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Ask Slashdot: Easy Wi-Fi-Enabled Tablet For My Dad?

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-only-the-weather-channel-made-a-tablet dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I'm looking to pick up a tablet for my father. He is in his 70s and the internet is a bit of a mystery to him, but he asked me about a way to send/receive email and watch online videos. He is not interested in getting a smartphone or changing his cheap phone plan that doesn't include data. But he is interested in getting a tablet and using the free Wi-Fi that is available in his building. Here is my question: can you recommend a tablet equivalent to those phones with the big numbers that they sell to older people? Does there exist a tablet with an interface that would be simple and easy to use for someone who has very little experience with computer GUIs?"

6 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Old dogs & new tricks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If he "has very little experience with computer GUIs", why force one upon him?

    Why not instead give him something that he can control in a manner that's at least vaguely reminiscent of the way he would have used computers when he was working?

    My suggestion -- a cheap, used laptop (say, 3 to 5 years old max.) with a decent wifi card in it, running your GNU/Linux distro of choice, with mutt for mail and mplayer with svgalib for the videos.

    With a few carefully chosen aliases added to his .profile, it shouldn't be hard at all to make bash feel "just like" CP/M, DCL, JCL, DOS or whatever he used to use at work, so the only "new" things to adjust to would be mutt & mplayer. Once he's comfortable with that, you can introduce to what's under the hood and gradually remove the "training wheels"...

  2. "online videos" by cerberusss · · Score: 5, Funny

    He is in his 70s and the internet is a bit of a mystery to him, but he asked me about a way to send/receive email and watch online videos

    Ah yes, he wants to watch "online videos". Really, the old goat will be browsing 4chan and redtube when he hears you closing the front door behind your ass.

    --
    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  3. I was wondering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    can someone please recommend the one true religion, for my elderly father? I'm currently torn between Islam and Christianity, but we've heard of problems with both.

    So I thought I'd come on the web and ask a forum to conclusively answer, once and for all,

  4. Re: iPad by WilyCoder · · Score: 4, Funny

    "a half hour in the car is pushing for my mother."

    Well why don't you get their car fixed before you buy them a tablet. Your poor mother...

  5. Re:iPad by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    My brother has since passed away and I updated his iPad to a 3rd gen model and got a matching model so I could help him out over the phone

    There's a ouija board app?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Re: iPad by mhotchin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here, let me explain the GP's post....
    http://i.imgur.com/axJmn.gif