My first cell phone was a LG5550. It got the job done and even had some voice commands that made using it a little better. Probably the worst problem I had with it was the short battery life. Definitely short of the advertised length.
Most people take the various features in a cell phone for granted. My extent of usage was to dial a number, dial a number from the contact list, getting the time and checking voice mail. I could also switch the "Driving" mode on and off as well as cycle through the built in ring tones and put it into and out of "Manners" mode. The phone was capable of much more and there were a few other voice commands that I never used, mostly because I kept forgetting what they were or how to find them.
I never used the calculator. I could never tell if I missed calls, or dial a number from the recent calls lists. I never knew if I had voice mail without actually calling to find out. I always had to have other people input data to my contacts list. Everything in the menu system was unavailable unless I memorized key sequences like getting into the ringtones. I couldn't even check basic things like battery life or signal strength. I was constantly bugging someone to look at the screen and tell me how many bars of life I had in the phone.
There are some cell phones that will run after market software that will read the display screen, just like the software I use on my computer system to read the screen. It only works in a relatively few models of phones. It opens up the entire functionality of the phone, including full access to the menus, making my own entries to the contact list, even text messageing. My current cell phone provider doesn't use those kinds of phones though. With the variety of providers in my area, I could switch but I like the company I use and find it too inconvenient to change.
I just renewed my cell phone contract. Beforehand though, I did a quick Internet search for accessible cell phones and found that there have been some new breakthroughs in some of the standard options that are now being offered. Namely in the arena of voice commands. My original LG5550 has been replaced twice. First by the LG4750 which offered a new command structure and included a command for checking the battery life. That model was replaced by the LG390 which uses a similar voice command structure but adds some nice features. There are other phones with voice commands such as the Razor but I won't talk about them. Mainly because I liked the LG390 better. It is bigger than the Razor but has a nicer price and for the difference in quality, there isn't that much difference in what it can do for me.
Just like with my old LG5550, there is a button at the lower left side of the phone to press for voice commands. Just flip it open, hit the button and follow the command prompt. Unlike my old phone, the new LG390 can be set to not use the speaker phone while in driving mode and unless you have it set to announce when you open it, you still hit the button and get the voice command prompt in the ear piece of the handset. I like the privacy of this much better.
I usually operate the phone in "Driving" mode because it announces the incoming call as it is listed in my contact list, or the phone number of the call if it isn't. It makes a handy talking caller ID. By not defaulting to the speaker phone in this mode, my calls are private without having to hunt for the speaker button to toggle it off. Speaking of the speaker button, on the LG390 it is the single button at the upper right side of the phone. All you do is just press and hold it in for about a second to toggle the speaker on, or press and hold for a second to toggle it back off.
Now, here is a big improvement that I really like. On my LG5550 I was always forgetting the voice command that I wanted, especially the ones I didn't use much. On the LG390, on the upper left side of the phone, above the voice command button is a rocker switch. It acts as a volume control for the handset, but in standby mode it will arrow up/down the voice commands once you hit the voice command button. There are all the old features that were in the old LG5550 and a couple of new ones. Arrow down for the following list of commands. Of course arrowing up goes through them in the reverse order.
With all those voice commands I have a little better access to all the same things I could always do and a couple new features that I can do that weren't available before.
But wait! There's more! Now the menu items are spoken aloud. There isn't always full access to what is there, but now when hitting the "Left Soft Button" you can arrow down the menus using the tiny arrow keys near the little round "OK" button in the center of the keypad. When you get to a menu that you are interested in, hit the little round "OK" button to open it. Arrow some more and hit OK to open any submenus. Again, not everything in there is readable but you can poke around and really mess up your settings all by yourself now. At least now you might have a slight clue as to all the features that your are really missing out on. Nifty features that would be neat to use but all you can do is tease yourself at not having access to them.
One final note. The "Right Soft Button" is also known as the "Contacts" button. Press it and it takes you to your contact list. You can actually arrow up/down the list and it reads the name of the person in your list. Once a person is selected, just hit the "Send" button to call them. A nice way to review your list for out of date contacts, or to see the label you gave to a person when you can't seem to call them up by giving the voice commands.
All in all, a lot more flexibility and voice response from the new LG model. There are still things that I am looking up in the manual and things I am still trying out. It is great to see that cell phone makers are doing the work to enhance voice commands with built in technology. Keep it up. I can't wait until text messages are accessible. I just gotta practice typing with that dinky dial pad and buttons that feel a little too flat.