GEORGIEPHONE USER GUIDE 2014
We apologise that this is a huge document. If you don’t find what
you want in the contents, search on words that particularly interest
you and you will not be disappointed.
Contents
1
Introducing the GeorgiePhone family of apps
2
Smartphone layout
3
Preparing your phone for Georgie
4
Downloading Georgie
5
Speech or no speech and how to select and
make things happen
5.1 Georgie for people with normal vision
5.2 Georgie with big buttons but no speech
5.3 Need big bright buttons and sometimes need
speech
5.4 Need extra magnification
5.5 Georgie buttons bigger or smaller
5.6 Need speech all the time
5.7 Need speech all the time but find double tap
too difficult
5.8 Other finger gestures
5.9 Changing the voice
6
Switching on and off with Georgie
7
Turning the screen on and off
8
Setting up Wi-Fi
9
Page layout and the GeorgiePhone Home
page
10 The Georgie button
11 Preferences: basic choices
11.1 Defaults: getting back to how things were
11.2 Speech
11.3 Colours, volume and Screen brightness
11.4 How many buttons
11.5 Advanced preferences
11.6 Input: Giving information to your phone
11.6.1 Voice recognition
11.6.2 Using the QWERTY or ABC on-screen
keyboards
11.6.3 Using a separate keyboard
11.7 Output
11.8 Fonts
11.9 Metric or imperial units
11.10 Heartbeat
11.11 User Level
12 The Georgie app store
13 Phone
13.1 Making phone calls
3.2 Phoning a Call Centre
13.3 Phone tips
13.4 Contacts
13.5 Call logs
14 Text messages
15 Time and date
16 Assistance
17 Buses (Currently UK only)
18 Camera – taking pictures
19 Colour detection
20 Georgie Dictation - Speech to text
21 Direction - walking Sat Nav
22 Finder
23 Magnifier
24 Near me
25 Objects: identifying what’s in front of you
26 OCR: document reader
27 Places: getting about with GPS
27.1 Where am I?
27.2 Finding personal landmarks
27.3 Recording personal landmarks
27.4 Assistance
27.5 Talking Compass
27.6 Tips:
28 Pose a question
29 Reminders
30 Schedules
31 Taxis (UK)
32 Translation: speech to translated text
33 Voice Notes
34 Weather
35 Web Reader
36 YouTube
37 Other apps: GETTING TO WHAT’S OUTSIDE
GEORGIE
38 Georgie by remote control
38.1 GeorgieMate
38.2 How to launch QuickSupport
39 Labels
Appendix 1 SAVING BATTERY
Appendix 2 TROUBLESHOOTING
Appendix 3 LEGAL INFORMATION
Appendix 4 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Note: This manual includes the whole family of Georgie
applications. Georgie is under constant development
and you will receive free updates of what you have
bought from time to time. We rely on information from
third parties which may be withdrawn or altered
without prior notification so you may find that some
applications do not work as well as they should or are
temporarily withdrawn for upgrade. All applications are
rigorously tested by visually impaired users and put up
on the Google Play Store when working. They have not
however been tested on all phones.
1 INTRODUCING THE GEORGIEPHONE FAMILY OF
APPS
When you install GeorgiePhone and the full family of
applications, it is much more than a phone with big
bright buttons that talk. Imagine a friend who could call
family and friends for you, remember places or hazards
you pass on your regular journeys and speak them to
you as you walk by, tell you how to get to the nearest
pub, school and other places; tell you where the next
bus stop is, what time the buses go from there and
when you’re on the bus, the name of each bus stop as
you come up to it so you know when to get off; tell you
what colour a garment is, give you a local weather
forecast, find and call you a taxi, send and read text
messages; Remind you of appointments and if you
need it, when to take your pills. Answer questions such
as “what is macular disease?”, tell you whether you
have a can of beans or rice; read letters, menus or bills
to you; read a book or play a radio show; keep your
loved ones informed as to where you are and call them
if you’re lost or in trouble.
All this comes to you on an Android touch screen
smartphone, and if you aren’t so techie, many of the
applications such as your contacts can be set up by a
friend on their computer remotely without them
needing to touch your phone. You can also stop
Georgie from talking if you find it a nuisance.
If you just want to try Georgie before buying, you could
download the free Georgie Launcher. Georgie Launcher
gives you the big bright buttons, choices for colour,
speech, touching and tapping and other preferences. It
also gives you the opportunity to buy other Georgie
apps. You may prefer to risk a few pounds and buy
GeorgiePhone which also gives you these choices, but it
also makes phoning texting and managing your
contacts very easy especially if you have little or no
sight. There are more interesting apps in the pipeline,
so keep looking and enjoy.
2 SMARTPHONE LAYOUT
Phones vary a little in layout. If you can’t see the
screen, to identify which way the phone is pointing,
find the two cameras (small holes) on the underside of
the phone. These should be near the narrow edge
furthest from you.
With the smooth glass screen facing up, there may be
up to three physical buttons at the bottom of the
screen nearest to you, one takes you back a screen,
one brings up apps you may have recently used but on
some phones it is a menu button, and the one in the
middle is The Android Home button which takes you
back to the Home opening screen. If your phone
doesn’t have physical buttons and you struggle to find
the right spot on the screen, place a bump-on or other
tactile mark there.
The Power switch is the short oblong button either on
the narrow edge away from you or on the right-hand
long edge. The volume control is the longer oblong
button on the left which is not always used within
GeorgiePhone.
The small round headphone socket is usually on the
narrow edge away from you.
There are two oblong openings. One is the SIM card
holder cover. You open it up with your finger nail. It
can be on either long edge or on the narrow edge near
to you. The other oblong socket is where you plug in
the power lead, usually on the near edge. The plug has
a flat and a pronged side.
You may like to buy a sturdy case to give your phone
some protection and help you keep a grip on it to
minimise damage if dropped and you may like to take
out insurance on it.
3 PREPARING YOUR PHONE FOR GEORGIE
If you are new to smartphones and struggle to see the
screen, think about asking for help from a friend or buy
a phone from a reputable phone shop. You may find
them very willing to set it up for you, ask before you
buy.
Switch on by pressing the Power button for three
seconds.
You may have to unlock the phone with a three finger
swipe up the screen.
Select Language.
Select Accessibility and TalkBack If you are a speech
user.
Set up “Show Accessibility Shortcut”. From now on you
touch buttons to hear them and double tap to make
things happen.
Select Next, bottom right of the screen in a hard to see
green colour.
Select Wi-Fi and connect. There is a scan option bottom
middle of the screen. Creating a Samsung account is
optional.
To download apps such as the Georgie range which are
chargeable, you will need to set up a Google account so
that you can pay. Create a new Google account or use
your existing one. Here, using the on-screen keyboard
is difficult for the novice. Explore with a finger and
remove the finger when you hear the letter or symbol
you want. There is a visual Capcha to overcome.
Make a note of the Google account details and keep in
a safe place.
Google updating will take place and this will take time,
especially if you have an existing account.
Set up a Dropbox account if appropriate.
Accept or modify the name of your phone, e.g. “Bill’s
phone”.
Tip: Flick fingers from right to left or vice Versa to
switch between screens.
The screen going blank every 30 seconds might be
irritating. Go to Android settings, Display, and set
timeout or sleep to e.g. five minutes.
You might also like for now to untick screen rotate to
prevent the display going to landscape when you move
the phone.
4 DOWNLOADING GEORGIE
Georgie Launcher is free and when you install it you
get the Georgie button functions, information and help,
all the Preferences choices and access to the Georgie
apps store. If you decide to buy GeorgiePhone you will
need to uninstall Georgie Launcher.
GeorgiePhone additionally gives you Phone, Contacts,
Texts, Assistance, time and date.
We would love to make all apps free but are committed
to ongoing development costs. Whilst some apps
appear expensive they are in fact low cost compared
with single function gadgets.
To download, go to applications, the checked square
bottom right of the screen.
Go to Google Play Store.
Choose Apps at top left of screen.
Select the search magnifying glass at top right. The onscreen keyboard appears and you can choose to have
predictive personal information or not.
Type GeorgiePhone.
Select the search magnifying glass icon bottom right of
the screen. A list of available Georgie apps appears and
the procedure for downloading for all of them is the
same.
Single tap the search magnifying glass icon bottom
right of the screen. A list of the available Georgie apps
appears and the procedure for downloading for all of
them is the same.
Select the app you want.
Select the price, top right of screen.
Then select permissions and Accept, bottom right of
screen.
Select Buy. You will only be shown the last four digits
of your payment card. The app will automatically install
and you then can choose between uninstalling or
opening it.
