Apple, IBM To Bring iPads To 5 Million Elderly Japanese

itwbennett writes: An initiative between Apple, IBM and Japan Post Holdings could put iPads in the hands of up to 5 million members of Japan's elderly population. The iPads, which will run custom apps from IBM, will supplement Japan Post's Watch Over service where, for a monthly fee, postal employees check on elderly residents and relay information on their well-being to family members.

Comments

Oh Dear...

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds just like the LA school district iPad program.

Re:Oh Dear...

[gstoddart]

LOL, but it's two vendors ... IBM and Apple, right there in the headline ... so it's twice as good!

Nice to see

[Anonymous Coward]

NIce to see Apple and IBM profit further from the nanny state.

big dropoff in new tech over age 70

[peter303]

While teens may humor their parents in claiming to be more tech savy, the big drop-off in new tech adoption is over age 70 according to a PEW study. I dont know whether it is cost, learning difficulty, or conservativism. I've noted this pattern among people I know.

Re:big dropoff in new tech over age 70

[ArcadeMan]

Unfortunately, despite knowing this, I can't figure out how to fix it. :(

I guess you must be over 70.

Re:big dropoff in new tech over age 70

[jtownatpunk.net]

My grandpa was the most flexible-minded elder I ever encountered but even he didn't want to change the way he did things once he learned how to do something. He made the transitions from Windows 3.11 to 98se to XP well enough because I minimized the impact by using "classic view" setups and carrying forward as much of his software as possible.

He wasn't afraid to explore new things. Just that, once he learned them, he wanted it to be static and unchanging. Why would you change something that works? One weekend, I came home and he showed me the radio-fax kit he'd bought. Say what??? It was a receiver that plugged into the headphone jack of a shortwave radio on one side and the serial port of the computer on the other side. The software would record and decode faxes of weather maps that were broadcast over shortwave then print them on the DeskJet 500c. But, when this kind of thing became widely available on the internet, he wouldn't switch until either they stopped broadcasting or the software didn't survive an OS upgrade. I forget which. He didn't like using websites to get weather maps as much because they'd make small changes to the websites once or twice a year and he'd have to hunt for what he wanted. As inefficient as the radio-fax thing was, the process didn't change.

And he was doing online banking back in the 90s. No urging or input from me. I didn't think he'd be comfortable with it. But one day he was telling me how I really needed to look into this online banking thing. "It's great!" Heck, I only beat him to it by a few months.

I don't know if it's really just old people who are like that, tho. Way back in the before time, I signed up with a temp agency to get some quick money while I was looking for a permanent job. I did the Word and Excel tests because that was the software I'd used. Then I realized they wouldn't send me to a job where they used WordPerfect or Lotus123 unless I took and passed those tests. It seemed absurd. That would be like "Oh, we can only send you to jobs where you'd be driving a Toyota. You didn't take the Ford test." When I passed every word processor and spreadsheet test they had, the woman looked at me like I was a wizard. "Why didn't you say you knew those programs?" "I don't. I've never used them in my life. But a word processor is a word processor. They all do the same thing and have the same menus." "Wow. I'm not going to have any trouble finding you a job!"

I've worked with people in almost every age group who learned by rote and have no comprehension of what they're doing. I used to say most people 5 years younger than me or older are hopeless with a computer. And that was back in my 30s.

A glimpse into our future

[SuperKendall]

What do you think society is going to be like when so many of the people not having kids get older? It's going to look like this, where you hire services to check in on you regularly and make sure you are not dead or needing help...

Even as the population gets more dispersed, there's a need for things like this so family who lives far away can still make sure parents are OK.

I wonder if it has anything to do with this

[flargleblarg]

iPad Continues to Lead Declining Tablet Market in First Quarter
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

The point is not that Apple is leading, but that the market is shriking. This might be a way for Apple to ship more iPads.

Re:I wonder if it has anything to do with this

[John Bokma]

The shrinkage might be just because iPads lasts very long. "Older" models are handed down to family and friends, at least in my experience. My mother is still extremely happy with her iPad 2 (!). Also, I guess some people are waiting for the iPad "Pro" (or however it's going to be called) to be announced in October 2015. So I think the shrinkage is just temporary and sales will pick up later this year.

My Killer Watch

[lazarus]

This is right in line with my desire for a watch that asks me a reasonably simple math problem every day and then kills me if I get it wrong three times. Sadly this isn't one of the features Apple has included in its latest wearable attempt...

Re:Grandma, stop Facetimeing me!

[OhSoLaMeow]

They're only going to use them to post to /. : "Get Off My Rawn!"

Re:iPads are not senior-friendly

[koan]

Nope, I'm not as old as you and I've been in IT for decades, the UI is getting weird from my point of view.
Take Google+ and Youtube... worst UI ever.
I don't want to say I am not adapting, I want to say this generation has it's own version of logic and UI design.

It's probably a bit of both, I admit I am no longer enchanted with gadgets and tech, living on a farm with no tech around sounds good in that romanticized way we look at things when we dream.