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iPad for mother?

brando123b

brando123b

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 22, 2010
182
41
My mom currently has a two year old Dell desktop. It's already gotten to the point where it takes forever to start, freezes up and is generally unresponsive. She uses it for e-mail, browsing, shopping and watching the occasional movie/video.

She was ready to buy a new Dell, and go down the same "Buy PC, wait 2 years, buy new PC, rinse, repeat..." but I thought maybe an iPad would suit her?

She's in her 50's and I thought the simplicity and elegance of the iPad would be a great fit. She has never had an Apple product but I think it would be a simple OS for her to learn. She does type out some e-mails, we could get her a hardware keyboard if that was a problem.

Think it is a good option or is using an iPad as your only "PC" not sufficient?
 
Depends on what she does with her PC
You might want to find out all the things she truly does

Email, web surfing, etc. will be fine, and the iPad will be enough for many folks
 
She really doesn't do much more than that. She asked if a Macbook would be a better option and I honestly think the touch interface of the iPad could be an easier more inviting experience.

How good/bad is the typing experience on the iPad using the onscreen keyboard?
 
I don't have any problems with the touchscreen keyboard, but I wouldn't want to type anything more than emails with it. It is a different experience and takes a little getting used to, but that period isn't long.
 
My sister and I bought a 3G iPad for our mother on Mothers day and it has been the best technology gift we have given. It's simple interface has been a god send making email, web surfing and of course picture viewing simple enough for her to use it daily. She not regularly responds to email and even used it to send pictures from her vacation while on the road. *

Something that I hardly see regarding people with PC issues. When was the last time the system was rebuilt? As much as people think they should not have to ever reinstall Windows on a system you will be amazed at how much more life a PC can have. I would suggest an iPad for an alternate solution but also suggest rebuilding that PC as she will still need a system to sync and or update her new iPad.
 
I'm trying to persuade my parents to go the ipad route as well. They travel frequently and have a dell laptop just to check email, surf the net and, oddly enough, check the local obituaries. ;) Sad. True.

The learning curve is so natural on an ipad that I'm certain it would be a good fit that would fit their basic needs.
 
brando123b said:
My mom currently has a two year old Dell desktop. It's already gotten to the point where it takes forever to start, freezes up and is generally unresponsive.
Click to expand...

And to think, I bawled out my 13 year old son, for suggesting that his 2 1/2 year old Dell desktop is "a pile of *****"!!!

I've already proclaimed within the family that I'll never buy another windows computer - but I did think my son was being overly neurotic about his PC...perhaps not?

Perhaps I 'need' to explain to my wife that our son would be much better off with our 3 year old iMac, and that I should replace with the latest model???

Wish me luck... :rolleyes:
 
My 58 yr old mother has a wifi 16gb iPad and LOVES it. She barely touches her computer anymore, if ever.

The only hump I'm going to have to get over is explaining why the orientation lock is now a mute button. Ugh. and how it's not really a mute button either.

She likes her iPad so much she bought herself an iPhone 4 so she can FaceTime with us to see her grandson.

Suggest buying one for her or let her play with yours - that's how I got my mom addicted.
 
go for it

I got my Mom -- in her 70s -- an ipad and she tossed aside her pc laptop, rarely touched it after getting the ipad for easy mail handling, web browsing, shopping, photos etc. It was a game changer for her.
 
This is exactly what I did for my mother. She had a Mac Mini she never used because it was to "complicated". I got her an iPad and now she is emailing, browsing the web, shopping on line, and using Facebook. She brings it everywhere she goes and she loves it.
 
these are great stories on Moms and iPads ... I have been telling my Mom the same ...all I get is ... I dont know, I am too old to learn a new computer system.

She loves her iPhone, and I still can't get her to jump to an iPad. :cool:
 
brando123b said:
My mom currently has a two year old Dell desktop. It's already gotten to the point where it takes forever to start, freezes up and is generally unresponsive. She uses it for e-mail, browsing, shopping and watching the occasional movie/video.

