Bluetooth

Bluetooth technology is great. Something I have taken advantage of for a while so when the hands free law was passed I thought it was not a big deal. Then, I helped my mom figure out her Jawbone....

First, no one even considered that the law would require people like my mom to drive and try to use their bluetooth device. This is probably more dangerous than having mom use her phone with her hands. She cannot remember what button to push, she is distracted while trying to use the voice recognition commands and she WAS totally frustrated. To top it off she yells into the earpiece so it does not understand her.

So I had to train mom how to use herJawbone...which probably rivals teaching Camryn to use the potty. First, linked the bluetooth to mom's phone, as I have done for a few people, figuring it is easier than trying to explain how to do and less time consuming. Then there was the real work. Mom had to have the Jawbone...she was caught up in the frenzy at the store...so this was a little more difficult than a regular earpiece. The training actually took several days and several attempts.

Just getting mom to figure out how to answer the thing was a chore. She would excitedly push the button and then say hello not realizing there is a delay she needed to wait for. This is where this gets comical. We literally sat at home calling each other back and forth so that mom could practice answering. I think we both were amused and realized how ridiculous it was. As any good teacher would do I encouraged her and acknowledged her progression. Once mom somewhat mastered the answer we had to move onto the calling people.

Mom's phone has voice recognition software. Basically you push a button and the phone starts talking to you asking for commands. The Jawbone has a button on the back that you push to activate this feature. You would think it would be simple to remember which button to push but it was hilarious watching my mom trying to remember which one to push and what to say IF she happened to guess the right one. I realized this lesson was going to take some serious repetition. We were taking a ride to Fremont and so I told mom to put her earpiece in and try to make a call. Once she got down which button to push the thing would not recognized what she was saying. Since the Jawbone has a noise reduction feature I guessed that maybe her yelling into the thing was causing the problem or that she was pronouncing the word funny because of the yelling. I can attest that my sisters and I have told my mom that she yells into her phone. Honestly, we may have made some jokes about it too. Regardless, the issue is gone and the phone recognizes what she is saying.

So I can happily say my mom can use her Jawbone now.....I fully expect her to write a reaction.