When you have installed a Georgie app, reboot your
phone.
Once you have bought any app on your Google
account, it can be used on any phone with your Google
account installed.
The back button takes you back into the app store.
From now on, if you have Georgie Launcher or
GeorgiePhone, it may be easier to buy more Georgie
apps from the Georgie app store on your phone.
5 SPEECH OR NO SPEECH AND HOW TO SELECT
AND MAKE THINGS HAPPEN
Georgie’s talking buttons are sometimes essential,
sometimes useful now and then and sometimes not
needed at all. Some people need buttons and letters of
varying size. The key to controlling these things is the
Android Accessibility and TalkBack system. It may
seem complicated to set up because there are so many
options, but once done, Georgie is remarkably
straightforward.
This section applies both to Georgie Launcher and
GeorgiePhone.
5.1 Georgie for people with normal vision
If you don’t need Georgie’s big buttons or speech but
want it on your phone maybe to occasionally
demonstrate, don’t install Android Accessibility
Talkback.
Within Georgie Launcher or GeorgiePhone, select
Georgie, Preferences, Speech and set this to None,
then set User level to Expert. Georgie then becomes
one of the apps on the phone, there is no speech and
the phone behaves normally.
Touch a button to select and make things happen.
5.2 Georgie with big buttons but no speech
If you need Georgie’s big bright buttons but don’t need
speech, Android Accessibility Talkback should be turned
off.
Go to Georgie, Preferences, and set Speech to None or
Click.
Touch a button to select and make things happen.
5.3 Need big bright buttons and sometimes need
speech
Select Other apps, Go to Android Settings,
Accessibility, tick Show Accessibility and Talkback
Shortcuts.
From then on, as and when you need speech or to
change your font sizes and level of magnification, press
the Power Button as if you were powering off your
phone, then select the Accessibility or TalkBack
buttons.
When Android Accessibility Talkback is turned off, there
are further choices within Georgie.
Select Preferences then Speech. The choices here are:
Speech: Allowing you to slide your finger down the
screen to hear buttons or text, keep your finger on a
button until you hear a beep then lift your finger to
select and make things happen.
Click: Allowing no speech but giving a click when you
operate the phone, touch a button to select and make
things happen.
Silent: Allowing the normal use of the phone. You will
hear the phone ring and other phone alerts but there
will be no speech.
Touch a button to select and make things happen.
5.4 Need extra magnification
Go to Android Settings, Accessibility, then Magnification
gestures and tick On. You can now magnify by tapping
the screen three times. Pinch or unpinch two fingers on
the screen to control the magnification level.
When you want to return to normal size on the screen,
triple tap.
From then on whenever you tap the screen three times
you are back to the magnification level you chose. You
can alter this at any time to suit the screen contents.
Speech and magnification work simultaneously.
5.5 Georgie buttons bigger or smaller
Not everyone with poor sight needs big letters and
buttons. Within Georgie Preferences you can choose
how many buttons appear on a screen: The more
buttons, the smaller the letters and icons. In Georgie
Preferences you can also choose the colour
combination that best suits your eyes.
5.6 Need speech all the time
Go to Other apps, Android Settings, then Accessibility,
and turn on Talkback top right of the screen. There is a
Settings button at the bottom of the screen which lets
you make choices about how the speech or size of
letters behave.
To hear buttons or screen content speak, slide your
finger gently down the screen or Swipe one finger
quickly across left to right or right to left.
When you hear something you want to use, lightly
double tap anywhere on the screen to select. The
speed of tapping is quite fast as in the sound of the
word Guitar, the sound of the word Bar-maid would be
too slow.
In some situations you may have to double tap on a
button itself such as OK as when powering off. If you
find this difficult, you will need to adjust your finger
position, and maybe approach the button from another
angle.
Touch to Listen and double tap to select and make
things happen is for use both inside and outside
Georgie.
The Georgie Preferences Speech options are not
available when Android Accessibility TalkBack is turned
on.
5.7 Need speech all the time but find double tap
too difficult
Android Accessibility Talkback should be turned off.
Select Georgie, Preferences, then Speech on.
To hear buttons or screen content speak, slide your
finger gently down the screen or Swipe one finger
quickly across left to right or right to left:
When you hear something you want to use, keep your
finger on a button until you hear a beep then lift your
finger to select and get to it.
It is only used in Georgie. The phone may react more
slowly.
5.8 Other finger gestures
Android Accessibility Talkback should be turned on for
the following:
Read next or previous page:
Two finger Swipe up the screen: This is used in Georgie
Web Reader and YouTube and outside Georgie where
there is no Next or Previous Page buttons to get to
what cannot be shown on the screen.
Put two fingertips at the bottom of the screen and
gently swipe them towards the top. To go back a
screen, swipe from the top down.
Read next or previous word and character:
Two finger swipe over half way across left to right to
read next word.
Two finger swipe over half way across right to left to
read previous word.
Two finger swipe less than a quarter way across screen
left to right to read next character.
Two finger swipe less than a quarter way across screen
right to left to read previous character.
These are used just in Georgie.
Three finger swipe across the middle of the screen:
Place three fingertips at the edge of the screen and
push them quickly across the screen. Swipe from left to
right to answer an incoming call and swipe from right
to left to end or reject it. This must be used when the
Home button cannot be used to answer incoming calls
and the Power button to end or reject calls.
Three finger swipe up the screen: This is used to
unlock some phones.
5.9 Changing the voice
The default speech output is Samsung. If you wish to
change this, go to Android Settings, Languages and
change text to speech to Google which is very clear.
Choose e.g. English UK and download the voice files
with the small Settings button to the right of the label.
6 SWITCHING ON AND OFF WITH GEORGIE
To switch on Press the power button for three seconds.
Wait a little longer and you’ll feel a tiny vibration, the
screen will come to life and the phone will start talking
if Accessibility Talkback is set up. Bright buttons will
appear which speak as you slide your finger down the
screen.
Wait a minute or two to let your phone be updated and
get GPS.
To switch off, hold down the power button for three
seconds. This takes you to “Device options”. Slide your
finger down the screen and select Powering Off. You
are taken to another screen with more options. Slide
your finger up the screen and select OK just below the
centre of the screen towards the right. You will see or
hear “powering off”.
The other options on the powering off screen are:
Data Network mode: This toggles between
send/receive data on or off. Normally you need this on.
Flight mode: This is normally off unless you are flying.
Restart: This restarts your phone like a reboot on the
PC.
The three small buttons at the bottom of the screen
toggle Mute, Vibrate and Sound on or off.
Mute is normally used to silence a phone in a meeting
or concert but be aware that speech control is lost, so if
you are a speech user, leave mute off and vibrate and
sound on. Turn your phone off completely if it is likely
to be a nuisance.
7 TURNING THE SCREEN ON AND OFF
If you don’t touch your phone for a while you may find
that buttons don’t work and nothing happens. This is
because the screen has automatically turned off to
save battery. You will still be able to receive calls, texts
and GPS information as you travel. Briefly press the
Power button to bring the phone back to life. It’s a
good idea to turn the screen off by briefly pressing the
Power button when you put the phone in a pocket or
bag to prevent things from accidentally activating
buttons. To alter the length of time before the screen
turns off go to Android Settings, Display, and Sleep
(sometimes called screen time-out).
8 SETTING UP Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is one of the ways your phone can connect with
the internet to get information. Please skip over this if
you have broadband for a computer and a Wi-Fi router
or if you will just be using GeorgiePhone for calls and
texts. Out and about you may find Wi-Fi hot spots in
some hotels and coffee shops. If you don’t have a Wi-Fi
router you will have to download apps, books, music
and data via 3G which is expensive. Once you have
your router set up, to check that you are connected,
select the Georgie button then Status. Wi-Fi is towards
the bottom of the screen. It will say connected or not.
If you are in Advanced or Expert User Level, selecting
the Wi-Fi button brings up an Android settings page
listing your various connections including Wi-Fi.
You can also get to this page by going to the last page
of Georgie, select Other Apps, then Android Settings
the first choice at the top of the screen. Wi-Fi is again
the first choice when you Select Settings. At the top
right of the Wi-Fi screen is the Wi-Fi on or off toggle
button. The main part of the screen lists the Wi-Fi
choices where you are at the time. At the bottom of the
screen is a scan button. If you don’t find the Wi-Fi
name you want, sometimes the scan button will extend
the list and include it. Select the Wi-Fi name you want
and you will most likely be asked to type in a password
and then select the OK button. Speech users might like
to tick the box letting characters speak as you type
them. Whenever you re-visit that place or that Wi-Fi
network, your phone will remember it so you won’t
need to re-type the password.
