10 ms·

Put them on Apple gear, seriously. Lifelong Android user, and I know nothing about Apple, but when it came time for them to upgrade from their OG Razr's last y

Put them on Apple gear, seriously. Lifelong Android user, and I know nothing about Apple, but when it came time for them to upgrade from their OG Razr's last year, I was at a crossroads. These people are tech illiterate. I ended up telling them to buy IPhone. Believe it or not, they mostly figured it all out pretty easily. They still get confused and scared by FB video calls coming in, but otherwise are able to talk, text, use social media, etc. So much so they even bought an iPad. It seems the reason I like Android - tons of options and customizability, are the exact opposite of what an older user wants from their device.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
wolverine876 3y ago
Another advantage of Apple devices is consistancy of UI from device to device (all iPhones work the same), and from form factor to form factor (iPhones to iPads and even to workstations, to a degree). When they get a new phone, it works like their prior one.
exodust 3y ago
I would downvote but the option has been removed. The OP doesn't mention brand. Their parents may already have iPhone. The only phone issue mentioned is airplane mode, so it wouldn't make a difference. Android phones have an "Easy Mode" which improves usability for seniors and anyone who prefers bigger buttons and simpler controls. I would expect enabling this may help.
jimmytehbanana 3y ago
Having worked for a large app development consultancy that did parity between Apple and Android apps, the Apple vetting progress was rigorous and would often reject apps based on UX. While a pain, the result compares in comparison to what is on the Android App Store. I did use to own an Android and switched to an Apple. I found that Apple products are more intuitive in their UX and setup (or really anything that was complicated to do on Android) just worked on Apple.
kqr 3y ago
My wife does an impeccable job of managing smartphones and tablet computers for many older relatives (and some younger tech-challenged ones too, I suppose) and they're also all on Apple gear. But it's not because the users understand Apple stuff better. They can learn the core workflows they use on any device, and they have most of the important parts written down anyway. The primary reason she put them on Apple was so that they would have mostly the same problems and she could learn from one and apply to the others. I suppose this matters more the more relatives you manage devices for. But as you say, the range of opportunities one can get with Androids or PCs is much wider – which translates to a wider range of problems also.
MrDresden 3y ago
I am an Android developer (and user) with 14 years of professional experience, and I put my elderly mother on iPhone many years ago. For me it came simply down to the simplicity of the iOS system. There are fewer clicks, buttons and functions for her to accidentally get into. Another reason is also that my other siblings (and all of the grandchildren ) are all on iPhone, so I am not a her only IT support person in case one was needed ASAP when I would be unavailable. Personally I don't enjoy the feel of iOS but for her it is perfect.
matthewtse 3y ago
I got my 90 year old grandma to use an iPad. The other day I saw her switching languages via the keyboard to search for a video on YouTube using a combination of Chinese and English, and I was dumbfounded. It's a true testament to the intuitiveness of Apple UX. Switched parents over to Mac/iPhone years ago too. They still have issues, but it's usually something like "I maximized my window, how do I get out of that?". I wish Apple would release a "dumb mode", which removes 90% of the already limited UX features of macOS/iOS.
- itsoktocry 3y ago
  In Android, there's a keyboard icon on the interface, you click it and choose your keyboard language. It's two clicks. Is the Apple one more intuitive?
  - sotix 3y ago
    It’s identical.
  - asoneth 3y ago
    On my Pixel phone keyboard I have two ways to switch language: Holding the spacebar gives me a list labeled "Change keyboard" with six options whereas clicking the keyboard icon in the lower-right corner gives me a similar list except the title is "Choose input method", the options are in a completely different order, the options have slightly different names ("English (US) QWERTY" vs "English (US) (QWERTY) Gboard"), the list uses radio buttons instead of a checkmark, and includes an option for "Google Voice Typing". These might seem like minor issues to us, but they can derail non-technical users who may be confused why the list looks different from the last time they switched languages. And this lack of coordination between elements is par for the course for Google design. Not saying there aren't examples of bad design from Apple, but most of their products seem to have someone in a position of authority who pays attention to detail and their issues seem less like oversights than bad decisions.
    - Groxx 3y ago
      For a small bit of context: The "hold the space bar" method is entirely your keyboard's feature, not Android. Though it is a relatively common pattern in keyboards on both OSes, in its defense (iOS uses it too). But I don't think I'd recommend Gboard to someone who needs a simplified experience. Gboard is very complicated.
instagib 3y ago
I purchased a paper user manual “for the elderly” for iOS/phone/ipad. They update it every so often and the text is large. They got a few years of use. Now down to a home phone and an iPad with Facebook.
- arethuza 3y ago