She was ready to buy a new Dell, and go down the same "Buy PC, wait 2 years, buy new PC, rinse, repeat..." but I thought maybe an iPad would suit her?

She's in her 50's and I thought the simplicity and elegance of the iPad would be a great fit. She has never had an Apple product but I think it would be a simple OS for her to learn. She does type out some e-mails, we could get her a hardware keyboard if that was a problem.

Think it is a good option or is using an iPad as your only "PC" not sufficient?
Click to expand...

hmm. your name wouldn't happen to be josh would it?
 
Apple OC said:
these are great stories on Moms and iPads ... I have been telling my Mom the same ...all I get is ... I dont know, I am too old to learn a new computer system.

She loves her iPhone, and I still can't get her to jump to an iPad. :cool:
Click to expand...

You did tell her it's just a big iPhone, right? :D
 
brando123b said:
My mom currently has a two year old Dell desktop. It's already gotten to the point where it takes forever to start, freezes up and is generally unresponsive. She uses it for e-mail, browsing, shopping and watching the occasional movie/video.

She was ready to buy a new Dell, and go down the same "Buy PC, wait 2 years, buy new PC, rinse, repeat..." but I thought maybe an iPad would suit her?

She's in her 50's and I thought the simplicity and elegance of the iPad would be a great fit. She has never had an Apple product but I think it would be a simple OS for her to learn. She does type out some e-mails, we could get her a hardware keyboard if that was a problem.

Think it is a good option or is using an iPad as your only "PC" not sufficient?
Click to expand...

My mom loves it, got it for her on day 1 of iPad release. She never touches her PC anymore.
 
I bought a 16gb Wifi iPad for my mom and sis for Xmas. I didn't do such a good job at hiding them and my mom found them in my room. When I got home, she asked me who those 2 iPads were for. I told her that one was for my sis and the other one was for her, but PLEASE act shocked when you unwrap it xmas morning lol..In a nice way she said "No thanks, I hardly have time to use my personal laptop when I come home so I wont have time for an iPad. So if you don't mind, get your money back and get me a purse"

She always sees me using mine but never asks me to let her use it. This morning I told her that I was taking it back to the store to get my money back (something I didn't do, I just wanted to see what she was going to say) I am still thinking of giving it to her for Xmas. I would really want her to have an iPad for xmas. What is everyones thoughts? Should I take it back just like she told me to do? OR... should I wait to see her reaction when she unwraps it?
 
jull said:
I bought a 16gb Wifi iPad for my mom and sis for Xmas. I didn't do such a good job at hiding them and my mom found them in my room. When I got home, she asked me who those 2 iPads were for. I told her that one was for my sis and the other one was for her, but PLEASE act shocked when you unwrap it xmas morning lol..In a nice way she said "No thanks, I hardly have time to use my personal laptop when I come home so I wont have time for an iPad. So if you don't mind, get your money back and get me a purse"

She always sees me using mine but never asks me to let her use it. This morning I told her that I was taking it back to the store to get my money back (something I didn't do, I just wanted to see what she was going to say) I am still thinking of giving it to her for Xmas. I would really want her to have an iPad for xmas. What is everyones thoughts? Should I take it back just like she told me to do? OR... should I wait to see her reaction when she unwraps it?
Click to expand...

I would give it to her anyway. As the giver, it is your prerogative to give what you want to give. I can understand her not wanting you to spend so much money tho. She's probably curious about it, but doesn't want you to spend the bucks. Just be firm in your mind that you want to give it, and don't have expectations and make demands that she use it... it may take months for her to start playing with it gradually, but I'm sure she eventually will, and she will love it!
 
I'm in the same boat here. My mom needs a new computer desperately. She's still using my old 400MHz Titanium PowerBook from 2000, and it's on it's last legs. Yet she insists that it's good enough for what she needs. So I'm pretty much in the situation of deciding between giving her a sub-$1k PC (I'm saving for a wedding, so the white MacBook is beyond my budget at the moment) or getting her an iPad. I've got one and love it, as does my fiance.