9 PAGE LAYOUT AND THE GEORGIEPHONE HOME
PAGE
When you switch on you will be at the GeorgiePhone
Home page.
There are five big buttons:
Georgie, Phone, Texts, Time and date, Assistance.
Each has a picture or icon on the left and the name of
the button. You can set up the phone to have up to
seven such linear buttons. The fewer you have, the
bigger they will be. You can touch anywhere on each
button line to hear it speak.
When there is more than one page, there is a large up
arrow at the top to take you to a previous page and a
down arrow nearest to you to take you to the next
page. A page is the same as a screen.
On all pages apart from the Home page there are two
smaller buttons at the top:
Home, top right, takes you back to the main screen.
Close, top left, closes the current screen.
10 THE GEORGIE BUTTON
When you switch on your smartphone with Georgie
installed, Georgie is the large button at the top of the
screen. Selecting this takes you to a new screen with
more choices:
Preferences allows you to control the way your phone
behaves, the volume, colour etc.
Georgie App Store takes you to where you can
download more Georgie apps if you haven’t bought the
full bundle.
News gives information about new features and so on.
Help takes you to an audio tutorial.
Status tells you about battery level and whether or not
you are connected to 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS.
About tells you what phone you have, its number, and
what version of software you are running.
11 PREFERENCES: BASIC CHOICES
To get to Preferences, select the Georgie button then
Preferences which has more options.
11.1 Defaults: getting back to how things were
This takes you back to the phone’s original colours,
volume and way of behaving, handy if you have got
yourself into a muddle.
11.2 Speech
If you can see the screen and have Android
Accessibility Talkback turned off the next button is
Speech.
Speech has three choices: Speech, Click and No
speech.
No speech: When you select this you touch a button
and it works. There is no speech.
Click: The phone will click when you select a button to
reassure you it has worked.
Speech: When you select this, buttons speak which
may be a comfort if you are struggling to see for
instance when dialling a number. When you want to
select something, Instead of touching or tapping, hold
your finger on the button until you hear a beep then lift
your finger.
This button does not appear if you have Android
Accessibility Talkback installed so that you don’t
accidentally turn off your speech.
11.3 Colours, volume and Screen brightness
Colours: Here you can choose the colour of letters and
the background. What you see on each button is what
you get. You can choose screen colours to suit your
particular needs. If you have a colour blindness
problem, you can avoid the colours you can’t see. If
you are dyslexic, or need high contrast, there is a
choice for you.
Volume Level: This sets a general volume level.
Screen Brightness: If you need high contrast
between letters and the background and when in
sunshine, set the screen to brightest. The battery will
drain more quickly the brighter the screen. Those who
don’t see at all can use the phone with speech with a
dim virtually black screen. Those who can’t face glare,
should try the dimmed screen.
11.4 How many buttons
Choose from 1 to 7 buttons on the screen. You can
change your mind as you learn. The fewer the buttons,
the bigger they are and you will need to use the Next
page button more often.
11.5 Advanced preferences
Here you can choose different methods of input and
output, font size, metric or imperial units, Heartbeat
and User level.
11.6 Input: Giving information to your phone
There are three ways of giving information to your
phone for sending a text, asking a question or giving
an address: Voice input, QWERTY or ABC keyboards or
separate keyboard. Voice input is the default.
11.6.1 Voice recognition
Dictating a message by Voice input (voice recognition)
is a quick way of sending a text. Not all voices work
well so if the phone doesn’t recognise what you say, try
spelling the words. When asked, speak your message.
When you have finished, wait until you hear
“analysing”. Then touch the upper part of the screen to
hear the message. If it is what you said, select it and
the message will be accepted and sent if it is a text. If
it isn’t correct, select the Clear button in the lower part
of the screen and try again.
To improve voice recognition even when there is no
internet connection you can use Google Voice typing.
To set up Google Voice Typing, go to Georgie Other
Apps, then Go to Android Settings, then Go for
Language & Input which is amongst the my Device
settings.
It is vital to set this up specifically to the language you
are speaking. There are various English options,
American, Australian and so on.
Make sure that Google Voice Typing is ticked and
showing the language you want.
If it shows Automatic or any other version of the
language which is not yours, go for the tiny Settings
button to the right of the screen. Don’t select
Automatic, the top choice. Tick your local language.
You should notice a significant improvement when you
speak messages or instructions.
11.6.2 Using the QWERTY or ABC on-screen
keyboards
There may be occasions when you can’t dictate,
especially in noisy situations. There are two on-screen
keyboards to try, a QWERTY keyboard and an
alphabetically arranged keyboard.
Move your finger around the screen and select letters
or symbols and you will hear “added”. Check what you
have selected at the top of the screen. The lower Case
and Delete buttons are on the left side towards the
bottom and Enter and Symbols on the right. Symbols
takes you to more punctuation and other nonalphabetic signs. If you need the keyboard magnified
see section 5.4 “Need extra magnification”.*
11.6.3 Using a separate keyboard
You can plug in or use a Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard
or use a braille device such as BraillePen for inputting
information.
11.7 Output
There are three ways of getting information from your
phone: Spoken, Visual, Braille.
Spoken: This lets you hear everything on the phone
and if it isn’t selected, the phone will be silent.
Visual: When this is selected, the phone will not speak
and everything will appear on the screen in clear print
with your chosen colours and font size. For instance,
searching for a destination will bring up a map. It is not
possible though to change the colour and size of all onscreen information such as maps and non-Georgie
apps. See section 5.4* “Need extra magnification.
Braille: Download the BrailleBack app from the Android
Play Store and use one of the well known braille
displays such as BraillePen.
11.8 Fonts
There are two choices:
Tiresias, designed at RNIB for visually impaired people,
and the Dyslexic font for those with letter recognition
difficulties. Font size can be set to small, medium, large
or huge in Android Accessibility options but huge may
well distort the layout of Georgie buttons.
11.9 Metric or imperial units:
Choose metric or imperial units for temperatures and
distances. The default is metric.
11.10 Heartbeat
Heartbeat on gives you a tiny vibration every five
seconds to indicate that the phone is working but this
drains the battery more quickly.
11.11 User Level:
The three levels for the way in which Georgie works are
Standard, Advanced and Expert. These can be changed
at any time.
Standard: This arranges all the Georgie apps you buy
alphabetically. You can get to non-Georgie apps by
selecting Other apps on the last Georgie page. You will
not be able though to get to Accessibility Settings. You
would have to change to Advanced or Expert within
Georgie Preferences.
Press the Android Home button at the bottom centre of
the screen to return to Georgie.
Advanced: this groups Georgie apps into categories.
Again you can get out of Georgie via the Other apps
button and return to Georgie by pressing the Android
Home button at the bottom centre of the screen.
Expert: With this setting Georgie is just one of the
many Android apps on that phone.
12 THE GEORGIE APP STORE
Select the Georgie button on the Home page. Below
Preferences is the Store button. The products are
arranged in categories: Internet, Travel, Navigation,
Entertainment, Information, Utilities and
miscellaneous.
If you want to buy something, you will need a Google
account on your phone. This will probably have been
set up for you when you bought the phone. If not, you
may need some help if you are new to smartphones.
To select something you wish to buy, you come to a
screen with a description of it.
Select the Purchase button towards the bottom of the
screen. If you have already bought it the button
changes to Uninstall.
You next have to select Accept terms and conditions
(bottom right). Select the Buy button (top right).
Select the Buy button (top right). As with all Google
Play Store purchased apps, there is a refund policy.
13 PHONE
13.1 Making phone calls
From the Home page, select Phone, then select Dial.
The phone dialler is arranged in three columns:
Left
Centre
Right
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Redial 0
Return call
Call
Delete
When you select a digit you will hear “added”.
Delete gets rid of the last digit added.
Check numbers you have selected by touching or
looking at the top of the screen above the top row of
numbers.
Then select the Call button (bottom left).
To answer a call: press the Android Home button at the
bottom of the screen. If you don’t have a Home button,
three finger swipe from left to right across the centre of
the screen.
To end a call: briefly Press the Power button. This
feature may need setting up. It is a tick-box choice in
Android Accessibility.
To redial a number, select the Redial button, touch the
number at the top of the screen to check it is what you
want, then select the Call button.
To return a call, select the Return Call button, check
the number at the top of the screen, then select the
Call button.
To reject a call: Briefly press the Power button or three
finger swipe from right to left across the centre of the
screen.
