Brainpick (UK)
My mother currently has a secondhand desktop PC and uses dial-up to access her Yahoo mail. She basically word processes, with occasional use of Excel to do the Christmas card and holiday postcard address labels. My dad still does the odd bit of accounting, but would run a mile from spreadsheets. We're basically talking letters of complaint to M&S about their £10 deal and maybe booking a theatre ticket or so. Virus software is slow to update at the 56 kbs rate.
I suspect they would be better off with a laptop at the £350 mark, maybe some kind of Acer, but a full size keyboard is likely needed.
I can't see them streaming video, so some bottom of the range Broadband would do - they are paying a couple of pence a minute for the 0845 number, and are rarely only at the moment, but clearly as billing is increasingly electronic, a move to something more may be sensible.
How widely available is something like BTOpenzone? Can you use it to piggy back off a neighbour's BT Broadband? Or is this only cafes etc? They are with BT for their landline. They are in NE25 if that makes a difference.
What would you recommend for a silver surfer who is terrified of these things - hardware and Broadband?
I suspect they would be better off with a laptop at the £350 mark, maybe some kind of Acer, but a full size keyboard is likely needed.
I can't see them streaming video, so some bottom of the range Broadband would do - they are paying a couple of pence a minute for the 0845 number, and are rarely only at the moment, but clearly as billing is increasingly electronic, a move to something more may be sensible.
How widely available is something like BTOpenzone? Can you use it to piggy back off a neighbour's BT Broadband? Or is this only cafes etc? They are with BT for their landline. They are in NE25 if that makes a difference.
What would you recommend for a silver surfer who is terrified of these things - hardware and Broadband?