Re:Why dump more tech than necessary into the phon (Score 1)

I've got a co-worker, our Oracle admin, who's blind. As things stand, with most cell phones he can't do anything except dial out and answer calls. He can't use the built-in address book to place calls for example, because all of the info is in text on a tiny screen.

He may be interested in a product we have been working on for a couple of months now: we added software to produce speech output to an off-the-shelf Nokia 9110 Communicator smartphone, giving access to essentially all the functionality of a "modern" phone (phone book, calendar, SMS, settings, WAP etc.).

Alternatively, output on a Refreshable Braille display can also be used.

At the moment, this is GSM900 only (so it is mostly a European thing for now), but with the arrival of the Nokia 9290 in the States by mid-2002, it will also be available in the US.

You can find more info on the device here.