Bob's dashboard

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Bob Guzik and I'm emailing this on behalf of my wife because frankly, she is very frustrated with the problems she's had with the phone and just wants the problem fixed. Even if it means going to another provider.

Let me give you some background. My wife is legally blind. All she wants is a phone with large print to make and receive calls. All the other feature the rest of us use such as testing, email internet access etc, are of no interest to her. To that end, we chose AT&T because of the Disability Center and the fact they offered Mobile Magnifier for use on AT&T approved phones. Mobile Magnifier enlarges the screen sufficiently so my wife can read contact names and place phone calls.

We started by purchasing a Nokia N75 approximately a year ago. We purchased ($100.00) and installed Mobile Magnifier. Note we did not purchase Mobile Speak which is apparently bundled with Mobile Magnifier. At first, everything seemed OK for a couple weeks, then the phone started to act bizarrely. I'll describe the symptoms below. We took the phone back to AT&T, they gracefully exchanged the phone. I installed Mobile Magnifier and again it worked OK for a couple weeks. Again, we contacted a replacement. This time there was a difference. For a variety of reasons she used the phone approximately 10 days before I installed Mobile Magnifier. About 2 weeks after installing it the phone started its bizarre behavior. At this point I suspected Mobile Magnifier was the culprit, but after working with the disability center we decided to try one more time. They worked with Code Factory (creators of Mobile Magnifier) and assured us they fixed some bugs. We also followed a step by step procedure to install Mobile Magnifier in a brand new storage card and set parameters exactly as specified by Code factory. Again the phone worked OK for a week or so then started misbehaving.

At this point the Disability Center said the N75 was incompatible with Mobile Magnifier and we should try another phone and wait for the next software release. We exchanged the N75 for a Nokia 6650. The disability center installed Mobile Magnifier and sent it to use. The only difference in the behavior is now the phone misbehaves within a few days. I had been working directly with Michelle Delagdo, as well as keeping her supervisor Cheryll Smith in the loop. For the last few months Cheryll has not returned any of my phone messages, and Michelle basically said she can't do anything and for me to work directly with Code Factory. This is why I am turning to you for help.

Believe it or not, I'm providing the readers digest version of the story, there is much, much more to it.

So in summary, this problem has been going on for over a year. During that time we went through multiple software revisions with no relief. One more point we using a Nokia 6650 right now because the Nokia N70 we were using exhibited the same symptoms and AT&T hoped the 6650 would resolve the issues. It did not. We're a year into the problem and have nothing to show for it.

The problem is as time goes on the phone begins to behave more and more bizarrely. In no particular order or frequency we see the following symptoms: 1) Gray screen - the only recovery is to remove the battery. 2) Out of memory message. I looked at the phone memory and there was plenty (several megs available). Recovery is to power the phone off (battery removal not necessary in this case). 3) Phone unresponsive and is at idle screen. Can't make a phone call because numbers are not displayed when keys are depressed. recover is power off (battery removal not necessary in this case). 4) About 75% of the time when Mobile Magnifier is off, and Mobile Speak want to be registered the Mobile Speak Function key sequence will not work. This condition can occur when I first take the phone off the charger in the morning. Recovery is to power the phone off and on (battery removal not necessary in this case). 5) About 80% of the time the phone will not accept keystrokes. Recovery is to hit the end key twice, Then numbers will be accepted and displayed on the screen.

As time goes on the symptoms I described (and others) appear more and more frequently to the point I have to do a hardware reset and start over. I have to do this approximately every week. After a hardware reset the phone will behave for a day or so, then starts an irrecoverable dive to un-usability. I estimate we're powering the phone off and on to make it usable about 4-6 times a day depending of usage. Clearly intolerable by anyone's standards.

What I don't understand is why I can put the phone, working properly, on the charger, come back the next morning and Mobile Magnifier will be off and Mobile Speak insisting we register it. This makes no sense. The phone is idle all night. I don't care about Mobile Speak. I don't want it.

Currently I'm working with Wil Osberger from Code Factory. I've tried several of his suggestions with no change in th phone's behavior. We're trying some new things, but I'm not overly;y optimistic.

I'm bringing this to your attention because I'm hoping we can help us achieve our real simple goal. That is run Mobile magnifier on an AT&T phone so my wife can make some calls.