  Thanks - my wife and I have recently got her mother (who is in her 90's) to try using an iPhone. It never occurred to me to get a printed manual - I think that might really help her.
swiftcoder 3y ago
Yeah, I have to echo this. I moved all the relatives who would listen to MacBook Air + iPhone, and I have just one relative who is holding out on a cheap Lenovo laptop - it's as much work to keep them running as all the others combined. Yes, going the Apple route is more expensive. But unless you have a lot of time on your hands to deal with teaching weird Windows and Android edge-cases over and over again... well worth the investment. And even elderly Apple gear will generally serve your relatives well.
sneak 3y ago
Just make sure someone else is set as a recovery contact for the Apple ID, and also knows their Apple ID password and device screenlock code. One day you’ll need it. :/
arka2147483647 3y ago
The app-switcher in newer IpadOS is an endless confusion to my mother. Somehow she opens multiple copies of web-browser, email, etc, and then cant find anything. How much I hope I could disable that one feature! Hiding the Inbox folder in Email is another classic I need to fix monthly.
- AlanYx 3y ago
  It might help to disable "Allow Multiple Apps" and "Picture in Picture" on her iPad. This also disables slide over. Also consider disabling gestures. iOS 17 offers to disable all of this stuff on initial install if you set up a child account, because kids tend to get confused, especially by slide over. But they should probably offer that sort of thing as an "easy mode" option for all users.
itsoktocry 3y ago
>Believe it or not, they mostly figured it all out pretty easily. They still get confused and scared by FB video calls coming in, but otherwise are able to talk, text, use social media, etc. So much so they even bought an iPad. For the 99% of use cases elderly people have with a phone, what exactly is it you imagine that Apple is doing better than Android? You click an icon to text, phone or browse the web. The experience is nearly identical. The idea that Android has lots of customization, but Apple doesn't, is a myth; even Apple has far more options to tweak than the average use is ever going to have to get into.
- FrontierProject 3y ago
  Simple example: Android has a airplane mode toggle in the notification tray, iPhone does not. No surprise that once I put my elderly family on iPhones all problems of accidently enabling airplane mode magically went away.
- salomonk_mur 3y ago
  Nearly everything UX related is better in iOS. Default logo sizes are larger, settings menus are basically the same no matter the device, software and hardware are coupled and designed by the same company making everything snappier. The subtle.design difference also come into play. I use Android myself, but it is a fact that Apple is superior in UX, which is unsurprising given that they are obsessed with UX as a company in general and the whole ecosystem is designed by themselves alone, while Android is designed and developed by many players. Even a 2 year old can use iPhones and iPads.
  - hu3 3y ago
    > Nearly everything UX related is better in iOS That's funny because I heard my friend say this at work yesterday when I suggested that he should gift his mother an iPhone: "Oh my mother would have too much difficulty switching from Android to iOS. I know because I use iPhone and things that have dedicated buttons in some Android phones are gestures in iOS. Like the back button for example."
  - realusername 3y ago
anomaly_ 3y ago
Thank god the EU stepped in and fixed this for us all!
VoodooJuJu 3y ago
I hate it, but Apple is really is the best choice here. Their devices and software pass the grandmother test better than anything else. The UX is unmatched. I dream of the day my grandmother can use GNU/Linux for the privacy, freedom, and frugality, but I'm not sure that day will ever come.
cellu 3y ago
I'd agree until few months ago, but now my wife's dad lucidity is degrading pretty quickly. Until few years ago he was a proficient digital photographer with advanced Photoshop knowledge. He was definitely tech literate and also have used Apple gears its infancy (the first guy in town to own an iPhone). But now he forgets his passcode, or the fact that he can just use his thumb to unlock the phone. He keeps deleting his bank app and then goes to the nearby computer store shop to get it back. He also saved a scammer number claiming to be his daughter with a new phone (well, actually asked a friend to save it because he forgot how to do it). Because we live abroad it's quite hard to check on him and his device to make sure he's safe and have been wondering myself how to best deal with the situation.
- theGnuMe 3y ago
  Next time you visit put him in your IOS family and install parental controls. Then disable contact updates, remove permission to delete apps etc...
  - eitally 3y ago
    We did the same thing (but with Android) for my mother-in-law, who is starting to suffer from dementia (and literally clicks on everything). It's the same way I manage my kids' phones and it works pretty well.
  - cellu 3y ago
    thanks, I'll try! I don't have kids so didn't really think of this
  - luke-stanley 3y ago
    Nice interpretation of parental controls, with the older parent being the one controlled!
- paulcole 3y ago
  Everything you describes sucks but I dunno why you seem to think it's an Apple issue? If somebody's lucid enough to use technology, put them on Apple stuff. If they're not lucid enough to use technology then Apple or Android doesn't matter – both are unusable.
thunky 3y ago