13.2 Phoning a Call Centre
Sometimes you can talk to the operator but sometimes
you have to press 1, 2, 3 for services. This can be
tricky #and needs some patience if you can’t see the
screen.
As soon as you have dialled the number, start trying to
find and select the dial-pad or key-pad. This is towards
the bottom of the screen among other choices. The
names and positions vary on different phones: Dial-pad
or Key-pad, Audio or Speaker, Mute, and Call.
You could select Audio/Speaker to hear the recorded
messages more easily or listen on headphones.
When you have selected the dial-pad/Key-pad button,
wait to hear the call centre message, then select the
option number you want.
Avoid selecting Mute.
End your call in the normal way by briefly pressing the
Power button or three finger swipe from right to left.
13.3 Phone tips
To dial numbers you often use, place them into Georgie
Contacts.
If you hear that the screen is locked, tap the Power
button.
If the phone goes silent, give it a little time, you may
not have a good signal.
To check if you have a phone signal, select Georgie,
then Status.
If you don’t have a phone contract and have run out of
credit, the easy way to top up is to ring your airtime
provider via a landline phone.
13.4 Contacts
It is very easy to phone people when they are set up as
Contacts, Names appear on the screen instead of
phone numbers. Select the name and their phone will
ring.
To end a call, either a three finger swipe left to right or
tap the Power Button if this has been set up as an
Android Accessibility setting. To get to your contacts
select Phone then Select Contacts.
Here there are more choices:
Browse, Directory, Search, Manage, Preferences.
To find a particular contact, you could work your way
through the list by selecting Browse. Use the Next page
button if you have any names. Select the name when
you find it.
If you have many contacts they will go on to several
pages so you may have to use the Next page down
arrow to get to more names.
Select the name when you find it.
If you have many contacts you can organise them in
alphabetical groups,
e.g. A-B, P-T and so on. Select Directory for this.
If you want to just speak or type a name select Search
then select the name when it appears on the screen
and their phone will ring.
Setting up your contacts
There are several ways of getting contacts on to your
phone.
When you first download GeorgiePhone it will be set up
for you to speak or type names and numbers on to the
phone itself. This is handy for quick use when you are
out and about. Numbers have to be put on one by one.
First select Manage.
Select Add Contact.
Then select the contact type, Home phone, work
phone, mobile phone, Skype, email, postal address.
Speak or type the name.
Select Details: Here you Speak or type the number,
Skype name, email or postal address.
Select Assistance if you want them as an emergency
contact.
You can also delete them.
If you want another method of setting up contacts then
select Preferences. This has the following choices:
Local: as described above; from web; from people;
from SIM. When these are chosen the Manage button
disappears as they are managed elsewhere.
From Web: If you are a computer user or are helping
someone set up their phone, you would need to buy
access to www.georgiephone.mobi/user. Here you
could put on all contacts remotely. Whenever you add
or delete a contact from here, the phone gets updated.
Numbers have to be put on one by one but if you lose
your phone all your contacts are safely stored on the
web to download to a new phone.
From People: You can use the contacts that have
already been put on your phone in the normal Google
People way.
From SIM: If you have contacts on a SIM card from
another phone you can transfer them to your new
phone.
Alphabetical: Selecting this arranges contacts in
alphabetical order. Some people though prefer the
contacts they use most to appear first on the list.
You could for instance have some contacts on the
phone (Local) and some on the web, but you have to
make your Preferences choices to change from one to
the other. The different sources cannot be integrated
into one list.
13.5 Call logs
This helps you track calls you make, receive and miss.
To get to Call logs, select Phone, then Call logs.
You now have the choice All Calls, Calls received, Calls
Missed, Calls Placed, and Clear Logs to delete all of
them.
To return a call, go to Calls missed, and select the call
you want to reply to. You can then return that call or
save the number to your contacts as a home, work or
mobile number. You are asked to speak the name of
the contact after the beep which may be quick in a
quiet place or type it on the on-screen keyboard.
You could delete the number if you don’t need it.
14 TEXT MESSAGES
Texts are a quick way of sending someone a message.
The buttons on the Texts pages are:
To Contact, To number, All texts, Texts received, Sent
texts, Texts Waiting, Texts Failed, Texts setting.
There are three ways of sending text messages:
Speak your text. Use the QWERTY or ABC on-screen
keyboard.
Use a separate Bluetooth Braille or QWERTY keyboard.
You can send texts to your contacts, select Contact
where you find the contacts which have been set up.
Use the Next page Down Arrow to get to more.
Select the contact name then speak or type your
message. The message time is quite short so if you
pause speaking, the phone will stop recording. If there
is no phone signal, you will hear that your text is
waiting.
If you aren’t getting all your contacts, select Phone,
select Contacts, select Preferences and then select
another source of contacts, Local (on the phone itself),
from web (www.georgiephone.mobi/user), Google
People or SIM.
If the person you want to text isn’t in your Contacts,
then Select “To number” where you can speak or type
in the number. Speak zero rather than nought.
If using the keyboard, type the number, check it at the
top of the screen, then select the Enter button.
You will get a message that the message has been sent
and delivered.
You can check what texts you have sent and received
by selecting All texts.
Sending easy texts: These are a quick way of sending a
message. You will first need to set them up by a
computer on www.georgiephone.mobi/user. For
example, you could have “I’m nearly home”, or “Please
ring” etc. When they are set up, select the Easy text
button and you are taken to a screen containing your
ready-made texts. Choose your message. You are then
taken to the Contacts page where you can choose who
to send your easy text to.
Receiving and replying to texts: Your phone will make a
noise when you receive a text if it’s switched on. Touch
the screen to hear the message or see it in clear print.
If you don’t reply immediately, select Received texts
and work your way down the list where you find date
and time of the message, the sender’s name if they are
in your contacts or their number.
Select the one you want and you are at the Options
page with the following choices:
Reply: Speak or type your message as above.
Forward to contact: Send it to someone else in your
contacts.
Forward to number: Send it to someone not in your
contacts.
Add contact: Add that number to your contacts list.
Delete: to get rid of that message.
Sent texts: This button takes you to a screen listing
messages you have sent with the most recent at the
top. To read what you have sent, find and select the
name or number and date.
You can also read any messages that are waiting to be
sent if you have a bad signal, and you can also check
messages that failed to be sent.
Deleting received texts: It’s a good idea to delete texts
you don’t need as they happen. The Delete button
brings up your list of received texts.
To delete all texts, go to Text Settings then to Delete
All.
15 TIME AND DATE
This is self-explanatory. If you need to change it, go to
Other Apps, Android Settings and Time and Date. A
quick way of finding the time is to briefly press the
Power button to turn on the screen.
16 ASSISTANCE
This is a panic button to contact a friend or carer. You
will be told that the assistance request has been sent
and they will be able to ring you to check if you’re OK.
Assistance numbers can be set up either on your phone
in Contacts or by computer at
www.georgiephone.mobi/user. Assistance requests to
Landlines take longer than to mobiles.
If you are a Carer with an android phone you could
download the “Helper” app from the Georgie App store.
When the traveller uses the Emergency button, the
whereabouts of the traveller’s phone will be pin-pointed
on a map on your phone and you could ring to give
reassurance. If you don’t have the Helper app, you will
receive a text message with the traveller’s name if set
up on your Contacts. You will also get the phone
number and time and date of the assistance request
but you will not know the precise location.
17 BUSES (Currently UK only)
Find out where your nearest bus stops are and times of
buses,
And when you’re on the bus, you don’t need to rely on
the driver or other passengers to tell you when to get
off.
The Buses button takes you to
“Getting nearest bus stops”. The name of the nearest
stop is at the top of the screen.
Select a bus stop name and you will be told the time,
number and destination of the next bus there. The
information may take a few seconds to arrive.
Get step by step walking instructions to that bus stop
by selecting the Time button.
As each segment of the journey is on a new screen,
select Next page as you walk.
When you are on a bus, you will hear the names of bus
stops as you approach them so you can prepare when
to get off.
If you lose GPS on a journey, re-select that Bus route.
18 CAMERA – TAKING PICTURES
The camera is a great feature on the phone and the
Georgie camera is specially designed for those needing
time to steady their hand and focus properly. Selecting
Camera gives you the choice of taking a new picture or
browsing your photo gallery.
To take a picture, select the Camera page, then “New”.
Select Take picture, the large button at the bottom of
the screen.
You hear 3, 2, 1 and a camera noise. The delay gives
the camera and you time to steady and focus. You will
be asked to speak a name for your photo after the
beep. The name will help you sort your photos.
