Dr. Z was at Deaf Nation in Riverside last Friday and Saturday. What an event that was–over 6,000 people attended both days and Dr. Z used his trusty iPad2 to demonstrate the wonderful capabilities it had, including it being a videophone.

The following pictures say it all…the first picture was taken with an iPad2 and the second picture came from Deaf Nation.

Kids are our future…they loved the iPad2!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a employee with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Marketing.

Dr. Z has been using the iPad2 for the past month or so….the device is growing on me–it is such a beautiful unit–it can do almost anything and on top of it, it is a full-blown videophone when you install the Z4 Mobile on it.

Phone Book?  Your My Contacts is downloaded from your profile on zvrs.com! And you can make VP calls to deaf/hard of hearing and hearing people from the contacts list!

Answering Machine? You got it–people who call you can leave a message–both your deaf/hard of hearing and your hearing callers!

Missed Calls?  You have Call History right on the device to call back!

Battery Life?  The iPad2 runs on 10 hours of battery before you recharge it.  But with the cover, everytime you cover the screen, it turns off the unit automatically–extending battery life to a few days!

Books?  With iBooks and Kindle software installed, you can read books!

Magazines? With Zinio, you can download magazines with a paid subscription!

Newspapers?  You got it–NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal!

Movies?  Download Netflix or iTunes which has a growing library of captioned shows!

Games?  Scrabble, Monopoly, Solitaire, Sudoku and more!

Want to know which TV shows to watch?  Download the TV Guide App!

Want to talk via video anywhere in the house?  In your living room, in your den, in your kitchen, in your bedroom, in your garage, in your backyard (within wifi range)–you got it, you can do it with the iPad2 wirelessly all over your house witha good wifi connection!

Want to talk on video on the plane, on the train?  Dr. Z has done it both, as long as there is wifi on the plane and the train!

At McDonalds, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble and want to talk to someone while sipping coffee–you got it with the iPad2 with wifi!

Convinced? You bet Dr. Z is convinced and he is sure you will be, after you put your hands on one! (and get one for your Mom?)

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a employee with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Marketing.

Dr. Z and his wife are on their way home from Florida to Vermont taking the Amtrak Auto Train. He has tried the Z4 Mobile on an Apple iPad2 in an airplane and now he has tried it on a train….using wifi (he was using a Sprint Overdrive device.)

This shows the versality of the device…you can use it practically anywhere to make video calls…with a good wifi or 3G or 4G connection you can declare independence from the leash of wires attached to your videophone. Using an iPad2 during travel is amazing…in addition to making video calls, you can browse the Internet, get directions, read magazines and newspapers, reading books..what a perfect travel companion it is!

Dr. Z declares today my Travel Independence Day!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclaimer: Dr. Z (Philip Bravin) is employed by ZVRS as its Vice-President of Marketing.

Dr. Z gets this question everywhere he goes.  A lot of deaf and hard of hearing people out there are confused by what is meant by 3G and 4G and they sometimes confuse it with the product such as the Apple iPhone 4.

First–3G and 4G refer to the speed of the network the phone is connected with.  It has nothing to do with wifi.  Wifi is a totally separate network from 3G and 4G.

Second–3G refers to the speed of the network.  3G for AT&T is not the same as 3G for Verizon.  AT&T and T-Mobile use a different network (GSM) from that of Verizon and Sprint (CDMA).

Third–4G is faster than 3G.  All the phone companies use a different variation of 4G or 3.5G,  such as HDSPA, LTE, Clearwire.

Will 4G enable better video communication?  The answer is yes and no.  A good 3G connection is a better for video than a poor 4G connection.  You can tell the quality of the connection by looking at the number of bars on a smartphone.  4 bars is better than 1 bar.

Sometimes a 3G gets you good video, sometimes 4G gets you better video.  You can get better 3G in one spot and walk 50 feet and the connection gets worse.  It is never the same everywhere. The best way to answer is where you use the phone the most is where you should see which is better 3G with more bars or 4G with more bars.

3G is almost everywhere. 4G is still growing and it not everywhere yet.

A good wifi connection will get you a better video communication situation more than a 3G or 4G ever will for the most part.

Some Android phones have 4G enabled.  None of the Apple iPhones have 4G yet.  But both the Android and Apple phones have wifi.

It is Dr. Z’s hope that this information is useful.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a employee with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Marketing.

DO’s

DO handle it with care.  It’s a small and sensitive device.  A simple drop can break it if it lands in the wrong spot.

DO keep your hands clean when using it.  Oil from your hands can cause the touch screen to be less sensitive.  You can get a plastic overlay to protect the screen.  Dr. Z uses one himself — it does the job but you have a screen that is not as pretty as one without–but protection is sometimes more important than beauty.

DO walk 50 feet from the spot where you do not have coverage.  Sometimes you get a much better signal by just moving away from your current spot.  Video on mobile phones require a good and strong signal to be able to do video communication.

DONT’s

DO NOT use your mobile videophone while driving!!!

DO NOT get your mobile videphone wet!  Water is fatal to electronic devices.  If it happens, use a hair dryer as soon as possible but do not burn your phone with the heat from the hair dryer.

DO NOT move your phone while communicating–it makes the other party or the video interpreter get seasick!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a employee with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Marketing.

It’s almost the perfect videophone!

Dr. Z had the opportunity to use an iPad2 at his home watching the NCAA Elite 8 last weekend and the experience was astounding.

While watching the game, he was able to have his iPad2 on his lap and browsing NCAA.org to get more information about game he was watching.

Also, during timeouts and halftime, he was able to check his email during commercial breaks as well. This is indeed a big difference from using a desktop or a laptop while watching a game.

And when a video call came in, he rotated his iPad2 into a stand with the cover that is optional and he could chat while keeping an eye on the game as well as discussing the game with whomever was chatting with him.

Isn’t this the freedom we have not experienced for so long? He didn’t have to go to another room to answer his videophone call and miss the moments of the game in progress!

Go to this link for more information.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a contractor working with CSDVRS on several projects.