What to get for a 73 year old...

[ezekielrage_99]

You'd have to be particularly unfortunate not to be able to use a computer at 73.
And that photo that someone posted looks more like 90 than 73.

I got my Grandmother an iPad for her 88th birthday, two years on she has upgraded and won't read a newspaper any other way than via the iPad.

Jokes aside, she has all the apps for reading, ebooks, uses Foxtel Go/Play in bed and I often Skype her instead of the phone, she's pretty savvy for a 90 year and I really wouldn't discount any user from this experience if they both want the device and are willing to learn it.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Over the years I have bought my (senior) mother an iPad and a MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air sits neglected in a drawer while the iPad gets used 24/7.
Her usage scenario is practically identical.
Lots and lots and lots of work email. Lots of web browning. Lots of writing.

Just get her an iPad and an AppleTV.

 

[Flynnstone]

My mom is 79. Still uses a white MacBook.
Take to the apple store and look at the MacBooks and iMacs. See what she likes. She'll have to change a bit for mavericks. For my mom a MacBook is a better choice as she carries it around the house. I tend to think an iMac is a good choice, but your moms opinion matters more than mine.

 

[abbottcostello]

Just thought I'd mention Powermax, haven't been on the site for quite a while, but they seemed to have a whole lot of used Macs.

Nobody else mentioned it, but wouldn't cleaning up the desktop (emptying, actually) vastly improve performance? Also, checking her log-in items, etc. I'm sure if you googled "ways to speed up your mac" or similar search, you may be able to find some things to easily do that speed her existing mb up. You could download Onyx & spend a couple of hours doing some maintenance/cleanup with that (Spending time with Mom... PRICELESS!).

Maybe somebody else is better able to tell you how to set up her desktop to stop everything being saved there, seems like I've read about this, I know saving right to desktop is not ideal. I avoid saving anything onto mine, only 3 items on it at the moment, just something I got in the habit of, so I'm not really familiar with how to set it up with easy access to all her stuff while still taking a load off the computers resources.
I'm 63! Jeez, I must be about ready for the scrap heap myself by the sound of some of the replies here, hopefully I can get my new 500Gb EVO installed in my mbp before I go completely senile

 

[KeegM480]

13inch air, cheap, lightweight, enough for an elderly person.

My grandma (65) always complains about how heavy my grandpas laptop is.
She uses the laptop for email, Facebook, and thats it

why spend a bunch of money on an expensive laptop when they would be happy with a cheaper lightweight laptop? Base model 13" air should be just fine!

 

[na1577]

I think the 13" rMBP would be perfect for her and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it yet!

The problem with the 13" Air is that the screen is 1440x900 versus the pixel doubled 1280x800 on the 13" rMBP. The Air has more screen real estate, but this means the interface elements will be smaller than her current MacBook. With the rMBP, she gets a sharper display and more scaling options if her vision becomes more of a problem later on.

You can get 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD at $1499 which is right at the bottom of your price range, and only $100 more than a comparable Air. It also has an HDMI port which makes it easier to connect to the TV for Netflix streaming, which the Air doesn't have. It's slightly heavier and thicker, but not as much as the 15" rMBP.

 

[davidg4781]

How much storage does she need (hopefully I didn't miss this)? I'm going to have to go with a MBP. 500GB. It's $100 more than the MBA but you get a lot more storage. It's also expandable if you want to pop in a 1TB HDD later on down the road.

I was thinking a Mac min, external 22" display, and keyboard and Magic Trackpad but I started thinking portability might be needed later on like if she's staying at the boyfriend's house or something. She could also keep her MB and use that as a portable though. The mini would be a lot less expensive, depending on how nice of a display you want.

Are the storage needs huge? I have a 750GB with some pretty big music, photo, and video folders and I'm only using 300GB. I'm not sure how you get her to stop using the desktop, maybe move everything, restart it, and show her the better performance? You can also put all her data in her Documents folder but put an Alias on the desktop.