I know it would suit all of her needs, but I'm concerned that she doesn't really have a suitable laptop to sync the iPad with. She also lives in Colorado, while I live in Texas, so it's not like I can just stop by one weekend if she's having problems or needs an update. On the other hand, getting content onto the iPad isn't an issue since she essentially has none. She doesn't use iTunes at all at the moment. Has anyone given an iPad as a gift to someone as their ONLY computing device (i.e. they don't even have an older laptop to fall back on)? If so, what has your/their experience been like?
 
jull said:
I bought a 16gb Wifi iPad for my mom and sis for Xmas. I didn't do such a good job at hiding them and my mom found them in my room. When I got home, she asked me who those 2 iPads were for. I told her that one was for my sis and the other one was for her, but PLEASE act shocked when you unwrap it xmas morning lol..In a nice way she said "No thanks, I hardly have time to use my personal laptop when I come home so I wont have time for an iPad. So if you don't mind, get your money back and get me a purse"

She always sees me using mine but never asks me to let her use it. This morning I told her that I was taking it back to the store to get my money back (something I didn't do, I just wanted to see what she was going to say) I am still thinking of giving it to her for Xmas. I would really want her to have an iPad for xmas. What is everyones thoughts? Should I take it back just like she told me to do? OR... should I wait to see her reaction when she unwraps it?
Click to expand...

It's your mom and it's a gift that being said. If she has a laptop and doesn't use it, see's your iPad and hasn't asked once to try it then she may not be interested in it. I rather have something cheaper that I'll use than something expensive that will just collect dust.

Have you tried to get her to use yours?
 
parseckadet said:
I'm in the same boat here. My mom needs a new computer desperately. She's still using my old 400MHz Titanium PowerBook from 2000, and it's on it's last legs. Yet she insists that it's good enough for what she needs. So I'm pretty much in the situation of deciding between giving her a sub-$1k PC (I'm saving for a wedding, so the white MacBook is beyond my budget at the moment) or getting her an iPad. I've got one and love it, as does my fiance.

I know it would suit all of her needs, but I'm concerned that she doesn't really have a suitable laptop to sync the iPad with. She also lives in Colorado, while I live in Texas, so it's not like I can just stop by one weekend if she's having problems or needs an update. On the other hand, getting content onto the iPad isn't an issue since she essentially has none. She doesn't use iTunes at all at the moment. Has anyone given an iPad as a gift to someone as their ONLY computing device (i.e. they don't even have an older laptop to fall back on)? If so, what has your/their experience been like?
Click to expand...

I would think she would have to have some type of computer to back up or restore from also to get updates she'll need a computer. If you have an old system around the house that's not being used you may can give her that and the iPad
 
I thought about an Ipad for my elderly dad but after hearing rumors of facetime for the Ipad2 decided I would just have to wait. That would be such a huge feature with the grand kids and probably very easy for him to use.
 
Our experience...

My mother in law is 87 now, and has been using an iPad since they came out. It works great for her. She had basically zero technical background (never used a computer or mouse... had webTV previously). It took a few lengthy phone calls, but she's really gotten the hang of it (some concepts are still hard to explain - like tabbed browsing... and how "contacts" are in the Contacts, but they're also in e-mail...). She's even gotten to using various apps... but mostly it's e-mail and the web.

She has the keyboard dock, and uses that to type mostly. The iPad "lives" there, but she takes it off from time to time...

She has the 16GB WiFi model, and I set up a wireless router... she has a DSL connection. I sync it with my iTunes on my laptop. I go to visit every few weeks... but only sync it every few months.

Best part about this is that there's really no way for her to "get all messed up" with the iPad. If she gets stuck, just hit the home button and start over. Still she did manage to get into a couple sticky situations. For example, she somehow navigated into her "Trash" e-mail folder instead of the "inbox", and had a hard time figuring out what was going on. But, that was a minor issue.

One interesting result is that I think the iPad has empowered her in a way. She went from not knowing anything about technology to having a state-of-the-art gizmo that everyone wants to see. Now, she's the knowledgeable one, and is able to show it to other people, and explain it to them... so she gets to play the role as "the expert". It's nice to see that...
 
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