Comments on: An Update from Barry Solomon

By: Kim Hughes

Kim Hughes — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:44:18 +0000

I want to buy a new Apple Iphone 8GB… I wonder where can I buy a cheaper phone and Im deaf. Im from Florida, Brandon. Thank u for helping me. Kim Hughes

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:21:05 +0000

I’ve just been on the phone all morning with Apple and ATT about getting the TAP plan. All dead ends. ATT claims that Apple has the right to provision the use of TAP with the iPhone, which they haven’t.

I’m a little more than frustrated right now, because I really want to purchase the 4gb iPhone while it is still in stock and then establish a TAP or TAP-like plan.

Fingers crossed that something came out of Mr. Solomon’s meeting with Apple.

By: Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:57:50 +0000

Omg, I’ve had it! The live footage of Steve Jobs at the Mac-focused presentation in California is not captioned. I’m contacting Apple first thing tomorrow morning about this topic! I hope you all will do the same. C’mon, fellow Apple users, it’s time to make changes and improvements for the Deaf community!

Jon

By: Barry Solomon

Barry Solomon — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:51:18 +0000

A short update….

I called TAP a couple of weeks ago and did not mention that I had an iPhone. Requested the TAP forms. Received them last week and got them signed by an audiologist on Friday. Faxed it over to AT&T on Monday.

Two hours later, I received an e-mail from the TAP people. They received my forms and started to review my account and found that I had an iPhone, and therefore, was not eligible to receive the TAP plan. Aw, shoot. Back to square one (pushing them to change the policy)!

Just letting you know in case any of you had a similiar bright idea :)

PS There was one thought I did have – get an AT&T service plan on your old pager/cell phone, THEN switch over to an iPhone. Your TAP plan should switch over with it.

(DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS OF SERVICE OR INCREASED COSTS IN YOUR MONTHLY PLAN. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS OF LIFE OR LIMB RESULTING FROM THIS STRATEGY!*)

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:49:59 +0000

Barry, Thanks for sharing this with us. Way to go!

By: Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:12:54 +0000

Off the point:

Hey, considering that this is deafmac.org, why isn’t anyone following up on the Mac-focused presentation at the Apple HQs in Cupertino, California?? They’re going reveal NEW MAC PRODUCTS ON THE LINE! This is very long-waited and going to turn out spectacular! It’s a two-hour presentation, which implies it’s going to be a nice, huge unleashing array of Mac products! And warning, anyone who is a .mac member, your .mac service will be suspended during those two hours… Hmm… Obviously, .mac will be UPGRADED! AHHHH!

Here’s the link to check it out yourself. I can’t wait! 10 am-noon!

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2007/08/appleeventpredictions/index.php

On the point:

Barry, you ROCK! You are a true deaf Mac leader! Deaf Mac Power! Whoot, whoot! Now only concern is will the hearies actually do what they say? I sure hope so! You know how hearies are, no offense to any hearing people on this.

Again, August 7th, new Mac products!! Ahhhhhh! I really hope they release iLife & iWork ’08 today or whatever.

Jon AKA Deaf Crazy Mac freak

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:03:31 +0000

Without a fool proof method of sync’ing with MS Outlook (mail, but mainly Contact & Calendar!!!) the iPhone becomes less and less of a priority and other cell phones become important. As a Windows Smart Phone user for several years the iPhone must be able to sync without any flaws…just do a search on “sync Outlook and iPhone” and read all of the frustration regarding this critical interface.

By: Lolajl

Lolajl — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:54:13 +0000

Thanks for meeting with Apple! Looks like it will be a while before iPhone is made more accessible. My husband’s SK is starting to fall apart, so we’ll have to replace ours soon, and right now, iPhone is way too expensive for us. And of course, they require you to sign up for 2 years if you’re getting a Blackberry. Maybe down the road it will be a “2nd phone” for me (especially since I’m a web developer).

By: adam

adam — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:47:55 +0000

This sounds like an amazing meeting you just had, Barry. Way to go!!

By: Barry Sw.

Barry Sw. — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 01:23:44 +0000

Thank you for meeting with AT&T and Apple to push for a deaf-friendly iPhone and an comparable plan that other carriers have for the Sidekick, Blackberry and other mobile PDA/smartphones.

I wanted to point out that the current version of QuickTime does have closed captioning support. I don’t know if there is any application out there that will embed closed captioning data into a QuickTime movie. I wonder if the iPhone uses a version of QuickTime that is optimized for the device and doesn’t have all the features offered for the Mac OS or Windows. I was looking at other PDA’s and the Blackberry as a replacement to my Sidekick once my contract was up in February. I would rather wait for a 2nd generation iPhone and a deaf-friendly plan, but if that didn’t happen- at least I’d have an alternative. I really like the AT&T 8525, but it uses *shudder* Windows Mobile.

Again, thanks for taking an action and strive to make the most anticipated mobile device more deaf and visual-impaired friendly!

-Barry Sw.