Well it looks like the iPhone is out for me.    I’ll have to look into alternatives with Verizon instead.  Why you ask?  Because Apple, in their ever so thoughtful consideration for the disabled decided to flip off those of us who were hearing impaired by designing a phone incompatible with digital hearing aids.  Thanks Apple! 

There was this whole stink about it last year too, but I would have thought by now they’d wise up to their asshattedness and produce a more compatible phone with the release of the iPhone 3G.  Nope.  I gave it a try today and immediately heard a grating buzzing sound as soon as I put my aids in telecoil (telephone) mode.  I can still hear the voice on the other end but the screeching banshee sounds as a result of electronic interference didn’t exactly make it a pleasure to use.  Beautiful.

Guess I’ll be sticking with Verizon then, at least for the time being.  I checked their list of Smartphone / PDA / Blackberries that were hearing aid compatible and found the following short list:

I have no idea how any of these phones differ from the iPhone, but I’m gonna guess they all suck flaming hog balls in comparison.    The Mx/Tx designation by the way determines how compatible they are.  Anything with the number 3 meets the compatibility standard, while any number above that exceeds the standard (in other words, 4 is better.)

Guess I’ll be doing some research today while I curse out Apple’s name. 

Tags: aids, apple, blackberries, compatibility, design, digital, digital hearing aids, disabled, hearing, hearing aid, hearing aids, impaired, iphone, PDA, phone, phones, Smartphone, sounds, telephone, verizon, Wireless
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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After years of computer use, you’d think I would have learned by now that it’s not always wise to upgrade to the latest and greatest software the minute it comes out. It’s just bad hoodoo, dude.

But of course the second Wordpress 2.1 had been released, I just HAD to download it and install it right away, thinking my blog would run twice as fast due to the much touted bugfixes and cleaner code 2.1 offered. I imagined angels singing and the sounds of songbirds chirping as visitors would come and gape in awe at the newfound speed and ease at which they would surf my newly upgraded website.

Nope. Instead, it broke a few of my plugins and then torpedoed my blog’s skin. I furiously deleted everything and uploaded my backup copy as soon as I could, then sat back with a tear in my eye as other bloggers happily went onto 2.1 nirvana.

But I noticed in the brief moment that I did manage to get 2.1 working, that my first reaction had been: “Gee, doesn’t seem to be any different from 2.0.” And now, right on the heels of 2.1’s release, the developers are planning to soon release 2.2. After looking at the features THAT release will offer, I realized it didn’t really offer anything that I didn’t already have with the plugins I was currently using now. So truthfully, other than updating Wordpress 2.0.X with security fixes, there really wasn’t a pressing need for me to upgrade. I also knew with each upgrade it would take days, weeks, months (and maybe never) for developers to update their plugins in order to ensure compatibility with the latest version of Wordpress.

So what’s the hurry really? My blog is working fine as it is, and besides it seems like every time I upgrade, some major component gets totally hosed, forcing me to downgrade once again. If it ain’t broke…

I’m sure eventually I’ll have to upgrade my blog some day, especially once the developers stop supporting security fixes for my now grandfathered version of Wordpress. But until that happens, I ain’t gonna do nuttin’. Nuttin’, you hear me? Nuttin’!!!

Instead, I cleaned up the backend by removing some useless or rarely used plugins, then installed and somehow managed to get WP-Cache working without a hitch. That should cache my main pages and hopefully speed up load time for visitors. Aren’t I thoughtful? My blog now seems to be running smoothly, all my plugins are functional, and I’m finally starting to enjoy blogging for real again. Life is good.

Now, if I could only get me a woman…

Tags: 2.0.x, 2.1, 2.2, angels, awe, backup copy, blog, bloggers, blogging, cache, compatibility, computer, developers, hurry, nirvana, pages, plugin, plugins, release, security, security fixes, update, updated, upgrade, upgraded, version, visitors, woman, wordpress, wp cache
Categories: Blog Fog
 
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