Not my experience. If they only use basic functions (phone, text, email) then Android/Pixel + Chromebook is the way to go imo. One login for everything, including YouTube + music family plan. If they screw up the Chromebook just factory reset it and they're back where they left off. I think iPhone being easier for seniors is a well advertised myth.
- interestica 3y ago
  What challenges did you face with them and iPhone?
  - thunky 3y ago
    > What challenges did you face with them and iPhone? - Difficulty typing on the tiny SE screen - Can't send text messages from the computer (no Messages on Chromebook) - Accidentally muting contacts all the time, so missing calls - Butt dialing all the time - Not being able to get back to the phone screen to find the speaker button and other basic ui functions were not intuitive - Spanning multiple ecosystems is a recipe for confusion (Apple photos vs Google photos, for example), and if you have to choose one Google wins (youtube, docs, chromecast, etc, etc). - Tons of text spam Going all-in on Apple (iPad instead of Chromebook) would make some of these better, but still worse overall imo. Just look at the iPhone SE next to the basic Pixel A, the SE looks like a tiny antique (the bezel really hurts).
  - izacus 3y ago
    Did you actually try to get someone older to use the swipe gestures that are mandatory on new iPhones? Many of them can't be disabled even through a11y or provisioning options and constantly frustrate. Another massive issue is that iOS doesn't really mark clickable elements / buttons anymore - after iOS7 redesign it's really hard for people to recognize what's a tappable element. Especially since a lot of apps now have their own UI design language. You don't notice these things until you try to teach someone non-tech savvy. Then you notice just how inconsistent and horrible to use the new OSes are. Even Apple ones.
kolinko 3y ago
This. The moment I switched my mom to Mac OS and iPhone, literally all issues she had with computer disappeared. She still needed me to help with Photoshop install and backups, but besides that - no problem for the last 7 years. And running on the same machine at that with no problems.
TacticalCoder 3y ago
That's still way too easy to fuck up. They need something less "open" than MacOS. After my mom in law got scammed out of a few hundred euros I confiscated her laptop and moved her to a Google ChromeBook. That's quite locked down and a few years in she still hasn't managed to ruin the OS.
- organsnyder 3y ago
  Avoiding scammers likely requires restricting access to their finances as well, which could involve getting a power of attorney.
  - ocrow 3y ago
    A financial Power of Attorney is the legal document that gives you the ability to act as that person legally in most ways. It requires only the person to sign the PoA document. Using it often requires some bureaucratic hoop jumping, but that's nonetheless what it does. It doesn't prevent the person themselves from taking legal or financial actions – like giving money to scammers. For that you would need Conservatorship which is a higher level of responsibility and must be reviewed by a judge. At least, that's the situation in the US. Things may work differently elsewhere. And also, for reasons to do with the federal system, Social Security benefits are sort of their own thing and have a different process.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Agreed, but I hope the Chromebook has a way to permanently disable installing extensions.
mannyv 3y ago
My dad's 82 has an IPP 12.9, iPhone 12 Pro Max, and a Macbook Air. Over time, the MBA usage has dropped off, and is mainly used for financial sites that don't play well with Safari/iPadOS. The only real issue he has is printing. His MBA is basically an AirPrint bridge at this point. One day we'll get him an AirPrint compatible printer.
- dockerd 3y ago
  You can set up raspberry pi to act as bridge or even setup email printing/etc.
shrimp_emoji 3y ago
Tech stupid enough for toddlers, geriatrics, and even parrots[0]. That's what they want us all to be. 0: https://youtu.be/cZSNhJcKFf4 https://youtu.be/cZSNhJcKFf4
- fckgw 3y ago
  Tech accessible to everyone, yes.
dmje 3y ago
Came here to say this. Mother in law had a PC and a whole bunch of old Android tablets. I'd get a phone call about once a week asking some kind of support question. When everything melted down and the PC got too old I got her to buy an iPad. Haven't heard a squeak since - she loves it, it does everything she wants and she's now totally self-sufficient.
0xedd 3y ago
Anecdotal outcome of US marketing. Our older relatives are all on PC and Android (one of them 95) and can attest to the same. Careful to what money sink you throw your elderly into.
hot_gril 3y ago
Doesn't solve them putting the phone in airplane mode or getting the camera coated in an opaque film, though. Also, every elderly family member with an iPhone has forgotten the iCloud password and asked me why they cannot install apps. But it's still better than the alternatives.
ocrow 3y ago
Both Android and iOS, but especially iOS, have made large accessibility regressions by switching to a frequently gesture based interface where all sorts of quite similar swipes do different things changing the screen context and revealing hidden modes. For use by people with e.g. Parkinson's disease this is catastrophic. Voice commands can somewhat compensate, but I think we're all familiar with the many ways in which voice commands can fail to perform even simple requests, and also how sensitive the voice assistants are to changes in both speed and volume of received speech. While iOS does have some good accessibility settings, they are not comprehensive, and overall usability has in some big ways declined substantially, even while more and more tasks have to be done online.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

