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Grandparents upgrading to iPhones (first smartphones)

Z

zachnelson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
753
0
So.. my grandparents ~50/60 years old are finally making the move to smartphones, specifically both of them are getting the iPhone 4S. They are both working professional jobs, and use computers regularly so technology is not new to them. That being said they are upgrading from circa 2002 flip phones. :cool:

I want to give them a basic run down of the following things myself:
  • How to sync/charge your iPhone
  • How to operate the App and iTunes stores
  • How to monitor data usage
  • How to use pre-installed Apps (messages, contacts, maps etc.)
  • Introduction to iCloud and associated services
  • Get their email and other related things setup and configured

However after that I'm at a loss. I'm particularly tech savvy, and am good at explaining things; however, I am not available 24/7 for all their questions, and not sure what to do about that.

My initial idea is to take a weekend day, or half a weekend day and be there as a guide for them in person. Activate the phones and then go to their house to set them up etc. Then after completing my checklist above, let them just experiment and toss questions at me as they explore.

Barring that, are there smartphone classes aimed at seniors or smartphone newbies in general at Verizon or the Apple Stores?

Any other helpful information/ideas/comments are welcome, thank you!
 
I did this recently with my grandpa who turned 80 this year. He calls me with his problems, but it's manageable. He's a smart guy so he will try to find solutions on his own which is usually possible since the UI is so easy to navigate. There are also some great iPhone guides out there that you could recommend to them, maybe even in print form, they'd appreciate that :D
 
deannnnn said:
I did this recently with my grandpa who turned 80 this year. He calls me with his problems, but it's manageable. He's a smart guy so he will try to find solutions on his own which is usually possible since the UI is so easy to navigate. There are also some great iPhone guides out there that you could recommend to them, maybe even in print form, they'd appreciate that :D
Click to expand...

Any guides you'd specifically recommend?
 
Tell them to create a MacRumors account, we'll help them out.

All joking aside, I imagine that they'll be fine. From what you've told us it seems like they are the type of people that won't just get frustrated when something doesn't work as expected. Those are the kinds of people that are usually patient about waiting for fixes on these kinds of things.
 
You need to extract yourself from some of this. You will be on call constantly for things they would normally figure out anyways.

There are tons of online guides, videos, books, even apps.


Hopefully you have alerted them to higher costs with new data plans.
 
nostresshere said:
You need to extract yourself from some of this. You will be on call constantly for things they would normally figure out anyways.

There are tons of online guides, videos, books, even apps.


Hopefully you have alerted them to higher costs with new data plans.
Click to expand...

Some people care and don't mind helping
 
I thinking about getting my grandparent an iPhone. I've already set up a user account on my Mac. My family will probably give them an Apple gift card so that they won't have to enter their cc. Any thing else should I do.
 
I wouldn't mind learning the data usage part me self. Currently embroiled in terrible problem with vz. These crazy people claim I'm using 30 gb data per month and I'm going to have to end tethering and give up Internet except at bookstores, public places.

Is it possible that connecting thru Bluetooth plus wifi is doubling data charges?
 
rajpatel said:
I wouldn't mind learning the data usage part me self. Currently embroiled in terrible problem with vz. These crazy people claim I'm using 30 gb data per month and I'm going to have to end tethering and give up Internet except at bookstores, public places.

Is it possible that connecting thru Bluetooth plus wifi is doubling data charges?
Click to expand...

What are you doing to invoke their ire? You obviously are doing something? What phone do you have? Unlimited data?
 
zachnelson said:
Any other helpful information/ideas/comments are welcome, thank you!
Click to expand...

Be sure to point out the hidden features that can confuse people.

Like when they accidentally hold their finger on an icon too long, and everything starts to jiggle :)

Or accidentally using three fingers and turning on enhanced handicap mode or whatever that thing is. (Magnification?)

TM WAZZA said:
Shouldn't be too hard

It's far more user friendly than say, Android
Click to expand...

I like Big Launcher on Android devices for non-techie seniors, or those with bad eyes.

You can set up and lock the apps on the homescreen, so they can't mess them up... plus it has big icons and large text for SMS and email, etc.

big_launcher.png
 
No, their overage charges will make me voluntarily stop tethering.

