Sprint has announced the launch of a new software bundle for select Android phones and tablets which make Android more accessible for members of the deaf and hard of hearing community. The Sprint Relay ID pack includes:
- Sprint Mobile Video Relay service which pairs you with a sign language interpreter
- Calendar notifier which provides visual alerts for calendar events
- Handcent SMS with visual alerts for text messages
- VideoPlayer with support for captions
- Gmail notifier with visual and vibrating alerts
- TuneWiki software for song lyrics
- Captionfish app to display listings for movies playing in your area with captions availabe
- AOL Instant Messenger with telephone relay service
- Google Voice email message transcripts
A number of these apps are available separately, either through the Android Market or from the default software that comes on your phone. For instance, you can configure pretty much any Android phone to flash or vibrate when a notification comes in for a new text message, email, or calendar event. But the video relay service and caption/subtitle apps certainly seem like they could be useful.
Unfortunately as a long-time Google Voice users, I know that most of the transcripts for voicemail messages that show up in my inbox are barely decipherable. If you’re looking for something a little more reliable you might want to check out YouMail, which uses a combination of machine and human transcription techniques, but which costs $3.99 per month.
The Sprint Relay ID pack is available for the LG Optimus S, Sanyo Zio, Samsung Transform, Samsung Epic 4G and Samsung Galaxy Tab.
via Android Guys
