Gran wants a computer!

AllTheseUserNamesAreTaken

I used to work for my local councils Adult Education Department. They ran courses for computing (usually 10 weeks) around the area and over 60's got massive discounts. Expect to pay less than £10 for a 10 week course!

About 3 out of 4 people on the courses were between 60 and 90 years old, especially on the daytime beginner courses.

They are probably starting the courses in the next week or so (usually start September, January and April, in line with school's three terms). It might be seeing if she wants to learn on a course because now is the time to sign up if she does wants to start one.

On the course, they should have some accessibility equipment that she can use, so you'll be able to find what she needs before you commit to any expense.

terra_ferma

p4girl wrote: »

A basic windows 7 laptop which could be plugged into the tv to improve the vision aspect is a really good idea.
:beer:

Don't think it's gonna be that simple, TVs are not suitable for plugging a pc straight onto it, as far as I know (maybe the latest ones do?)

PS I've been looking at this, not sure if it would work with my TV, but looks interesting.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Desktop-Graphics-Wireless-Keyboard/dp/B0056PDKXI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325804809&sr=8-1

Lifeforms

I use the revo aspire as my desktop. It's tiny, out of the way, and cheap. will do surfing, low level games, iplayer, itv etc. Would be fine for a granny desktop. That doesn't come with a monitor, but I plug mine into my TV through a D-sub (pc connection) or it has HDMI, so you can connect that way. Depending on your tv, age, model etc, it may or may not have those connections as standard. I'd check Ebuyer though, because they usually do offers on the revo (make sure you get the windoze option, not the cheaper linux, unless you have a spare key going around for windows (or it might be cheaper to buy linux one, as well as a win 7 key (but not win 7 starter!)

Downside is you will need to buy an external DVD player/recorder (£20-30+) on top if you wish to use anything disk wise, they do not come with one!

Also Ebuyer are a fairly reputable company, be wary of buying of the market place on Amazon for Large Amounts. And I believe Ebuyer are about same price, but you can get an extra 1gig memory in their offer.

Re TV's. There are pros and cons. I do it to save space, but the res aint great, with my eyesight, I actually like it that way anyway. Most newer TV's will at least have a PC connection (d-sub, pc) and often HDMI as well. Simple to check, look at the back, or google pc/HDMI with your tv model/make

IanSkinner

It's probably already been mentioned but I got my gran an iPad 2 (despite not really liking them myself). The best thing to come out of it is that she loves using it (no fears about breaking it etc) and uses it every day.

p4girl

The conclusion of the story...

Gran fell in love with the iPad! She find it easy to use and loves that she can make the words she wants to read bigger just by pinching to zoom on the trackpad.

She checks the BBC site daily (and what a boon the i-player was when she missed the final episode of Upstairs Downstairs!) and has spent many an hour revisiting places all over the globe with Google maps.

Her next adventure is ... youtube!!!!

Thanks to everyone for advice.:T

heavydutysmoker

Apple iPad is defiantly worth a thought. As with all things apple, its comes highly recognizable so things you gran my find difficult you may find explaining them over the phone a doddle as apples ipad policy is pretty much touch and go so you should be fine.

However if you feeling adventurous get a mac air, light weight, easy to use, and you dont get them crashing constantly like a windows. You can even sync up an apple TV so she can work it all through her TV. Maybe im being a bit adventurous there. Anyway hope your gran starts to kick ar55 at bridge