wolverine876 3y ago

Another advantage of Apple devices is consistancy of UI from device to device (all iPhones work the same), and from form factor to form factor (iPhones to iPads and even to workstations, to a degree). When they get a new phone, it works like their prior one.

exodust 3y ago

I would downvote but the option has been removed. The OP doesn't mention brand. Their parents may already have iPhone. The only phone issue mentioned is airplane mode, so it wouldn't make a difference. Android phones have an "Easy Mode" which improves usability for seniors and anyone who prefers bigger buttons and simpler controls. I would expect enabling this may help.

jimmytehbanana 3y ago

Having worked for a large app development consultancy that did parity between Apple and Android apps, the Apple vetting progress was rigorous and would often reject apps based on UX. While a pain, the result compares in comparison to what is on the Android App Store. I did use to own an Android and switched to an Apple. I found that Apple products are more intuitive in their UX and setup (or really anything that was complicated to do on Android) just worked on Apple.

kqr 3y ago

My wife does an impeccable job of managing smartphones and tablet computers for many older relatives (and some younger tech-challenged ones too, I suppose) and they're also all on Apple gear. But it's not because the users understand Apple stuff better. They can learn the core workflows they use on any device, and they have most of the important parts written down anyway. The primary reason she put them on Apple was so that they would have mostly the same problems and she could learn from one and apply to the others. I suppose this matters more the more relatives you manage devices for. But as you say, the range of opportunities one can get with Androids or PCs is much wider – which translates to a wider range of problems also.

