Category Archives: Ask Dr. Z

Editorial #120: Traveling Overseas-Taking Pictures and Videos

Dr. Z is on vacation in England.

Dr. Z is using his iPhone to take pictures. The iPhone is an amazing device for pictures. But the iPhone memory is limited if you take a lot of pictures. You cannot add a SD memory card to the iPhone. Dr. Z has taken a lot of pictures on his vacation and is getting close to 1,000 pictures and he s starting to run out of memory on his 16gb iPhone so he deleted some apps from his iPhone to make room for more pictures. This has never happened when in normal use back in the states because one does not take that mny pictures when you are at home and you can save pictures on your computer and then delete them from your iPhone. Dr. Z did not take his computer with him on this trip.

The iPhone uploads pictures to his iCloud account automatically using photostream, but it hs a limit of 1,000 pictures so it’s crunch time.

Dr. Z is now using Dropbox to upload his earlier pictures to make room for more pictures. After uploading, he deletes the pictures from his iPhone.

The iPhone is also a great camera. He also takes along a digital camera wih 12x optical zoom for good pictures at a distance. The iPhone has digital zoom which is not as good as optical zoom.

Dr. Z also uses a Flip camcorder for videos. He does not take videos with his iPhone because it takes a lot of memory.

Lesson learned…get an iPhone with bigger memory next time.

Dr. Z is having a great time by the way.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Editorial #119: Traveling Overseas-Not Enough Plugs for Your Devices?

Dr. Z is on vacation in Scotland.

When traveling overseas, there is always the issue of not having enough plugs (outlets) for your devices. From previous experience, Dr. Z has seen how many old hotels do not have enough outlets for your devices. To make things worse, most outlets are not compatible with American two-prong outlets, so you need an adapter to be able to use your American plugs in other countries. The outlets are different in various regions of the world–Europe is different from Asia, South America is different from Ireland and the United Kingdom. We like to stay at small hotels, bed and breakfasts and many do not have enough outlets in our rooms. I have my iPhone, iPad and a Flip camcorder. My wife has a Blackberry. That is four devices. With most hotels having one outlet or two, we had to juggle between devices to be sure they were charged. With only one adapter for to share among those devices was not easy.

(in America we have 110/120 volts) (Overseas most outlets run at 220/240 volts). The adapters for most mobile devices today are “intelligent”–they are able to switch between 120 and 240 volts without having to change any switches or settings.

What did Dr. Z do? Dr. Z in planning for this trip came up with a solution and my wife and I are happy! Here’s the solution:

– buy an universal adapter that is designed for international travel. It does not have to have voltage converter capability. (you cannot use a hair dryer with such adapters)

– buy a small power strip with a built in circuit breaker

And you shall travel happily ever after!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Power Strip

power stripThe Complete Setup

Adapter

Editorial #118: Traveling in Ireland…VP? Uploading and Downloading?

Dr. Z is on vacation in Ireland.

He has been traveling from Dublin to Southern and Southwest Ireland. There is wi-fi in every town but the upload speeds are too low for viable video communication. The download speeds are usually good.

What is upload and download? Internet works like a two-way street. Download is when you receive information from the Internet to your device. Upload is when you send information from your device to the Internet. Most of the time, the download speed is much faster than the upload speed because we get more information on our device than we send it.

For good video communication, the upload and download speed need to be over 1.0 Mbps…when you access www.speedtest.net, it allows you to test the upload and download speeds. If it is over 1.00 for both upload and download, you should be able to do good video communication. If it is below .50, you might have trouble communicating via video. Most of the time in Ireland, the download speeds are over 1.00 but upload speeds have been between 0.10 and 0.30.

Dr. Z will continue to test wifi as he travels the next few weeks and report back.

By the way, Ireland is such a wonderful country, with beautiful sights and great food!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Editorial #117: Hearing People Out There–It’s Time to Thank Deaf and Hard of Hearing People!

This is an update of an editorial published almost 2 years ago.

Dr. Z did some research and looking back on technological developments the past 100 years, he has identified 3 things that hearing people have the deaf and hard of hearing people to thank for.

