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expert techi advice

rynker

Tug Review Crew: Rookie
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Parents are 88 years old......they used "pocketmail" for years for their e-mail......pocketmail is out of business, my mom is lost without e-mail........she needs something extremely easy to work and can go from Indiana in the summer and Arizona in the winter with no contracts. Is a netbook the answer? All she wants is e-mail. Thanks for any advice!
 
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Parents are 88 years old......they used "pocketmail" for years for their e-mail......pocketmail is out of business, my mom is lost without e-mail........she needs something extremely easy to work and can go from Indiana in the summer and Arizona in the winter with no contracts. Is a netbook the answer? All she wants is e-mail. Thanks for any advice!

You might want to consider an IPAD...Its great with email and very easy to use.
 
I'm typing on an iPad now. Unless you get her the wireless keyboard it will be impossible for her. It takes me twice as long to type on here as on my computer
 
I didn't know what pocketmail is, so googled it.

Wikipedia said:

PocketMail is a very small and inexpensive mobile computer, with a built in acoustic coupler.

Although actually a computer, its main function is E-mail. Its main advantages are that it is simple, and that it works with any phone, even outside the United States.

A low-cost personal digital assistant (PDA) with an inbuilt acoustic coupler which allows users to send and receive E-mail using a normal telephone, thus allowing use outside of mobile phone range, or just without the need to be signed up with a mobile telephony provider.

Although still in use, popularity of the PocketMail peaked around 2000.

In Australia, the company known as "Pocketmail" has since stopped marketing the pocketmail technology, and now owns uranium mining prospects in Queensland and South Australia.[citation needed]

Pocketmail, Inc. has gone out of business as of February 2010. Without explanation or prior warning, it has stopped providing contracted services, has taken its web-site down, has disabled customer service phone lines and has basically evaded questions and inquiries from remaining customers with subscriptions yet to expire who are no longer receiving services they paid for.
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Yes, a netbook, or better I would think, a low end laptop. She will need a dialup account, long time now since I looked for one of those. Ongoing cost I'm guessing < $10/mth.

Local Libraries now have expanded computer facilities in recent years and with a web mail account with Yahoo, Google etc that may be all that is needed, perhaps worth looking at for a no cost solution.
 
does she need a gadget or email? I thought she was wanting email?

plenty of free email, isp-independent. Yahoo is the one I use. easy, accessible from anywhere.
 
There are still some services like that. Google "email without computer."

But without something like that, she'll need some hardware, and there really isn't anything simpler or cheaper than a netbook computer.

For dialup on the road, I've used budgetdialup.com . They have monthly service for $10, or hourly rates if she'd use less than 20 hours a month. Works almost anywhere.
 
88 years old and the suggestions are for ipad, iphone or netbooks?

I disagree. Most octogenarians I know aren't going to be able to manipulate tiny keyboards or touchscreens.

The "works with any phone" bit is also probably the biggest advantage for her. Is she savvy enough to connect to wifi? (Or know what to do when it won't connect?) Can she afford to run broadband to her two houses?

Acoustic couplers are still available, so that's something. (Plan to spend about $150 -- all so mom doesn't have to worry about plugging in a modem.)

The problem is going to be the ISP. Netzero is Windows only. AOL still supports Mac, as far as I know -- but for how long? MSN and PeoplePC... are people still using those? I don't know.

Regardless, I would almost certainly go with a Mac laptop. You really don't want to have to talk Mom through editing her registry, or reloading her OS.

I'd also find the biggest, clunkiest Mac I could. Something where the keyboard is at least the same size as an IBM Selectric. I'd also get the biggest screen possible and change the font size to "macular degeneration"

My advise -- A 17" Powerbook G4 with a Konexx Koupler and AOL Desktop.
 
email

I would go with one of the new cell phones. For around $50/month you get email and a host of other uses that come with a data package. The security of a cell phone could be a selling point. I'd be frantic if I couldn't get ahold of mom. Just my 2 cents.
 
88 years old - trouble with finger dexterity? eyesight issues?

Forget cell phones, i_anything, netbooks - get her an inexpensive laptop that has a full size keyboard, a decent screen size and is light weight. You should also probably get a wireless mouse.

Use gmail so ISP although access may require a contract depending on the provider.
 
Forget cell phones, i_anything, netbooks - get her an inexpensive laptop that has a full size keyboard, a decent screen size and is light weight.

Definitely the way to go.
 
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