Bigger can be better

The older I get, the more I enjoy using digital technology. But then, I'm only 51. I might feel differently if I were in my 60s or 70s.

So many gadgets seem to have been designed by and for teenagers, who have the advantage of agile fingers and sharp eyes. Today, I must squint to read a typical cellphone screen, and in a few years, I'll be worse off. Lots of us already are - about 50 million Americans are 60 and older. So who's looking out for the old folks?

Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., to name a couple. The companies' Windows and Macintosh operating systems have long contained special features aimed at making computer use easier for older people or those with disabilities. Windows and Mac let you display screen text in large letters or set up high-contrast screen colors so words stand out. You can also modify the mouse and keyboard, making them easier for slower-moving fingers.

Still, the buttons of a standard mouse and keyboard often challenge the visual and motor skills of older users. How about something bigger? Greystone Digital Inc. of North Carolina sells BigKeys LX, a hulking beast of a keyboard, with one-inch-square keys. BigKeys LX comes with the keys arrayed top to bottom in alphabetical order, for those who never learned to touch type, or with a standard layout. I tried the latter, but couldn't touch type on it. The buttons are so big that my fingers no longer rested on the proper keys. And the buttons make an annoying "clunk" with every stroke.

So the feel of the BigKeys LX didn't suit me. Neither did its massive $160 price tag. But if you find the usual keyboard too much of a challenge, visit www.bigkeys.com for more information. You might also check out its $75 BigTrack trackball. This mouse substitute lets you rest your hand on a large plastic ball, rolling it under your palm to move the cursor.

These days, far more people have cellphones than computers. Engineers keep making the phones smaller, while cramming them with ever-more-ingenious features. But why not build something for people with lousy eyesight and simple tastes?

That's the idea behind GreatCall Inc.'s Jitterbug phone service. Subscribers who sign up at www.jitterbug.com get a phone made by South Korea's Samsung Group. There's no camera, no digital music player, no Internet browser. It's just a phone. Better yet, it's a phone with big buttons that light up.

Jitterbug puts five numbers of your choice into the phone's address book; you can add 45 more. Another big, handy pushbutton makes it easy to scroll through the directory - names appear in large type on a brightly lit screen. When the right name appears, press the "yes" button to place a call. Or use voice dialing and just say the person's name.

There's an even simpler Jitterbug phone, the OneTouch, for those who mainly want emergency communication. Instead of a numeric keypad, it has three large speed-dial pads. One instantly calls 911, another dials the Jitterbug operator, and a third can be programmed with the number of your choice, like a close friend or relative.

Jitterbug carries an up-front price of $147 - a lot for basic phone. But there's no service contract. You pay by the minute - as little as $15 for 30 minutes.

Some of us prefer to communicate via e-mail. But researchers at Parks Associates say that 20 percent of Americans have never used e-mail, and half of these nonusers are 65 or older. These are people who've never used a computer and probably never will. So how will they communicate with their broadband-addicted grandkids?

Well, they could try a fax machine. Unlike personal computers, faxes are both simple and cheap. And thanks to Celery LLC of Troy, N.Y., a fax can double as an easy way to send and receive e-mails.

Celery asks new subscribers for a list of people they plan to message. Using block letters, write the name of each person on a plain sheet of paper, followed by an e-mail address. Then fax the information to Celery. The company uses character recognition software to read handwriting and create an e-mail address book.

To send a message to a friend, write his name at the top of the page. On the rest of the page, write whatever you like. You can even draw pictures. Now fax the document to Celery. It will convert the message to a digital image and e-mail it to your friend. When he writes back, Celery translates the reply into the popular Adobe PDF format. Then the company rings your fax machine and out rolls a printout.

The Celery service, available online at www.mycelery.com, costs $14 a month for up to 100 pages of messages sent and received, including attached color photos. A black-and-white version costs $9 a month. Subscribers can use any color or black-and-white fax machine or purchase one from Celery for $90.

After a bit of difficulty with setup, I found the Celery system works pretty much as advertised. It's not as fast as "true" e-mail; messages took about 15 minutes to show up. Also, the system can have occasional problems with voice-over-Internet protocol phone systems like the one at my house. Once we sorted out the difficulties, though, Celery shaped up as an effective way to send and receive e-mails without a computer.

Of course, 20 years from now, typical senior citizens will have spent most of their lives using e-mail. They won't need a product like Celery. But aging will continue to dim our vision and slow our fingers; let's hope gadget builders are already at work on devices that will help us out.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.