My father, though incredibly active both mentally and physically for his age (jogs 3 miles everyday and is currently trying to learn a fifth or sixth language), is absolute crap when it comes to electronic gadgets. He loves getting new expensive ones that he has no idea how to use, so he will bug me and my brother to show him how to use them, only to either completely forget what we told him or completely forget he owns the thing a week later. However, he is still my father, so I will humor him.
So, Dopers, as I said more politely above, my dad is old and terrible with electronics. But he has these sort of “Learn Spanish Now!” lessons (in .m4a audio format) that he wants to be able to listen to on the run (literally). I have shown him the new iPod Shuffle (and my old iPod Shuffle) and my brother’s iPod Nano.
The interfaces on iPods (particularly the new Shuffle) and Zunes are too opaque for my dad to navigate. (“Click the middle button three times to go back a track!”)
The major of their products are far too large (capacity wise) for our purpose. (All of the Spanish lessons together are 1.5GB. He also has a collection of Chinese music from his youth which will bring the sum total to a whopping 2.5GB. Great.)
The screen on the iPod Nano is far too small for my dad to read anything on it, while again being far too big (8GB) for our purpose.
As for old school, I’ve known Walkmans to skip too much when just walking with them to recommend the things for jogging/hiking/moving.
SDMB, recommend my dad a portable audio player (that accepts .m4a (ACC) files), that is no larger than 5GB, not too small to read the interface of without reading glasses, and that has an interface that isn’t “Three buttons. +, -, and >. Hold + and click > twice to change playlists”. (Also, isn’t prone to skipping when jostled and is $100 or less. Hoo boy.)
These new Sanyos are both digital voice recorders and mp3 players, and I don’t know how well they fit all your requirements but they are multitaskers. I haven’t found any reviews yet but they look hot to me.
They use memory cards, so you could have a bunch of different ones—language lesson on this card, different music compilations on several cards, etc.—so that he wouldn’t have to nav too much. The higher end 700records in stereo and comes in at a little over $100. For recording in mono, you’re under $100 but remember to adjust for the fact that they don’t come with cards.
Why do you consider “too much capacity” to be a negative? Either there’s enough storage or there isn’t. I doesn’t hurt to have more storage space than you need.
Also I’m not sure what’s so “opaque” about the iPod interface, other than the Shuffle. I agree the Nano’s screen is tiny though. Perhaps the iPod Touch would fit his needs?
I came in to make exactly these two comments. Your father might not use that much capacity now, but maybe he’d get into t he whole thing and start adding other music
The Nano’s screen is small, no arguments about that. The font size can be adjusted up a notch which might be helpful. It’s greater than 100 bucks, however. The Ipod Classic has (I think) a larger screen but is even costlier than the Nano and much larger capacity. The Touch obviously has the largest screen of all but also has a larger capacity and is costlier. Aside from the cost, any of these are options.
You couldn’t pay me to use a Shuffle. I need to see and choose what I’m listening to, thankyouverymuch.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve shown my dad both the Sanyo devices and Playaway audio books, but he was’t too keen about either of them (though he may consider the Playaway after finishing the set of Spanish lessons he already owns).
Over the past week, he’s shown more and more interest in the iPod Nano, and I was actually the only one still opposed to it due to it being far bigger than he needs. (He initially dismissed it due to the aforementioned ridiculous screen size. However, after playing around with the settings on my brother’s Nano, it seems the largest font setting plus the dimmest brightness setting is enough for my dad to be able to read things on it clearly without his glasses. Well, as long as he holds it at sort of a range. Presbyopia is a jerk.)
As for why I’m against him purchasing a device that has too much capacity for his purposes, I don’t know. I suppose I’m just being stubbornly stingy. Purchasing something with nearly quadruple the capacity than he actually needs just seems so… wasteful, somehow.
But you’re right. It doesn’t actually hurt to have more space than necessary. And it’s his money, so he has a right to spend it however he sees fit. I shouldn’t let my personal hang ups get in the way of a decision that is ultimately not mine to make.
FYI, an 8GB memory card costs as little as $16 these days, maybe less. Surely you’re not so stingy that you’d object to buying $12 worth of unnecessary memory?
And I’m sure he’d find other use for the extra memory as well. Video podcasts, for example. I download Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow every day, keep 3 shows of each, and synchronize both to my iPod Nano. That’s about 1.5 GB right there.
I volunteer with older people and they’re healthy so I can tell you outside of eyesight problems when older people say they are no good at something, they just don’t want to try.
I know three ladies over 85 that can knit for hours on end without even paying attention to what they’re doing, yet can’t work a computer mouse? Come on, who are they kidding. Of course have you ever tried to tell an 85 year old woman what to do? It ain’t happening
As long as the dials are big enough to see, and the iPod can be hard to see even if you just need reading glasses, the manual dexterity is just a matter of getting use to him.
Try this get your dad (and yourself) a video game, one that shoots things, and make him play that. If he can do that, he can operate any iPod device.
I got my folks an iPod classic last year and they rarely use it because they can’t figure out how to move their music from iTunes to the iPod.
I have put together playlists and the like, but they just can’t be bothered with learning how to add their music. I will add that they have an older computer that has USB v1, so downloads take forever, but it’s been aggravating.
So, my advice is to get something with plenty of space and add everything your dad may want so he doesn’t have to worry about the iTunes/iPod interface. Although he does sound more interested in the process than my folks.