Browse takes you into the picture gallery and your
most recent photo. To move amongst your photos,
select the top of the picture to get to “previous” or the
bottom of the picture to get to “next”. The middle of
the picture gives more options:
View: takes you back into your photo gallery.
Share: lets you share your photo with one of your
contacts, to one of your email addresses or to your
computer. Share is not available on all phones.
About: speaks the time and date when the photo was
taken.
Delete: This gets rid of pictures you don’t want.
19 COLOUR DETECTION
Hold the phone about four inches from the item. Point
the camera on the underside of the phone at it, choose
the “Analyse Colour” button at the bottom of the
screen and the colour will be spoken. The camera
needs plenty of light so you may need to turn on a
light, and try not to hunch over the phone which might
create a shadow.
20 GEORGIE DICTATION – SPEECH TO TEXT
This is designed to help communication with people
with hearing loss, levels of deafness, which is
widespread in the senior population. Many struggle
with lip-reading especially in noisy situations when
trying to talk one-to-one basis as in a shop or Doctor’s
surgery.
Hold the phone landscape with the short edges at each
end.
There are four buttons at the bottom of a blank screen:
Start, Stop, Clear and Settings.
Select the Start button and speak your message, one
sentence at a time.
Select the Stop button after each sentence.
Your message will appear on the screen in large clear
letters.
To hear the message, touch the screen.
If it’s not correct, select Clear and try again.
Show the phone to the person with hearing loss for
them to read.
Select Clear before you start speaking again.
The size of letters and colour choices can be altered
within Settings.
An internet or Wi-Fi connection is desirable but if it’s
not available and you have a modern smartphone,
install Google Voice Typing as follows:
Go to Android Settings, Language and input, down to
Google Voice Typing and install English UK or US rather
than the default automatic via the small Settings
button to the right.
21 DIRECTION - WALKING SAT NAV
This gives step-by-step instructions how to get to a
destination such as a shop, a friend’s house or a
personal landmark.
The Directions button gives the following choices: Mode
of travel, Origin, Destination, View directions, Start
navigation, Preferences.
Mode of travel: Walking is the default. When you select
this button you could instead choose bus or train,
cycling, driving.
The start (origin) of your journey is often your current
location - here. This is the default.
When you select Origin you can enter the starting point
address, post code or select it from your Contacts.
Destination: Here (your current location) is the default.
You can enter an address, post code, or choose one
from your contacts.
View directions: This will let you preview a route.
Start navigation: This gives directions how to reach
your destination from your start point. Each section of
the journey is on a separate screen, so use the Next
page button as you complete each part of the journey.
Preferences: Choose to have Personal and Public
landmarks and Addresses spoken as you travel.
22 FINDER
Finder has many uses. It can help find a mislaid phone
so long as the phone is switched on. It can locate a lost
child with a phone or an older or vulnerable friend
carrying the phone. Without wanting to spy, it can give
peace of mind to both carer and loved one so it gives
freedom of movement knowing that help is not far
away if needed.
There are two items to enter on to the phone with
Finder installed: Near the top of the screen, type in the
lost smartphone number and select Next, bottom right
of the screen. Below this type in the number of recent
locations you are interested in, say 10. Press the Find
button near the bottom of the screen and select Finish,
bottom right of the screen.
The 10 recent locations will be listed with the last at
the bottom together with the address where the phone
is if you have the Helper app on the lost phone.
To come out of Finder, tap the Android Back button at
the bottom of the screen.
23 MAGNIFER
This is a magnifier for close work such as reading price
tags in shops but it can be used outside to enjoy
flowers or birds and even in the classroom to focus on
what the teacher is doing. Use the Volume button on
the side of the phone to increase or decrease
magnification.
Freeze the picture to give you time to study it by
tapping or double tapping.
24 NEAR ME
Near me is useful for people who can’t cope with maps
on a small screen. It will tell you about places that may
be of interest nearby: Travel, Food and Drink,
Shopping, Health, Religion, Entertainment, Culture,
Education, Money, Legal, Beauty. Each heading has
sub-categories: Food and drink has pubs, cafes etc.
You will be told which direction and how near these
places are.
For example, to find the nearest restaurant, go to Food
and Drink then choose Restaurants.
You will then get a list of nearest restaurants with their
address, distance and direction from you. Select one
and you get more details, the option to call them, their
postal address, walking directions to get there,
reviews, opening times and website. You may find
though that your favourite cafe isn’t listed if it isn’t
registered on Google Maps.
25 OBJECTS: Identifying what’s in front of you
This is fabulous for people with very little or no sight.
You can stand outside a shop and be told its name;
point the phone at your washing machine or oven dial
and be told the temperature; sort your CD’s or even be
told there is a Retriever dog on the carpet.
Point the phone camera at labelled tins, packets,
bottles and whatever you want to identify. Select the
Recognise button at the bottom of the screen. You will
get useful information if you have a reasonable
connection to the internet or Wi-Fi. You will need to
experiment with the distance the camera is from the
item. When recognising dials, the camera needs to be
very close; tins and packets, a few inches away, and
shop signs maybe a couple of metres away.
26 OCR: DOCUMENT READER
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition and
enables you to listen to or enlarge print items such as
restaurant menus or your mail. OCR can be a challenge
especially to those who don’t see at all but the effort is
well worthwhile and it is a wonderfully cheap way to
read print.
When you select OCR, the following buttons appear:
Express, Guided scan, Free scan, Images, Documents
and Preferences.
Getting ready to scan a document:
For the best results, try the following:
Place the document on a dark, non-reflective table
A black matt finish large card or cloth larger than the
document could help, so the print appears like a picture
in a frame with what you hope is the print showing and
the top of the phone pointing towards the top of the
document.
Place the phone with the screen facing up, a little to
the left of centre of the document.
Scan your print where there is good natural light and
position your body not to cast a shadow over it.
Choose your scanning method.
Express Lets you scan and listen to a print document
quickly but you can’t save it for future use.
Guided Scan tells you when the camera is level and
the page is in focus. You will hear instructions such as
‘up’, ‘right’, ‘left’ or ‘tilt’ and when your phone is in the
correct position, it will scan. The document is
automatically saved so you can examine it later.
“Free Scan allows you to save the scanned document
as a visual or spoken file for future reference.
When you have selected your scanning method, raise
the phone, aiming to keep it flat, six to ten inches (15
to 25 Centimetres) above the print.
Select the large Scan button near the bottom of the
screen. The phone will display and speak “3 2 1” before
taking the picture to give you time to steady your
hand.
If the document isn’t the correct way round or if the
conditions aren’t right, the OCR won’t work, so you
may be asked to turn the document over or rotate it.
You will hear rubbish characters if the page is upside
down.
You will hear when the scan is successful.
When using Guided or Free scan you will be asked to
label it either with your voice or from the keyboard.
You may not know what it is at that stage but you
could for example identify it with a general name such
as Café menu, Letter or College Notice-board”. It’s
worth labelling items if they are likely to be useful
long-term.
Reading options:
To view your gallery of documents visually, Select
Image as the document is a picture. Make sure
Preferences is set to Visual and you can choose the size
and text colour.
To listen to your scanned item, select Documents and
make sure Preferences is set to Spoken which is the
default.
You could read them in braille, make sure Preferences
is set to Braille. Use one of the well-known braille
displays such as BraillePen and Android Accessibility
BrailleBack installed.
Your documents will be listed by time and date or by
name if you have labelled them by voice or from the
keyboard.
Select the label or time and date of each document.
This brings up three options: View, About and
Delete.
View: This is where you look at or listen to the
document.
About: This gives the date and time when the
document was created.
Delete: This removes the document from your phone.
Touch the screen to hear the whole thing read out to
you from the top. The document is broken down into
screen pages with a next or previous page arrow at the
bottom or top of the screen. Touch the screen to
continue reading.
To read word by word forward or backwards: swipe a
single finger from left to right or right to left across the
screen from long edge to long edge i.e. portrait mode.
To read character by character: swipe as above but
only cover about one quarter or less of the screen.
If you scroll down and up with three fingers, it will try
to approximate your position.
Tap the screen once to start speech from that position.
27 PLACES: GETTING ABOUT WITH GPS
This is another wonderfully reassuring application if you
are out on your own and your sight isn’t too good. You
can check where you are, if you are heading in the
right direction and make voice recordings to warn you
of those landmarks which would never appear on a
map such as an overhanging branch or entrance to a
friend’s house. Maybe make a journey for the first time
with seeing help to set up landmarks so that, when you
travel that way again, the phone will tell you where you
are.
The Places button brings up the choices:
Where am I, Landmarks, New landmark, Assistance
and Direction which is a talking compass.