MrDresden 3y ago

I am an Android developer (and user) with 14 years of professional experience, and I put my elderly mother on iPhone many years ago. For me it came simply down to the simplicity of the iOS system. There are fewer clicks, buttons and functions for her to accidentally get into. Another reason is also that my other siblings (and all of the grandchildren ) are all on iPhone, so I am not a her only IT support person in case one was needed ASAP when I would be unavailable. Personally I don't enjoy the feel of iOS but for her it is perfect.

matthewtse 3y ago

I got my 90 year old grandma to use an iPad. The other day I saw her switching languages via the keyboard to search for a video on YouTube using a combination of Chinese and English, and I was dumbfounded. It's a true testament to the intuitiveness of Apple UX. Switched parents over to Mac/iPhone years ago too. They still have issues, but it's usually something like "I maximized my window, how do I get out of that?". I wish Apple would release a "dumb mode", which removes 90% of the already limited UX features of macOS/iOS.

itsoktocry 3y ago
In Android, there's a keyboard icon on the interface, you click it and choose your keyboard language. It's two clicks. Is the Apple one more intuitive?
- sotix 3y ago
  It’s identical.
- asoneth 3y ago
  On my Pixel phone keyboard I have two ways to switch language: Holding the spacebar gives me a list labeled "Change keyboard" with six options whereas clicking the keyboard icon in the lower-right corner gives me a similar list except the title is "Choose input method", the options are in a completely different order, the options have slightly different names ("English (US) QWERTY" vs "English (US) (QWERTY) Gboard"), the list uses radio buttons instead of a checkmark, and includes an option for "Google Voice Typing". These might seem like minor issues to us, but they can derail non-technical users who may be confused why the list looks different from the last time they switched languages. And this lack of coordination between elements is par for the course for Google design. Not saying there aren't examples of bad design from Apple, but most of their products seem to have someone in a position of authority who pays attention to detail and their issues seem less like oversights than bad decisions.
  - Groxx 3y ago
    For a small bit of context: The "hold the space bar" method is entirely your keyboard's feature, not Android. Though it is a relatively common pattern in keyboards on both OSes, in its defense (iOS uses it too). But I don't think I'd recommend Gboard to someone who needs a simplified experience. Gboard is very complicated.

instagib 3y ago

I purchased a paper user manual “for the elderly” for iOS/phone/ipad. They update it every so often and the text is large. They got a few years of use. Now down to a home phone and an iPad with Facebook.

arethuza 3y ago
Thanks - my wife and I have recently got her mother (who is in her 90's) to try using an iPhone. It never occurred to me to get a printed manual - I think that might really help her.

swiftcoder 3y ago

Yeah, I have to echo this. I moved all the relatives who would listen to MacBook Air + iPhone, and I have just one relative who is holding out on a cheap Lenovo laptop - it's as much work to keep them running as all the others combined. Yes, going the Apple route is more expensive. But unless you have a lot of time on your hands to deal with teaching weird Windows and Android edge-cases over and over again... well worth the investment. And even elderly Apple gear will generally serve your relatives well.

sneak 3y ago

Just make sure someone else is set as a recovery contact for the Apple ID, and also knows their Apple ID password and device screenlock code. One day you’ll need it. :/

arka2147483647 3y ago

The app-switcher in newer IpadOS is an endless confusion to my mother. Somehow she opens multiple copies of web-browser, email, etc, and then cant find anything. How much I hope I could disable that one feature! Hiding the Inbox folder in Email is another classic I need to fix monthly.

AlanYx 3y ago
It might help to disable "Allow Multiple Apps" and "Picture in Picture" on her iPad. This also disables slide over. Also consider disabling gestures. iOS 17 offers to disable all of this stuff on initial install if you set up a child account, because kids tend to get confused, especially by slide over. But they should probably offer that sort of thing as an "easy mode" option for all users.

itsoktocry 3y ago

>Believe it or not, they mostly figured it all out pretty easily. They still get confused and scared by FB video calls coming in, but otherwise are able to talk, text, use social media, etc. So much so they even bought an iPad. For the 99% of use cases elderly people have with a phone, what exactly is it you imagine that Apple is doing better than Android? You click an icon to text, phone or browse the web. The experience is nearly identical. The idea that Android has lots of customization, but Apple doesn't, is a myth; even Apple has far more options to tweak than the average use is ever going to have to get into.

