Multi-purpose Assistive Technology Device - Does Apple iPhone make the grade?

June 4th is a very important date to me, no, it's not because it was on that day of 1989, the Chinese government ordered a general crackdown on Tianmen square students, but it was on June 4th, 2010, when I obtained my iPhone 3GS which fundamentally changed my life.




The first device to be banished was my much beloved iPod Touch (which I gave to my sister), second device I retired as the result of the iPhone was my 7 years old Fuji Digital camera, which I probably chucked it under the bed somewhere, the third was my Citizen Eco Drive Watch, which I gave to my dad.

It is becoming fairly apparent, that the mighty Apple iPhone was designed to be an Omni-purpose all encompassing PDA, those who claim apple iPhone 4G is inferior to HTC Droid because it comes with a 5 Megapixel as opposed to 8 Megapixel have completely missed the point.

The attraction of the apple iPhone lies with the tens of thousand third party applications for us technophiles to swim in, those third party applications are generally speaking, safe, cheap, and useful. Take mine for example, I have turned it into an AAC device with Proloquo2go from Assistware, a GPS Navigation with Copilot, a hearing aid with Sound Amp from Ginger Lab, a 8 x Electronic magnifier, a barcode decoder a portable scanner, dictionary, and a website reader. It feels like an extension of my brain.

The problem with doing that is as Assistive device, iPhone performs every task at about 60% efficiency as compared with a single purpose tool; for example, iPhone Electronic Magnifier won't be able to do real time colour inversion, because the video memory won't allow it to perform the task, the barcode reader won't locate 40% of the decodes inputted, the hearing and drains battery power like nothing on earth, and GPS could not find my house number. IPhone comes with an in-built voice over function for the visually challenged and blinds, the problem is operating an iPhone under the Voice Over Mode is so frustrating, I do not see anyone using it without practicing for days.
Having said that, I absolutely doted on my iPhone, and would never regret the purchase, however, as an Assistive Technology device, it is a light at the end of the tunnel, not the end of the tunnel itself. I look forward to the day when iPhone XG can do all the assistive functions at 100% efficiency at about $200 price tag.

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