The Senior Scene

These days, toy trends come and go by the month. When a toy is mass-produced and generic, it’s easy to see why kids move on to the next so quickly. So how are grandparents supposed to keep up with what’s “in”? MarbleSpark says it has a solution in the personalized book, “Following Featherbottom,” which can grow with a grandchild for years. It uses unique details like the child’s name and birthday to insert the child into the plot, allowing their imagination to expand with the story. It becomes a keepsake. $32.95 from marblepark.com.

Handcrafted in Portugal faux-fur and sock-like knitted fabric, Arcopedico USA’s fall-winter, arch-supporting comfort shoes are for loafing around the 1151-TM-1-Lhouse on a stormy day, hitting the shopping mall or checking into the airport. With a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $95, they can be purchased at independent shoe stores throughout the U.S. Sparks, Nev.-based Simco Imported Shoes Inc., formed after its owners discovered the shoes during a trip to Portugal, is the sole U.S. distributor. More information is available at 775-322-0492 ArcopedicoUSA.com.

Many of us stand in our closets in the morning staring at our racks of clothes agonizing over what to wear that day, but worrying about how we are going to get dressed never crosses our minds. For the 1 million people living with Parkinson’s disease and 50 million people living with arthritis in the United States dressing is a daily challenge. A task as simple as buttoning a shirt in the morning is physically impossible. MagnaReady®, the first fashionable dress shirts infused with a magnetic closure system, solves the problem of difficult to navigate buttons making dressing independently a possibility again. Hidden inside the placket of a MagnaReady® shirt are powerful magnets that link together for a secure closure.  For more information, go to www.magnaready.com.

Kyocera Communications and Sprint say a mobile phone feature they’ve introduced could be life-changing for the 55 million Americans over the age of 60. Kyocera Verve is an affordable ($19.99 with two-year contract at Sprint) feature phone with a sliding QWERTY keypad and a standard numeric keypad which also includes a unique “Text-to-Speech” capability that offers verbal translation of menus, messaging, Internet browsing, contacts, notifications and more. It also offers other accessibility features such as text-to-speech for SMS, high contrast interface options, large menu fonts, dedicated 911 and In Case of Emergency (IEC) shortcuts and well-defined, tactile buttons on both keypads. Verve’s accessibility features open up a whole new mobile way for the visually-impaired to communicate, research, purchase and more – all the things we’ve come to expect on Internet-enabled mobile devices, according to Kyocera. The product is being launched at Boost Mobile and payLo for those who prefer a pre-paid option.