The first is the telephone-which supposedly came about while Alexander Graham Bell was working on an hearing aid for his deaf wife, Mabel. Out of that work, he came up with the telephone, which the deaf people didn’t have full benefit until almost 75 years later with the development of the TTY modem by Robert Weitbrecht.

The second thing is closed captioning. When the concept was first brought to the public in the 1970’s, the hearing community found it distracting and they went back to the drawing boards and made captioning “closed” instead of “open”. Today, we see captioning in bars and gyms and well-used by hearing people. Without captioning, they would be “deaf” in those environments to enjoy TV. Now, in 2012, we are beginning to see more captioning on the Internet. The FCC has ruled that any TV shows previously shown on TV must be captioned if they are to be shown on the Internet.

The deaf people were quick to pick up video communication when it was first commercialized in 1999. For the past 11 years, the hearing community used video only in business environments to cut down on travel costs, and they did not think it would be useful in the consumer community–preferring voice communication instead. Look at video communication today, it is becoming almost mainstream. With tablets and smartphones coming out every now and then—they all are coming out with FRONT-FACING cameras. That was not the case a few years ago. More and more people are using software-based apps such as the Z4 and soon to come Z5 to enable video communication.

The bottom line–with a diverse community worldwide–each segment of the community has values and developments that benefit the rest of the community–this is true with those 3 developments Dr. Z just mentioned. That is cross-pollination for everyone!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Editorial #114: Using Your Mobile Device on Vacation

Now that summer vacation time is around–you all are most likely aware from home and not tugging along your hard-wired VP with you when you are on the road.

What is the alternative? Your mobile device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android) with the Z4 software loaded onto them is a great solution. Some of you may be taking your laptops–you can have Z4 loaded onto those as well!

For those devices with wifi, you are limited to using them when you are near a wifi hotspot such as a hotel or restaurant.

For those of you with a mobile device with 4G capabilities, you can use video while the car is moving as a PASSENGER-not as the DRIVER. Dr. Z has conducted meetings using his mobile phone in a car as a passenger using 4G! Be mindful–most 4G have data plans that have a 2GB cap–which is about 2-3 hours of mobile video communication per MONTH.

Dr. Z has found that 4G with a good signal to be more reliable than wifi due to the steadiness of the signal.

Enjoy mobile video!!

How to use wifi with Z? Download Z4 for PC and Mac, iOS (Apple) and Android (click the links.)

Look for the NEW Z Mobile for iOS and Z Desktop for PC and Mac in a few weeks!

Happy traveling from Dr. Z!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Editorial #113: Dr. Z on the Latest in WiFi and 4G in Public Places

This is an update of Editorial #106 on the subject of wifi in public places. In the span of a few months some things have changed and Dr. Z wants to bring you up to date on using wifi or 4G in public places.

The good news is that we have an alternative to wifi which works well with video–it is 4G or 4G LTE (“4G”). If you see “4G” on your phone, it will do video better than “3G”. In some situations, 4G will work better than wifi. This was not true several months ago. 4G is not everywhere, but the phone companies are continuing to add 4G all over the country–we will see many more areas with 4G later this year.

The only issue with 4G is that video communication uses a lot of data and it can go against your monthly 2GB cap or whatever your cap is. With wifi, there’s no cap.

Hotels: they have started to become a bit better. Some offer a separate tier (higher price) for video connections. Hotel lobby and conference rooms sometimes are better than rooms because the signal is stronger in those areas. Some rooms are near the end of buildings which offer weak signals.

Airports: About the same. Use of Boingo, a paid service is reliable. Some airports offer free wifi, but not all can handle video

Airplanes: Dr. Z has used Southwest and Delta wifi in planes. Both do not offer video and even with regular web browsing its SLOW!

Barnes and Noble: Not reliable for video, some locations better than others.

Starbucks: Fairly reliable for video, some locations better than others.

Dunkin Donuts, Panera Bread: Not used there enough to give you an opinion.

How to use wifi with Z? Download Z4 for PC and Mac, iOS (Apple) and Android (click the links.)