27.1 WHERE AM I?
This tells you where you are in clear print or speech,
street name, postcode and sometimes house number.
Postcodes or house numbers may not be accurate in
some areas.
27.2 Finding personal landmarks
This allows you to find the landmark names you have
recorded, each numbered button speaking the
landmark name with the closest at the top of the
screen. Wait to be told to double tap before doing so on
each item. This is essential to allow the phone to
process this complex action.
When you select a landmark name, you will have three
options: Directions, Label and Delete, or you could
select Close, top left of the screen, to get rid of those
choices.
Directions is like a personal Sat Nav, giving step by
step instructions how to reach that spot assuming it is
on a public path or road.
Label: This isn’t essential but it will give fuller position
and distance information as you walk around the area
you have already landmarked. You can create labels in
the comfort of home away from traffic noise or wind.
You will be asked to speak your label after the beep. If
you are satisfied with the recording, double tap to
select or select the Clear button and try again.
Delete lets you delete that landmark.
27.3 Recording personal landmarks
New Landmark allows you to Mark important features
on a journey to warn you of hazards, to reassure you
that you are going the right way, to indicate when to
turn and so on.
You will be asked to “speak the place name after the
beep”. Speak a meaningful landmark name such as
“post box” and you will hear what you have recorded.
When you pass that spot again, you will hear your
recording and it will appear in the landmarks list.
27.4 Assistance
This is to alert a friend or carer that you may need
help. See section 16.
27.5 Talking Compass
Touch this to speak the Direction the phone is pointing.
Hold the phone in front of you with the screen facing
up and the top edge away from you. If you aren’t
facing the direction you want to go, Turn on the spot
and keep touching the Direction button until you are
facing the right way.
27.6 Tips:
Switch on and place the phone near a window for a few
minutes before you go out to connect to GPS.
You may not get a GPS signal indoors or in narrow
streets and when surrounded by tall buildings or trees.
If GPS is poor generally, try switching the phone off
and on again.
If you hear “GPS not accurate enough”, move a few
steps and try again.
Find out where the microphone is on your phone and
speak to it when traffic is quiet.
Be aware that if you record a landmark as “post box on
the left”, it will be on your right if you approach it from
the opposite direction.
Your distance from a recorded landmark will appear to
increase if you turn on the spot.
If a recorded Landmark doesn’t speak when you think
you’re near it, go to Places, Landmarks and Closest and
you will be told which is the nearest landmark and its
distance and direction from you. If you keep doing this
on a journey it will reassure you of your route.
Remember to label your landmarks if you want most
accurate distance and directional information as you
walk about.
If you want to go to a landmark you have created and
aren’t sure how to get there, find that landmark on the
phone, select it and you will be able to follow the step
by step directions. This only applies to roads and paths
on Google Maps.
Don’t record landmarks less than ten metres apart as
they may interfere with each other.
If there is say a footpath intersection where you
sometimes get lost, as well as marking the
intersection, you could also mark North, South, East,
West or other meaningful names to give further
reassurance that you haven’t gone astray.
28 POSE A QUESTION
Choose this if you need to find out factual information
such as imperial to metric conversion, distances from
one place to another, meanings of words and so on.
Type your question or speak a question after the beep.
Ask your question then touch the top half of the screen
and the phone will repeat the question. Select it if you
are happy with the recording. You will hear “trying to
find an answer” and the answer will be spoken and
appear on screen. You will be told if it can’t find an
answer. If you aren’t happy with the recording, choose
the “Clear” button near the bottom of the screen and
try again or ask the question in a different way.
29 REMINDERS
Most of us need a means of reminding to keep an
appointment, phone at a specific time or remember a
birthday.
The following options appear on the screen: Browse,
Manage and Preferences.
Browse lists the reminders you have already created in
the date order you created them.
Select one of your reminders to bring up the details,
allowing you to make changes or delete that reminder.
Manage brings up the option to Add a new reminder
and lists your existing reminders.
Preferences is for future development.
To create a reminder: Select Manage, then select Add.
This brings up the following:
Reminder Type general (Optional): This lets you sort
your reminders into groups such as medical, household
or appointments.
Reminder Name (compulsory): Choose a single word to
alert you E.g. Robin to alert you to ring Robin.
Reminder Details (optional): Here you can give more
information, maybe where you are to meet or what to
bring with you.
Reminder date (compulsory): A clear keyboard comes
up.
Type the date and put a slash (bottom centre) between
day, month and year. You could just put 5/6 for 5 June
as it assumes current year unless you type another
year.
If you make a mistake in the date, use the Delete,
bottom left, to get rid of one character at a time.
To confirm the date, select Enter (To the right of
slash).
Reminder Time (compulsory): Here you type the
relevant time.
Place a Colon bottom centre of the screen) between the
hours and minutes.
Delete is Bottom left of the screen.
Enter (to the right of colon). Select this to confirm the
time.
Your reminder is now set and you will hear a sound and
message at the reminder time.
Your reminder alert will stay on the screen until you
select dismiss.
Dismissed alerts should disappear after midnight.
Reminder Delete lets you get rid of alerts you don’t
want.
You can alter the sound you hear by going into Android
settings, Sound, and notifications where you will find
several choices.
30 SCHEDULES
Schedules is designed to help those who sometimes
forget the regular daily or weekly important things in
our lives: Taking pills, visit from daughter, getting a
frozen meal from the fridge. It is perfect for a carer
who is anxious to look after someone living alone as
scheduled events can be put on the phone remotely as
well.
When you select Schedules, there are three options:
Browse, Manage and preferences.
Browse brings up on the screen the scheduled events
that have been put on your phone by yourself or by a
carer.
Manage lets you add another scheduled event, make
changes to existing events or delete events that are no
longer relevant.
To add a schedule: Select Manage, then select Add
schedule.
You then have the following options:
Schedule Type (optional): This allows you to select
from several groups but General is normally OK.
Schedule Name (compulsory) invites you to use a short
description such as “blood pressure pills” or “phone
Bob”.
Schedule Details (optional) lets you add more
particular information if this is helpful.
Schedule time (compulsory): Put a colon (just below 0
on the keyboard) between the hour and the minutes.
Select AM or PM. If the event is on the hour, just put in
say 7 PM.
Delete is bottom left of the screen should you key in
the wrong time.
When you have put in the time, select Enter which is to
the right of the colon.
Schedule Days (compulsory): This lets you choose
which days of the week you need the reminder, e.g.
you might need to take your pills each day or alternate
days.
You may need to go to the next page to select more
days and select Close when you have chosen your
days.
You can get additional alerts about an event by
selecting Notifications: you can choose to have an
extra alert 30, 10, 5 minutes before and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
minutes after the time of the event.
Your schedules are saved automatically.
There is a Delete option so you can get rid of out of
date schedules.
Preferences: This is for future development.
31 TAXIS (UK)
You never know when you will suddenly need a taxi or
you may plan to use one as part of a journey, and it’s a
great comfort when you are lost in the rain.
The Taxi button offers the following options:
Where am I, Local taxis, Search stations or stops,
Preferences.
Outside the UK, you may find local taxis via the Near
me app Travel category.
Where am I: this speaks your current location, street
name, postcode and house number so you can tell the
taxi company where you are. House numbers may not
be accurate in some areas.
Local Taxis: offers a choice of the nearest companies.
Search stations or stops: choose from Bus or coach,
Train, Tube or Metro, Airport and Ferry points. Speak
or type the terminal name. The name will appear and
speak, select it if correct. A list of taxi companies will
appear, choose a taxi name and their phone will ring
and you will be able to book.
Preferences: This allows you to choose All Taxi
companies or those with Wheelchair Access.
32 TRANSLATION: speech to translated text
This is designed to help communication between
English and non-English-speaking people quickly and
easily. Currently there are over 40 languages.
Hold the phone in landscape mode with the short edges
at each end.
There is a screen with four buttons at the bottom:
Start, Stop, Clear and Settings.
To choose the language to translate into Select
Settings.
Scroll up the screen with two fingers to reveal more
languages.
Select Start and speak your message. It will appear on
the screen in the chosen language.
Select Stop each time you finish speaking.
Show it to your companion to read.
When you are ready to speak again, Select Clear and
Select Start.
An internet or Wi-Fi connection is essential.
Colours and font size can be changed within Settings.
33 VOICE NOTES
Voice Notes lets you jot down phone numbers or other
details quickly wherever you are. You don’t need an
internet connection.
There are three buttons: New, Browse and Settings.
New for recording your note.
Browse to get you among existing notes.
