The best video communication software for VRS and point-to-point–Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad!

Making a video call using a remote? That’s really out of date and old-fashioned. Remotes are on their way out. Every home has several remotes and more and more people are using their smartphones or iPads to control their TV and using their smartphones or tablets to make voice or video calls. That leaves us deaf and hard of hearing people still using remotes! That’s the Dark Ages!

It’s time to be ahead of the game! Currently, our Z5 software runs on the iPad and the iPhone and you do not need a remote to make a call. Just press an icon or link once or twice with your index finger or thumb and you are on your way!

It’s time to go modern–throw away your remote and use your fingers on the Z5 Mobile!

Leave the Z5 Mobile on all the time and use it to make VRS calls, point to point, FaceTime and send text messages from just one contact list, without a REMOTE!

For more information on the Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad, click this link.

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

The best video communication software for VRS and point-to-point–Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad!

Dr. Z usually travels from time to time–sometimes for business and sometimes for pleasure.

There are several apps that Dr. Z finds very useful in traveling–here’s a list:

      TripAdvisor                          Kayak                                      Booking.com                       iExit                                   Z5 Mobile

TripAdvisor-Dr. Z thinks this is the best app when you are going to a new place and want to know what sights are best and suggested hotels as a starting point. On a trip to Seattle last fall, TripAdvisor mentioned a little-known park that offered a great view of Mt. Rainier. This park was not mentioned in any of the pamphlets or guidebooks. Most of the comments in TripAdvisor are given by people like us, not travel professionals.

Kayak-this is a great app for checking fares and hotel prices. It helps you plan a trip and you can estimate costs so you can save for the trip. It also has a itinerary feature where you can send emails of the reservation confirmation to Kayak and they will put everything together form you!

Booking.com-this is an app to reserve hotels and bed and breakfasts. It is very reliable and you know what you will want. It has a nice ratings system and is more useful for travel overseas than in the United States. Anything with a rating of 8.0 or more usually is a good bed and a good room. Between 7.0 and 8.0 is ok–do not take anything below 7.0!

iExit This is a fantastic app when you are driving in the United States on an interstate. You want to pull off for a McDonalds or some gas–it lists all the restaurants, gas stations and hotels and MORE for every exit on an interstate. It is very easy to use and is reliable. I think it is underrated–try it–its a great app!

Z5 Mobile Of course, this is the best video communication app. Dr. Z uses it with a 4G connection on the road and it works beautifully. Need I say more? Leave the Z5 Mobile on all the time and use it to make VRS calls, point to point, FaceTime and send text messages from just one contact list!

For more information on the Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad, click this link.

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

The best video communication software for VRS and point-to-point–Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad!

It can work with FaceTime on your iPhone or iPad!

You do not have to go into FaceTime on your iPhone to make a FaceTime call.

Go into the Z5 app and click the Contacts icon.

It will bring up all your contacts from your iPhone.

All the contacts will have the FaceTime and Text Message button in addition to the green Z5 call icon.

If the contact has FaceTime or Text Message enabled on their iPad or iPhone, all you need is to press the “FaceTime” or “Text Message” button!

If the contact does not have FaceTime or Text Message enabled on their iPad or iPhone-it will not work.

If you want to make a VRS or point-to-point call to your contact, press the green video icon.

All in one place—no need to jump all over the iPhone or iPad to get in touch!

Leave the Z5 Mobile on all the time and use it to make VRS calls, point to point, FaceTime and send text messages from just one contact list!

For more information on the Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad, click this link.

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Dr. Z swears by his iPad for video communication and uses his iPad and his iPhone for a lot of things during the day.

It is called Spotlight. It is not an app, but it is part of your iPad!

What is Spotlight? It is a built-in search engine for your iPad, like Google search for your iPad.

How do you get it? Simple–click the home button (the button on the bottom of your iPad)–click it slowly, twice (or maybe 3 times), until you see the image below:

Enter anything you want to look for–your friend’s name, a hotel you want to stay in, an email you want to find.

You will get a list of the results of your search. If it is an email, the email will show up in your list. If it is a hotel and it is not on your device, click “Search Web”, it will then do a Google or Yahoo search and you will see the results on your iPad!

Try it, you will love it!

Also, do not forget to download the NEW Z5 Mobile app for video communication (you can’t use paper for this) (link.) You can make video calls with Z5 on your 4G/4G LTE connection!