FrontierProject 3y ago
Simple example: Android has a airplane mode toggle in the notification tray, iPhone does not. No surprise that once I put my elderly family on iPhones all problems of accidently enabling airplane mode magically went away.
salomonk_mur 3y ago
Nearly everything UX related is better in iOS. Default logo sizes are larger, settings menus are basically the same no matter the device, software and hardware are coupled and designed by the same company making everything snappier. The subtle.design difference also come into play. I use Android myself, but it is a fact that Apple is superior in UX, which is unsurprising given that they are obsessed with UX as a company in general and the whole ecosystem is designed by themselves alone, while Android is designed and developed by many players. Even a 2 year old can use iPhones and iPads.
- hu3 3y ago
  > Nearly everything UX related is better in iOS That's funny because I heard my friend say this at work yesterday when I suggested that he should gift his mother an iPhone: "Oh my mother would have too much difficulty switching from Android to iOS. I know because I use iPhone and things that have dedicated buttons in some Android phones are gestures in iOS. Like the back button for example."
- realusername 3y ago

anomaly_ 3y ago

Thank god the EU stepped in and fixed this for us all!

VoodooJuJu 3y ago

I hate it, but Apple is really is the best choice here. Their devices and software pass the grandmother test better than anything else. The UX is unmatched. I dream of the day my grandmother can use GNU/Linux for the privacy, freedom, and frugality, but I'm not sure that day will ever come.

cellu 3y ago

I'd agree until few months ago, but now my wife's dad lucidity is degrading pretty quickly. Until few years ago he was a proficient digital photographer with advanced Photoshop knowledge. He was definitely tech literate and also have used Apple gears its infancy (the first guy in town to own an iPhone). But now he forgets his passcode, or the fact that he can just use his thumb to unlock the phone. He keeps deleting his bank app and then goes to the nearby computer store shop to get it back. He also saved a scammer number claiming to be his daughter with a new phone (well, actually asked a friend to save it because he forgot how to do it). Because we live abroad it's quite hard to check on him and his device to make sure he's safe and have been wondering myself how to best deal with the situation.

theGnuMe 3y ago
Next time you visit put him in your IOS family and install parental controls. Then disable contact updates, remove permission to delete apps etc...
- eitally 3y ago
  We did the same thing (but with Android) for my mother-in-law, who is starting to suffer from dementia (and literally clicks on everything). It's the same way I manage my kids' phones and it works pretty well.
- cellu 3y ago
  thanks, I'll try! I don't have kids so didn't really think of this
- luke-stanley 3y ago
  Nice interpretation of parental controls, with the older parent being the one controlled!
paulcole 3y ago
Everything you describes sucks but I dunno why you seem to think it's an Apple issue? If somebody's lucid enough to use technology, put them on Apple stuff. If they're not lucid enough to use technology then Apple or Android doesn't matter – both are unusable.

thunky 3y ago

Not my experience. If they only use basic functions (phone, text, email) then Android/Pixel + Chromebook is the way to go imo. One login for everything, including YouTube + music family plan. If they screw up the Chromebook just factory reset it and they're back where they left off. I think iPhone being easier for seniors is a well advertised myth.

interestica 3y ago
What challenges did you face with them and iPhone?
- thunky 3y ago
  > What challenges did you face with them and iPhone? - Difficulty typing on the tiny SE screen - Can't send text messages from the computer (no Messages on Chromebook) - Accidentally muting contacts all the time, so missing calls - Butt dialing all the time - Not being able to get back to the phone screen to find the speaker button and other basic ui functions were not intuitive - Spanning multiple ecosystems is a recipe for confusion (Apple photos vs Google photos, for example), and if you have to choose one Google wins (youtube, docs, chromecast, etc, etc). - Tons of text spam Going all-in on Apple (iPad instead of Chromebook) would make some of these better, but still worse overall imo. Just look at the iPhone SE next to the basic Pixel A, the SE looks like a tiny antique (the bezel really hurts).
- izacus 3y ago
  Did you actually try to get someone older to use the swipe gestures that are mandatory on new iPhones? Many of them can't be disabled even through a11y or provisioning options and constantly frustrate. Another massive issue is that iOS doesn't really mark clickable elements / buttons anymore - after iOS7 redesign it's really hard for people to recognize what's a tappable element. Especially since a lot of apps now have their own UI design language. You don't notice these things until you try to teach someone non-tech savvy. Then you notice just how inconsistent and horrible to use the new OSes are. Even Apple ones.

