Company Also Announces Check in Call Service for Peace of Mind and Sense of Security >>> Read more . . .

New cell phone for seniors to enter the US market: big buttons, amplification, FM radio, speaking keyboard.

New mobile wireless access survey by Pew -- overall usage is up.  Get ready for some numbers -- but first, a definition. This new Mobile Access 2010 report from Pew defines mobile wireless access as a) Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card or b) Using the Internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Given that definition, "59% of American adults now go online 'wirelessly' using a laptop or a cell phone, an increase over the 51% who did so at a similar point in 2009." And today, compared to a year ago, more cell phone users are taking pictures (76% versus 66%), sending text messages (72% versus 65%), and even accessing the Internet (38% versus 25%) from the 2009 survey. >>> Read more . . .

Finally another senior cell phone. This one looks pretty good! Here's a better picture of it.

Gliding a finger across the virtual keyboard to spell words -- now on 7 smartphones in the US.

Jitterbug announces that it has grown its Live Nurse service to 12,000, averaging 4000 calls per month.

Senior cell phone from Europe competes with Doro, Jitterbug.

A review of a paperback book that can help seniors get started using a range of technologies.

Assumptions, aspirations, and realism.  In recent here-there-everywhere travels, I was often intrigued by assumptions that were cited as fact.  I heard about barriers to adoption, narrow-cast definitions of broader opportunities, and sweeping generalizations about markets too broad to characterize. That last, of course, is the so-called baby boomer market -- discussed all day at a well-run event in Tampa -- the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference. Talks were packed with baby boomer market possibility. But boomers are no more a market with meaningful shared characteristics than adults, women, or workers. You know this when you hear a discussion of an age segment in which the target market year begins with 40 or the upper end extends beyond 64. Or when the speaker apologizes and says "I'm not a baby boomer, but..." >>> Read more . . .

Joseph Coughlin (AgeLab) writes about design considerations for products that will accomodate the 'me' baby boomer generation.