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
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Ideally I'd install broadband for them. Plumb the router straight into an Apple Airport Express. Then give them both iPads. (Subtype: wifi only, 16 or 32Gb rather than full-fat 64Gb.) Provide a pair of Keyboard Docks for doing the typing thing at a desk. Configure and provision them from a macbook; drop round monthly to sync them (which also backs them up to the mac).
Core apps would be: Mail and Safari (which come by default), Pages and Numbers for word processing and spreadsheets.
Add one of the HP wireless inkjet printers that understands airprint.
The goal should be: zero wires (except when plugging them in to the docks for typing/charging), minimal user interface cruft, and curated computing (i.e. they can't break anything or be hacked).
I really wish the iPad had been around five or ten years ago. I've got my parents on Macs, but they're elderly, my mum has bad memory problems, and it's too late to switch them to something simpler but different like the iPad.
(Here's another techie's ( ... )
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The problem with the "dropping round" aspect is they are in NE25 and I am in CT19. That's a twelve hour round trip which I do twice a year tops. Maybe an external harddrive for back up?
My dad doesn't need one; I spent the night before my driving test setting up a payroll programme for him and repeatedly telling him we should put 99 as the number of employees rather than the 15 they actually had as you needed to specify the number of employee records you would ever need ever. I'm not sure he ever used it; I suspect my mum had to have a minute. Whilst he bought us a ZX80, I don't recall him ever touching it. (I still wake up in a cold sweat remembering having to talk him through opening up my CV in Word on the phone: "There's a grey-brown thing in front of you with a wire coming out of it; that's called a mouse...")
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The iOS curated computing thing isn't entirely there yet, but Apple are working towards it: I suspect some time in 2011, when they revamp MobileMe and officially launch iWork.com, there'll be some option to do full scale remote backups from idevices. Unfortunately Apple haven't yet come up with a backup option for iOS that's as neat as the Time Capsule is for desktop OSX. Hmm.
The Keyboard Dock is about £60. Not much use as a travel keyboard, but works very nicely on a desk, and the iPad can charge while plugged into it. The Airport Express is around £60 and works fine as a wifi hotspot and firewall/router -- but needs configuring from a Mac or PC (Apple haven't yet released an Airport configuration utility for iOS). You'd still need a broadband connection with cable modem or ADSL modem, but the modem is usually bundled with the connection when you buy one (unless you go really cheap). NB: If they've got a BT line and are close enough to their exchange for ADSL, I'd recommend going ( ... )
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