups, will access more of their content (and advertising) using smart devices. The apps-powered smart device is as much a watershed in the way marketers engage with consumers as was the birth of the web. Unlike the web, this new technology will be as much used by the old as the young."