This is also my recommendation. Doubly so if she already has an iPhone. Don’t get suckered in by a cheap android tablet. Many of those are very slow, and will be frustrating to use, even when everything is working just the way it was intended. There are perfectly good android tablets, but they’re going to be closer to the price of an ipad.
This is another excellent option, and also what we’ve done for my Dad. He recently upgraded to a new Chromebook. He just logged in, and all of his stuff was there. Until somehow it went away, but at least for a day it worked perfectly. A Chromebook can be good because of full size keyboard, external mouse, bigger screen, and probably similar in price to an ipad.
If vision is an issue, then something like a chrome book and a large external monitor might be an option. Multiple screens and keyboards might get confusing though.
This 73yo grandma hunched over her iPad heartily endorses these recommendations.
The keyboard case is critical. Invest in a high quality case (Logitech is one brand I’ve been happy with).
My vision has some challenges due to a traumatic brain injury~the touchscreen pinch to enlarge has been a quality of life saver. Once she has used it she will never want to be without it.
Given what she uses it for a reconditioned iPad could be found very reasonably priced. She doesn’t need the whiz bang latest because she’s not going to be high speed gaming or video editing on it.
The few times I’ve needed tech support Apple has readily my needs. I cannot say the same for the other guys.
Give a reconditioned one gen back ipad in a good keyboard case a try. She won’t be sorry.
Anecdotally, but not very useful to the OP, I once installed Linux, Chromium and Thunderbird on a flailing ex Windows XP machine, but located a skin that made it look like XP. Not identical, but close enough. Chromium even got the “e” icon of Explorer. The recepient knew she was getting a totally different OS but it made no difference to the ways she was used to working. She did not need to learn anything new.
I faced this issue with my MIL and a chromebook solved all the issues.
They are very cheap, the battery lasts ages, they sit neatly on her lap, they perform the limited tasks she needs and rarely change anything or require anything more than a restart to update them. Plus, with a back-up always running if she spills her tea on it she can just buy another, log in, and all apps and files are there for her with no faffing around.
I installled a remote viewer for her just in case (I’m at the other end of the country) but in the nearly four intervening years it hasn’t been needed, it just works.
There are lots of good ideas here, so I’ll just toss in a couple further comments based on years of being tech support for my aging (now late) parents.
I tried to migrate them to Mac. They failed to appreciate it. Easier, simpler, and more reliable was outweighed by fear of the different.
I stuck with Win7 (at the time) and policy set the heck out of it. I gave them standard non-admin level accounts with limited abilities. Updates were strictly scheduled.
I installed a small (250GB) HDD as the boot drive and then a second HDD as the target for an automatic imaging process that ran nightly. I had it keep the last three images for restoral so we could roll the machine back easily. This was completely separate from Win7 restorals.
I used TeamViewer (I think) for remote access.
I still had to help out from my home every so often, but the stringent policies made it less frequent. When a problem arose, I would usually just restore the most recent image and not try to figure out what happened. Since they were checking mail on their browser and weren’t really creating any significant new files or docs, a restoral had hardly an impact other than fixing the current (terrifying) issue.
However…I could never get my mother to understand that SPAM was not directly aimed at her. She fervently believed that every single piece of SPAM she got in her inbox was specifically selected and crafted for her. “How did they get my address? Who is this person? How do they know I have family? Why do they want me to respond?” She could see no relationship whatever between junk mail the USPS brought her and the SPAM coming into her online account. One was not worthy of consideration, while the other had been produced by science and, therefore, must be handled in a respectful and responsive manner.
I guess I do not like the implied ageism? On one hand you have old people who have been hacking it up continuously since the '70s, and on the other you have young people who couldn’t install and manage a PeerTube instance or iPhone Matrix client to save their lives.
One challenge with using a screen viewer with satellite is that the connection may be laggy. The bandwidth may be fine, but it’s going to be less responsive since the signal has to travel such a long distance. The greater time it takes for the packets to go to space and back means there will be small delays between when you do something like move the mouse and when you see it move on your screen at home. It’ll work, but it will feel clunky.
I’m not thrilled about the ageism either ( and particularly not about “grandmas” ) but it’s also true that there are not many people who have been “hacking it up continuously since the '70s”. People tend to know what they need to know - if an 80 or 90 year old retired 20-30 years ago, chances are computers and even email weren’t that common when they worked. My employer didn’t get actual computers in each office and real email until 2005 ish *- and even then, a lot of specific jobs didn’t use or have access to computers.