Look for the NEW Z Mobile for iOS and Z Desktop for PC and Mac in a few weeks!

Happy traveling from Dr. Z!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Editorial #112: Do You Still Get an Interpreter When You Try To Call a Deaf Person?

We thought this would not happen anymore–after the FCC ruling on numbering went into effect over a year ago.

Dr. Z has been hearing that this continues to happen, especially with Sorenson VP-200 users. If someone with a non-Sorenson unit tries to call a VP-200 user, the phone goes to an interpreter instead of the deaf person. This happens not with every VP-200 user but certain VP-200 users who don’t realize what the situation is because they call only other Sorenson users.

How does this happen? This happens when the VP-200 phone number was never registered with the national (ITRS) data base. If someone calls from a non-Sorenson phone, it always checks the ITRS data base–if the phone number is not there, it then goes to an interpreter.

What should the VP-200 user do? They should notify Sorenson to have their phone registered on the ITRS data base. When that happens, then the call from a non-Sorenson user will ring that phone instead of going to an interpreter.

If any of you get an interpreter instead of a deaf person, call ZVRS Customer Service at 866.932.7891 and they will help you resolve this.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

The Big Apple Announcement–Anything New for Video on the iPhone and iPad?

Apple rolled out a lot of new stuff the other day.

The iPhone and iPad have software on it that keeps those units running. It is called “iOS”. OS means “operating system.” The current version is iOS 5 and the one that Apple rolled out is iOS 6. iOS 6 will not be available until the fall. Your iPhone or iPad will automatically upgrade to iOS 6 when it is ready.

What does iOS 6 have for video communication? Not much. The only thing they improved was allowing FaceTime to run under a cellular environment (3G, 4G). Right now, before iOS 6 you can use FaceTime only if you have WiFi coverage. With iOS 6, you will be able to use FaceTime in WiFi AND 3G OR 4G environments.

FaceTime is only for point to point calls with others who have Apple mobile units, not for relay calls.

This is the only thing Apple had for us deaf and hard of hearing people for video communication.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

Which VRS Provider Should You Choose and Why?

When making a VRS call, you want to be sure the call is handled smoothly and in a professional manner, and at the same time you remain in full control of the call.

First, you want the interpreter to acknowledge getting the phone number you want to call with a SMILE!

Second, the interpreter will respect your request to announce (to explain that the caller is a deaf hard of hearing person and that he/she is using sign language to communicate) or not to announce the call

Third, the interpreter is able to follow your signing and will ask you to clarify if he/she doesn’t understand you

Fourth, if the bank or credit card company asks for your credit card number, you just need to press the numbers on the keypad without having to spell it out to the interpreter

Fifth, after completing a call, you want to call someone, you can ask the interpreter to look at your contacts list and you can ask them to “call Mom” or whoever is on the list, without having to look up the number yourself.

Finally, after concluding the call session, the interpreter signs off with a smile!

Who has all those benefits? ZVRS has them all! Try us, you will like us! How? Call to make a relay call at 888-888-1116 and you will love us!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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

What Does Dr. Z’s iPad Look Like?

Dr. Z has been using his iPad for close to a year. His iPad is a 16gb iPad2 model. He has about 75 apps loaded on the iPad but uses mostly about 20 most of the time.

In the next few weeks, Dr. Z will explain each of the most popular apps he uses on his iPad.

Since he does not have 3G capability on his iPad, Dr. Z uses Sprint mifi to get wifi access when he is not near a wifi hotspot. Dr. Z learned recently that T-Mobile has a nice portable wifi hotspot that costs as little as $10 a month if you do not have 3G capability on your iPad. Bear in mind $10 buys you 100mb of memory which is easily used up if you use video. So you should use video on your iPad only in a wifi environment. If your iPad has 3G capabiliuty, AT and T and Verizon offer 3G packages but each carries a monthly charge if you use it.

Remember if you want to use video on your iPad, its usually best in a wifi environment because its bandwidth (pipe) is much larger.

Look for more reviews of iPad apps in the next few weeks from Dr. Z!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

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