Get Smart
How to choose a smartphone that best suits your needs—
and your budget? Here are a few places to get started:
n Cellphones.about.com gives a basic overview, with
“how-tos” and a list of top budget smartphones.
n Cnet.com allows you to search smartphones by price,
manufacturer, service provider and more (i.e., camera or
accessibility features).
n Consumerreports.org provides independent ratings
(they accept no outside advertising) of cell phones they have
tested; however, to view ratings online requires joining at a
cost of $26 annually or $5.95 monthly. (Consumer Reports
subscribers can join for $19 annually).
n Nytimes.com has a section devoted to smartphone news
and articles: search for “smartphones” and click on “Personal
Tech.” ( Warning: the first 20 articles are free, then the site will ask
you to subscribe. However, both consumerreports.org and
nytimes.com can be accessed for free at public libraries.)
paid by any company, although
I probably should be. I’ll start
with my most recent pleasant
discovery:
I was writing a story on my
computer when my left hand
started missing keys. Usually
I can type for an hour or so
before it starts to falter, but
that day, I had been especially
active and hit the MS fatigue
wall early. I had three choices: I
could stop writing (even though
my ideas were flowing). I could
write with my right hand and
transcribe later, which seemed
a waste of cherished energy. Or
I could use Dragon Dictation,
a free voice recognition app
I had downloaded. (Dragon
Dictation is not available for all
smartphones.)
Here’s what I dictated:
A prosthetic for the mind
Today, I employ a smart-
phone—in my case, an
iPhone—for what seems to be
infinite uses. It beeps to tell
me when to pick up my kids at
school, or when I need to leave
for a doctor’s appointment.
(Editor’s note: Many people
with MS also use their smart-
phones to remind them when to
take their medications.) My wife
can call, email or text me when
she will be home from work. If I
meet someone I want to remem-
ber, I can take a picture of him
or her, and label it with their
name and number, so I won’t
have to resort to the always
embarrassing “I know I know
you, but can’t remember how I
know you or who you are” the
next time I see them.
A brief tour
I thought a brief tour might be
useful to those considering a
smartphone—and no, I’m not
OK, so back to the story at
hand I’m lying in my hospital bed thinking about a life
without work what would
I do what I want to do how
would I support myself I’m
sure the idea of being a novelist writer came to mind but
I can’t remember for certain
but I didn’t know that I was
free and the way I had a certain spiritual freedom that I’d
never before felt in my life
As you can see, the voice recognition in this app isn’t perfect.
But I could e-mail these notes to
myself, and cut and paste them
into the memoir I am writing
about my experiences with MS.
And it was easy to correct.
