I have been looking for something like this for the past year or so for my elderly mother. Instead (and for the more or less same reasons given in the article) I am going to try to custom role a handset for a smart phone that is:<p>- connects to a smartphone so all the phones features are available.<p>- an lcd text display<p>- two buttons to scroll threw a contact list<p>- a button to call/hang up<p>- maybe in the future a button or two to read text.<p>The physical buttons are important to me (her) so she can easily make calls to the people she talks to. If anyone wants to steal the idea, please do. I might buy one.<p>Adding: Just some sort of DIY/Maker tool chain, for a bluetooh handset, would be useful.
It’s still not useful.<p>I don’t think I know anyone in my life who solely communicates over SMS and carrier phone calls. I currently do less than 10% of my communication through SMS.<p>If they ever figure out how to add WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc, they’ll greatly increase the number of people who would be willing to try it.