Overage last month ......$200

Overage this month....haven't gotten it but potentially catastrophic and if it's over 100 I am straight stopping the tethering. These bills are insane. For ten yrs they were fifty bucks a month give or take a few bucks. This will be the last month of this insanity. And all I do on Internet is read the news. I don't even watch tv or movies cuz I don't like sound from electronics. I watched enuf tv in 1990s to last me thru life.

----------

What really makes me hate myself for now and probably two months is that these stupid overage charges ate up all the $320 dollars exactly from selling my 4. These essentially means my iPhone 5 ate my 4. And that makes me really mad and pissed at my poor judgement because my cousin visited me a few months ago with his wife and two sweet kids, and he told me then that getting an iPhone, if I were to, would launch me right back on my Internet addiction and that it would be expensive and that he and his friends average hundred dollar monthly bills. But I let my greed and lust for the iPhone 5 get the better of me, when really it's just a great phone, music player, and camera. But I guess that's a lot.
 
rajpatel said:
I wouldn't mind learning the data usage part me self. Currently embroiled in terrible problem with vz. These crazy people claim I'm using 30 gb data per month and I'm going to have to end tethering and give up Internet except at bookstores, public places.

Is it possible that connecting thru Bluetooth plus wifi is doubling data charges?
Click to expand...

What plan are you on? Are you sharing data with anyone else?

It sounds like you might be on a Share Everything plan where the overage charge on data is $15 per GB. You can pay less than that by keeping track of your usage throughout the month and preemptively adding data before you go over.

If you are on a Share Everything plan, you only have two choices: cool it on the tethering or continue to pay for the amount of data that's being used. I have seen no evidence as far as my account is concerned that Verizon is fudging the data usage numbers in their favor. If they were doing such things, there would be widespread outrage and we'd definitely be hearing about it.

The reality is that times have changed over the past decade. Ten years ago, minutes and texts were metered and data was unlimited because speeds were slow and who wanted to surf the web on a flip phone or Palm Treo anyway? Now, minutes and texts are unlimited and as phones have larger screens and more capabilities and cellular data speeds now match or surpass the speeds of home broadband, we now have metered data. It's just the way it is.

If you think Verizon's calculations of your data usage are off, you can probably ask them to provide detail of your data usage to corroborate how much they're charging you each month.
 
I share data with my brother and he's had overages for a long time, sometimes a hundred bucks or more, but that is his issue. The last two months since I got my iPhone 5 I have gotten big overages. Depending what this months is, I will end tethering. But what annoys me about stupid verizon wireless is, they just started, a month ago, giving us one summary with no delineation between me and my brothers usage. Unlike oh, I don't know, the last eons of years. Ever since I can remember and I recall signing up with them online more than a decade ago when they had a huge promo and deals were better than now.

So them mixing it up, makes it worse. I will talk to them but unless they credit me hundreds, I am ending tethering and just as well, I see little to gain from incessant use of internet

See I don't have home Internet. Was using tethering at home but I still don't think it's what they say , but if it is, they better let me end tethering . That wasn't part of the deal when I re signed with vz in sept. I only got the tethering in nov
 
avanpelt said:
What plan are you on? Are you sharing data with anyone else?

It sounds like you might be on a Share Everything plan where the overage charge on data is $15 per GB. You can pay less than that by keeping track of your usage throughout the month and preemptively adding data before you go over.

If you are on a Share Everything plan, you only have two choices: cool it on the tethering or continue to pay for the amount of data that's being used. I have seen no evidence as far as my account is concerned that Verizon is fudging the data usage numbers in their favor. If they were doing such things, there would be widespread outrage and we'd definitely be hearing about it.

The reality is that times have changed over the past decade. Ten years ago, minutes and texts were metered and data was unlimited because speeds were slow and who wanted to surf the web on a flip phone or Palm Treo anyway? Now, minutes and texts are unlimited and as phones have larger screens and more capabilities and cellular data speeds now match or surpass the speeds of home broadband, we now have metered data. It's just the way it is.

If you think Verizon's calculations of your data usage are off, you can probably ask them to provide detail of your data usage to corroborate how much they're charging you each month.
Click to expand...

Myverizon, has a detailed listing of all data usage.
 
rajpatel said:
See I don't have home Internet. Was using tethering at home but I still don't think it's what they say , but if it is, they better let me end tethering . That wasn't part of the deal when I re signed with vz in sept. I only got the tethering in nov
Click to expand...

