Phones

Amplicom Enters North American Market With PowerTel 500 Amplified Phone For Consumers Who Need Hearing Assistance

Amplicom, the German supplier of amplified telephones and other assistive listening devices (ALDs) for hard-of-hearing consumers, has entered the North American market with first shipments of its family of PowerTel corded and cordless amplified phones. Amplicom USA, based in New York, said the new phones meet the Telecommunications Industry Association’s TIA-1083 hearing-aid compatibility standard and are among the few amplified phones to offer DECT 6.0 technology, the interference-free frequency that is standard in Europe but only recently being widely adopted in North America.

The initial entry in the product line, the PowerTel 500, is a cordless handset with hands-free speakerphone, caller ID, and a large two-line illuminated display. It provides amplified volume of up to 50 dB and offers five frequency settings. Featuring Amplicom’s yourSOUND technology, the PowerTel unit has settings on the PowerTel unit that can be adjusted and set for multiple hearing profiles, enabling each member of the household can switch to his or her own preferred volume and frequency.

Suggested retail for the PowerTel 500 is $139.95. Amplicom also said it will soon start shipping the PowerTel 501, an expandable handset that works with all cordless base PowerTel phones, for $89.95, as well as a series of combination telephone and answering machines. It enters a competitive but by no means crowded market for amplified phones, including other vendors such as Clarity Products and ClearSounds.

Live Captions of Your Phone Conversations Are Now Available On Your iPhone From Hamilton Web CapTel

Hamilton Web CapTel has introduced Mobile CapTel, an iPhone app enabling you to get live, real-time captions of telephone conversations you are having on your iPhone. Web CapTel is an amazing, free service available to anyone in the U.S.  It lets you get real-time captions over the web for any phone conversation you may have. You sign up for a free Web Captel account and, when you make a phone call, let the Hamilton relay service know you want a captioned call. Their captioning expert, aided by voice-recognition software, listens in and supplies the live captions of your conversation on your computer screen.

The new Hamilton Mobile Captel service, currently available on any 3G/3GS iPhone, shows the captions on the iPhone screen. Users download the Mobile Captel iPhone application from Apple’s iPhone App Store and use it to log onto their Web Captel accounts. Because the service works with iPhone-compatible headsets (either wired or Bluetooth), you can speak and hear while looking at the screen in your hand.

While initially only available for the iPhone 3G/3GS, Hamilton Mobile CapTel has plans to provide the service on additional mobile devices. It is designed for mobile telephones capable of supporting both voice and data simultaneously through a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. So if you are have an Android phone or some other smart phone, you may be in luck sometime soon.

The Mobile CapTel App has another big benefit for hard-of-hearing users: the iPhone isn’t compatible with hearing aids, but the captioning might be useful enough to enable hard-of-hearing customer to buy the iPhone anyway. If you want to listen through your T-coil (a must for some users, including me), you need to find another phone. While Bluetooth headsets can work for people with hearing aids, I have found that holding a T4-rated cellphone (T1 is the lowest rating for T-Coils, T4 the highest) up to my ear enables me to hear far better. But the captioning on the iPhone might be enough to sway hard-of-hearing customers who have always wanted an iPhone.

Clarity Cordless Phone Provides Maximum Amplification with Mobility

Amplification of a bad signal is worse than no amplification at all, and until recently many amplified phones made comprehension more difficult, not easier, for people with hearing loss. Recent advances in digital sound shaping technology borrowed from the digital signal processing in hearing aids have improved the situation markedly in wireline phones. But jamming all that processing power and software into a cordless handset has been a challenge. Clarity Products decided to tackle the problem head on, and people with hearing loss can be glad the company did. The Clarity Professional C4230 5.8GHz Cordless Amplified Phone not only provides up to 50 decibels of amplification, but also provides a very clear signal through its wireless handset.

Better yet, unlike many other makers of amplified phones, who seem to be satisfied in offering the basic plain-vanilla handset with an amplified signal and little else, Clarity Products loaded the C4230 with all the bells and whistles heavy users expect at both the office and at home. It features dual speaker phones, with caller ID, call waiting, and a 40-name-and-number memory; it has a digital answering machine with variable-speed playback and remote access; the handset’s generously spaced buttons are backlit, making dialing easy; and its white, high-contrast LED screen is bright and easy to read. The handset’s contoured shape makes it comfortable and easy to hold, and its concave earpiece creates an acoustic chamber that provides clear sound while blocking ambient noise. The base station is handsome with an intuitive user interface and supports up to three handsets.

The special features for hard-of-hearing users put the C4230 in the top of its class. It is hearing-aid-compatible, with digital 5.8GHz transmission providing interference-free sound. It provides up to 50 decibels of amplification controlled by the user; Clarity’s proprietary Digital Clarity Power (DCP) sound-shaping technology is integrated; and there are four DCP tone settings provide a customized listening experience. The result is calls that are not only louder, but clearer and easier to understand than most other cordless phones. There are also bright visual ringers in the handset and a base flash to signal incoming calls for people who can’t hear a normal ring.