Settings for future development to enable the transfer
of voice notes to others or a computer.
To record a voice note: Select New.
There are now three buttons, Record, Pause and Save.
Pause it as many times as you like but you must save it
if it’s important.
To listen to your Voice Notes select Browse. This
lists existing notes by time and date.
When you select a note you can then choose Listen,
Speak a label if it’s something important to keep, or
Delete.
It is a good idea to delete unwanted messages
regularly.
34 WEATHER
This gives a forecast for your current location for the
next three days.
35 WEB READER
Web Reader helps you enjoy using the internet. It is
based upon the PC WebbIE text browser experience. At
present it is read-only but we plan to make it
interactive.
The opening screen buttons are Browse, Search,
History, Favourites, Manage and Preferences.
Search is by far the most useful option. You are asked
to speak the words you want. Select them if the phone
has got it right or select the Clear button and try again.
You will be presented with a list of websites. They are
displayed as text only with no images or ads.
To see more possible websites or the next items on a
webpage, swipe up the screen with two fingers.
Select your chosen website and you are taken to it.
To make reading webpages easier, there is a Menu
button beside the Android home button at the bottom
of the screen. Tap this once to reveal five options:W,
H, L, F, S.
W: Display as web page: This shows the webpages
with images, small text and so on but there is no
speech output. Android magnification may help you,
and T takes you back to the text only version.
H: Next heading.
L: Hides links.
F: Saves the website in favourites.
S: Search on webpage
To go back, select the Android Back button at the
bottom of the screen.
Browse: when you select this you are invited to speak
or type the name of a website. You may find typing the
name is more accurate. If Web Reader can’t find the
website you chose, you will get a message
“Unfortunately Georgie has stopped working”. Select
OK to clear it.
History: This keeps a record of your chosen web
searches, allowing you to save time by revisiting a
previous search. You might want to delete this history
from time to time.
Favourites: This lets you keep those websites you
want regularly without having to retype or voice them.
Manage: This lets you rename or tidy up anything you
have saved.
Preferences: This lets you clear your web search
history.
To come out of a webpage, currently touch the Back
button at the bottom right of the screen.
If you have bought Web Reader on its own without
GeorgiePhone, you can only input text by speaking to
the phone. If you have purchased GeorgiePhone, you
can also use the keyboard and make other choices
about how it behaves for you: The colours, font style
and size etc.
36 YOUTUBE
YouTube is a huge source of information and
entertainment. It is brilliantly uncomplicated.
There are just two buttons on the opening screen:
Search and preferences.
Search invites you to speak a key word or phrase and
this brings up a list of choices to try. Selecting one of
these brings up a YouTube clip or tells you it has not
been paid for, usually copyright music. It remembers
your searches so you can re-visit the ones you liked.
Preferences currently only offers one option: To
delete this history.
To come out of a YouTube, currently touch the Back
button at the bottom of the screen beside the Android
Home button.
If you have bought YouTube on its own without
GeorgiePhone, you can only input text by speaking to
the phone. If you have purchased GeorgiePhone, you
can also use the keyboard and make other choices
about how it behaves for you: The colours, font style
and size etc.
37 OTHER APPS: GETTING TO WHAT’S OUTSIDE
GEORGIE
As well as enjoying Georgie, you can also enjoy the
many thousands of apps available from the Google Play
store.
Select Other apps on the last page of Georgie. This
brings up an alphabetical list of what else is installed on
your phone. The detail will vary according to your
particular phone. You can download more apps from
Google Play store.
Outside of Georgie the screens will be more crowded,
buttons and words may be much smaller and there is
no guarantee that everything is accessible to you but
you may be able to improve things by making setting
choices within Android Accessibility.
The Android Home button always takes you back into
Georgie if you have Georgie user level set to Standard
or Advanced.
38 GEORGIE BY REMOTE CONTROL
You don’t need to struggle alone with your
GeorgiePhone. A friend or family member can help you
in various ways.
38.1 Georgiemate
A carer or friend with a computer could set up your
Georgie features such as your contacts from anywhere.
You yourself might prefer to make changes to your
phone on your PC.
Go to www.georgiephone.mobi/user.
The Login link is in the top right-hand corner. The links
below take you to the various aspects of Georgie which
you can control from your computer: boundaries,
Buttons, Contacts, Easy Texts, Destinations, Schedule,
Reminders, books, Podcasts, Locate, and Password.
Below these links on the left of the screen is a picture
showing GeorgiePhone. The bulk of the screen explains
Georgie and what it does.
Registering and Logging in: To register, provide us
with your email address, smartphone number, the
smartphone 15 figure IMEI number, Go to Georgie then
About to find it. We will give you a four figure number
as your PIN. Keep a note of this or give it to a trusted
friend.
From then on, you can log in with your smartphone
number and your PIN. Tick the box if you want your
computer to remember these when you go on to this
website again, and sign in. When you are successfully
logged in, in the top right corner of the screen you will
find your smartphone number followed by the Logout
link.
Boundaries:
This is an alert system for carers who want to keep an
eye on a vulnerable person or child who might wander
beyond pre-determined boundaries. Carers will receive
a text when the person has left home, crossed a
particular boundary and gone a good distance from
home. Fill in the appropriate text message, phone
number and tick each tick-box.
Buttons:
This works with the Buttons Setting on the phone
which allows you to choose how many buttons are
displayed on each screen, from one to seven. The
fewer the buttons, the larger they are but you then
have to go on to a second screen more often via the
new page arrows.
Buttons are numbered and there is a selection box by
each to choose the order in which they appear on your
screen.
If you want contact names to be displayed on the
buttons, fill in the first blank field to the right of the
selection box with the contact name.
Fill in the second field with their number.
Tick the right-hand button if you want that person to
be an emergency contact.
The standard UK 999 emergency number operates in
the normal way. On the website there are five buttons
to a page and you must save a page before moving on
to the next. When the phone is next switched on, the
button arrangement will be as you chose. This may
take a few minutes and be sure to have a good phone
signal and battery charged.
Contacts:
This is where you can set up a contact list. It’s a great
way of supporting someone to organise their phone so
they can stay in touch with family and friends and
summon help.
Fill in the fields:
Contact name;
Contact type: Home, work, mobile, Skype name, email,
postal address.
Contact details: Phone number without spaces, email,
Skype name or postal address.
Emergency number or not. You can have more than
one emergency contact.
When you have filled a page with five contacts, Save
before going on to the next page.
Easy Texts: these are a quick way of sending a
message to your contacts especially when out and
about or maybe when in difficulty.
Follow the Easy texts link where you can label Easy
Texts buttons with a brief description of the message,
e.g., “Late”. Then fill in the right-hand column with the
wording of the text, e.g., “I’m going to be a bit late
home, no problems, don’t worry”.
You can set up five messages per page. Save what you
have created before moving on to the next page.
Web:
This is where you can fill in favourite websites without
having to type them on the phone.
Fill in the name, e.g. GeorgiePhone, then the URL
www.georgiephone.com.
Destinations:
Here you can pre-set destinations you may want to find
when you are out and about.
Fill in the name of the location in the first column and
the postal address with post code in the second.
Schedules:
This is a way of setting up prompts to remind someone
of daily or weekly events such as taking tablets or
watching a favourite soap.
Reminders:
This is more like an easy to use diary for one-off events
which can be filled in remotely for a relative or friend.
Reminder type: Optional.
Name: Compulsory.
Text: Optional.
Date: Compulsory.
Time: Compulsory.
Books:
You can have five books on your phone at a time. On
the left is Genre and on the right, Book titles. Having
selected a genre, TAB and select from the title list. TAB
to Save. Provided you have a Wi-Fi or internet
connection, you will get an announcement from your
phone that Books have been updated. You will find
many more books if you go in to Other Apps outside
Georgie.
Podcasts:
A few mainly BBC podcasts are available to download
from the website. There are five podcasts per page.
Select from the list in the order you prefer and TAB to
save your five choices. There is a Next Page button to
do the same over again. Masses of podcasts on every
subject are available when you go to Other Apps.
Locate:
This allows a friend or carer to see at a glance on the
computer screen where the smartphone is located. A
bright blue pin shows the location, but the phone must
be switched on and there must be a signal.
Password:
This allows you to change your password on this
website.
Note for screenreader users:
This website works well with screenreading software
and standard web browsers such as Microsoft Internet
Explorer or WebbIE, the text browser for people with
varying levels of significant sight loss, including totally
blind people.
38.2 How to launch QuickSupport
QuickSupport, which used to be TeamViewer, allows
someone else to take control of your phone to check
what’s going on if things go wrong or to make changes.