Verizon has usage monitoring tools
http://m-support.verizonwireless.com/support/information/usage_tools.html
I don't have Verizon, but its highly unlikely that they don't let you see your data usage per phone line. They keep track of all that stuff.
If you are tethering and using it for your home internet, it is very likely that you are using that much data. There are plenty of apps on the app store that will let you monitor you data usage.
 
zachnelson said:
So.. my grandparents ~50/60 years old are finally making the move to smartphones, specifically both of them are getting the iPhone 4S. They are both working professional jobs, and use computers regularly so technology is not new to them. That being said they are upgrading from circa 2002 flip phones. :cool:

I want to give them a basic run down of the following things myself:
  • How to sync/charge your iPhone
  • How to operate the App and iTunes stores
  • How to monitor data usage
  • How to use pre-installed Apps (messages, contacts, maps etc.)
  • Introduction to iCloud and associated services
  • Get their email and other related things setup and configured

However after that I'm at a loss. I'm particularly tech savvy, and am good at explaining things; however, I am not available 24/7 for all their questions, and not sure what to do about that.

My initial idea is to take a weekend day, or half a weekend day and be there as a guide for them in person. Activate the phones and then go to their house to set them up etc. Then after completing my checklist above, let them just experiment and toss questions at me as they explore.

Barring that, are there smartphone classes aimed at seniors or smartphone newbies in general at Verizon or the Apple Stores?

Any other helpful information/ideas/comments are welcome, thank you!
Click to expand...

A somewhat condescending yoof, I thought. Thankfully a few more enlightened souls chimed in.

TM WAZZA said:
Shouldn't be too hard

It's far more user friendly than say, Android

Goodluck
Click to expand...

zachnelson said:
Precisely the reason they've chosen iPhone. My grandmother did some research herself and came to that conclusion logically.
Click to expand...

deannnnn said:
I did this recently with my grandpa who turned 80 this year. He calls me with his problems, but it's manageable. He's a smart guy so he will try to find solutions on his own which is usually possible since the UI is so easy to navigate. There are also some great iPhone guides out there that you could recommend to them, maybe even in print form, they'd appreciate that :D
Click to expand...

But of course I am just an old codger, who recently acquired his fourth blue Nokia with a monochrome screen since 1992…….. which I seldom carry. I only got it because my apartment doesn't have a phone line. Somehow I manage to muddle my way through life and get places on time without so much as a wristwatch.

Still, like most people my age, I could probably work out how to use something smarter if need be.

Why is it that so many of my tech savvy and gadget carrying students often turn up late?
 
Last edited:
rajpatel said:
I share data with my brother and he's had overages for a long time, sometimes a hundred bucks or more, but that is his issue. The last two months since I got my iPhone 5 I have gotten big overages. Depending what this months is, I will end tethering. But what annoys me about stupid verizon wireless is, they just started, a month ago, giving us one summary with no delineation between me and my brothers usage. Unlike oh, I don't know, the last eons of years. Ever since I can remember and I recall signing up with them online more than a decade ago when they had a huge promo and deals were better than now.

So them mixing it up, makes it worse. I will talk to them but unless they credit me hundreds, I am ending tethering and just as well, I see little to gain from incessant use of internet

See I don't have home Internet. Was using tethering at home but I still don't think it's what they say , but if it is, they better let me end tethering . That wasn't part of the deal when I re signed with vz in sept. I only got the tethering in nov
Click to expand...

As another poster said, you can login to your Verizon account on their website and see a detailed breakdown of data usage per line by the minute. I doubt that Verizon is overcharging you.

If you just got a Verizon plan with tethering last month, you're on a Share Everything plan and you no longer have unlimited data. The grandfathered unlimited data plans do not allow tethering but the Share Everything plans do allow tethering. However, the data portion of the Share Everything plans is metered. That means the more data you use, the higher your bill will be.

You'd be much wiser to purchase a mid-tier
broadband package from your local cable company and pick up a wireless router on Amazon. That will be much less expensive than continuing to use Verizon tethering as your home internet connection.

Also, as far as I know, once you switch away from the legacy unlimited data plan, it is next to impossible to get it re-instated on your account. The Verizon rep should have informed you that once you added tethering to your account, you were going to lose your unlimited data.

Finally, if you share data with your brother and he has overages, it is your issue as well since you're sharing the same pool of data.
 
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Unless there's a particular reason they are going for the 4S except for the fact that it's $0 on contract, they should get the 5C from Best Buy because it's also $0 with whatever sale they have going on right now.
 
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