* Before that we had terminals in each office and could only email people within the same system.
In case it helps, the thread title was from Mom, verbatim. Sorry to stereotype grandmas – just going for a bit of verbal shorthand. Obviously people of all ages vary greatly in their various abilities; neither my mom nor I are expert techies at all, but she’s doubly hampered by both her failing body and her lifelong inexperience with computers.
Thanks to all those who have offered helpful suggestions, many more than I’d hoped for, so this is great. There is much homework and study for me to do before buying anything, but as I said, I’ll have to re-prioritize remote access. Last time I looked into it, there were about 3 or 4 free solutions, which didn’t work for us more than a year ago, and any number of paid ones, which we didn’t try. When that’s achieved, we will have won much of the battle – any choice of hardware will be a trivial matter after that.
That said, what’s a keyboard case? I mean, I see Google Images of them, but what’s the special application of a keyboard case with a Chromebook, as some have suggested? I figure if we buy anything other than a standard desktop PC with a real keyboard, we’ll attach a real keyboard to the tablet or laptop, but why attach a keyboard case specifically? Does it also function to prop up the tablet?
Quick Assist is another way to take over a computer and help someone. Standard on windows.
There are a lot of things to consider when setting up someone who is elderly. How’s the eyesight? Many also have tremors that don’t work very well for a small screen keyboard. Does it need to be portable?
Also Briny_Deep, you said her internet connection is satellite? I’m also on sat. The latency was horrible. Starlink fixed that right up
The keyboard case would be for use with a tablet. It lets the user type on a physical keyboard instead of having to use the on-screen keyboard. All the “case” part means is that the keyboard is part of the cover for the tablet. You can use a tablet with an external bluetooth keyboard, but now I’m just making things complicated.
Adding a keyboard to a tablet makes it much easier to use the tablet for things like email and posting on message boards—things that involve lots of typing.
Chromebooks are a laptop form factor, so there is no need to use a keyboard case with one.
Instead of creating shortcuts that may get eliminated when systems upgrade, it’s easier to delete or hide what they don’t need in a separate folder buried deep away. Show them how to get to the applications they need to use and how to type in web site addresses. Unless they are experiencing dementia and/or memory loss, people can pretty much learn how to operate basic programs and get from point A to point B.
If it’s your parents, then I’d recommend that you get a power of attorney (POA) set up so that you can represent them with their financial institutions, state & local governments, etc. if something were to go bad.
My mom is 98. She started making noises about “going back to work” a few years ago and wanted to know what kind of laptop would be good to learn on so as to be ready for the new office environment.
I got her a big iPad and promised to get her a laptop once she got familiar with the iPad. She uses the iPad but has stopped talking about going back to work, so laptops haven’t come up. She knows how to browse, get on social media, and use email.
I got her an iPad for two reasons (even though I am not an Apple fan at all, I prefer the free range of Windows/Android for my devices).
The learning curve is short(er). Apple IOS is more intuitive for people with little to no background in how computers work and how that impacts what you see on the screen and what you should be able to do.
The hardware is more intuitive. When someone without any background is asked to point to their computer, they point at the screen. With laptops and desktops, this is wrong. With pads, it’s right. The touch screen is also more direct than relating movements of a mouse to what is happening on the screen.
I agree that if she uses an iphone, an iPad could be a good idea.
And, I strongly recommend getting a name brand android tablet if going that route, not a generic or no-name brand. And not an Amazon Fire.
But I don’t agree that you have to pay anywhere close to as much for a good android tablet as for an iPad. My kids have 11" Lenovo tablets that are 2 & 3 years old, which work great. They are not at all slow, and were around $250 new. I sometimes use one of them, and it’s perfectly cromulent.
I would suggest getting as much RAM and storage capacity as you can for the price you’re willing to pay. Other than the mistake of getting Fire tablets several years ago, we have not had any issues with speed of processing.
The cheapest ipads are regular price $329, but often go on sale for closer to $300, and refurbished ones are even cheaper. That’s all I meant, that yeah, a good tablet is in the $250 range and up. There are sub-$100 tablets, but unless you really know what you’re doing, and they are fit for purpose, they are just a recipe for frustration.
The cheapest tablet is to give your relative your own old one, and get yourself a nice upgrade.
I definitely agree to get as much RAM, storage, and processing as fits in the budget. Being responsive and smooth will make a huge difference in how willing somebody is to use a computing device.