To launch QuickSupport: Go to Google Play Store.
Select Apps (towards top left of screen).
Select Search (towards top right of screen.
Type the letters QS (QuickSupport).
Then Search (towards bottom right of screen).
Wait for the successful installation message.
Select Open (towards top right of screen).
The person helping you will ask you for the security
numbers around the middle right of the screen.
Once installed, you get to it via Other Apps as
QuickSupport.
39 LABELS
This is great for people who can’t see to read. Create
and read your own labels to stick on to CD’s, tins,
packets and bottles, medicines, keys, shoes,
paperwork, in fact anything you will want to identify
again, and yes, the labels are washable so you can
stick them on clothes.
Once you have installed Labels it won’t appear as a
choice on your phone until it detects an NFC tag, it just
runs quietly in the background.
When you pass it over a tag two centimetres or less
above it, it will speak the recorded label, and if it’s a
blank label it will say “blank label found”.
There are two button choices: Record or Clear.
To create a label, select Record and speak your
message.
Clear deletes your message and any other message on
that label so you can re-use labels.
Please contact us if you would like to buy NFC tags.
Appendix 1 SAVING BATTERY
GeorgiePhone is more like a tiny computer than a
phone and it uses more battery. Here are a few tips to
make your battery last longer:
(1) In Android Settings, have screen time-out (switch
off) after 5 or 10 minutes or less when you are not
touching it. To get the screen on again briefly tap the
Power button.
(2) Tap the Power button to turn the screen off when
you have finished using it.
(3) If you need sharp high contrast, you will need the
screen to be brighter which uses more battery, so aim
to have it as dim as possible.
(4) Use vibration only if you really need it as this uses
a good deal of battery.
Talk to us about having a spare charger. It takes about
4 hours to charge your battery and you should get 10
hours use if you follow the above advice.
To check your battery level, go to Georgie, then Status.
Appendix 2 TROUBLESHOOTING
If the phone doesn’t seem to work after you switch on,
leave it a few minutes. It may be getting updates.
If you are lost among the various choices and want to
start again, select the Home button, top right of the
screen and you are back at the opening Home page.
If you are lost amongst apps outside Georgie, to get
back to Georgie’s Home page, press the Android Home
button in the middle of the bottom of the screen.
Smartphones aren’t perfect and very occasionally
Georgie can’t do something you asked it to do (usually
because it can’t get the information) and you have to
re-start it. You don’t have to switch your phone off and
on again. You still have speech and there are large
buttons on the screen. For example, when you use the
phone and the signal comes and goes, or you are
trying to get to a website or download a podcast, this is
what could happen:
A message appears “Unfortunately, Georgie is not…”.
There is an OK and a Cancel button in the centre of the
screen. Select OK. You get a message “alert complete
action using”.
The new screen offers you a choice to restart Georgie
or to restart in the mainstream way with an app called
Touchwiz. Select GeorgiePhone.
There are two buttons below: Always or Just Once. If
you rely on Georgie, select Always.
In the centre of the next screen there is an Android
message with an OK button immediately below it.
Select OK and you are back in Georgie as normal. The
above are smaller buttons. If you find them difficult to
select, approach them from the bottom of the screen
with one finger instead of the top.
If you are using apps other than Georgie, you may
come across similar happenings but the on-screen
words will be different. For instance, when you are
searching for information, you may be offered a choice
between two web browsers on your phone. When you
are dealing with photos or music, you may be offered a
choice between two apps or two places on the phone
where they are stored.
Appendix 3 LEGAL INFORMATION
Many of the services offered by GeorgiePhone are
provided by third parties that may be withdrawn or
altered without prior notification and therefore the
distributors of GeorgiePhone cannot be held responsible
for resulting disruption or change of service. The
navigational facilities are intended for orientation only
and not as a mobility aid and should be used in
conjunction with other aids such as a cane or guide
dog. It is the user's responsibility to pay attention to
their immediate surroundings. Georgie uses GPS
(Global Positioning System) signals maintained by the
USA Government which is responsible for its precision
and maintenance. The system may at any time be
modified which may affect the performance of Georgie.
GPS signals are not precise or may not be accessible all
the time, especially within narrow streets and when
surrounded by tall buildings. Any implied
responsibilities are expressly disclaimed. The
manufacturers and distributors of Georgie shall not be
liable for special, incidental, consequential, indirect, or
other similar damages arising from any breach of
operation or accident that might occur whilst using the
Georgie range.
Appendix 4 Frequently asked questions
Q. If I need help setting up the GeorgiePhone or apps,
is it available?
A. Yes. There is help information in the manual and
there are demo how to videos, all on the website
www.georgiephone.com.
Q. Is training, help and advice from a human being
available for me?
A. Yes. In the UK you have to purchase a help
agreement. We are looking for organisations in other
countries to help with their own local support.
Q. Is GeorgiePhone for beginners as well as experts?
A. Yes. You can buy just GeorgiePhone for phoning,
texts and assistance and buy more apps as you get
more confident.
Q. Will I have to pay for GeorgiePhone upgrades?
A. Sometimes for major upgrades or new GeorgiePhone
apps.
Q. If I suddenly can’t find GeorgiePhone, what do I do?
A. Press the Android Home button. Wait a few minutes
first, it may sort itself. If the Home button still doesn’t
take you back to GeorgiePhone as usual, Go to Android
Settings, then Application Manager, then the soft Menu
Button beside the Android Home button at the bottom
of the screen and set application preferences. Answer
“yes”. From then on, when you select the Home button
your GeorgiePhone should be restored.
Q. Can I set up my Wi-Fi connection myself?
A. Yes. Go to Georgie, with User level set to Advanced
or Expert, go to Status then Wi-Fi and you can set up
your Wi-Fi.
Q. When I change my phone, do I have to purchase
GeorgiePhone and the apps again?
A. No. Your GeorgiePhone purchases are linked to your
Google account.
Q. Which phones does GeorgiePhone and its apps work
best on?
A. The answer here will change over time. Currently,
April 2014, we recommend the Samsung Siii and the
Nexus phones but our packages are designed to work
on modern Android smartphones generally. Try our
free Weather app.
Q. Can I use all the other apps on a phone where
GeorgiePhone and its apps are installed?
A. Yes. We encourage you to enjoy everything on the
phone.
Q. If I can’t see at all, can I use all the other phone
facilities as well as GeorgiePhone and its apps?
A. Many if not all. The Android TalkBack and
BrailleBack screenreaders are compatible with
GeorgiePhone and you can move seamlessly between
them.
Q. Do I need internet as well as GPS connectivity to
benefit from the travel and navigation GeorgiePhone
apps?
A. Yes ideally. But Places (personal GPS) can be used
anywhere in the world and does not require the
internet. Travel, buses, taxis and trains, information
certainly does and is currently only available in the UK.
Q. Can I use my voice as well as the keyboard with
GeorgiePhone and the apps?
A. Yes. GeorgiePhone preferences lets you switch
between keyboard and your voice.
Q. Are there other languages besides English?
A. Yes. Currently Swedish and Dutch. There are 20
more choices if you go into Android Settings, then
Input & Language for voice recognition (Voice typing),
and text-to-speech output.
Q. If I don’t like the sound of the GeorgiePhone voice,
can I change it?
A. Yes. There are lots of choices on the Play Store.
Search for Text to Speech or TTS. The Google free
voices are very clear. Go to Android Settings, Input &
Language, on the same screen you can alter the speed
of speech.
Q. Why can’t I delete my texts when using
GeorgiePhone?
A. The most likely reason is that you have a phone with
Hangouts on it. Don’t worry, they will disappear over
time. Try again in a month or two and Google may
have sorted this one.
Q. Why am I not hearing reminders when I use
Reminders and Schedules?
A. Go to Android Accessibility, Talkback and Speech
Volume. Set this to 50 or even 25 per cent and you will
hear your alerts and also be better able to hear
YouTube and other media files.
Q. I am in the city and getting no Near ME places of
interest.
A. Switch off Wi-Fi. You may be picking up a local Wi-Fi
with a log-in page you can’t access.
Q. When I make changes, do I need to reboot?
A. Yes especially when you install new apps and when
you make changes to significant preferences.
Q. Why have some of my contacts disappeared?
A. Check out the different methods of storing them. Go
to Contacts, then Preferences where you find Local,
from Web, from People, from SIM. Try searching each
of these and you will find them.
Q. Sometimes when I speak after the bleep the phone
doesn’t give me the chance to speak my message.
A. Sorry, just do it again.
Doc. Ref. RWH 28/06/14