My parents are about 70, and despite valiant efforts by several young folks in their lives, have been unable to get much beyond hitting the power button on a desktop. My mother cannot work a mouse to save her soul. My father really wants to learn, but I think is uncomfortable with someone teaching him. He took a computer class a few years ago, but hasn’t really done much since. My mother thinks he would be more willing to try on something portable. We both think that she can work a touch screen better than a mouse.
So I think she wants a tablet for Christmas. Trouble is, which one? My dad’s experience is with Windows only, but it’s so limited, it would hardly matter. I don’t think they will be doing much typing, web surfing only. Storage won’t be an issue. They’re older, so their vision isn’t that great. I don’t want to go too small. I’m not convinced that they will actually use it, so price is something of a consideration as well. I don’t want to spend $800 on a dust-catcher.
I’ve looked at reviews, but they tend to be geared toward tech savvy young people.
Thoughts? Surface? Ipad? Any other recommendations? I appreciate any help you can give.
My mother was in the same boat as your parents. She knew how to play solitaire and read her email on her windows computer, but that was about it. She was always worried about breaking things if she didn’t know how to do something. She thought about getting a Nook for reading, but we got her an iPad because it could do so much more.
She loves it. Just about everything is simple and she can figure things out on her own. She visits the Apple Store when she has questions and they have been great at teaching her new things. She uses it for Email, Games, and some web browsing, and very little reading (So I’m glad she didn’t get the Nook, it would have been a "dust-catcher as you say).
The iPad mini or the iPad 2 would be great options. They are pretty cheap, and if your parents don’t use it, you can sell it easily. If they love it, you can look into a newer one with more bells and whistles in a year or two.
I have a transformer. Works great for me - and it is still touchscreen though I did get the optional keyboard which makes it easier to do email. Battery life is good, and it seems to run fairly cool.
It came loaded with mainscreen icons for youtube, netflix, gmail and firefox as the browser. You can of course customize the mainscreen icons to your taste and put the ones they don’t need on one of the other screens.
Head to a computer store and see what the various ones are like. My brother has the Surface, but I like mine better, and it is about half the cost.
If price is an important consideration, that pretty much rules out the iPad. Otherwise that’s what I would recommend.
If you can find a cheaper, used old gen1 iPad then go for that, I say. Otherwise, tablets are pretty much out. As much as I love android, it’s not a platform for people who want something that “just works.”
Are they going to be receiving emails on the tablet with attachments (such as Word documents)? Because (speaking from experience) that’s not a whole lot of fun on Android.
I have a friend who set up an Ipad for his grandmother with the same requirements, and it’s going very well. He just set up one or two icons in sight and hid the rest. Facetime she thinks of as “talk to my daughter”, all she needs to do is press.
Actually, I think she understands even less than you say your parents do, and it still works. It isn’t like a computer, you don’t need to understand anything. Just click the icon. The worry is more that if they’re online without any understanding of the world of the internet they’ll get themselves in trouble somehow. But you can take that hurdle when it comes.
My Japanese mother-in-law is 76yrs old, and while I believe she’s at least used a laptop before, she’s not exactly proficient in computers.
We got her an iPad a couple of years ago so she could Skype with her grandkids. She loves it, and now uses it for reading newspapers/internet surfing, emailing, she stores pictures on it, watches movies, and - I swear I’m not making this up - day trading :eek:
She needed help at first on figuring out how to use iTunes, but now she can update apps on her own and everything. ‘Intuitive’ is over-used, but in the iPad’s case, it’s accurate: It’s a locked-down, self-contained product that my 76yr old grandmother and 4yr old son were able to use pretty much right out of the box.
Note that the 1st gen iPad doesn’t have a camera…the iPad 2 is more than sufficient, however.
If price is a consideration, get a last-generation iPad. But otherwise, yes, iPad. It’s what my father-in-law uses and he has trouble with tech more complex than a newspaper (and even there, I think he’d prefer scrolls )
I agree with the iPad ideas; my mid-70s mother looooooves hers. She is, however, quite computer-literate.
One suggestion: if she has any dexterity problems or arthritis in her hands, get a cheap stylus to go with the iPad. My mother complained a little about being able to hit the keys correctly, and it got worse when she got an iPhone (yeah, my Mom’s cool :p), so I found some cheap styluses on Amazon. They made a huge difference for her. She even figured out a way to tie one to her iPad so it’s always around.
Can tablets be logged into remotely, like laptops? If that’s at all possible, set that up before you give it to them (maybe unless you live right next door). Someone recommended doing that when I got my mother a laptop, and it has made fixing the inevitable problems so much easier.
Even if you do live next door, open the box, turn it on and do all the setup stuff. Make user names, download updates, fix the settings, and install whatever additional software you think they might need, so that when they open it on Christmas, it’s ready to use.
I use and like Android but I definitely think iOS has the edge in “it just works” intuitiveness. Take the home button - in iOS it’s a single, physical button that you can’t really miss. If in doubt press that button and you’re back home.
On most recent Android devices, there’s no physical button, and you have to choose from three or four virtual buttons, and in some apps the buttons aren’t even visible all the time. That’s far less intuitive to a naive user.
Or the confusion in Android between apps on the home screens and apps in the separate Applications area. Again, simpler in iOS.
I have a Nexus 7 and love it to death but for your parents I’d actually recommend the big iPad. I saw someone using it the other day and it’s super easy. You can set it all up for them.
Go with a reconditioned iPad. Both my MIL and Grand-MIL have one and it’s the only thing that got GMIL to actually sort-of start to embrace technology.
i see some elderly with jittery fingers. it would seem tablet finger gestures would be impossible.
sometimes a mouse can give greater ease because the wrist, heel, sides of thumb and little finger can be resting. if people try to keep hand elevated or lightly touching it will produce fatigue and jitters. wrist dexterity is needed.
a track ball can also learned to be used with the hand resting.
a 20 inch display or larger display is good for old folks.
best is to go to a store with a wide selection and try alternatives.
My usual rule of thumb is: iOS is for the computer illiterate, Android is for the experienced user, Windows is for people who actually know how to use a computer.
I would suggest an iPad. Since money is a consideration, you can get an older iPad 4 or they still make the 16GB iPad 2, that you can get new. Since eyesight is an issue skip the mini and stay with a fulsize tablet.