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Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

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Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#71

Post by genezeta »

Tarsul wrote: post #30

the solution involves buying a 100 euro product with 6 customizable buttons (cool product but expensive). Anyone know of cheaper alternatives for a keyboard buttonset (between 4 and 20 keys)? Probably standalone numpad (with customizable keys) comes closest but maybe someone knows better.

MAX Falcon-8. $50 assembled, $40 DIY (some soldering, but easy). Add a few dollars more for switches and you provide the keycaps. 8 programmable keys. I wouldn't call it cheap but it's definitely cheaper than the author's option. I got one somewhere; it is nice but I don't really use it much nowadays.

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#72

Post by ilamont »

I am the family tech support person and I have learned that the things that work best are wired, tactile, and easy interfaces. After COVID hit I set up my father's home office, but recently replaced his bluetooth keyboard with a wired one which eliminates downtime and frustration. My mom likes her iPhone 5S with a real button, and I've enabled accessibility options on her large monitor to show a gigantic mouse pointer. My MIL has trouble using social media and other phone apps, but at least can answer FaceTime calls because the answering interface is so easy to use.

Worth mentioning the 2016 OECD tech skills survey, which found 2/3 of people are not skilled technology users. In the U.S., https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/skills-matter_978926...

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#73

Post by justinboogaard »

+1 for tactile buttons!

Through our work at GoGoGrandparent.com (a service that helps older adults and people living with disabilities use Uber/Lyft, grocery services, meal services and pharmacy services reliably without smartphones) we’ve interviewed dozens of folks living with visual impairments.

The feedback that stands out the most was from a gentlemen in his 30s or 40s living with blindness since birth. Paraphrasing: “owning a smartphone was like living in a house where every time I entered a room, it was as if someone had just rearranged the furniture. Tactile buttons give me a literal feeling of control. If I get lost I can find my way.”

I thought it was really powerful.

Disclaimer: Our current landing page gets accessibility wrong in a lot of places and we’re in the middle of a site redesign to make it more accessible.

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#74

Post by don-code »

This is amazing - and incidentally has given me a solution to a very real problem.

My grandmother is suffering from dementia, and within the last few months has forgotten how to tune a radio. She's an avid radio listener, so I worked around this by buying her a few radios, tuning them, and labelling them - so she only has to hit the power button on the one she wants.

Unfortunately, she's not thrilled by how much space the set of radios takes up, and she's also at the edge of the coverage area for her favorite FM station.

Within the next few weeks, I'll definitely give this a shot with a Pi Zero W, and hopefully write something up on how workable of a solution this is for her.

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#75

Post by fooblat »

AgoRapide wrote: post #62
atleta wrote: post #59

Well, he could have bought an actual wifi capable radio for around half the price of a Stream Deck. (Unless, of course, he already had the latter device.) It's an existing product.

Yes, I could. It would not have been so fun. And all Internet radios I have seen so far have some features that irritate me. For instance volume is push-buttons instead of turning knobs. Actually, the only interface I would have on a radio is two turning knobs, one for volume and one for channel. Thats all. The rest could be some phone or PC setup like 'kingsuper20' suggested. Too sad Apple never gave us a radio. I m…

I love internet radio projects.

Did you consider making a DIY internet radio from a raspberry pi? That's actually what I was expecting to see based on the title.

I used a rpi to make an internet radio for our living room our of a 1950s wooden console radio I picked up at a thrift store for 20 euros. Works great and keeps the illusion that the room is free of computers.

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#76

Post by AgoRapide »

fooblat wrote: post #75
AgoRapide wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I could. It would not have been so fun. And all Internet radios I have seen so far have some features that irritate me. For instance volume is push-buttons instead of turning knobs. Actually, the only interface I would have on a radio is two turning knobs, one for volume and one for channel. Thats all. The rest could be some phone or PC setup like 'kingsuper20' suggested. Too sad Apple never gave us a radio. I m…

I love internet radio projects. Did you consider making a DIY internet radio from a raspberry pi? That's actually what I was expecting to see based on the title. I used a rpi to make an internet radio for our living room our of a 1950s wooden console radio I picked up at a thrift store for 20 euros. Works great and keeps the illusion that the room is free of computers.

I was very limited with regard to time available.

With one baby, one toddler and three more kids around there is not much free time :)

I would love to put a Raspberry Pi inside an old radio myself.

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#77

Post by [deleted] »

justinboogaard wrote: post #73

+1 for tactile buttons! Through our work at GoGoGrandparent.com (a service that helps older adults and people living with disabilities use Uber/Lyft, grocery services, meal services and pharmacy services reliably without smartphones) we’ve interviewed dozens of folks living with visual impairments. The feedback that stands out the most was from a gentlemen in his 30s or 40s living with blindness since birth. Paraphra…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#78

Post by johnchristopher »

mattowen_uk wrote: post #3

Slightly off-topic, but as much as I like all these low-tech websites (and I really do!) - I think I need some sort of extension that does this: body { max-width:900px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } Because trying to read full width text on modern resolutions is way too wide, and I don't even run my browser full screen - I have no idea how people that do, can read it.

Firefox has a reading mode that is quite handy.

Re: Show HN: Giving my mother-in-law an easy internet radio with real icon buttons

#80

Post by sangnoir »

Instead of mucking about to get Chrome to play various streaming formats - author could have launched VLC instead. VLC will play any URL you throw at it. I have completed the software of a Raspberry Pi radio project, I've been procrastinating on the hardware for months now (buttons, DAC/amp speaker and maybe tiny OLED screen?)
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