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> They don’t need passcodes, accounts, and a sea of information. I would go further and make they case the don't need all the smart features either and all the

> They don’t need passcodes, accounts, and a sea of information. I would go further and make they case the don't need all the smart features either and all they need is to make calls and that an iPhone, or any touch phone, isn't the right tool for the job. One might argue "well I want to face time and send them pictures" or whatever. Print them favorite pictures. A missing product is a video calling devices, similar to a dumb phone, that all it does is take and receive video calls. But the issue you'll run into is Apple's closed protocols or having to support a slew of other applications, like Signal or WhatsApp. Having elderly relatives in other countries, I've resorted to making a touchless video phone with a raspberry pi, a big screen, speakers, a mic and a camera. I made a similar one for all relatives that want to talk as well. The "dialer" is just buttons that connect to other relatives directly. The software on them connects through a server I set up. I spent near 1 grand, or a price of a modern iphone, and managed to get 4 households connected.

TheOtherHobbes 1y ago
Anyone who realises that AI would be ideal for this is going to make a fortune. "Send this photo to its-kostya" instead of "Open Photo app, click send, click the send channel, scroll down the list of names, click the one/s you want to use, click send if you can find it again." We've inherited dumb a tradition of dumb procedural UIs which are effectively manual scripts that have to be repeated for each action. There's been next to no useful progress on automating this. Siri looked like it was going to do it, but then it died on the vine. There's a very basic "Call XYZ" feature but the entire OS should have that level of accessibility, from Settings upwards. Apple hasn't had a User Champion for well over a decade now, and it shows. There's the occasional Nice Feature™ - "Hey we need a nice feature for the presentation this year" - but there's no longer a Nice OS, and no one at Apple seems to have any interest in creating one.
- squigz 1y ago
  Ah yes, voice assistance and the elderly... a famously compatible combination! :)

TheOtherHobbes 1y ago

Anyone who realises that AI would be ideal for this is going to make a fortune. "Send this photo to its-kostya" instead of "Open Photo app, click send, click the send channel, scroll down the list of names, click the one/s you want to use, click send if you can find it again." We've inherited dumb a tradition of dumb procedural UIs which are effectively manual scripts that have to be repeated for each action. There's been next to no useful progress on automating this. Siri looked like it was going to do it, but then it died on the vine. There's a very basic "Call XYZ" feature but the entire OS should have that level of accessibility, from Settings upwards. Apple hasn't had a User Champion for well over a decade now, and it shows. There's the occasional Nice Feature™ - "Hey we need a nice feature for the presentation this year" - but there's no longer a Nice OS, and no one at Apple seems to have any interest in creating one.

squigz 1y ago
Ah yes, voice assistance and the elderly... a famously compatible combination! :)