Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with technophobe

Help me force my mom into 2003!

Madamina — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:51:20 -0800

Giftfilter: My contrarian technophobe mother has indicated that she "might like to experiment with an iPod." Which one should we get her, and how can we make this as easy as possible? My mom is a terrible, terrible technophobe, though I am convinced that half of it is simply her need to be a special snowflake. Refuses to get a microwave (even though she subsists almost entirely on leftovers and tea), refuses to get a cell phone (but will gladly commandeer that of a complete stranger if she feels like it). My patience with her techno-whining ran out around the time my 94-year-old great-aunt got on Facebook.

However, she is intrigued by the ability to take an iPod from room to room and dock it in speakers. She's also been downloading podcasts individually. She is very close to her next-door neighbors, who are more or less my age, and likes how they've used theirs this way. So between them, me and my dad with our iPhones, she could have someone show her how to do things.

I have a 30 GB iPod Classic that is about six years old. I don't use it myself, and she's welcome to it. However, I think that an iPod Touch might be a little easier for her to figure out. Also, a new one would have the most current warranty/help specs available.

We plan to open it before Christmas and prefill it with all of her music. (She has a PC that is entirely her own, so we plan to sneak in there and put the stuff on her iTunes before giving it to her.) I realize she can go in there and switch stuff in and out, but she is so hand-flaily that I'd prefer to do that as little as possible, so we'll probably try to get a 16 or 32 GB model. The Gmail solution, if you will: just have enough space on there that you never have to deal with it.

An iPhone would, of course, be most appropriate, but she would be frightened by it (seriously, she would put on a big show) and she would absolutely refuse to pay 70 bucks a month. Which is unfortunate, because she would LOVE the ability to take pictures of random stuff with the camera.

So I have two related questions:

1. People keep telling me that the iPod Touch would be way more scary to a technophobe than an iPod Classic, and I remain unconvinced (mainly because of the source). To me, it seems like the visual interface would be easier, especially if she's seen me and my dad use our iPhones. When she was telling me how she wanted to do this, she seemed like she was confused by the whole finger-twirly scroll action on an old iPod. Which would be better?

2. Are the second generation ones just as good as the third generation ones? It looks like the big thing she'd miss out on if she got a second-gen one would be voice controls/voice memos, and I highly doubt she'd use those. Apps wouldn't interest her, although she might use maps and the notepad... that sort of thing.

Anyone else with advice for introducing their parents to iPods, or similar, be my guest. Thanks!

Cell phones for luddites

MeetMegan — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:12:32 -0800

Please help me find pre-paid cell phones for my aunts. After much consideration and discussion, my aunts (all in their 70's) have agreed to allow me to buy them pre-paid cell phones for Christmas. There's one MAJOR catch - My aunts are very much techno-phobes.

To give you examples of the extents of their techno-phobia, of the three: none have cable TV, one has a remote-controlled TV, one has been online, one owns a car, none own cordless phones, none have answering machines, one still owns and uses a BetaMax, none have standard VCRs, let alone DVD players. The two who have not been online actively fear the internet, despite my best efforts to encourage them to explore the web.

Needless to say, I need a completely intuitive, feature-light cell phone for each of them. The easier it is to dial a number, the better. I anticipate that each of them will use the phone on a limited basis; they all have land-lines in their homes that they will use for regular conversations. It's my hope that they'll bring these phones along when they leave the house, in case of emergency or for quick questions. They all live on the south side of Chicago, and they walk most everywhere - grocery store, doctor visits, hairdresser, etc.

They are all very proud, and it means a lot for them to accept this gift from me. I want to make this as easy for them as possible, so they actually use the gift. My brother and I will be around on Christmas Day to teach them how to use it, but then he returns to Ohio, and I return to my house about 25 miles away. Despite the fact that I live relatively close, I only see them about six times a year, so I'd like to be able to teach them everything in a few hours on Christmas Day.

So, my question is two-fold:

1) I need recommendations for a good pre-paid cell phone PLAN in Chicago.
2) I need recommendations for a feature-light, easy-to-use (and easy-to-learn) cell PHONE to purchase along with the cell phone plan.

Any assistance is very, very appreciated. Thank you all!

Simpler the better

gregvr — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:47:39 -0800

Help me find the simplest digital camera available! Here's the issue. My mother-in-law loves the concept of a digital camera-- being able to see the picture immediately, delete bad ones, view on a computer easily, take to Walmart to print out, etc.

The problem is that she hates her current camera. It is the older model of this Olympus.

The reason she hates it is because she feels that it is too hard to use. When I look at it, I think, "WTF? You point and shoot."

But as I watched her struggle with it, I realized what bothers her about it-- too many choices.

1. The zoom bothers her-- EVEN THE PRESENCE OF IT. "Where should I set the zoom to take the best picture?" I say, "Huh? Wherever you want!". Ideally, her perfect camera would _NOT_ have optical zoom.

2. She would rather have only a viewfinder, not viewfinder and/or LCD. If this was easily settable so that the LCD was not on while taking a pic, that would be okay.

3. The auto-focus lag drives her INSANE. __HONESTLY__, something that is fixed focus a-la disposables would be fine.

4. Rechargable batteries are her nemesis, because she never remembers to pack the charger.

5. As few features as possible. Seriously. Ideally it would have:
a) On/off switch
b) Shutter release
c) A switch to go between taking pictures and reviewing

And that's _IT_.

Am I insane?