Email Only Device for Old People

Off Topic
1

Anyone have a good suggestion? My grandmother is 90, but still smart. She is deathly afraid of computers - just refuses to use one. I want her to be able to communicate with us via email - see pics of my kids, etc. Does anyone have a suggestion for a device that is relatively simple that does email? Cisco Mailstation/Mivo is on the way out, so that’s a “no.”

I let her try my wife’s ipad but it didn’t work out so well. Also, she doesn’t have wifi and lives in a rural area where wifi isn’t going to be available much.

So, in short, a non-wifi dependent email machine that is simple enough to be used by a 90 year-old woman afraid of computers.

I’m not optimistic, but if anyone has any suggestion, I would love to hear them.

2

Obviously they are not out yet, but you might look in to the Kindle Fire and/or the new Nook.

3

Web TV maybe? All the frustration of the internet, in the comfort of your TV.

4

she’s 90 but still smart

Post of the year

5

Not for email, but I know that there are now ‘dumb’ phones. Phone calls, and that’s it.

6

You could buy her a digital picture frame and load it up with new pics of the kids every few weeks if you live close enough. Without wi-fi any she won’t get much use out of any sort of tablet or smart phone for e-mail anyways. Call her often, write letters and visit as much as you can. My grandma turned 100 this year, she’s lost most of her marbles but loves to get phone calls from her family. Not that she remembers we called her 5 minutes later, but in the moment, she’s thrilled LOL.

7

Or maybe you can work through this fear. I taught my grandfather (older than 90 when he learned) how to use a laptop so he could listen to music, check e-mail, write me mails, etc.

His memory didn’t let him to memorize all that, so I wrote all the instructions on paper, with very clear commands.

I bet that if you write everything down, with really clear commands, she won’t be so afraid.

8

Check out the Google Chromebooks. It’s just a laptop that only uses Chrome and is fairly easy to use. I know they advertise it as Wi-Fi connected all the time but I think they have landline connectivity as well.

9

what about a 3g ipad ? or a smart phone… I dont think the nooks / kindle work without wifi…

it took a good 2 days and me writting everything down in detail, but my grandmother uses an Ipad like a champ… plus, she loves playing games like chess, checkers and now angry birds on it…

10

How about you buy a photo printer, print up some pics of the kids, then mail them to her the old fashioned way.

11

My father made an email machine for my grandmother. She still refused to use it, even though it was set up to do everything automatically.

We found out later her refusal was based on her belief that she would be inundated with “that parn [porn].”

12

My grandma has a deal called a Presto. Its basically a printer that hooks to the phone. It calls a dial up service every night, downloads her emails and prints them all for her to have in the morning. She loves it. Pretty cheap too.

Edit: Doesn’t send though.