TRY AMAZON FOR HEARING AIDS
A relative spent $6000 on Signia hearing aids, following the advice of her audiologist. A friend spent $389 for his Audien Ion aids, which were on sale on Amazon recently. They’re both happy.
The Audien Ion hearing aid system comes with ear domes in two styles and three sizes. The system has four modes, depending on the environment you’re in. These include a normal environment, a noisy restaurant, heavy traffic, or the great outdoors. In each case, the aids reduce background noise and prevent feedback, which happens when the microphone picks up sounds from the speaker. The battery lasts 20 hours before needing a charge. But instead of fumbling with batteries, you just place the aids in their charging case. This gives you three more full charges.
The Audien Ion reviews on Amazon are 89 percent positive, including 72 percent five-star ratings. One reviewer said her husband likes them so much, he’d want same-day delivery if they ever broke. Other reviews mention the excellent customer support.
A friend says he likes the hearing aids’ traffic mode because of the huge trucks that race by on his street. “Works great,” he says. But if you prefer a smartphone app for making volume and other adjustments, there’s the Audien Ion Pro for $689, $200 more than the regular Ion when it’s not on sale.
What about the expensive hearing aids from Signia? My relative likes all the options she gets with the app, such as universal surround sound, or the ability to focus on sounds from a certain direction. Like my friend, she finds her aids comfortable and says they are fairly inconspicuous. They come with a two-year warranty and monthly checkups with an audiologist, though at some point, these fade into twice-a-year visits.
So it really gets down to whether you want advice from an audiologist or prefer saving money with over-the-counter aids. After all, you could always return them to Amazon.
Revisiting Alexa Plus
A reader told me that Alexa Plus hasn’t rolled out to everyone who has an Echo Show 8 or above. I thought it had. If in doubt about yours, ask Alexa or visit Alexa.com.
Alexa.com has mini demos. One shows Alexa giving recipe instructions step by step. For example, when a woman says she can’t use her oven because she’s cooking something there, Alexa suggests using the stove.
Goodbye Political Spam
A reader said he’s tired of getting emails from the same politician every day. Hitting “block,” “unsubscribe” or “spam” hasn’t stopped it. I have one word for him: Filter.
In Gmail on a computer, there are seven steps involved. Step one: Open the offending message. Step two: Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner. Step three: Choose “Filter messages like this.” Step four: Click “Create filter.” Step five: Check off the “Delete” option. Step six: Check off the “Apply to matching conversations” option. Step seven: Click “Create filter” again. From then on, the offending sender’s messages should go straight into the trash. If you want them back, you have 30 days.
But some spammers change their email address constantly, so it doesn’t work to filter a specific address. To find out if this is the case, go through steps one through seven twice in a row. If you’ve chosen the option to apply the filter to matching conversations, and you have at least one, the offending message on your screen will disappear. If it doesn’t, go through the steps again to filter by subject line or content.
For example, if I want to stop getting email from a political hack named Joe Sleazo, instead of letting Gmail fill in the search criteria with “no-reply@politicalhack.com,” I’d erase that and type in a key word or phrase that appears in all of Mr. Sleazo’s emails, such as his name. I’d put the key words either in the subject line field or the field that says: “has the words.” From then on, Sleazo’s spam would skip the inbox and go straight to the trash.
The reader who brought this up uses AT&T mail. To get instructions for him, I did a Google search on “Filter AT&T mail.” If you use AOL, Yahoo or something else, do a Google search on “Filter AOL mail,” or whatever service you’re using. They’re all similar.
Go Local
When I was last at my local Xfinity store, the clerk suggested I come in a few days before my internet and phone deal expired. Otherwise, my contract would leap from $25 a month to $89 a month automatically.
But when I went back, the best they could offer was $50 a month. So I tried AllConnect.com, the site that uncovered Xfinity’s stupendous offer two years ago. Once again, AllConnect said Xfinity had the cheapest deal in my neighborhood. But at Xfinity.com, a rep told me that the best offer was $55 a month plus a monthly charge for phone service.
So I went back to the local store and nabbed the cheaper deal. Sometimes it pays to go local.
Cat Monitor
How is Kitty feeling? You can find out at www.sylvester.ai. It’s a vet-backed site that uses your cat photos to uncover pain. You get one credit to try it out, then it’s $10 a month or $5 a month if you pay yearly.