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Dr. Z swears by his iPad for video communication and uses his iPad and his iPhone for a lot of things during the day.

Sometimes, we need a break from all the seriousness of the day and enjoy a bit of humor.

But, honestly, there are a few things the iPad can’t do–it can’t replace paper. And when your wifi iPad is not in an wifi environment, it can’t do a lot of things, including what the video attempts to tell.

Also, do not forget to download the NEW Z5 Mobile app for video communication (you can’t use paper for this) (link.) You can make video calls with Z5 on your 4G/4G LTE connection!

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

When you buy a new mobile phone or want an iPad with 3G connection–you have a lot of choices to decide–3G, 4G, 4G LTE?  ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile?

Which should you pick first?

First of all, you must check with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile on their website for coverage maps for where you live.  If you see that the data (not voice) map shows 4G or 4G LTE, that means you have a good chance of having your mobile device be able to do video communication.

Today, if you have 4G or 4G LTE coverage on your mobile device, it usually means you can do video communication outside of a wifi area.

Remember, those 4G and 4G LTE plans have a data cap of 2 or 3 GB, which only allows a couple hours of video calls per MONTH!

The older iPad2 does not have 4G, only 3G.  Sometimes 3G will work for video, but not as good as 4G/4G LTE.  The later models after iPad2 have 4G LTE as an option.

Try to use wifi first if you have coverage in your area.  If not, you can then use the 4G or 4G LTE coverage.  In many cases, 4G or 4G LTE gives better quality video calls than wifi because of the stability of the signal.  Wifi signals sometimes drop in middle of call due to internet connections, while 4G and 4G LTE are cellular connections which are usually more stable.

If you are a passenger in a car or if you have an emergency on the road, 4G and 4G LTE — if there is coverage– will allow you to make video calls.

Also, do not forget to download the NEW Z5 Mobile app (link.) You can make video calls with Z5 on your 4G/4G LTE connection!

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Captioning on the iPad?  What about television?

Yes, you can have both!

But the problem here is to have captioning on the iPad, every app has it’s own way to make captioning work.

Some apps like ABC Player are easy to enable captioning.

The iTunes store on your iPad will allow you to download movies and TV shows.  But before you download and pay for them, check for the “CC” symbol in the summary of the program.

The Communications and Video Accessibility Act, passed by Congress and now enforced by the FCC mandates that any movie or TV show that were previously captioned on TV must be shown with captions on the internet!  But this is not 100% done yet…we will get there eventually.

On YouTube, there is no requirement to caption because it was never shown on TV before. However, YouTube can caption for you by clicking on the “CC” symbol on the lower right and clicking “enable captions”–some captions are better quality than others, because YouTube is transcribing speech into captions! And some people speak more clearly than others.

One of the better captioned sites is TED (www.ted.org).  It has some great lectures that are captioned and some are long and some are short and some of the stuff is great.

One of the developments that Dr. Z is looking forward to is radio captioning, which is pioneered by National Public Radio (NPR).  It should come out within the next few months in the form of an app for your iPad!

While we don’t yet have everything now, we are getting there.

By the way, if you want to call someone via video on your iPad, don’t forget to download the NEW Z5 from ZVRS.  (link)

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Dr. Z has been using his iPad for some time now.

He has come across some apps you may want to look into.

All those recommended apps are free from the Apple App Store.

Click on the screens below to get a bigger screen.

Also, do not forget to download the NEW Z5 Mobile app (link.)

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

The best video communication software for VRS and point-to-point–Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad!

It is available now!

What makes the Z5 different from the other software videophones–many things, and it can be used anywhere to communicate via video!

You can use Z5 to communicate via video by making video calls anywhere using a 4G connection!

When receiving calls, it will vibrate and you can answer the call!

If you are not available, or in a different room of your house, your mobile phone will ring, your Z-20 will ring, your ntouch will ring. All at the SAME time, not one then the other…

How? Simple! 1Number from ZVRS!

Z5, Z Alert, Videomail, 1Number–you will never miss a call!

For more information on the Z5 Mobile for iPhone and iPad, click this link.

Dr. Z is proud to be part of the team that understands and listens to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Try Z5 Mobile, you will LOVE it, just like Dr. Z!

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development