kolinko 3y ago

This. The moment I switched my mom to Mac OS and iPhone, literally all issues she had with computer disappeared. She still needed me to help with Photoshop install and backups, but besides that - no problem for the last 7 years. And running on the same machine at that with no problems.

TacticalCoder 3y ago

That's still way too easy to fuck up. They need something less "open" than MacOS. After my mom in law got scammed out of a few hundred euros I confiscated her laptop and moved her to a Google ChromeBook. That's quite locked down and a few years in she still hasn't managed to ruin the OS.

organsnyder 3y ago
Avoiding scammers likely requires restricting access to their finances as well, which could involve getting a power of attorney.
- ocrow 3y ago
  A financial Power of Attorney is the legal document that gives you the ability to act as that person legally in most ways. It requires only the person to sign the PoA document. Using it often requires some bureaucratic hoop jumping, but that's nonetheless what it does. It doesn't prevent the person themselves from taking legal or financial actions – like giving money to scammers. For that you would need Conservatorship which is a higher level of responsibility and must be reviewed by a judge. At least, that's the situation in the US. Things may work differently elsewhere. And also, for reasons to do with the federal system, Social Security benefits are sort of their own thing and have a different process.
hot_gril 3y ago
Agreed, but I hope the Chromebook has a way to permanently disable installing extensions.

mannyv 3y ago

My dad's 82 has an IPP 12.9, iPhone 12 Pro Max, and a Macbook Air. Over time, the MBA usage has dropped off, and is mainly used for financial sites that don't play well with Safari/iPadOS. The only real issue he has is printing. His MBA is basically an AirPrint bridge at this point. One day we'll get him an AirPrint compatible printer.

dockerd 3y ago
You can set up raspberry pi to act as bridge or even setup email printing/etc.

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

Tech stupid enough for toddlers, geriatrics, and even parrots[0]. That's what they want us all to be. 0: https://youtu.be/cZSNhJcKFf4 https://youtu.be/cZSNhJcKFf4

fckgw 3y ago
Tech accessible to everyone, yes.

dmje 3y ago

Came here to say this. Mother in law had a PC and a whole bunch of old Android tablets. I'd get a phone call about once a week asking some kind of support question. When everything melted down and the PC got too old I got her to buy an iPad. Haven't heard a squeak since - she loves it, it does everything she wants and she's now totally self-sufficient.

0xedd 3y ago

Anecdotal outcome of US marketing. Our older relatives are all on PC and Android (one of them 95) and can attest to the same. Careful to what money sink you throw your elderly into.

hot_gril 3y ago

Doesn't solve them putting the phone in airplane mode or getting the camera coated in an opaque film, though. Also, every elderly family member with an iPhone has forgotten the iCloud password and asked me why they cannot install apps. But it's still better than the alternatives.

ocrow 3y ago

Both Android and iOS, but especially iOS, have made large accessibility regressions by switching to a frequently gesture based interface where all sorts of quite similar swipes do different things changing the screen context and revealing hidden modes. For use by people with e.g. Parkinson's disease this is catastrophic. Voice commands can somewhat compensate, but I think we're all familiar with the many ways in which voice commands can fail to perform even simple requests, and also how sensitive the voice assistants are to changes in both speed and volume of received speech. While iOS does have some good accessibility settings, they are not comprehensive, and overall usability has in some big ways declined substantially, even while more and more tasks have to be done online.