3 ms·

I am a geek and I own two iPads (one for me and one for my family back in India), allow me to share my opinion. My parents have a PC at home but my mom can't u

I am a geek and I own two iPads (one for me and one for my family back in India), allow me to share my opinion. My parents have a PC at home but my mom can't use a PC because she can't read English. My dad can find his way through but he will avoid using PC unless it's absolutely necessary. iPad is the first computer which my parents are able to use. I am finally able to video chat with them. I can easily share my photos with them. I have created a 'family' Apple account which syncs to iCloud and I copy photos on my computer and it automatically shows up on their iPad. My mom may not be able to read English but we could teach her the 'swipe' gesture to unlock the iPad and show her the 'icon' to touch so that she can see my photos. She used the 'flick' gesture to scroll through photos without any instructions from us. If you discount iPad, you are seriously underestimating the potential of the device for all the non technical people out there. My parents have completely stopped using PC as iPad is capable of sending emails/seeing my photos/video chat.

mixmastamyk 15y ago
Agreed, but why not switch the language to Hindi(...) if English is such a problem?
- solutionyogi 15y ago
  AFAIK, iPad doesn't support Hindi for its UI. And for PC, it was hard for us to explain the concept of 'mouse' to my mom. It is not intuitive to her why moving this thing on desk, moves an arrow on computer. The whole notion of 'Start','Programs', 'Window' is very difficult to explain to someone who has never used computer in their life. Yes, she could learn it if someone spends a lot of time. But why should she need to spend a lot of time when she doesn't need to?
  - nerfhammer 15y ago
    Hindi is a supported language Settings > General > International > Language. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3562 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3562
    - solutionyogi 15y ago
      That's awesome. I will get that changed right away. My mom is comfortable with iPad but with Hindi language, she will really feel confident and won't worry about 'breaking' the computer and would experiment more. Thank you very much.
    - solutionyogi 15y ago
      Update: Hindi is not a supported language. The linked article says that Hindi is supported for Voice Control not for the main UI.
  - shad0wfax 15y ago
    I cannot agree more on this. I am facing a similar predicament and with me being here in India right now around my mom. I have taught her how to copy and paste files from PC to USB drive. She is a teacher, speaks english and is generally adept at other things. But, she just cannot grasp how to navigate file systems, the menus, the basic actions needed to move things around. Needless to say I have to explain them over and over again. However, when she uses my iphone/ipad she finds is remarkably simple and easy to navigate. The underlying theme is the simplicity through limitation. The less there is to know, the easier it is to deal with. There is clearly a space for tablets for simple minds.
acqq 15y ago
It went OK with my parents and iPad until my parents managed to delete Skype app. Holding the finger on the icon a little longer, then pressing it again and hitting the cross that appeared. Maybe even tapping OK afterwards. iOS should get a little better fitted mode to delete apps for "old or challenged people" (hint: not so easy to do). You show them how to tap, you don't show them how to delete apps as they will never needed, but they still accidentally enter the mode as it's just a longer hold on the icon. Only programmers can like modes. Normal people die because of modes, two years ago one a computer in Airbus turned off "controlling with software" mode because some speedometer didn't get input, pilots didn't understand the effects of such mode change. Modes bad. Not always having a clear "go level back" bad. And even if I haven't tested, I'm quite sure that anything non-Apple is even worse. Although I'd like to be proved wrong, it seems that nobody is even able not to just badly copy Apple.
- ugh 15y ago
  That’s what the Parental Controls are for, silly. That’s why they are called that :-)

mixmastamyk 15y ago

Agreed, but why not switch the language to Hindi(...) if English is such a problem?

solutionyogi 15y ago
AFAIK, iPad doesn't support Hindi for its UI. And for PC, it was hard for us to explain the concept of 'mouse' to my mom. It is not intuitive to her why moving this thing on desk, moves an arrow on computer. The whole notion of 'Start','Programs', 'Window' is very difficult to explain to someone who has never used computer in their life. Yes, she could learn it if someone spends a lot of time. But why should she need to spend a lot of time when she doesn't need to?
- nerfhammer 15y ago
  Hindi is a supported language Settings > General > International > Language. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3562 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3562
  - solutionyogi 15y ago
    That's awesome. I will get that changed right away. My mom is comfortable with iPad but with Hindi language, she will really feel confident and won't worry about 'breaking' the computer and would experiment more. Thank you very much.
  - solutionyogi 15y ago
    Update: Hindi is not a supported language. The linked article says that Hindi is supported for Voice Control not for the main UI.
- shad0wfax 15y ago
  I cannot agree more on this. I am facing a similar predicament and with me being here in India right now around my mom. I have taught her how to copy and paste files from PC to USB drive. She is a teacher, speaks english and is generally adept at other things. But, she just cannot grasp how to navigate file systems, the menus, the basic actions needed to move things around. Needless to say I have to explain them over and over again. However, when she uses my iphone/ipad she finds is remarkably simple and easy to navigate. The underlying theme is the simplicity through limitation. The less there is to know, the easier it is to deal with. There is clearly a space for tablets for simple minds.

acqq 15y ago

It went OK with my parents and iPad until my parents managed to delete Skype app. Holding the finger on the icon a little longer, then pressing it again and hitting the cross that appeared. Maybe even tapping OK afterwards. iOS should get a little better fitted mode to delete apps for "old or challenged people" (hint: not so easy to do). You show them how to tap, you don't show them how to delete apps as they will never needed, but they still accidentally enter the mode as it's just a longer hold on the icon. Only programmers can like modes. Normal people die because of modes, two years ago one a computer in Airbus turned off "controlling with software" mode because some speedometer didn't get input, pilots didn't understand the effects of such mode change. Modes bad. Not always having a clear "go level back" bad. And even if I haven't tested, I'm quite sure that anything non-Apple is even worse. Although I'd like to be proved wrong, it seems that nobody is even able not to just badly copy Apple.

ugh 15y ago
That’s what the Parental Controls are for, silly. That’s why they are called that :-)