Last but not least, it has a sleek, high-tech design that doesn’t shout out “don’t use me unless you’re old, infirm or have a disability” as many amplified phones seem to do.

Note To Steve Jobs: Why Isn’t The Apple iPhone Hearing-Aid Compatible?

I can’t believe Apple failed to make its iPhone compatible with either hearing aids or cochlear implants. I’m in the market for a mobile phone again and just discovered the lack of compatibility. Given all the hype surrounding the iPhone launch, I’m surprised there haven’t been more complaints.

The only strong objections I’ve heard have been on Paula Rosenthal’s HearingExchange site, in some chatter on Apple forums, and a complaint made to the FCC by the Hearing Loss Association of America. HLAA has done the most advocacy for hearing-aid compatibility (HAC) regulations, which now mandate 50 percent of manufacturers’ handsets meet minimum M3 compatibility standards. The M3 and M4 ratings mean there’s no buzzing when you listen to the phone with your hearing-aid microphone on, and T3 and T4 ratings mean the phone works with the telecoils in your hearing aids. But according to the HLAA complaint: “Apple has now entered the scene and is predicted to shake up the entire wireless industry. Yet they are not, nor have ever been, involved in any discussions regarding HAC requirements.” Steve Jobs is known for his arrogance and inflexibility when it comes to the design of his products. Apple’s treatment of the hearing-impaired population is a great example. What a disappointment.

Agilent Makes It Easy To Design Hearing-Aid Compatible Cell Phones

Now there’s no excuse. Agilent Technologies has come up with a design system enabling manufacturers of mobile phones to easily ensure their handsets meet all the hearing-aid-compatibility (HAC) standards mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The news release and associated product material on the new Antenna Modeling Design System (AMDS) are worth looking at because they give a tutorial on electro-magnetic radition and the shielding technology required to assure your hearing aids are actually able to hear the sounds coming out of your cell phone. “By February 2008, all wireless carriers in the U.S. must ensure that 50 percent of their phones are hearing-aid compatible,” says Agilent Product Marketing Manager Erwin De Baetselier. “Today, we are leading the industry by offering HAC compatibility tests in our EM simulation environment, ensuring that designers of wireless devices will be able to meet these important and rigorous specifications.” I’ve written before about the foot-dragging by mobile phone manfacturers unwilling to put the extra effort into designing hearing-aid-compatible phones, and it’s good to see a leading supplier of components and design services taking the FCC mandate seriously.

How To Find A Hearing-Aid-Compatible Mobile Phone

Bryan Lockwood has written in with a tip on a site that makes it very easy to find out whether the mobile phone you are shopping for will be compatible with your hearing aids. PhoneScoop.com has a phone finder which lets you search for hearing-aid compatible phones, including their ‘M’ and ‘T’ ratings. When you get there, click ’show all options’ and then scroll to the middle of the page where you will find a list under the heading Hearing Aid Compatible. Then you can check off the options you need. M3 or greater means your hearing aids microphones won’t get interference from the phone; T3 or greater means the phone will be compatible with the telecoils in your hearing aids which, if you have them, transmits the voice signal directly into your aids without distortion by the microphone. I’ve written a lengthier piece on finding the right mobile phone on the Healthy Hearing web site which gives more advice as well.

Check Out ‘The Mobile Phone Challenge’ At Healthy Hearing

Dr. Paul Dybala, who runs two excellent web sites for hard-of-hearing consumers and hearing health professionals — Healthy Hearing and Audiology Online — asked me to contribute an article to Healthy Hearing on my experiences shopping for mobile phones that would work with my powerful hearing aids. It was a fun exercise and has driven a lot of traffic to Hearing Mojo. It’s entitled ‘The Mobile Phone Challenge.’ Check it out!

Vortis Cell Phone Antenna Reduces Hearing-Aid Interference

A start-up company based in Glasgow, Scotland, has developed an innovative antenna technology eliminating the electrical interference that can make cell phones impossible to use with hearing aids. Dual-antenna array technology built into the Vortis Technologies Ltd. antenna radiates electrical signals in a figure-eight pattern out and away from the user’s head and hearing aids. The result is not only buzz-free reception through the hearing aids but also lower power consumption and longer battery life, because the phone has to work less hard to deliver a clear signal. It has the added benefit of eliminating radiation directed at the head that some still fear may cause long-term health problems. A Silicon Valley telecommunications entrepreneur, James Johnson, began working on the innovative antenna technology in the ’90s and located the company in Scotland to address the emerging European Union market for accessible solutions. With the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently mandating cell phone compatibility with hearing aids, Vortis Technologies has its sights set on a major global market. The Vortis antenna is being sold direct to consumers as an attachment to existing handsets, and the company is talking with major manufacturers about the possibility of building the antenna into their phones.

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