<p>We are about to celebrate my father’s 90th birthday (!) and decided to get him a digital photo frame. We can easily send him photos & even videos of the great-grandkids on flash drives or memory sticks. </p>
<p>Doesn’t need a computer or even a DVD player (even that would probably perplex him.)</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>mommusic - The photo frame sounds nice! In our case I’m encouraging laptop because dad will need an indoor hobby as he gets older, less able to do his outdoor puttering. Also, the phone is getting harder due to hearing aid issues, </p>
<p>We had a great visit with my dad. We opted to stay with gmail, despite the cluttered interface. Dad gets used to it with repetition. His begger challenges are with keyboard and mouse. We added some more labels. </p>
<p>SOLUTION - My son installed the CrossLoop application (free) on his laptop and dad’s laptop. That seems to work great for remote view of dad’s screen. Dad just needs to start the app and read us 12 digit number to input at our end. I’ll install it at home - then I’ll be able to “drive” dad’s laptop while we are on the phone troubleshooting.</p>
<p>I have Crossloop installed on home computer now too. I’m hoping that will be a good way to act as my dad’d “tech support”.</p>
<p>Last year the small Verizon store near my dad had no interesting tablets, just some fire sale old generation stuff. This week we were at at big Verizon store that allowed demo on the SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB. My dad was horrible on touch screens, but this model would have probably been ok with the extra keyboard. It has a wireless-only option that looks like an appealing option if others are doing similar grandparent research for email/web access for grandparents.</p>
<p>I wish high schools would release students into the homes of unrelated elders in their community for computer assistance, and call this “community service hours.”</p>
<p>Paying - that’s a great idea!</p>
<p>I actually did go down the path for high school volunteer. Calling the office from 2000 miles away did not help. But a coworkedrfrom NY knew a teacher and got me a student name. I emailed many times with her, but she was too busy and then dad was sick. Plus she didn’t seem to want to go to the house, and I was afraid wireless config would get goofed if they met at the library. She insisted she could snail-mail him instructions, but she didn’t get the point that onsite coaching is key.</p>